shine a light-- get up and fight, folks!...(new song)....

[join us Fridays 5-6 pm at WVKR 91.3 FM at Vassar College and Saturday mornings from 8 to 10 am for our "Common Sense" breakfast club on-air pow-wows at WHVW 950 AM studios at 316 Main St. in Poughkeepsie-- you're invited to help us sing the chorus (and talk politics/issues)!...(and the verses if u want too)...go to the videos on my Facebook page to see me rappin' the three older songs below; this first one at the top is brand-spankin' new as of this a.m.!)...Joel]

[next step-- finding all the verses I wrote for "Zero Hero and the Clean Dozen"(!)]

MC Whitebread back in the game-- 'cause the truth can't be tamed...(lol):

darkness gathers across the land
media no help-- 'cause the truth been canned
tea party idiots-- justice banned
slippin' away thru the hourglass-- grains of sand

stop children-- what's that sound
they think they got us beaten down
but we back-- for another round
fascism growin'-- no time to clown

politicians-- papers-- so so sick
politicians-- papers-- so so slick
politicians-- papers-- so so trick
politicians-- papers-- so so quick

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

takin' from the needy-- givin' to the greedy
ain't nothin' new-- but it still seedy
skulkin' in the shadows-- they dirty deedy
rich gettin' richer-- while poor bleedy

they think they got some mandate
but they got nothin'-- just filled with hate
bullies-- ignorant-- that's their trait
empty with greed they cannot sate

they cut and they cut and they cut and they cut
ain't thinkin' with their head-- they usin' their butt
enough of this-- we know what's what
what comes up come down-- tut tut tut

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

we need jobs-- not a bigger jail
but they cut and cut-- without fail
wake up-- this is now-- no tall tale
and no you can't have that Marcellus Shale

closin' schools-- expandin' incarceration
here in Dutchess-- and 'cross the nation
a highly intolerable situation
wake up folks-- feel the vibration

well guess what-- we comin' together
birds of a feather-- in any weather
off the hook-- off the tether
we toughenin' up-- tougher than leather

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

wake up folks-- we deserve better
we don't need no mean go-getter
come on y'all-- time to rise up
everyone-- old hounds-- you baby pup

so we sing to get the message out
sing with us now-- scream and shout
if we stand together we got the clout
can't take no more of these fools-- no doubt

their only solution-- more pollution
talkin' justice-- not retribution
no more pervertin' our Constitution
like Tracy said-- talkin' revolution

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight
get up everybody-- shine a light
come on come on-- get up and fight

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[wrote this one back in Jan.-- along with one just below it ("We Deserve")]

"Cut Cut Cut Cut Cut"

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

Republicans say
Democrats say
Poughkeepsie Journal says
New York Times says

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

Education
Healthcare
Environment
Help for poor

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

Jobs
Wages
Pensions
Benefits

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

So get up off ya butts
To stop those cuts
Make the rich pay
Right here today

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

Get the real deal
Don't bark like a seal
No happy meal
'Cos some cuts don't heal

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

Remember FDR
Be a shining star
Don't need a fancy car
With the truth you go far

Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut
Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut

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[wrote this one after one of those Sat. vigils w/Pete Seeger]

"We Deserve"

We deserve-- good payin' green jobs
We deserve-- no more for rich greedy slobs
We deserve-- energy retrofits, solar
Yes yes y'all-- ain't goin' bipolar

We deserve-- a living wage
We deserve-- now in this day and age
We deserve-- quality education
Without goin' broke-- or starvation

We deserve-- our right to health care
We deserve-- speak up if you dare
Lost Bob already-- 20 years with IBM
Billions in profits ain't enough for them

Wake up Dutchess wake up
Shake up Dutchess shake up
I've had just about enough
Of this lyin' corrupt stuff

Wake up Dutchess wake up
Shake up Dutchess shake up
I've had just about enough
Of this lyin' corrupt stuff

We deserve-- a fair tax system
Make the rich pay so I don't fist 'em
We deserve-- no more budget cuts
Wealthy folks pay more-- get up off your butts

We deserve-- clean air clean water
Wake up people-- time that we oughta
We deserve-- affordable housing
Wakin' up from our slumber-- gettin' aroused an'

We deserve-- government by the people
Real reform-- wake up, sheeple
We deserve-- no more games on Wall Street
Destroying our economy-- make 'em feel some heat

Wake up Dutchess wake up
Shake up Dutchess shake up
I've had just about enough
Of this lyin' corrupt stuff

Wake up Dutchess wake up
Shake up Dutchess shake up
I've had just about enough
Of this lyin' corrupt stuff

We deserve-- our troops to come home
From Afghanistan, Iraq-- where they roam
We deserve-- to get down to 350
Cuttin' carbon now-- would be nifty

The way things are-- it's inhumane
Wake up now-- if you got half a brain
Dalai Lama's right-- happiness from compassion
Sad-- cause for them-- it's never in fashion

Time that we all pulled together
Realized we're all birds of a feather
Yeah you better bet-- there's a solution
Make a contribution-- no substitution

Pete's right-- let this song do the work
Let your light shine-- don't be a jerk

Wake up Dutchess wake up
Shake up Dutchess shake up
I've had just about enough
Of this lyin' corrupt stuff

Wake up Dutchess wake up
Shake up Dutchess shake up
I've had just about enough
Of this lyin' corrupt stuff

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[I wrote this one back in late 90's]

"Been to the Mountaintop"

Been to the mountaintop-- seen the other side
Ain't no injustice there-- the others lied
Time for us to make a stand for what's right
No more suckin' up to bullies day and night

Fifty years ago-- Montgomery Alabama
Dr. King-- many others-- ain't 'fraid o' no slamma
Time to put our money where our mouth is y'all
Time to hit the streets big-- that'd be a ball

You say your life is borin'-- life has no purpose
Check the word of Jesus-- scratch the surface
Two thousand years ago the man made it clear
From the rich to the poor without fear

He turned the tables of the moneychangers over
Sick and the poor-- rollin' in clover
Crucified on a cross-- without reason
Don't forget Christmas-- reason for the season

And I been to the mountaintop (been to the mountaintop)
And I been to the mountaintop (been to the mountaintop)

Now one nation under God Pledge of Allegiance says
But our leaders treat God like a box of Pez
Disrespectin' the sick and the poor every way
Come on-- gotta turn that right around today

But it ain't just Jesus-- check any religion
All the world's profits ain't no stool pigeon
Each and every one care about the poor
Got to get together folks-- can't take it no more

So you sittin' over there on that wall
Thinkin' your life don't mean that much at all
Get up off ya butt and ready to go
For some civil disobedience a la Thoreau

They're raisin' our rent to kick us out of public housin'
Beatin' us in the jail-- but they got us aroused an'

And I been to the mountaintop (been to the mountaintop)
And I been to the mountaintop (been to the mountaintop)

stop GOP plan for new $75 million, 300-bed county jail expansion-- save $$$ with safe, proven ATI's instead!...

Hi all...


Come out if you can today (Mon.) at 12:30 pm to join us for a rally in front of our County Jail at 150 Hamilton Street in Poughkeepsie-- to stop GOP plans for a $75 million, 300-bed jail expansion-- and promote instead ATI (alternative to incarceration) programs proven to work cutting recidivism and avoiding juvenile delinquency!...


