Juvenile Prison Reform Yields Results for Once

ABCNEWS.com posted a story about Missouri’s experiment in juvenile justice reform. There have been increasing reports that the juvenile justice system in the United States is causing more harm than good, causing the kids to have more mental health issues and teaching them greater violence, rather than solving their problems and teaching a healthier lifestyle. Instead of producing more law abiding citizens, we have been further destroying the kids that are churned through the system. But – What is the solution?

Their reforms are producing dramatic results due to sensible approaches in treating the kids as persons needing guidance and caring adult supervision, rather than as hardened criminals to be only punished and whipped into submission.  They have a 10 % recitivism rate versus the 40 % found at most juvenile prisons.

I propose that a rethinking of adult incarceration programs along these lines, particularly for drug-addicts, the mentally ill, and non-violent felons, would produce similar dramatic improvements in recitivism and decreased costs.

“Recent reports about abuse of juvenile inmates have renewed calls for a national overhaul of a juvenile justice system that includes nearly 100,000 children.

At Waverly Regional Youth Center in Missouri, the boys are taught to settle their disagreements with words, not fists. Any person can call a “Circle”, meaning everyone stops whatever they are doing and they work on the issue.

In Missouri, a different method for juvenile prisons has seen surprisingly successful results, trading in the orange uniforms and cell blocks for therapists and dorm rooms.”

 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/missouris-juvenile-justice-system/Story?id=8511600&page=1

Cook County Sheriff Staff are Puppets of Corruption

THE STORY OF HOW THE DEMOCRATIC MACHINE IN CHICAGO THRIVES AND PERPETUATES GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, WASTE, INEFFICIENCY, AND FRAUD 

A person asked on line about the fights at the jail this past week where inmates stabbed each other. “With todays riot I think all tax payers should call Sheriff Dart and ask why he refuses to hire more staff as federally mandated, why the E.R.T. (emergency response team) doesn’t search or respond to trouble, why doesnt he fire Director Godinez.”

The answer is not wasting tax-payer dollars on more guards. We need to reduce the jail population to less than 6,000 from its previous high of nearly 11,000. Non-violent offenders should be sentenced to alternatives other than jail that actually benefit society. There are lots of things a sentenced criminal can do as community service other than just picking up garbage, including providing free or reduced services as an employee for the state in almost any job category. Mentally ill convicts, including addicts, should be treated not just jailed so jail does not become a revolving door. There is not even 1/4 the mental health services available to probationers or parolees that are needed. Guards should be required to have a higher level of training, not only in terms of judo, but also in recognizing and de-escalating violence due to mental illness, as well as not treating every refusal to do as told as voluntary and requiring force. Mentally ill are often confused and react better and more compliantly with “herding them gently” or backing-off and giving them space, instead of with brute force, which generally will be irrationally resisted. Women who have been raped or assaulted may go into flashbacks and not even realize where they are, as they are reliving in their mind the brutal attack. Guards need to be taught to control without brutality and foul language. This is not a good example. They should be teaching inmates how to resolve conflicts peacefully and civily not escalate them to violence as the officers often do, because that is what they are trained to do.

Another internet writer stated: “Amen to that, Linda. Why are so many non-violents that could be on house arrest still in jail. And why does the judge get to say “this drug addict is not fit for rehabilitation” without even giving it a try? It baffles me.”

You have to understand Cook Co runs on patronage. You have to have large armies of uneducated workers who vote for you as a candidate, and bring out the vote by acting as poll watchers and bringing people to the polls, especially dead people. Sheriff deputies, Court Clerk staff, DCFS workers, IDOC staff, etc., fullful this role nicely.

To hire such a large army you need to make sure they take long lunches, do only half the job they could so you can hire two for every one employee needed, or campaign on public time. You make your payroll bloated with excess staff. You fire employees who are efficient. You remind employees that if they work to fast they are depriving another person of a job. You promote only those who enforce campaigning and fundraising efforts. You promote incompetents who don’t think for themselves, never questions “authority”, and are loyal to the patronage system. You don’t document anything and you engage in deals behind closed doors.

http://drlindashelton.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/be-a-team-player-corruption-and-patronage-in-illinois/

In order to have lots of guards you need to deny personal recognizance bonds for non-violent (I-Bonds). You need to put people in jail instead of on probation. You need excessive sentences, particularly for drug and non-violent crimes. You need a revolving door of a corrupt parole system and no mental health or drug addiction treatment.

