New Video about the new book by me on Xlibris Publishing and available now!!!!
Gorilla Justice Video for Introduction and short summary of the book... NOW AVAILABLE AT
WWW.AMAZON.COM/BOOKS/
WWW.BARNESANDNOBLES.COM
WWW.XLIBRIS.COM/BOOKS
Friday, January 6, 2012
Gorilla Justice Video
New Video about the new book by me on Xlibris Publishing and available now!!!!
Gorilla Justice Video for Introduction and short summary of the book... NOW AVAILABLE AT
WWW.AMAZON.COM/BOOKS/
WWW.BARNESANDNOBLES.COM
WWW.XLIBRIS.COM/BOOKS
Being Politically-Correct Corrupts Leadership Skills
My new article "Being Politically-Correct Corrupts Leadership Skills " will be in the corrections.com home page beginning next Monday.
Here is the preview link. http://www.corrections.com/news/article/29570-being-politically-correct-corrupts-leadership-skills
Here is the preview link. http://www.corrections.com/news/article/29570-being-politically-correct-corrupts-leadership-skills
Thursday, January 5, 2012
County Attorney Issues Heavily Biased Report on Prison Population Growth
10:09 AM Reply ▼Reply
DONNA LEONE HAMM DONNA LEONE HAMMmiddlegroundprisonreform@msn.com
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From: DONNA LEONE HAMM (middlegroundprisonreform@msn.com)
Sent: Thu 1/05/12 10:09 AM
To: DONNA LEONE HAMM (middlegroundprisonreform@msn.com)
News Release
Contact: Donna Leone Hamm
(480) 966-8116
This morning, Bill Montgomerly, Maricopa County Attorney, is releasing the contents of a study which was commissioned by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Council. They hired former Department of Corrections analyst, Daryl Fisher, who was roundly criticized for a previous 2010 study he was paid to write for the APAAC.
Montgomerly will announce that as a result of a reduction in the number of prisoners, Fisher concluded that "the prison population has become more violent." Montgomery believes that this should end the debate about sentencing reform.
Not so fast, say prisoner reformers at Middle Ground Prison Reform.
An overall drop in the prison population, as reported in Fisher's study, from a high of 40,778 in 2009 to 40,027 in November 2011 -- which is an actual drop of 751 prisoners, or 1.8% -- does not mean that the prison population is "more violent."
Without having read the entire 438-page report, but taking into account the statements Montgomery has made (see Arizona Capital Times, January 5, 2012), several flaws are apparent. It is a serious flaw not to take into account the crime categories and length of sentences for the 751-person population reduction because we don't know how much of that drop is attributible to the release of violent offenders who may have reached the end of their sentences or were paroled. To the extent that the reduction in the prison population -- amounting to only 1.8% --is the product of the release of any violent offenders, it is irrational to state that the reduction results in a remaining prison population that is "more violent."
According to Montgomery, because non-volent offenders are being incarcerated at a lower rate, the result is that the remaining population is more violent. However, at least in the Executive Summary of Montgomery's report, he fails to inform us of the rates of incarceration for violent offenders for the same period of time as for the drop in illegal immigrants being arrested, the drop in auto thefts, etc. By the way, as noted in Montgomery's report, there was a drop of 23 percent in ALL reported crime from 2006 - 2010. That no doubt includes a drop in violent crime.
Given precisely the same information in the study, it would be equally legitimate to conclude that the prison population consists of a higher proportion of repetitive offenders, rather than a higher proportin of violent offenders. This is significant because of police practices and prosecutorial policies which serve to manipulate the category of repeat offenders and artificially reduce the numbers of offenders who can fit into the "first-time" offender category. This occurs, for example, as a result of police practices involving sending an undercover cop multiple times to the same location on several different days to purchase drugs before an arrest is actually made. This results in allowing prosecutors to file multiple counts and obtain multiple convictions, thus excluding the defendant from the category of "first-time" offender.