[recall "Officials Welcome Jail Expansion Study" article from front page of Pok. Journal Thursday; recall as well article in Poughkeepsie Journal earlier this fall on GOP drive for $75 million expansion of jail; sadly, given vote re: jail expansion study last Tues., not just GOP but Dems need convincing re: ATI's!]


Fact: Any jail expansion (esp. $75 million, 300-bed expansion proposed by Co. Leg. GOP and Steinhaus) is ridiculously unnecessary without Dutchess embracing safe ATI's proven to work elsewhere while reducing recidivism and jail overcrowding-- like Brooklyn's ComAlert system, Lancaster County (PA)'s Job Court, housing-first (working well in Westchester, Chattanooga, Frisco; see
http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ; http://www.petitiononline.com/jobcourt ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ATIs ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/House1st .


[...and-- check out Harvard and Center for Court Innovation studies re: http://www.BrooklynDA.org -- re: groundbreaking, cost-saving ComAlert re-entry system for Brooklyn; NYTimes has editorialized for too; see http://www.ETCNY.org for more on the highly effective Exodus Transitional Community as well...]


Fact: Newark Mayor Cory Booker initiated a new Delpha Alpha Delpha Sigma "fraternity for incarcerated dads he started that lowered recidivism from 65% to 3%." [why not here in Dutchess?!?]


[from "The Mayor Next Door" by Joel Stein for Time magazine 11/29/10:
http://www.Time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2032144,00.html ]

[recall, too-- even GOP/Conservative Sheriff Adrian "Butch" Anderson and District Attorny Bill Grady have long been members of the national and statewide "Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Coalition"-- pushing for sensible ways to avoid so many of our youth from being mixed up in the criminal justice system-- for quality afterschool programs for all, community-based treatment for low-risk offenders, quality pre-K for all, etc.-- see FightCrime.org!]

Why do we need to raise heck about all this now?...because-- GOP bent on eliminating current ATI's!...


GOP want new, $75 million, 300-bed jail addition; not these 8 cost-saving alternatives to incarceration...


GOP Co. Leg. majority voted no to Dem amendments last Tues. to stop County Exec cuts to these eight:

1. BOCES adult education program in the County Jail (program endorsed even by jail's leadership!)
[tho only $87,000/year this program cuts recidivism rate in half for Transition Unit-- from 56% to 28%]

2. Project Return (juvenile delinquency prevention) for 45 kids at our county's Youth Bureau
[effectively costing only $24/day to keep youth with families-- instead of $657/day to be incarcerated!]

3. Mediation Center of Dutchess County (juvenile delinquency prevention for troubled teens)
[youth in 245 different families served last year in community-- not $240,000/year each for incarceration]

4. Youth Mentoring/Job Training/Placement at Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce
[incredibly successful and effective program turning lives around of troubled teens-- proven to work]

5. Dutchess County Arts Council (Du. Co. gets $3.52 in state funding for each dollar invested in arts)
[Co. Leg. GOP are keeping County Exec's 75% cut in place-- no more 3500 kids in Arts in Education]

6. Mill Street Loft (long-time wonderful program for teens in City of Poughkeepse; very effective ATI)

7. Court-Appointed Special Advocates for foster children at Mental Health America of Dutchess County
-- CASA saves tax dollars-- families keeping foster kids get $500 a month; saves to keep with families
-- $276,000 of volunteer time is leveraged for only $26,000 investment in CASA; was $43,000 in '08
-- CASA = one-on-one volunteers that make sure children don't stay in foster care more than needed
-- assigned by Family Court judges to supervise 75 kids annually-- 1/4 of kids in foster care in county
-- both GOP and Dem Family Court judges have strongly endorsed this program for years now
-- according to U.S. Dept. of Justice Office of Inspector General, only 5% of foster kids with CASA volunteers get mixed up with the criminal justice system, while 16% of those without CASA volunteers do end up this way-- and also according to the Insp. Gen. in the same audit of the national CASA program, only 13% of foster kids with CASA volunteers stay more than three years in foster care-- while 27% of foster kids without CASA volunteers stay more than three years in foster care


8. Literacy Connections (impossible for folks leaving jail to get jobs without GED; this cuts recidivism)


Again-- email all 25 of us now-- at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us-- to stop this tea-party idiocy!...


[see carnage here: last Tues.' Co. Leg. BFP mtg.: http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess ]


[GOP added back $500K+ for Comptroller & County Clerk for cost-saving programs-- why not 8 above?]


Pass it on...

Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net


p.s. You're all invited to my special forum on all this: Mon. Dec. 6th 5:30 pm at Rhinebeck Town Hall...


p.p.s. Crucial-- don't forget to come out and speak up at the big, official, annual county budget hearing Thursday, Dec. 2nd at 7 pm at the Bardavon at 35 Market St. in Poughkeepsie!...

p.p.p.s. Join us 5:30 pm Tues. Dec. 7th for another candlelight vigil-- in front of 22 Market St. in Pok...

p.p.p.p.s. And-- again-- join 23 other Dutchess residents @ http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget -- Hyde Park's Doris Kelly, Rhinebeck's Ruth Boyer, Fred Nagel, Sandra Oldenburg, and Edmond Roberts, Clinton's Carmen Region, Milan's Sheila Buff, Fishkill's Josh and Mara Farrell, Wappinger's Rich Carlson and Richard Vineski, Beacon's Susan Osberg, Erika Waldron, and Dan Rigney, Poughkeepsie's Scott Patrick Humphrey, East Fishkill's Joette Kane, Red Hook's Cary Kittner and Doris Soroko, Dover's Nora Edwards, Bangall's Alison Francis, and Millerton's Dianne Engleke!...

p.p.p.p.p.s. Don't forget good revenue alternatives to counterproductive budget cuts pushed by GOP:

Municipal Electricity/Gas Alliance membership (as in 23 co.'s).........$300,000 in new revenue annually

Canadian Rx option for county employees/retirees (as in 5 co.'s)....$1 million in new revenue annually

[ http://www.MEGAEnergy.org http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SaveOnRx even GOP in other counties support these, folks!...(including Rensselaer County Exec for Cana Rx; Putnam Co. GOP for MEGA]


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[recall this from CNN Nov. 4th-- why couldn't we have a program like this here in Dutchess, folks!?!]


Cory Booker: Bringing Newark back


Interview by Geoff Colvin, senior editor at large
November 4, 2010: 12:19 PM ET

You've done something quite innovative, which is to establish the Office of Reentry.


The Office of Reentry has about a 10% recidivism rate, compared with the 65% state and national average. Our fatherhood program has about a 3% recidivism rate. We've created all these pockets of excellence that are really working, and we're trying to show that this should be a policy shift in America, to doing more to empower people when they come home. It'll drive down overall costs of government and create more economic energy in cities and states and nations, because suddenly you're unleashing the economic potential of large populations of Americans...We decided we're going to experiment and be entrepreneurial, something government often is not. We started the Office of Reentry in partnership with a right-leaning organization, the Manhattan Institute. These left-right coalitions are very important to me. We also created the first-in-the-nation pro bono legal service project for ex-offenders, fueled by private law firms. Now when I get out of prison, if I have warrants out for my arrest, trouble getting a driver's license, I can get a group of lawyers to work with me. We created the first fatherhood center in New Jersey for guys coming out of prison who are dads. We organized sort of a fraternity and called it Delta Alpha Delta Sigma (DADS) to support our men in reducing their recidivism, but really connecting to their families because the children most likely to go to prison in America are children of incarcerated adults.


