Government probe finds widespread abuse at juvenile boot camps

When a spider bite sickened 15-year-old Roberto Reyes, staff at a juvenile boot camp tied a 20-pound sandbag around his neck. He later died.

An isolated incident? Not hardly.

The report of a government investigation, released today, documents widespread abuses at juvenile boot camps and wilderness therapy programs around the country and in U.S.-operated facilities abroad. Innvestigators found 1,619 incidents in 2005 alone.

The Government Accountability Office report attributes the abuses to a combination of factors, including reckless operations, untrained staff, insufficient food, and a lack of regulation or oversight. There's not even a central database to register complaints.

This morning, parents of some of the child victims testified at a hearing before the Education and Labor Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. It's good to see that Congress is finally shining a spotlight on this unregulated industry, because deaths like Roberto Reyes' – including many from dehydration and abusive physical discipline - have been in the news for decades.

Experiment aims to cut recidivism through reducing parole

One of the inmates I evaluated at San Quentin today had violated parole by missing a counseling appointment. The other had tried to beat a urinalysis after drinking alcohol on his birthday. Every day, busloads of "technical violators" like these two young men are dumped off at California prisons, giving the state the highest recidivism rate in the United States. Within three years of release, two-thirds of California parolees are back behind bars; that's twice the national average.

One method of reducing recidivism that is currently under consideration is to eliminate parole for all except the most dangerous of released prisoners. It's been done in other states and, counterintuitively, it may make the public safer. That's because limited resources can be targeted toward identifying and supervising the few very dangerous ex-prisoners.

Parole agents in two Southern California counties will be testing this idea starting next month. If it works, the changes may be implemented statewide next year.

Joan Petersilia, the UC Irvine criminology professor who chaired the governor's Rehabilitation Strike Team, explains the current situation and the need for reform in an op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Conviction overturned for failure to allow expert testimony on eyewitness identification

But courts retain broad discretion to decide

An Illinois appeals court has overturned a man's conviction because the trial court did not allow expert testimony on the fallibility of eyewitness evidence.

The case involved Walter Allen, who was sentenced to 43 years in prison for a 2001 robbery-shooting. The robbery was committed by two men wearing hoodies who entered a dry cleaning business, demanded money, and shot a woman employee in the back. From her hospital bed, the woman identified Allen from a photograph as the shooter.

At Allen's trial, the judge refused to allow an expert witness to testify for the defense about problems with eyewitness identification. The judge said that the testimony of Dr. Steven Penrod, a respected psychology-law professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, was unnecessary and might confuse the jury.

In its opinion in People v. Allen, the appellate court pointed to research establishing that eyewitnesses are often wrong, and that jurors have misconceptions about eyewitness accuracy. It cited prior Illinois rulings stating that expert testimony can dispel myths and correct misconceptions, and that "the science of eyewitness perception has achieved the level of exactness, methodology and reliability of any psychological research."

The court said it is not intending to lower the bar and allow all expert testimony about eyewitness accuracy. Judges are still entitled to exclude such testimony in some cases, but first they must carefully scrutinize the proffered testimony and determine whether it is relevant and might be helpful in the specific case. At Allen's trial, the court said, no such careful scrutiny took place.

Traditionally, trial judges are given wide latitude to decide whether to allow expert psychological testimony. For example, in a high-profile murder case in Michigan, a judge last week refused to allow either the defense or the prosecution to call dueling experts.

In that case, Thomas Richardson is accused of pushing his wife Juanita off a cliff at the scenic Pictured Rocks Cliffs. The defense claims that the death was accidental.

In denying both a defense motion to call a clinical neuropsychologist and a prosecution motion to call a forensic psychologist, the court said that the experts' testimony reflected competing opinions rather than science.

"The vagaries of the human mind and spirit are part of the puzzle left to a jury," wrote Alger County Circuit Court Judge Charles Stark. "Nothing proffered can assist them in determine the manner of death."

More commentary on the Allen decision is online at the Eyewitness Identification Reform blog.

Staggering debt keeps prisoners reeling

Justice Department-funded study calls for reform

As I've posted about previously, no one wants to hire ex-convicts. So what is an ex-prisoner to do when he is saddled with $25,000 in debts, and when he finally gets a job he is ordered to surrender every penny he makes?

Where does all this debt come from? Court fines. Fees. Surcharges. Child support. Restitution. Fees for mandatory drug treatment. Even the costs of the DNA testing that exonerated you!

Up to four or five departments may be coming at you all at once, forcing you to surrender 100% of your earnings. That certainly doesn't give much incentive to go through the nightmarish prospect of even looking for a job, and starting down the path of becoming a productive citizen.

Next week, the Council of State Governments' Justice Center will release a report, "Repaying Debts," which was commissioned by the Justice Department to analyze this mounting problem and recommend solutions.