It is obvious to any objective reader that the study is a product of a desire to achieve a particular pre-determined outcome; namely, appearing to provide scientific support for the prosecutors association's inherent bias and resistance to making changes in Arizona's criminal code. Last year at the Arizona legislature, APAAC strongly opposed even the formation of a study commission, with no binding authority, to investigate and report on what other states might be doing to be smarter on crime.
Middle Ground Prison Reform will be interested to read and analyze the entire report whether or not the flaws noted above, or others that will become apparent upon review, in fact exist. Even at this preliminary state, it is clear that the conclusions drawn from this study are not supported to one extent or another by the evidence cited in the executive summary.
In short, given the self-serving nature of the report, no one can be surprised at its conclusions. What's next -- having Joe Arpaio commission a study of civil rights practices in his own jail?
Donna Leone (Hamm)
Criminal Justice Consultant
Executive Director - Middle Ground Prison Reform
See: www.middlegroundprisonreform.org
MIDDLE GROUND HAS BEEN ARIZONA'S PREMIER CHAMPION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE INCARCERATED SINCE 1983
DONNA LEONE HAMM DONNA LEONE HAMMmiddlegroundprisonreform@msn.com
Send email
Find emailTo DONNA LEONE HAMM
From: DONNA LEONE HAMM (middlegroundprisonreform@msn.com)
Sent: Thu 1/05/12 10:09 AM
To: DONNA LEONE HAMM (middlegroundprisonreform@msn.com)
News Release
Contact: Donna Leone Hamm
(480) 966-8116
This morning, Bill Montgomerly, Maricopa County Attorney, is releasing the contents of a study which was commissioned by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Council. They hired former Department of Corrections analyst, Daryl Fisher, who was roundly criticized for a previous 2010 study he was paid to write for the APAAC.
Montgomerly will announce that as a result of a reduction in the number of prisoners, Fisher concluded that "the prison population has become more violent." Montgomery believes that this should end the debate about sentencing reform.
Not so fast, say prisoner reformers at Middle Ground Prison Reform.
An overall drop in the prison population, as reported in Fisher's study, from a high of 40,778 in 2009 to 40,027 in November 2011 -- which is an actual drop of 751 prisoners, or 1.8% -- does not mean that the prison population is "more violent."
Without having read the entire 438-page report, but taking into account the statements Montgomery has made (see Arizona Capital Times, January 5, 2012), several flaws are apparent. It is a serious flaw not to take into account the crime categories and length of sentences for the 751-person population reduction because we don't know how much of that drop is attributible to the release of violent offenders who may have reached the end of their sentences or were paroled. To the extent that the reduction in the prison population -- amounting to only 1.8% --is the product of the release of any violent offenders, it is irrational to state that the reduction results in a remaining prison population that is "more violent."
According to Montgomery, because non-volent offenders are being incarcerated at a lower rate, the result is that the remaining population is more violent. However, at least in the Executive Summary of Montgomery's report, he fails to inform us of the rates of incarceration for violent offenders for the same period of time as for the drop in illegal immigrants being arrested, the drop in auto thefts, etc. By the way, as noted in Montgomery's report, there was a drop of 23 percent in ALL reported crime from 2006 - 2010. That no doubt includes a drop in violent crime.
Given precisely the same information in the study, it would be equally legitimate to conclude that the prison population consists of a higher proportion of repetitive offenders, rather than a higher proportin of violent offenders. This is significant because of police practices and prosecutorial policies which serve to manipulate the category of repeat offenders and artificially reduce the numbers of offenders who can fit into the "first-time" offender category. This occurs, for example, as a result of police practices involving sending an undercover cop multiple times to the same location on several different days to purchase drugs before an arrest is actually made. This results in allowing prosecutors to file multiple counts and obtain multiple convictions, thus excluding the defendant from the category of "first-time" offender.