You've said your No. 1 priority is crime, and you've made a lot of progress. Violent crime has come down considerably. Total homicides are up a little this year vs. last year, which was down from previous years. After four years, what has worked and what has not?


If you walked into our police department, whether you're a criminologist or not, you could have immediately seen problems. It looked like scenes from a sitcom like Barney Miller -- guys were working on typewriters, buildings were old and decaying, places with the stench of urine. We weren't affording these great police officers the pride of place. We had nonsensical things...detectives in the gang task force were working Monday through Friday, nine to five. Well, gangs don't work Monday through Friday, nine to five, at least not in our city. It's all about leadership. We found a great police director [Garry McCarthy] who had experience in the New York City system and who implemented a lot of strategies that were very effective. We really leveraged private support in a dramatic way -- for example, in posting cameras and the most lucrative tip lines in the country. Then we looked beyond the police department, because there's a massive problem in America with taking human potential, warehousing it in prisons, and then, when people come out of prison, that's one of our biggest sources of criminals.

They get out, come back to Newark, and go back to committing crimes.


I've come to realize that most of us human beings are far more rational economic actors than we care to think about. Imagine if you come out of prison. You have thousands of dollars of child-support arrears and an angry mother of your child who urgently needs help. You have thousands of dollars of parking tickets and your driver's license is suspended, so you can't drive legally. You have immediate needs of food. You have challenges with housing. Now get a job. You might not have attained high levels of education, and you now have a criminal conviction. In this economy employers have choices. So you're probably going to make a rational economic decision that you need to get back into the narcotics trade quickly so you can feed yourself and your family and so forth.


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[recall this post below from yours truly Aug. 21st to http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com ]


Took tour of county jail; Dutchess needs to start thinking outside box...

Recently I was lucky enough to once again take a tour through our county Jail with the rest of our County Legislature's Democratic Caucus (I had taken a similar tour once before several years ago)...


Thanks much to Jail Administrator George Krom and his assistant Todd Gdula for guiding us through; here's some of what they shared with us from the 292-bed facility (with 10-bed staging area and 8 medical beds):

"We asked for $3.2 million in housing-out costs for Dutchess County jail inmates for 2010-- we spent $350,000 just last month on housing out inmates to jails in other counties."

[recall, too Daily Freeman Aug. 7-- DC Jail looking for $3.5 million for "upgrades":
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/08/07/news/doc4c5ce767b4a2f705919629.txt !]

"We have about 450 inmates-- with about 180 of those housed out-- at cost, on average, of about $80 a day, for each inmate housed out to another county's jail. Half are one-timers; the other half have multiple incarcerations; instead of just 5 or 6 new inmates being admitted daily now we get about 14 new inmates a day."

"'Use of force" reports have quadrupled recently; attacks on officers have become more frequent."

Even speaking to us from the much more humane Transitional Unit 23, they let us know that:

"Services aren't coming in here the way they're supposed to; toothaches turn into teeth being extracted because dentists don't have enough time paid for/allotted to see inmates because of the overcrowding-- and seemingly mentally ill inmates go without medications because psychiatrists don't have enough time paid for to see them as well."

One of the most telling comments I noted from Krom/Gdula was this-- in response to another county legislator's suggesting that perhaps the ongoing recession linked to jail overcrowding:

"It's for reasons you don't expect-- neighbors spatting, someone's out of work-- indirect result of economy-- it's even affecting the Town of Poughkeepsie."


And we also heard yesterday that-- in contrast to vast majority of inmates who used to be admitted of a nonviolent nature-- that "it used to be that they were just cold-- they'd come in for the winter"-- meaning that (as I've been saying for years, based on my sources in Poughkeepsie, including the homeless themselves)-- that homeless purposely have been arrested in past for "three hots and a cot"...more reason why Du. Co. should have housing-first-- http://www.PetitionOnline.com/House1st !...

[recall a few years ago-- when I got http://www.PathwaystoHousing.org to come to FPC for forum on this]


And then I recently heard on WAMC Victoria Bruce being interviewed on her new book-- "Hostage Nation: Colombia's Guerrilla Arm and the Failed War on Drugs"...
[see: http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/subjects.pperl?cat=77 ]

[also see "Who Is Behind the 25,000 Deaths in Mexico?" by Charles Bowden and Molly Malloy 7/23/10:
http://www.thenation.com/article/37916/who-behind-25000-deaths-mexico

Something has to give folks-- we simply can afford no longer to not think outside the box on all this...

I am very much reminded of cover article for The Nation July 5th (shared with me by Larry Freedman):

"Is This the End of the War on Crime?" by Sasha Abramsky
http://www.thenation.com/article/end-war-crime?page=full [see just below-- this one's a must-read!]

My point?...

This-- that tackling this issue is nothing new for me...

[since '95 in particular I've been advocating for ATI's; see http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ATIs ; several years ago I brought Father Peter Young to FPC re: re-entry issue; see http://www.PYHIT.com ]

[...and earlier this year I convinced my caucus to support a resolution in our Co. Leg. to push Albany to fully fund preventive services for kids to address causes of crime-- http://www.FightCrime.org -- but, in spite of massive statewide coalition for this of sheriffs, police chiefs, DA's-- GOP killed it here, natch...]

[and of course there was no media coverage on GOP killing it-- http://www.PoJoWatch.blogspot.com ]

But we really and truly do need here in Dutchess County a ramped-up, public look at all this asap!...

Just looking at the issue of truly effective re-entry programs alone, they've been proven to save $$$:
http://www.vera.org/project/cost-benefit-analysis-ceo ;
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/529/overview.html ;
http://www.vera.org/news/vera-announces-creation-cost-benefit-knowledge-bank-new-national-resource-cost-effective-crimin .

Thanks to these local folks already working on this-- we need to make sure they have the resources!...

Dutchess Collaborative Re-Entry Project (Bonnie Allen and Family Services)
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/14529

Coalition for Rehabilitation and Re-Entry (Amy and George Oliveras et. al.)
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/co_rr/signatures?page=1

Osbourne Association (kudos to Fred and Alice Bunnell for helping bring Osbourne to Poughkeepsie)
http://www.OsbourneNY.org

And why are we reading about this in North Carolina-- instead of here in NYS?...(re: FCIK Coalition)...

"N.C. Lawmakers Address Root Causes of Crime" by Kamika Dunlap [4/29/10]
http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2010/04/lawmakers-addresses-root-causes-of-crime-to-cut-costs.html

Of course there's also 800-pound gorilla in the room we can no longer afford to ignore: "war on drugs"...

On that note-- recall this from CBS News May 13th-- "War on Drugs Unsuccessful, Drug Czar Says"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/13/politics/main6480889.shtml ...

Check out http://www.LEAP.cc/ -- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition(!)...

...and folks at Common Sense Drug Policy too-- http://www.CSDP.org ; http://www.DrugWarFacts.org ...

Communities across the U.S. organizing against wasteful, ridiculous War on Drugs:
http://www.csdp.org/news/news/communities.htm ...

But check out this from http://www.LEAP.cc ...

