Should the Tea Party Support Criminal Justice Reform?

After all, the biggest portion of most state government budgets goes to mass incarceration. If you are serious about reducing costs, start thinking about getting smart on crime.

Override Veto of Promising Prison Reform

After years of work, the legislature passed the first prison reform bill in some time. Unfortunately the bill was vetoed. The legislature should make it a priority to override this veto. A great discussion is found here.

Is Reentry the key to Rehabilitation?

Most prisoners will be released. What shall we do with them then? This article suggests that we must focus on reentry into society.

Should Incarcerated Pregnant Women be Shackled?

My answer is no. The bill prohibiting this practice has now landed on Governor Scott's desk. The bill, if signed into law, will establish humane and uniform rules for the treatment of pregnant women who are incarcerated in any prison, jail or detention in Florida. Read all about it here. 

Dementia Behind Bars

The New York Times points out one consequence of our harsh sentencing practices. 

Know your Rights (or not)

Interesting case, how well informed do you have to be about your rights before you plead guilty to a misdemeanor?

Juveniles should not receive life sentences

Please read this editorial from the New York Times written by a retired juvenile court judge.

Go To Trial: Crash the System

The premise of this article is that if more people exercised their right to a trial, the criminal justice system coulod not handle the consequences. Very interesting.

Wrongful convictions are Florida's greatest shame

How do wrongful convictions happen? Like this.

Should chronic pain sufferers be treated as criminals?

The other casualties in the war on pain medication.

As crime drops, fewer prisons are needed

The crime rate in Florida as fallen by almost fifty percent over the past 20 years. This means we need a lot fewer prisons.

Florida to close 11 correctional facilities

The state of Florida is closing seven of its state prisons and four work camps for a savings of roughly $90 million through 2013. But what wasn't clear after Thursday's announcement was how many of the nearly 1,300 employees who work at those facilities, including corrections officers, would still have jobs. "I'm not going to guarantee we can place everyone," said Corrections Secretary Kenneth S. Tucker. He did say he would reach out to other state agencies and county sheriffs to find jobs for corrections workers. [Source: AP]

World Peace Day Observance January 7

A celebration of World Peace Day will take place on Saturday, January 7, at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Fruitville Road in Sarasota. The event is sponsored by the South West Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice and will last from 9:30 am to 1:30pm, beginning with a complimentary continental breakfast.

The program will feature a presentation on Latino issues led by Kelly Kirschner, of Unidos Now and Louise Brumberg of Englewood, founder of Escuela Suenos De Luisa in Nicaragua. The annual Duisberg Peace Award will be presented to Rob Lorei, Director of Public Affairs at WMNF-88.5 FM and host of "Florida, This Week" on WEDU-TV. Lorei will moderate a panel of former peace award winners from this area, including Adam Tebrugge, Samar Jarrah, Andrea Blanch, and Mindy Simmons who will also present musical selections. A special appearance will be made by Faith Fippinger, human shield and first Peace Award winner, who returns to Sarasota for a family visit from three years overseas.

In addition to the formal program, over fifteen vendors will offer snacks and displays. Organizations participating are Veterans for Common Sense, WSLR, the Peace Education and Action Center, Transition Sarasota, Beyond War, Englewood Peace Initiative Coalition, Coalition for Concerned Patriots, Center for Religious Tolerance, Pax Christi- Manasota, and Peace and Justice Committees from St. Boniface, Sarasota Quakers, First Congregational Church, UCC, and Unitarian Universalists from Venice, Charlotte, and Manatee.

This event is open to the public free of change but donations are welcome for the school in Nicaragua. For further information, contact 941-721-3486.

Will Conservatives Help Advance Criminal Justice Reform in Florida?

Little progress has been made on criminal justice reform over the past decade. Laws grow more harsh, more crimes are created, greater numbers of people are sent to prison for longer sentences. Our only hope is that our legislature's failures have now caught up with them. The best place to save money in our budget is with meaningful criminal justice reform. Now some traditionally conservative groups are starting to understand.

False Confessions May Lead to More Errors in Evidence, a Study Shows

A man with a low IQ confesses to a gruesome crime. Confession in hand, the police send his blood to a lab to confirm that his blood type matches the semen found at the scene. It does not. The forensic examiner testifies later that one blood type can change to another with disintegration. This is untrue. The newspaper reports the story, including the time the man says the murder took place. Two witnesses tell the police they saw the woman alive after that. The police send them home, saying they “must have seen a ghost.” After 16 years in prison, the falsely convicted man is exonerated by DNA evidence.How could this happen?

“False confessions can corrupt other evidence, both from laypeople and forensic experts,” says John Jay College of Criminal Justice psychologist Saul Kassin, summarizing a new study conducted with Daniel Bogart of the University of California Irvine and Nova Southeastern University’s Jacqueline Kerner. The findings, which will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, have far-reaching implications for judges and juries, prosecutors and defense attorneys.Confessions, when true, are an important tool in convicting criminals. But false confessions frequently play a major role in convicting innocent people. Experiments show that juries and potential witnesses are influenced by confessions even if they know they were coerced. Also in the lab, experienced polygraph examiners, fingerprint experts, and other experts, when informed of a confession, see what they expect to see—that is, evidence of guilt.

To back up these findings with real-life data, the psychologists thoroughly reviewed the trial records of 241 people exonerated by the Innocence Project since 1992. Of these, 59—or 25 percent—involved false confessions, either by the defendant or an alleged accomplice. One-hundred eighty—or 75 percent—involved eyewitness mistakes. The analysis revealed that multiple errors turned up far more often in false confession cases than in eyewitness cases: 69 percent versus fewer than half. And two thirds of the time, the confession came first, followed by other errors, namely invalid forensic science and government informants.

