Wednesday, May 25, 2011

APAI Election Results

APAI would like to congratulate Jeffrey Peterson of Minnesota, who will take office as Vice President of APAI beginning July 1, and Jeralia "Jeri" Costa from Washington who will continue in her role as Secretary of APAI. 

Thank you to everyone who voted in the election. 

The Role of Parole in Texas: Achieving Public Safety & Efficiency

Introduction

Texas recently earned national acclaim for avoiding what was expected to be a catastrophic prison overcrowding crisis. In 2005, in anticipation of overcrowding, the Legislative Budget Board recommended building more than 17,000 new prison beds. Texas did not build the beds, however, and it still managed to reduce crime throughout the state. Part of the credit for this impressive accomplishment must go to the state’s parole system. In 2009, out of 76,607 parole-eligible cases considered, 23,182 Texas inmates were placed on some kind of parole supervision. More importantly, the number of parolees revoked to prison has sharply declined from 11,311 in 2004 to 6,678 in 2010, reflecting a drop in both new crimes and technical violations serious enough to warrant revocation.  Read more...

In 1st CA medical parole case, inmate rejected

A state board on Tuesday denied medical parole to a convicted rapist who has been a quadriplegic since he was attacked in prison 10 years ago, arguing that the inmate's verbal threats in prison to female staffers proves he would still pose a threat to public safety if he were to be released.

Steven Martinez, 42, was the first California inmate to be considered for medical parole under a law that took effect this year and is aimed at saving taxpayers the expense of providing medical care and security to incapacitated inmates. Under the law, inmates who are "permanently medically incapacitated with a medical condition" that makes them "unable to perform activities of basic daily living" may be released if they do not pose a threat to public safety.  Read more...

No easy fix for California's prison crisis

By Jack Dolan and Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- California's effort to shift tens of thousands of inmates out of its chronically overcrowded prisons to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order could be undone by the state's tough sentencing laws, persistent recidivism and recurring budget crises, analysts say.

More than 33,000 offenders must be moved out of the prisons under the high court's Monday decision, which upheld an earlier ruling that conditions in the teeming facilities cause preventable deaths and amount to cruel and unusual punishment.  Read more...