LEAP Statement of Principles
1. LEAP does not promote the use of drugs and is deeply concerned about the extent of drug abuse worldwide. LEAP is also deeply concerned with the destructive impact of violent drug gangs and cartels everywhere in the world. Neither problem is remedied by the current policy of drug prohibition. Indeed, drug abuse and gang violence flourish in a drug prohibition environment, just as they did during alcohol prohibition.

In any case-- much food for thought-- including article just below from Sasha Abramsky on cost-saving successes in Hawaii, North Carolina, Oregon, etc....time for NYS!...(and-- Dutchess County)...

Several years ago Dutchess Justice was on top of all this; energetic group of young folks of all races...

...but Dutchess Justice hasn't met locally for several years now...


Let us know if you'd like to help re-build a newly revitalized Dutchess Justice group to take a whole new look from top to bottom of our county's criminal justice system-- for our taxpayers-- for kids-- for us all!...

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From http://www.thenation.com/article/end-war-crime?page=full ...

Is This the End of the War on Crime?

June 16, 2010 | This article appeared in the July 5, 2010 edition of The Nation.

by Sasha Abramsky

For decades, progressive policy analysts and criminal justice reformers such as Jones have argued that state and federal antidrug and, more generally, "tough on crime" incarceration strategies were counterproductive: that they were dramatically reshaping American society, at a staggering fiscal and moral cost, and they weren't succeeding. Drug use remained commonplace, and high recidivism numbers for paroled prisoners suggested that prisons weren't remolding criminals into model citizens. Far better, they argued, to keep prisons as a last resort for the truly hardened, violent criminals and to invest more resources in less expensive, and more effective, alternatives to incarceration.

True, crime rates have fallen dramatically since the early 1990s, in part because of those higher incarceration rates. But most experts believe they fell in larger part because of demographic shifts, changes in policing practices and an easing of the crack epidemic. The drop-off in crime has, in turn, finally allowed a public slightly less scared of crime to be slightly more willing to look for nuance rather than sound bites when it comes to policy. It has created what Bart Lubow, a juvenile justice advocate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, terms an "ideological space" for discussions of reform. "The overall context regarding crime policy," he says, "is much less hysterical than it was through most of the 1990s."

Faced with a growing body of evidence that carefully tailored rehabilitation models can reduce recidivism or drug use better than jails and prisons, and with a burgeoning crisis in local and state government finances, politicians and voters alike are turning their backs on basic tough-on-crime staples. Instead, they are looking for inspiration to programs such as the HOPE Project in Hawaii, the High Point project in North Carolina and an experiment in Multnomah County (home to Portland, Oregon) to divert low-end probation and parole violators to nonincarcerative settings. All these model programs view jail and prison sentences as a last option rather than a default, and swift responses to violations are considered more important than harsh ones. For reformers, it is a rare breath of fresh air.

"I think the criminal justice system is more under the microscope because of the fiscal situation," explains Mike Thompson, director of the New York-based Council of State Government's Justice Center. "Every state's facing fiscal problems, with the exception of North Dakota, and when you look at items where expenditures have risen in the last twenty years, corrections jumps out at you."

Around the country, legislators are essentially asking how they can get more bang for the bucks they spend fighting crime, drug use, mental illness and so on. And they're willing to consult reformers they would have shunned in the recent past as irredeemably "soft" on crime. "Nobody can sit here and say things are fine," argues Jones. "Something has to give. Now we can sit at the table with people we couldn't previously work with and say, 'What are you willing to give?' We are literally writing this narrative as we go."

In Texas a $600 million prison-expansion plan was shelved in 2007 in favor of a $241 million plan expanding community-based drug and alcohol treatment services, after researchers convinced legislators that the latter would lower crime rates more than expanding the state's penal infrastructure. As a result, the notoriously prison-tough Lone Star State, whose leaders used to boast about its extraordinarily high incarceration rate, is implementing some of the country's most innovative reforms, creating a network of in-prison and post-prison residential drug treatment and DWI centers, mental health facilities, halfway houses for inmates being released onto parole, and nonjail residential settings for low-end parole violators. In 2009 the state's prison population declined, perhaps signaling the start of a reversal of nearly four decades of expansion, which saw the Lone Star State's prison numbers grow from just shy of 16,000 in 1972 to more than 170,000 in 2008. Texas joined twenty-five other states that saw reductions in the size of their inmate population last year.

In Kansas legislators approved a large investment in drug treatment programs and services for parolees designed to stop so many offenders from simply cycling back into prison after their release. The result was a drop in Kansas's prison population significant enough to allow the state to close several facilities.

Michigan recently reformed its prisoner-release process to allow for shorter sentences, winning accolades from the ACLU in the process. The state closed eight prisons as a result and invested some of the $250 million savings expected to be generated over a five-year period in an expanded network of mental health and job training services, as well as drug treatment programs.

All told, ten states have embraced "justice reinvestment" strategies such as this, reducing prison spending, investing a portion of the savings in more effective anticrime infrastructure and using the remainder of the savings to plug gaps elsewhere in their budgets. As this model spreads, says Thompson optimistically, we'll get more results-oriented policy-making than we've had in the past. "These are bipartisan, data-driven approaches: figure out what's driving the [prison population] growth and what can be done differently."

Even states that haven't formally adopted such a reinvestment strategy are, of necessity, being pushed in this direction. In California, home to the country's largest state prison population as well as the country's most dysfunctional state budget process, the combination of federal injunctions against overcrowding and the worst fiscal crunch since the Great Depression has brought the race to incarcerate of the past quarter-century to an end. Over the next several years, to the dismay of politicians who have built careers on being tough on crime, the prison population, which stands at around 170,000, will be reduced by several tens of thousands, with more emphasis on parole, probation and local drug treatment.

New Mexico recently enacted a law banning employers from asking job applicants if they have a felony record. An increasing number of states, including conservative bastions like Alabama and Louisiana, are restructuring their juvenile justice systems to move away from incarceration. Drug and mental health courts are channeling more offenders into structured treatment. And many states are rolling back their most restrictive truth-in-sentencing provisions, allowing low-level offenders to return to their communities after serving only a small percentage of their sentences behind bars.

Some states and localities are also starting to invest in restorative justice models, putting offenders to work to repair the damage they caused the community rather than simply warehousing them in prisons.
Father George Horan, co-director of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles's Office of Restorative Justice, has spent a lifetime watching youngsters do stupid things and, as a result, ruin their lives. He has seen generations of kids graduate from being troubled children to hardened prisoners. And he has grown increasingly cynical about the ability of penal institutions to solve ingrained social problems. Far better, he has come to believe, to sit nonviolent offenders down with their families, teachers, peers, even victims, and force them to come to terms with the consequences of their actions.

Horan, 64, has a ruddy complexion and dresses casually. From his small office in the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lincoln Heights, a bleak industrial area of Los Angeles just north of downtown, he works to help delinquent teens, many of them gang members, establish more productive bonds with their communities. When three teens broke into their school a few years back and trashed it, the Office of Restorative Justice persuaded the trial judge to consider a restorative justice solution. The kids had to face their principal and fellow students; they had to pay for the damage; and they had to spend their weekends doing community service at the school-cleaning classrooms, doing basic maintenance work, sweeping autumn leaves. The principal, recalls Horan, took the kids out to lunch, got to know them and encouraged them to attend to their studies. "She said the next year they were the three best kids in the school. What a better result than sending the kids to juvenile hall. They turned their lives around."