So you need lots of prisoners or you can’t hire lots of guards and keep complaining that you need more guards! That’s the way the machine works to keep the corrupt in office. Guards are used! They are coerced and manipulated and made to think that if they squeal by going to 2111 S. Roosevel FBI office and ask for a duty agent and then provide evidence of corruption, patronage, brutality, medical neglect, excessive force, and fraud, that they will lose their jobs! Guards are fools to cooperate with this corruption. They would have a better job, better working environment, better benefits, if they were trained properly, if they followed the law, and if 10 % of our tax dollars weren’t going into political campaigns, like (”Friends of Madigan) through illegal kickbacks (bribery).

Remember the guards are abused as much as the inmates because they work in crowded unsafe conditions, are improperly trained and encouraged to be sadist, foul-mouthed and vulgar, intolerent, and violent hotheads, and without proper mental health and drug addiction treatment the inmates are dangerous. Guards are simply crazy to keep voting for the same idiots who are USING THEM and demanding 10 % kickbacks (bribes) to their political funds like “Friends of Madigan”. We need a massive grass roots movement, including the guards to vote out of office these criminals including Stroger, Madigan (Lisa & Michael), Dart, the Daleys, Beavers, Burkes, Jones, Steeles, Lipinskys etc., and their puppets. Political office in Illinois needs to stop being an inherited oligarchy. We simply have to help the FBI and U.S. Attorney take down King Richard Thompson, his Lords Madigans, Daleys, Burkes, Beavers, etc., the Sheriff of Nottingham Dart (previously Sheahan), and his high executioner Alvarez (previously Divine).

Anyone who wishes to help me do this – citizens and officers alike – you can even help in anonymous ways – e-mail me at picepil@aol.com.

Vit D May Improve Mental Health

This article about Vitamin D and its useful affects at treating mental illness is of great interest to the public. Vit. D is obtained from the sun interacting with chemicals in the skin. Mental illness such as depression is known to worsen in the winter. I believe there is a lot of truth in this article. Enjoy it!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/therese-borchard/vitamin-d-and-mental-heal_b_211636.html

Published in: on July 8, 2009 at 7:23 am Leave a Comment
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IL Denies Mental Health Care to Medicaid Patients

Attorney General Lisa Madigan is fraudulently prosecuting legitimate, quality providers of mental health care to Medicaid patients. She is using this to say she is “tough on fraud” and the State is using this to help balance the budget at the heavy cost to society. Without mental health care addiction increases, crime increases, mentally ill commit minor crimes such as stealing food and are victims of crimes, productive lives are lost, the State incurs increased costs of caring for these people and their families, $40,000 or more is spent per year to incarcerate non-violent offenders instead of providing them treatment so they can support their families, take care of their children, and contribute to the tax base.  This is corruption at its height.  Why is Obama administration ignoring this?

http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2008/10/criminal-scheme-of-il-attorney-general.html

http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2009/02/judge-jorge-alonso-overturns-federal.html

http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2009/07/excess-incarceration-rate-leads-to-more.html

Fixing America’s [In] Justice System

The Myth of American Justice:

There is no way that we can have anything but injustice if the office of the prosecutor is given 10 times the budget of the office of public defender. Defendants are subjected to the situation of the defenders of the Alamo – the odds are overwhelmingly against them. In this dysfunctional system, a defendant is guilty until proven innocent to the hilt, despite the theoretical innocence until proven guilty. There are far too many innocent people in prison, mentally ill people in prison, and non-violent criminals guilty but sentenced excessively with no rehabilitation available for them or help in re-introducing themselves to society when they get out.

We can solve this problem in several ways:

1-Parity in terms of budget for both prosecutors and public defenders;
2-Mandate that all attorneys must provide a specified amount of pro bono services – they won’t do it without a mandate as in the federal court system;
3-Raise the level of required training for the police so that they stop abusing laws such as trespass laws, disorderly conduct laws, and resisting arrest, laws – now often used for harassment and to retaliate against whistle blowers and activists, as well as for judges – who often violate the Bill of Rights out of ignorance of the law;
4-Revise grand jury rules so that the jurors are told that they can call witnesses and so that it is more likely that defense witnesses will be called to prove there is no probable cause;
5-Increase penalties for prosecutors who commit fraud upon the grand jury by mistating the law and withholding exculpatory evidence including witnesses;
6-Revise our criminal statutes so that non-violent crimes may be dealt with more by mediators and not all “crimes” are automatically forced to trial so that judges are freed up to deal with more significant crimes;
7-Increase funding for mental health services including drug addiction treatment and offer more diversion for first time offenders and non-violent drug offenders to remove their cases from the trial schedules.

Most importantly we need to have civilian oversight over judges and prosecutors. There will have to be creative thinking as how to accomplish this task. The fox cannot guard the hen house!

I am sure that there are a lot more who through creative thinking can come up with the solutions that I am too ignorant to figure out.