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Saturday, April 08, 2006

Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety Update

TiPS Periodic Update Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
www.ForPublicSafety.com

In this edition:
TiPS in the news
Legislation Update
- Foreign Transfers
- Lifers Getting Parole
Board of Parole Hearings
Lobby Day
Memberships
Yard Elections

1. TiPS in the News
Among the many pieces of legislation being advanced this year on sex offenses, Assembly Member Barbara Matthews (R-Stockton), has introduced AB 2261 which seeks to provide a term of Life Without the Opportunity for Parole (LWOP), for any offender who commits broadly described sex acts upon a corpse.

In an attempt to raise emotional public outcry in support of the legislation, the author's office fed the story to The Record (which for the most part wrote a fair and objective article -- except it did not mention the lack of any evidence that the crime actually fit what this legislation sought to address).

Creating emotional outcries is how the dogmatic tough-on-crime enthusiasts do business. One of TiPS' statements to the committee yesterday was "The legislative fervor against sex offenses has turned into the McCarthyism of the twenty first century. We know what works and that evidence is ignored; many lawmakers would rather react to emotionally based propaganda than focusing upon what fixes the problem."

In committee Ms. Matthews admitted that in the 15 year old case which prompted this legislation, without certainty the offender only might have engaged in this conduct and she was unable to come up with any substantiated instances of any verified crime as addressed by the legislation. In addition to the absence of a clear need for the bill, the way the measure was written made it unclear as to what actually constituted a sexual act and since it could apply to simply moving the victim, and the bill was therefore overly broad. Absent any showing of a need for the legislation, and since it was written too broadly, TiPS opposed the measure in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety today.

AB 2261 failed passage in the committee.
To review the story in its entirety please go to: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060404/NEWS01/604040329/1001


2. LEGISLATION
Every week TiPS members are represented in the Legislature as more and more tough-on-crime bills try to squeak thru. Legislators, during this election year, are trying to increase penalties, make more behavior criminal, remove protections, and stick it to the inmates & families. Thankfully many of these bills are amended, watered down, or killed.

TiPS' own legislation, SB 1444 (by Senator Escutia, D-Norwalk) which will dramatically reduce our prison population and allow our foreign born inmates to be re-united with their families back home, will be heard in the Senate Committee on Public Safety (SCoPS) later this month.

It would help our position to have even more letter of support from our members who were born in a foreign country and could be affected by this legislation. We have made an online petition available for people to simply fill out and mail into our office. Please print out, mail inside, and have them mail it directly to us. To access the petition go to http://www.forpublicsafety.com/sb1444.pdf

SB 1444 seeks to reduce the prison population by repatriating foreign national inmates (i.e. "undocumented" inmates), to serve out their sentence in their country of origin, if that country is a signatory to either the Vienna or OAS convention. If passed, this will reduce our prison population by roughly 23,000 inmates (nearly 14%).

CDCR is in a bad position because it could have approved the applications by these individuals, and yet has not done so because of their unpublished policy not to. They claim the Feds will not receive them, but federal law is clear and the conventions & treaties requiring the transfer of sentenced persons to their signatory countries are equally clear. These inmates have the right to go home and serve out their sentences.

On the second piece of legislation, to serve our term-lifer members, we are awaiting the bill number to be assigned. Based upon very real cost concerns with allowing inmates direct access to court (which would have killed the bill in Appropriations Committee) our legal steering committee came up with a proposal to strip the Board of Parole Hearings of its current commissioners and replace them with retired judges. Judges are much more accustomed to being held to a higher standard of impartiality, actually know the law, and are qualified to render decisions which will resolve much of the litigation now being pursued as a result of an incompetent BPH.


3. BOARD OF PAROLE HEARINGS (BPH)
With Margarita Perez now gone, the focus has switched to Farmer and Fisher for their behavior on the Board.

Farmer has even gone so far as to interrupt victim testimony and challenge their statements at hearings when he learns they are speaking in favor of the inmate's release. Do you have Terry Farmer stories that should be brought to light? We want to know!

4. TiPS LOBBY DAY 2006
We so far have a great turnout and expect to have the largest prison reform turnout ever. You can make sure it is -- and send a very clear message to Legislators that we ARE mobilized, we ARE organized, and we ARE committed to these issues. The more the merrier, so please keep talking to people and getting them to confirm their attendance.

April 19th, at 10am, in Sacramento is our annual "Lobby Day" when members of TiPS will converge upon the Capitol in Sacramento and walk the halls to meet about issues which are important to us.

This annual Lobby Day is an opportunity for our members to get their face-time with lawmakers and their staff to discuss prison issues and our legislation. But you don't have to speak; and there will be plenty of experienced members there to do the talking if you don't want to.

In addition to personal meetings, a number of Legislators have committed to come to our rally, including several prominent heroes on prison reform issues. TiPS has also secured an entire side of the State Capitol building for our use during an early afternoon rally.

We need to know who is coming (beforehand), so we can guarantee supplies and get them in meeting with the right offices. E-mail: LobbyDay@CorrectionsReform.com to confirm your attendance.

Be sure to reserve your place today. The event is FREE to TiPS members. After our brief morning training and question & answer session, we'll form small groups of TiPS members to visit specific offices of lawmakers from their home towns -- so that means we need members from all over California. The experience is always fun and well-worth the time, and gives you a better understanding of how the process works.

Lobby Day is a lot of fun and is my favorite work day of the year!

We have created a forums section on our Members Access web page for people to learn about hotel and transportation options, and work out other details. Please to there indicate if you can help with either transportation, lodging, financial assistance, organizing, or any other benefit to the attendees. The recommended dress attire is business dress, but more importantly, make sure you come in GREAT walking shoes and are comfortable.

We are tentatively set to begin at 10am so those who are driving-in from out of town will not have to get up too early. If you would like to be a volunteer in putting Lobby Day together, we would welcome your help!


5. MEMBERSHIPS:
You have your SoM in, but have you paid your dues?
You paid your dues, but did you turn in your SoM?
You paid your dues and turned in your SoM, but did you create your username on the web site (and let us know what it is)?
You are indigent and turned in your SoM, but did you provide us with a copy of your trust account statement?

These are the most common mistakes made by (prospective) members which holds up their membership processing.
These are most encouraging times are TiPS continues to grow. We are now up to many new memberships every day can really see the rapid growth.
That being said, let's not lose our momentum. Keep spreading the word, talking to people during visitation, sharing our goals and vision with everyone you know so we can take back California from the special interest groups that have sold our children's future to line the pockets of prison guards.

Invest in yourself and your future, be a part of something bigger than yourself, and get others to join up. We continue to grow and the success (or failure) of this effort will be a direct result of every member's personal commitment to success.

Know of someone who resists joining? They just don’t get the ‘big picture,’ don’t be discouraged as we are seeing there are plenty of other who do. Focus your efforts on those who will produce results.

The new TiPS Statement of Membership (SoM) can be found on our web site at http://www.correctionsreform.com/som.pdf You do not need to fill out another SoM if you have already turned yours in.


6. YARD ELECTIONS:
Once a majority of TiPS members are on a yard, elections will be held amongst the membership to designate a union representative for that yard. Union reps will communicate with TiPS local community representatives, who in turn will monitor that institution & participate directly with TiPS headquarters. Is your MAC/WAC representative involved with TiPS? If not, then whose interest are they really serving?


That's all for now!

Matt Gray
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
P.O. Box 255456
Sacramento, CA 95865-5456
- Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety Staff

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