Horan is aware of the limitations of this strategy-he tried the same approach when three boys set fire to his church door, but this time the prosecutor insisted on seeking prison terms. Politically, he says, it would be next to impossible for prosecutors to embrace restorative justice for violent criminals. But Horan believes restorative justice models have to play a part in any revamping of America's criminal justice system. "Always, the first step is, the person has to take responsibility for what they did. That's the cornerstone," he explains. "What can a person do to heal the victim and heal the community?"

Meanwhile, extending the first-do-no-harm principles of the restorative justice movement, a growing number of politicians have started to identify sky-high African-American incarceration rates as a civil rights issue that, in tandem with high crime rates in poor communities, serves up a double whammy to already devastated neighborhoods. As a result, they have begun pushing legislation that characterizes the disproportionate incarceration of African-Americans as a problem. Connecticut recently passed a "racial impact statement" law mandating all major legislative proposals for the criminal justice system be studied for their racial impact. Other states, looking for ways to preserve public safety without inflicting the kind of collateral damage on communities that mass incarceration unleashes, will likely follow suit.

No part of the criminal justice system has had more of a racially skewed impact than America's antidrug strategy. Over the decades, millions of young Americans, mainly poor and disproportionately black and brown, have been arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to jail or prison for their involvement with the drug trade. It has been a staggering exercise in futility.

Yet these days, the "war on drugs," which Barack Obama denounced as an utter failure during his presidential campaign, is showing the fragility of old age. At the urging of the Obama administration and top Justice Department officials, Congress is working to eliminate the infamous crack and powder-cocaine sentencing disparities. And over the next few years, the Justice Department's Task Force on Sentencing Reform will likely recommend more proportionate sentencing for many drug offenses.

The era of "Lock 'em up and throw away the key" seems, slowly, to be drawing to a close. And over the next few decades, that will likely have the effect of gradually drawing down the size of the bloated prison population. Even seasoned conservative voices are cognizant of the winds of change.
"My attitude has always been, speed and certainty are crucial aspects of running a criminal justice system, not length of sentence," argues James Q. Wilson, at one time the country's most influential conservative criminologist. "Many sentences could be shortened without endangering public safety."

Wilson, who rose to intellectual fame as President Nixon's favorite sociologist and later became known as the philosophical father of the Broken Windows policing theory, doesn't regret his role in developing ideas that helped contribute to America's mass incarceration experiment. But he also doesn't think that mass incarceration is, or should be, an end in itself. If there are alternatives that have at least as powerful an effect on reducing the crime rate, Wilson, an empiricist, believes they should be tried.

Parole and probation systems should be reformed, he argues, so that violators are dealt with quickly and minor violators, such as those who fail a urine drug test, receive "a swift but very short penalty-a weekend in jail, a week in jail. It need not be returning people to serve a full prison term."

Changes in drug policy don't stop with shortening sentences, however. The administration recently lifted the ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programs-long a bugbear of drug-treatment and public health professionals. And for the first time since the 1970s, marijuana legalization movements are gaining traction at the state level. Californians will vote in November on a ballot measure to legalize pot, and preliminary polling indicates it could well pass. The initiative is buttressed by a number of politicians, like Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and State Senator Mark Leno, who have argued that legalizing marijuana would allow California to tax the lucrative market. Other states could follow in California's wake.

"People are now making a lawful income from cannabis here in California and other states," argues 57-year-old Chris Conrad, of the marijuana-advocacy newspaper West Coast Leaf, at a hummus-and-wine soiree to celebrate the opening of the Drug Policy Alliance's swank new downtown San Francisco offices. Conrad is talking about how the medical marijuana industry is increasingly using its clout to push for broader, across-the-board rollbacks of pot prohibition. "They can put that money back to invest in change. The idea is, it should be brought under control and tax revenue brought in. The whole financial argument is only going to get better. I think the drug war is fatally flawed, and it's doomed. It's just a matter of time; it could be five years, it could be twenty years. But prohibition doesn't work. It creates crime; it doesn't solve crime."

A few years ago Conrad would have been a countercultural refugee on the hippie fringe; these days, he and his ideas are increasingly mainstream. In fact, the attendees at the party oozed their radical-chic credentials; they were lawyers, doctors, politicians, consultants, businessmen. "The trend is for people to regulate rather than prohibit," asserted Doug Linney, the well-coiffed, sharp-dressed campaign consultant for the legalization initiative. "They see the current drug wars aren't working, especially regarding marijuana. There's an interest in changing it, especially because of the state's finances."

Cumulatively, all of these changes are bearing significant fruit. For the first time since the Nixon era, America's prison population is shrinking. In 2008, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the prison population fell in twenty states; in 2009 it fell in twenty-six states; and that trend is likely to continue in 2010. Moreover, as the number of drug-related sentences has declined slightly, so too has the appallingly high African-American incarceration rate edged slightly downward, off 9 percent from its peak a few years back. The gears of what journalist Joel Dyer, in the 1990s, tellingly labeled a "perpetual prisoner machine"-a self-sustaining interaction of conservative criminal justice lobbies, political opportunism, popular tough-on-crime sentiments, the economic needs of depressed prison towns and media sensationalism-seem finally to have gotten gummed up. Ironically, the federal government, which did so much to shift the country in a more conservative criminal justice direction for nearly fifty years, seems quite content to let the gears stay locked.

Most decisions about the criminal justice system are made at the state level. Despite the near-tenfold growth in the population of federal prison inmates since 1980, less than 10 percent of all inmates are serving federal sentences. But the federal government does perform some vital roles: it allocates resources directly (by, for example, patrolling the border and exporting the "war on drugs") and indirectly (by granting money to localities and states to set up antidrug task forces, funding drug and mental health treatment services, and putting more police on the streets). It creates overarching legal parameters within which states must operate (federal drug laws supersede state ones, which means that if California legalizes marijuana, for example, theoretically it would be setting up a conflict with DC). Perhaps most important, the federal government sets the tone for national conversations on crime and delinquency.

When it comes to tone-setting, sometimes what isn't said by federal officials is as important as what is. Over the past couple of years, President Obama's drug czar, ex-Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske, has chosen not to follow his predecessors with regard to medical marijuana. Whereas John Walters, Bush's drug czar, testified across the country against state medical marijuana laws, Kerlikowske has stayed silent. The effect, says Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann, has been to send a "green light to the states that they could have the freedom to go their own way on this."

Kerlikowske, Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama himself steer clear of talking about the "war on drugs," and they generally don't use sound bites to trumpet their "tough" credentials when it comes to tackling the complex problem of crime.

But what is being said is also fascinating. "Too many of our citizens have come to have doubts about our criminal justice system," Holder told a Congressional Black Caucus symposium on June 24, 2009. "We must be honest with each other and have the courage to ask difficult questions of ourselves and our system. We must break out of the old and tired partisan stances that have stood in the way of needed progress and reform. We have a moment in time that must be seized in order to ensure that all of our citizens are treated in a way that is consistent with the ideals embodied in our founding documents. This Department of Justice is prepared to act."

Indeed, in a series of key speeches over the past year, Holder has delivered a commitment, unprecedented in recent decades, to use the might of the Justice Department to ensure a fairer, less coercive criminal justice system. Addressing the NAACP in July 2009, the attorney general talked of the devastating harm that harsh drug sentences have caused in poor communities. "It is not justice," he declared, "to continue our adherence to a sentencing scheme that disproportionately affects some Americans, and some communities, more severely than others."