Kassin believes the findings “greatly underestimate the problem” because of what never shows up in court: evidence of innocence. Told the suspect confessed, “alibi witnesses back out, thinking they’re mistaken,” police stop searching for the real culprit. “We show that confessions bring in other incriminating evidence that is false. What we don’t see is a tendency to suppress exculpatory evidence.”The study throws doubt on a critical legal concept designed to safeguard the innocent: corroboration. Appeals courts uphold a conviction even if a false confession is discovered, as long as other evidence—say, forensics or other witness testimony—independently shows guilt. “What these findings suggest is that there may well be the appearance of corroboration,” says Kassin, “but it is false evidence that was corrupted by the confession—not independent at all.”Already, many states require that interrogations be taped, so that confessions are not coerced or taken when the suspect is in psychological distress. With this study, “Juries and judges have more reason to critically evaluate the conditions under which that other evidence was taken, too.”

###For more information about this study, please contact: Saul Kassin at skassin@jjay.cuny.edu.The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Confessions that Corrupt: Evidence from the DNA Exoneration Case Files" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Divya Menon at 202-293-9300 or dmenon@psychologicalscience.org.Copyright © Association for Psychological Science

Proposed Sarasota County Ordinances

Two new ordinances are under consideration by Sarasota County Government. The ordinances concerns second hand dealers and recyclable metals. The present text of the ordinances can be found here.

I am against these ordinances. Whether you agree or disagree, you have an opportunity to comment by sending an e-mail to ordinances@scgov.net

Here is what I sent in:

Dear Sarasota County Commissioners:

My name is Adam Tebrugge. I have been a resident of Sarasota County since 1979. I purchased my home in the City of Sarasota in 1986. I operate my law practice, Tebrugge Legal, in the City of Bradenton, though I practice extensively in Sarasota County. Though I am a member of many organizations, I am writing solely in my role as a private citizen.

I appreciate the work effort of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office and the Sarasota County Attorney's Office in drafting the proposed ordinances. They have invited me to make recommendations for improving the ordinances. However, for the reasons I give below, I am recommending that you vote against each of the proposed ordinances.

The Ordinances Are Duplicative Of State Law:
I work primarily as a criminal defense attorney. Every day I defend persons charged with burglary, criminal mischief, theft and dealing in stolen property. State criminal law already provides for substantial punishment for each of these crimes. I do not understand why Sarasota County would need to pass ordinances on the same subjects.

The Ordinances Are Not Needed:
In the preamble to each ordinance, I find the statement: "Sarasota County citizens and businesses have suffered recent losses in excess of $7.9 million." No foundation or citation is provided to support this assertion. Even if true, I do not understand why a separate ordinance is needed when theft and dealing in stolen property are already crimes.

The Ordinances Will Likely Have a Severe Impact Upon Existing Businesses:
Honestly I am astonished at the number of regulations that these ordinances will place on existing businesses. The amount of record keeping and compliance that is required will be extremely burdensome. Essentially these ordinances require intense work by private businesses solely for the purpose of aiding law enforcement investigations.

Second Hand Dealers and Recyclers Are Already Cooperative With Law Enforcement:
In practicing criminal law in this area for the past 27 years, I have learned that businesses in Sarasota County routinely go above and beyond the call of duty to assist law enforcement with investigations. Ordinances of this type will discourage voluntary cooperation because of the mandatory compliance requirements and threats of penalties.

Enforcement of These Ordinances Will Unnecessarily Burden Sarasota County Government:
From what I understand, Sarasota Sheriff's Deputies and Sarasota County Code Enforcement Officers will have mutual enforcement responsibilities. I am of the opinion that members of each of these departments already have enough to do. Therefore, it appears to me that Sarasota County would have to undertake significant expenditures to hire additional staff to ensure compliance with these ordinances.

The Ordinances Will Discriminate Against the Poor:
I have worked with indigent citizens for my entire legal career. I know a lot of people who have worked collecting recyclable materials or second hand goods in order to maintain a meager economic existence. I am very concerned that the requirements of these ordinances will have a disproportionate impact upon those citizens of Sarasota who live below the poverty line. Many of the people I work with have no identification or bank account. I do not believe that Sarasota County is allowed to prohibit cash transactions as the ordinance appears to do.

The County May Be Incurring Substantial Legal Fees to Defend These Ordinances:
I have reviewed the ordinances carefully and had great deal of difficulty understanding the purpose behind them, the requirements upon our citizens and businesses, the enforcement mechanisms and the punishment for violations. I believe that if these ordinances are passed, Sarasota County will be paying to defend them in Court for years to come. I sincerely believe that money could be better spent on other efforts.

Thank you for your consideration of my comments.

Adam Tebrugge

The high cost of death

The death penalty exacts a cost in many different ways.

Criminal Justice Reform Making Progress in Florida?

Smart criminal justice reform is picking up political speed in Florida. Remember, 2012 is an election year and our elected representatives and senators will be listening. Let them know that you support being smart on crime. This means more drug court and less prisons, more flexibility and less minimum mandatories, and more emphasis on rehabilitation for the incarcerated citizens who will be returning to the community.

Second Chances

It is important to assist those getting out of prison if we don't want them to go back.

Drug Treatment Cheaper Than Filling More Prison Cells

The St. Petersburg Times publishes this obvious but important editorial.