It is obvious to any objective reader that the study is a product of a desire to achieve a particular pre-determined outcome; namely, appearing to provide scientific support for the prosecutors association's inherent bias and resistance to making changes in Arizona's criminal code. Last year at the Arizona legislature, APAAC strongly opposed even the formation of a study commission, with no binding authority, to investigate and report on what other states might be doing to be smarter on crime.
Middle Ground Prison Reform will be interested to read and analyze the entire report whether or not the flaws noted above, or others that will become apparent upon review, in fact exist. Even at this preliminary state, it is clear that the conclusions drawn from this study are not supported to one extent or another by the evidence cited in the executive summary.
In short, given the self-serving nature of the report, no one can be surprised at its conclusions. What's next -- having Joe Arpaio commission a study of civil rights practices in his own jail?
Donna Leone (Hamm)
Criminal Justice Consultant
Executive Director - Middle Ground Prison Reform
See: www.middlegroundprisonreform.org
MIDDLE GROUND HAS BEEN ARIZONA'S PREMIER CHAMPION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE INCARCERATED SINCE 1983
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
109034 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Author Gives a Reality Check on U.S. Prison Conditions
New novel depicts the “toxic and harsh” conditions for the incarcerated War Veterans and the Mentally Ill
MORENO VALLEY, Calif. – (Release Date TBD) – Author Carl R. ToersBijns’ Gorilla Justice is a fictitious parable about a returning Iraqi war veteran named Cyrus Grossman who is incarcerated for a crime that may have been forgiven as an accident but was prosecuted under the guise of “tough on crime” rhetoric by politicians and local prosecutors yearning recognition and power.
This book follows the ex-soldier’s trials and tribulations as he combats those elements detrimental to his own survival as he learns how to cope with hopelessness and despair that contemplates suicide for him and many others. During his incarceration period, he is exposed to the harsh and toxic prison environment as it exists today in America’s darkened prisons.
“Each event written resembles or counterfeits happenings in various prisons operating under administrative conditions that are reflections of Abu Ghraib type of DNA but seemingly ignored by the Department of Justice and those local state and federal officials in charge of protecting prisoner’s civil rights and offering humane treatment,” ToersBijns explains.
The awareness to this phenomenon is brought to the reader through anecdotal and empirical evidence supported by many experts of solitary confinement and its psychological and physiological effects on the human mind. Gorilla Justice documents what Cyrus sees, hears, smells and touches – the lunacy of his cellmates and fellow prisoners inside the “man-made hell-hole.”
For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to www.Xlibris.com.
About the Author
Since his retirement from corrections in April 2010, Carl ToersBijns has been performing the role of an activist in the area of public awareness of mental illness and the incarceration of war veterans and the severely mentally ill persons. He is also currently a senior advisor to the LEOAC (Law Enforcement Officers Advocacy Council) that works closely to issues related to personnel and legal issues. Carl is also a current board member of David’s Hope Inc. a non-profit organization for the mentally ill and a member of the Arizona Criminal Justice Mental Health Coalition. A retired deputy warden, he has an Associate Degree of Arts – Criminal Justice Administration w/ honors from the American InterContinental University and graduated in 2006.
ToersBijns has previously authored two books titled Wasted Honor and Wasted Honor2 – Underground Power that describes his experiences as a correctional employee in both New Mexico and Arizona prison systems.
Gorilla Justice * by Carl R. ToersBijns
Caged War Veterans, the Mentally Ill & Solitary Confinement
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 310 pages; 978-1-4691-3362-1
Trade Hardback; $29.99; 310 pages; 978-1-4691-3363-8
eBook; $3.99; 978-1-4691-3364-5
To request a complimentary paperback review copy, contact the publisher at (888) 795-4274 x. 7879. To purchase copies of the book for resale, please fax Xlibris at (610) 915-0294 or call (888) 795-4274 x. 7879.
For more information, contact Xlibris at (888) 795-4274 or on the web at www.Xlibris.com.
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