The previous week, he told an audience at the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York-based think tank, that "getting smart on crime requires talking honestly about which policies have worked and which have not, without fear of being labeled as too hard or, more likely, too soft on crime. Getting smart on crime means moving beyond useless labels and instead embracing science and data, and relying on them to shape policy. And it means thinking about crime in context-not just reacting to the criminal act but developing the government's ability to enhance public safety before the crime is committed and after the former offender is returned to society." Taking their cue from Holder, a slew of top officials have begun revamping the language they use to discuss crime and punishment.

As Kerlikowske explained to The Nation in March, shortly after he returned from a UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna, the country should not continue to think of drugs merely as a public safety problem but should start to see them as a public health problem. "My colleagues, I never heard them talk of a war on drugs," he said. "I've heard elected officials talk about it, but not police chiefs, sheriffs or prosecutors. They talk about it with the complexity the problem deserves."

In reshaping the national discourse on drugs, Kerlikowske touts his law enforcement credentials. He's a tough guy, a strong policeman with thirty-seven years on the job, and he knows he commands respect. "For me, it's a little bit like Nixon going to China," he explains. Kerlikowske has "very little concern about being labeled soft on drugs." And so he wants to talk about being "smart on drugs," instead of merely "tough." In fact, when he explains his mandate, the country's drug czar is more comfortable using the language of public health professionals than political posturers. "The 'war on drugs' was a simplistic answer to this really complex problem," he says. "We have to look at talking about addiction as a disease rather than a moral failure or saying people should just stop using drugs."

For the first time in more than forty years, criminal justice trends are starting to move in a sensible direction. At the local and state levels, fiscal necessity is forcing a rethink when it comes to incarceration strategies. And at the federal level, the politics that allowed George H.W. Bush to batter Michael Dukakis with images of Willie Horton, Bill Clinton to sign an execution warrant on the brain-damaged Ricky Ray Rector and George W. Bush to push glibly for more teens to be tried and sentenced as adults is taking a back seat to smart, holistic thinking.

"Everyone I talk to around the country has been affected by drugs," Kerlikowske says. "But it's not talked about the same way as if you had a member of your family having cancer-or even alcoholism. When I look at the drug problem, what it costs in healthcare costs, police-community relations, the Southwest border, foreign relations-every one of those things, drugs are a part. If we could recognize how inextricably linked to all of these issues drug consumption and addiction is, if we could work to address it with the complexity it deserves, that would make more sense than holding a press conference and showing a ton of cocaine or five people led out in handcuffs."

Of all the changes in tone brought about by Obama's election, in the long run few will be more significant to the country's well-being than those around criminal justice and drugs. Without a whole lot of fanfare, the administration is laying the foundations for a new criminal justice system model that might, conceivably, end America's morally disastrous, fiscally ruinous, four-decade-long experimentation with mass incarceration.

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[recall this one from the NYTimes Jan. 29, 2006]

For Ex-Inmates, Getting a Job Is the First Step to Stability
By HUBERT B. HERRING
Published: January 29, 2006

Looking down Lexington Avenue from the corner of 104th Street, past the drab low-rises of East Harlem, you can just glimpse Midtown's gleaming towers. A block to the west, Metro-North trains clatter past, taking suburban workers to their jobs.

To someone plunked back into this neighborhood after a stint in prison, those jobs seem light-years away. But in a narrow four-story building a few doors down 104th, the Exodus Transitional Community is determined to make this bit of space travel possible.
About 500 ex-inmates a year (mostly men) walk through Exodus's doors, said its founder and director, Julio Medina, himself a former inmate. The goal is to yank them free of the vicious revolving door that propels so many right back behind bars.

A vital need is to land a job quickly, to muffle the siren song of old habits. "That time is so critical - when you first get out," Mr. Medina said.

Alberto Lopez, Exodus's "job developer," says that more than 50 employers are open to hiring from Exodus. If someone can stick to a minimum-wage job for three to six months, he pledges, "I'll find you a better-paying job."

The initial search must be done carefully. "We work with them on filling out the application, on how to dress appropriately," Mr. Lopez said. He might tell a woman to lose the big earrings or to cut overlong nails that impede typing. And "some guys have never put on a suit; they don't even know the shirt has to be tucked in."


Attitude is crucial, so new arrivals attend a series of meetings. "What do you see in the mirror?" Mr. Lopez challenged one man. "For an employer to see potential in me, I have to think well of myself."

He reminds the men of the deck stacked against them. "Society is not going to adjust to us," he said. "We have to adjust to society." One of his adjustments is that he does not linger in certain neighborhoods, for fear of false arrest. "If there's a robbery," he said, "and someone says it's a bald Spanish guy, the cops go to their computer and find out my record." Then, he warns, "You're guilty until proven innocent."

Exodus is just one of many groups, like the Fortune Society and the Osborne Association in New York, working with former inmates. But with 750,000 inmates released annually, the need is huge.

Mr. Medina, 45, saw that need years ago. He spent 12 years in prison on a drug charge, and while in Sing Sing earned a master's from the New York Theological Seminary. "When I got out," he said, "I thought, Hey, I'm a smart guy - I'll have no problem getting a job. Then I realized," he added with a slight laugh, "I did have a problem."

After landing a job as a substance abuse counselor, "I started thinking about all those people leaving prison without an education," he said, "and it became clear why so many people return."

In 1999, he founded Exodus, and in 2003 got a grant through the federal program for religion-based initiatives. "Yes, it's faith that drives us to do this work," he said, but he welcomes all who have been behind bars.

The federal money, $1 million over three years, was part of a demonstration project that ends in August, though Fred Davie, president-elect of Public/Private Ventures, a group that monitors Exodus and other sites, said he hoped some funds would still be available. The federal money is now half of Exodus's budget, with the rest coming mainly from churches in the city and in Westchester County.

Mr. Davie, who praised Exodus's work and said Mr. Medina was "passionate about his mission," said 65 percent of adults at Exodus had landed jobs, and 69 percent of those stayed employed at least three months.

It is a point of pride to Mr. Medina that most of the 11 staff members are former inmates, which means "there's a language we know well."


In prison, he said, the real conversations go on in the yard, so "a counselor here might say, 'Let's go walk the yard' - and they'll go out in the street and talk." One former inmate clearly responded to the staff's experience, especially that of Rudy Holden, 31, a counselor who had served time for assault. "I was at the parole office," said Juan Montgomery, 38, who'd served two and a half years for auto stripping. "I met Rudy and he was asking if people needed help. I said to someone, 'Hey, you know that guy?' He said, 'Yeah, Rudy's good, go talk to Rudy.' So I asked him, 'Have you ever been locked up?' And he said, 'Yeah, 11 years.' Wow, I thought, all these dudes have been through what I've been through, and now they've got suits on, they can take care of their families."

Re-establishing family ties, though, can be a land mine - that's an often-repeated theme. As Mr. Lopez put it to one group, "Women today don't need us." They are more used to being on their own, he said, advising the former inmates not to go back home until they are ready for the responsibility. "It's not as simple as 'I'm the daddy, here's some money,' " he said. "It's a full-time job."


The 10 men, mainly in their 20's and 30's, who had typically served time on drug and robbery charges, listened intently.