In the meantime, today's New York Times features an excellent editorial calling for reform. The bottom line, says the editorial: "Bleeding ex-offenders financially is a sure recipe for landing them back in jail."

Hot off the press: Two new forensic psychology texts

Psychological Evaluations for the Courts, Third Edition: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals and Lawyers

Authors: Gary Melton, John Petrila, Norman Poythress, and Christopher Slobogin

Book description: "The definitive reference and text for both mental health and legal professionals is now in a thoroughly updated third edition. This volume offers a uniquely comprehensive discussion of the legal and clinical contexts of forensic assessment, along with best-practice guidelines for participating effectively and ethically in a wide range of criminal and civil proceedings. Extensively revised, the third edition analyzes recent legal developments concerning the admissibility of expert testimony, the insanity defense, sexual predators, the death penalty, outpatient commitment, medication refusal, juvenile justice, antidiscrimination laws, special education laws, and more. It also presents new empirical findings and instruments related to risk assessment, criminal and civil competencies, child custody, and feigning mental illness."


Practical Approaches to Forensic Mental Health Testimony

Authors: Thomas Gutheil and Frank Dattilio

Book description: "A practical hands-on guide to testifying in court on mental health issues, this text offers a vital tool for the novice as well as the most seasoned practitioner. Prepared by two of the field's leading scholars and practitioners, this original work cuts through dense forensic mental health theory and addresses the actual, concrete approaches to ethical and effective testimony that experts need in court. Rich in multiple examples of courtroom dialogue, direct and cross examination, collaboration with attorneys, and the craft of effective testimony, this text describes the common pitfalls and various traps that experts so frequently encounter and tells you how to avoid them. Strategies and techniques are clearly illustrated and arm readers with exactly what they need to be successful in their testimony. This book is a must-read for anyone serious about excelling in court."

Ted Koppel goes to prison

"Breaking Point" airs Oct. 7 on Discovery Channel

Several months ago, I was strolling across "The Yard" at California State Prison-Solano (CSP) when a convict walked up to me and claimed he had just spotted Ted Koppel. At first I thought he was joking, but several others confirmed the sighting.

This Sunday, Koppel's show about the appalling state of California's prisons will air on the Discovery Channel at 9:00 p.m. Entitled "Breaking Point," it focuses on a converted gym crammed full of triple-decker bunk beds.

From the Discovery Channel website comes this overview:

What does the California prison system have in common with Harvard University?

It costs precisely as much to house, feed and guard one prisoner for one year in a California state prison as tuition, meals and housing cost for a student enrolled for one academic year at Harvard. As far as California taxpayers are concerned, it gets even worse. Their prison system is so overcrowded that it's reached a breaking point. Either the state finds a long-term solution or the federal courts have warned they'll begin ordering the release of inmates, just to ease the crush.

In this two-hour broadcast, Ted Koppel examines how California got to this point and presents an inside view of the crisis through in-depth interviews with inmates, guards and prison officials at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. Designed to accommodate no more than 100,000 inmates, California’s prisons now hold 173,000, each at an annual cost of $43,000.

How did things get so out of control?

Mandatory sentencing is a big part of the answer. When California voters threw their support behind a get-tough-on-crime bill that came to be known as "Three Strikes and You're Out," the state prison system filled up and is now overflowing.

While shooting, Koppel spent a number of days among the general population at Solano. His reporting focuses on the inhabitants of H Dorm, where inmates are stacked in triple-deck bunk beds on an old indoor basketball court. Correctional officers are so badly outnumbered that prison officials keep inmates segregated by race and gang affiliation in a desperate effort to avoid friction and maintain control. Even so, Solano still sees three to four race riots a year. Using smuggled cell phones, gang bosses continue running criminal operations on the street from behind prison walls. At the same time, they’re running drug and prostitution rings inside Solano.

Koppel will introduce viewers to many of Solano's inmates, including Travis Tippets, Joseph Mason and Brian O'Neal. Having completed a six-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon, Tippets is being released from Solano and sits for a brief "exit interview" with Koppel. The last time he was paroled, it took Tippets less than a day to get arrested and sent back. Knowing that a third strike could land him back in prison for life, Tippets finds out how hard it is to get a job with no skills and a criminal record.

Joseph Mason is a third-striker. He's been arrested and convicted three times for nonviolent burglaries and he won't be eligible for parole until 2019; the ultimate irony is that he voted for the three strikes law. Brian O'Neal is also a nonviolent repeat offender. He has been to prison 11 times and nine of those sentences were for violating parole. Koppel's cameras track O'Neal's 11th release from prison as his pregnant girlfriend picks him up and the two drive out of Solano. Within weeks, O'Neal is arrested again for violating his parole.