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Making Money on Oklahoma Prisoners

When talk turned to letting prison inmates out early with ankle monitors, who thought about losing money?  Apparently, the people who operate the private prisons who lose inmates from such a program. On the first day of this month, the Department of Corrections implemented a new statute, HB 2131, that released on GPS monitoring those inmates convicted of non-violent crimes who were serving a sentence of less than five years and have only ninety days of their sentence left to serve.  The only recent change in the law is that it makes eligible those who have ninety days left on their sentences rather than 180 days. The largest for-profit provider of halfway houses in the state of Oklahoma was so concerned about losing this business that they met with officials of the Department of Corrections, then met with the governor and the Speaker of the House, who was the author of HB 2131.  Avalon Correctional Services explained their concern, with a straight face as just a concern for public safety.  Speaker Steele explained that Avalon met with him just to be sure he understood how good their programs are. The company has seen a big drop in its halfway house populations.  Their halfway house in Tulsa was only 60 percent to capacity this October versus 97 of capacity in October, 2010.  Since Department of Corrections pays Avalon $33.75 per day per inmate, the total drop could reach $120,000 per month for only one of the Avalon facilities. The Department of Corrections claims to have 10 years of studies that show this type of release works.  The Department’s director, Justin Jones, said he got an avalanche of telephone calls for people concerned that hundreds of inmates would be released under the new law.  But, in fact, fewer than 170 inmates were released early for the GPS monitoring. The new law is aimed at reducing the terrific costs of housing inmates in times of budget shortfalls.  It did not change who is eligible; it just changed time frame of remaining sentence from 180 days to 90 days. The Department of Corrections claims this program has a 90 percent success rate for women and an 87 percent success rate for male inmates.   This is better than any of the specialty programs, like drug court or community sentencing, both of which are excellent programs with excellent track records. Avalon helped address the state’s budget shortfalls two years ago when it agreed to accept a 5 ½ percent decrease in the per diem rate Department of Corrections paid for halfway house occupants.   The department budget fell from $503 million in 2010 to $462 this year.

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Cop Murders in New Orleans

Posted by Edmond Geary on 05-28-2010

One of the ghosts of Hurricane Katrina has surfaced – again.  A fifth former police officer has been charged in federal court for covering up the killings of unarmed civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina.  Ignatius Hills was charged in New Orleans federal court with obstructing justice and misprison of a felony.  Hills resigned from the police force less than a week ago, obviously in anticipation of this filing.

A week after Hurricane Katrina, police were called to the Danziger Bridge on a report that shots had been filed.  Lance Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, and James Brissette, who was 17, were both shot to death by the police.  Police arrested Madison’s older brother, Ronald, on eight counts of attempted murder of a police officer.  All those charges were later dropped, obviously charges trumped-up by the police to cover their wrongdoing.

Four other former police officers and one civilian have pled guilty to covering up the shootings.  They all plead guilty to plea agreements.  Hills has been charged by Information rather than Indictment, indicating he is going to plead guilty with a plea agreement.  The reason this is indicated by the filing of an Information is that a person has a right under the fifth amendment to the constitution to be charged only by indictment by a grand jury.  The government would not bother to file the Information unless Hills’ attorney, Robert Jenkins, had agreed to plead to it.   Hills is facing a maximum sentence of eight years.

The government Information claims Hills and others shot at unarmed people and then covered up to make the shootings appear justified.  Hills allegedly wrote a police report which accused Lance Madison of eight counts of attempted murder, even though Hills had no firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing by Madison.  The Information claims another officer dictated the report to Hills, who signed it, even though Hills believed Madison was being framed.

Hills is accused of getting together with other officers to develop false stories about the incident.  Those get-togethers included one particular secret meeting in January, 2006.  The government also accuses Hills him of giving false testimony when he testified to a state grand jury in October, 2006.

Posted in Attempted Murder, Criminal defense, Law enforcement, Murder, Police corruption

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