"I came to Exodus because I want to change," said Wayne Ruiz, 38. "Four years off drugs opened my eyes. I couldn't have done it on my own - I was rescued." For some, the center is a refuge. William Rivera, 43, said he wanted "a safe place to come to ventilate, to talk to people," but he also wanted "to get myself back in school."


Mr. Medina, while conceding that lapses were inevitable, said that few who found their way to Exodus bounced back to prison.

Francis Moroney, who at 25 had served seven years for robbery, said, "I'd been out a month and a half and was about to give up when one of my friends wrote me from upstate about this place." Once here, "they kept pushing me to get a job," and he has now worked as a file clerk at a real estate law firm for two months.

"We won't allow him to fail," Mr. Lopez said.


For Timothy Hartnett, who had dropped in because the staff "is my family," the tale is mixed. He got a telemarketing job through Exodus in 2000. "I didn't like it," he said, "but I was too proud to come here and tell them. It lasted a couple of months, and I went astray," landing back behind bars for three years on a drug charge. But he returned to Exodus, got a construction job that lasted several months, and was about to start a new job as a mason.


Mr. Medina, voicing confidence that continued backing would be found, said, "Society at large must begin to realize there are no throwaway people."


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[why aren't we reading about this in NYS?......(instead of in NC)]

http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2010/04/lawmakers-addresses-root-causes-of-crime-to-cut-costs.html

N.C. Lawmakers Address Root Causes of Crime
By Kamika Dunlap on April 29, 2010 12:50 PM | No TrackBacks

By participating in the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, North Carolina lawmakers are trying to address the root causes of crime in order to cut costs and keep the public safe.

Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties agree that the state must get smart on crime and begin to implement more data-driven solutions through the new Justice Reinvestment program, according to the News & Observer.

The state will work with the U.S. Justice Department, the national Council of State Governments Justice Center and the nonprofit Pew Center on the States to look at the root causes of crime, ways to lower recidivism rates and manage the offender population.
Similar programs have been rolled out in states such as Texas and Michigan. North Carolina is hoping to benefit from the research expertise gained in those states.

According to the latest data, North Carolina's state prison population grew by one quarter between 2000 and 2008, while spending on corrections nearly doubled.

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said that the state cannot afford spend money on prisons and corrections at that rate over the next decade. Instead, the state should spend the money on education and jobs.

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative uses mapping technology, which helps to provide geographic analyses to pinpoint which neighborhoods receive people released from prison and how state spending on programs often converges on the same families and communities.

The project could take one to three years to roll out in North Carolina. Justice Reinvestment program staff and other experts will review prison, probation and court data from North Carolina and then provide options to elected leaders on how to better treat and track offenders and build fewer prisons.

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From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/13/politics/main6480889.shtml ...

MEXICO CITY, May 13, 2010
War on Drugs Unsuccessful, Drug Czar Says
Violent, Four-Decade-Long Campaign Against Drug Cartels, Drug Use Hasn't Stopped Country's Addiction

(AP) Four decades after President Nixon declared war on drugs, more Americans use them and drug-related violence has gotten worse. This is the first in an occasional series of reports by The Associated Press examining why the drug war failed and why the U.S. and Mexico continue to fight a losing battle.

After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.

Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.
"In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."

This week President Obama promised to "reduce drug use and the great damage it causes" with a new national policy that he said treats drug use more as a public health issue and focuses on prevention and treatment.

Nevertheless, his administration has increased spending on interdiction and law enforcement to record levels both in dollars and in percentage terms; this year, they account for $10 billion of his $15.5 billion drug-control budget.

Kerlikowske, who coordinates all federal anti-drug policies, says it will take time for the spending to match the rhetoric.

"Nothing happens overnight," he said. "We've never worked the drug problem holistically. We'll arrest the drug dealer, but we leave the addiction."

His predecessor, John P. Walters, takes issue with that.

Walters insists society would be far worse today if there had been no War on Drugs. Drug abuse peaked nationally in 1979 and, despite fluctuations, remains below those levels, he says. Judging the drug war is complicated: Records indicate marijuana and prescription drug abuse are climbing, while cocaine use is way down. Seizures are up, but so is availability.

"To say that all the things that have been done in the war on drugs haven't made any difference is ridiculous," Walters said. "It destroys everything we've done. It's saying all the people involved in law enforcment, treatment and prevention have been wasting their time. It's saying all these people's work is misguided."

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In 1970, hippies were smoking pot and dropping acid. Soldiers were coming home from Vietnam hooked on heroin. Embattled President Nixon seized on a new war he thought he could win.

"This nation faces a major crisis in terms of the increasing use of drugs, particularly among our young people," Mr. Nixon said as he signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. The following year, he said: "Public enemy No. 1 in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive."

His first drug-fighting budget was $100 million. Now it's $15.1 billion, 31 times Mr. Nixon's amount even when adjusted for inflation.

Using Freedom of Information Act requests, archival records, federal budgets and dozens of interviews with leaders and analysts, the AP tracked where that money went, and found that the United States repeatedly increased budgets for programs that did little to stop the flow of drugs. In 40 years, taxpayers spent more than:

* $20 billion to fight the drug gangs in their home countries. In Colombia, for example, the United States spent more than $6 billion, while coca cultivation increased and trafficking moved to Mexico - and the violence along with it.
* $33 billion in marketing "Just Say No"-style messages to America's youth and other prevention programs. High school students report the same rates of illegal drug use as they did in 1970, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drug overdoses have "risen steadily" since the early 1970s to more than 20,000 last year.

* $49 billion for law enforcement along America's borders to cut off the flow of illegal drugs. This year, 25 million Americans will snort, swallow, inject and smoke illicit drugs, about 10 million more than in 1970, with the bulk of those drugs imported from Mexico.

* $121 billion to arrest more than 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, about 10 million of them for possession of marijuana. Studies show that jail time tends to increase drug abuse.

* $450 billion to lock those people up in federal prisons alone. Last year, half of all federal prisoners in the U.S. were serving sentences for drug offenses.

At the same time, drug abuse is costing the nation in other ways. The Justice Department estimates the consequences of drug abuse - "an overburdened justice system, a strained health care system, lost productivity, and environmental destruction" - cost the United States $215 billion a year.

Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron says the only sure thing taxpayers get for more spending on police and soldiers is more homicides.

"Current policy is not having an effect of reducing drug use," Miron said, "but it's costing the public a fortune."

From the beginning, lawmakers debated fiercely whether law enforcement - no matter how well funded and well trained - could ever defeat the drug problem.

Then-Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who had his doubts, has since watched his worst fears come to pass.
"Look what happened. It's an ongoing tragedy that has cost us a trillion dollars. It has loaded our jails and it has destabilized countries like Mexico and Colombia," he said.
In 1970, proponents said beefed-up law enforcement could effectively seal the southern U.S. border and stop drugs from coming in. Since then, the U.S. used patrols, checkpoints, sniffer dogs, cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors, drone aircraft - and even put up more than 1,000 miles of steel beam, concrete walls and heavy mesh stretching from California to Texas.

None of that has stopped the drugs. The Office of National Drug Control Policy says about 330 tons of cocaine, 20 tons of heroin and 110 tons of methamphetamine are sold in the United States every year - almost all of it brought in across the borders. Even more marijuana is sold, but it's hard to know how much of that is grown domestically, including vast fields run by Mexican drug cartels in U.S. national parks.

The dealers who are caught have overwhelmed justice systems in the United States and elsewhere. U.S. prosecutors declined to file charges in 7,482 drug cases last year, most because they simply didn't have the time. That's about one out of every four drug cases.

The United States has in recent years rounded up thousands of suspected associates of Mexican drug gangs, then turned some of the cases over to local prosecutors who can't make the charges stick for lack of evidence. The suspects are then sometimes released, deported or acquitted. The U.S. Justice Department doesn't even keep track of what happens to all of them.

In Mexico, traffickers exploit a broken justice system. Investigators often fail to collect convincing evidence - and are sometimes assassinated when they do. Confessions are beaten out of suspects by frustrated, underpaid police. Judges who no longer turn a blind eye to such abuse release the suspects in exasperation.

In prison, in the U.S. or Mexico, traffickers continue to operate, ordering assassinations and arranging distribution of their product even from solitary confinement in Texas and California. In Mexico, prisoners can sometimes even buy their way out.

The violence spans Mexico. In Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of drug violence in Mexico, 2,600 people were killed last year in cartel-related violence, making the city of 1 million across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, one of the world's deadliest. Not a single person was prosecuted for homicide related to organized crime.

And then there's the money.

The $320 billion annual global drug industry now accounts for 1 percent of all commerce on the planet.

A full 10 percent of Mexico's economy is built on drug proceeds - $25 billion smuggled in from the United States every year, of which 25 cents of each $100 smuggled is seized at the border. Thus there's no incentive for the kind of financial reform that could tame the cartels.

"For every drug dealer you put in jail or kill, there's a line up to replace him because the money is just so good," says Walter McCay, who heads the nonprofit Center for Professional Police Certification in Mexico City.

McCay is one of the 13,000 members of Medford, Mass.-based Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of cops, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens and others who want to legalize and regulate all drugs.

A decade ago, no politician who wanted to keep his job would breathe a word about legalization, but a consensus is growing across the country that at least marijuana will someday be regulated and sold like tobacco and alcohol.

California voters decide in November whether to legalize marijuana, and South Dakota will vote this fall on whether to allow medical uses of marijuana, already permitted in California and 13 other states. The Obama administration says it won't target marijuana dispensaries if they comply with state laws.

- -

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says if America wants to fix the drug problem, it needs to do something about Americans' unquenching thirst for illegal drugs.

Kerlikowske agrees, and Mr. Obama has committed to doing just that.

And yet both countries continue to spend the bulk of their drug budgets on law enforcement rather than treatment and prevention.

"President Obama's newly released drug war budget is essentially the same as Bush's, with roughly twice as much money going to the criminal justice system as to treatment and prevention," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. "This despite Obama's statements on the campaign trail that drug use should be treated as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue."

Mr. Obama is requesting a record $15.5 billion for the drug war for 2011, about two thirds of it for law enforcement at the front lines of the battle: police, military and border patrol agents struggling to seize drugs and arrest traffickers and users.

About $5.6 billion would be spent on prevention and treatment.

"For the first time ever, the nation has before it an administration that views the drug issue first and foremost through the lens of the public health mandate," said economist and drug policy expert John Carnevale, who served three administrations and four drug czars. "Yet ... it appears that this historic policy stride has some problems with its supporting budget."

Carnevale said the administration continues to substantially over-allocate funds to areas that research shows are least effective - interdiction and source-country programs - while under-allocating funds for treatment and prevention.

Kerlikowske, who wishes people would stop calling it a "war" on drugs, frequently talks about one of the most valuable tools they've found, in which doctors screen for drug abuse during routine medical examinations. That program would get a mere $7.2 million under Mr. Obama's budget.

"People will say that's not enough. They'll say the drug budget hasn't shifted as much as it should have, and granted I don't disagree with that," Kerlikowske said. "We would like to do more in that direction."

Fifteen years ago, when the government began telling doctors to ask their patients about their drug use during routine medical exams, it described the program as one of the most proven ways to intervene early with would-be addicts.
"Nothing happens overnight," Kerlikowske said.

Until 100 years ago, drugs were simply a commodity. Then Western cultural shifts made them immoral and deviant, according to London School of Economics professor Fernanda Mena.
Religious movements led the crusades against drugs: In 1904, an Episcopal bishop returning from a mission in the Far East argued for banning opium after observing "the natives' moral degeneration." In 1914, The New York Times reported that cocaine caused blacks to commit "violent crimes," and that it made them resistant to police bullets. In the decades that followed, Mena said, drugs became synonymous with evil.

Mr. Nixon drew on those emotions when he pressed for his War on Drugs.

"Narcotics addiction is a problem which afflicts both the body and the soul of America," he said in a special 1971 message to Congress. "It comes quietly into homes and destroys children, it moves into neighborhoods and breaks the fiber of community which makes neighbors. We must try to better understand the confusion and disillusion and despair that bring people, particularly young people, to the use of narcotics and dangerous drugs."

Just a few years later, a young Barack Obama was one of those young users, a teenager smoking pot and trying "a little blow when you could afford it," as he wrote in "Dreams From My Father." When asked during his campaign if he had inhaled the pot, he replied: "That was the point."

So why persist with costly programs that don't work?

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, sitting down with the AP at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, paused for a moment at the question.
"Look," she says, starting slowly. "This is something that is worth fighting for because drug addiction is about fighting for somebody's life, a young child's life, a teenager's life, their ability to be a successful and productive adult.
"If you think about it in those terms, that they are fighting for lives - and in Mexico they are literally fighting for lives as well from the violence standpoint - you realize the stakes are too high to let go."

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From http://www.mdrc.org/publications/529/overview.html ...

August 2009
Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners
Implementation, Two-Year Impacts, and Costs of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Prisoner Reentry Program
Cindy Redcross, Dan Bloom, Gilda Azurdia, Janine Zweig, and Nancy Pindus
Related Publications
The Joyce Foundation's Transitional Jobs Reentry Demonstration: Testing Strategies to Help Former Prisoners Find and Keep Jobs and Stay Out of Prison
Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners: Early Impacts from a Random Assignment Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Prisoner Reentry Program
The Power of Work: The Center for Employment Opportunities
Comprehensive Prisoner Reentry Program

Almost 700,000 people are released from state prisons each year. Ex-prisoners face daunting obstacles to successful reentry into society, and rates of recidivism are high. Most experts believe that stable employment is critical to a successful transition, but ex-prisoners have great difficulty finding steady work.

This report presents interim results from a rigorous evaluation of the New York City-based Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a highly regarded employment program for ex-prisoners. CEO participants are placed in paid transitional jobs shortly after enrollment; they are supervised by CEO staff and receive a range of supports. Once they show good performance in the transitional job, participants get help finding a permanent job and additional support after placement.

CEO is one of four sites in the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, which is sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. The project is being conducted under contract to HHS by MDRC, a nonprofit research organization, along with the Urban Institute and other partners.

The impacts of CEO's program are being assessed using a rigorous research design. In 2004-2005, a total of 977 ex-prisoners who reported to CEO were assigned, at random, to a program group that was eligible for all of CEO's services or to a control group that received basic job search assistance. So far, the two groups have been followed for two years after study entry.

Key Findings
* CEO's program operated smoothly during the study period, and most program group members received the core services. More than 70 percent of the program group worked in a transitional job; the average length of that employment was about eight weeks.
*
*
* CEO generated a large but short-lived increase in employment; the increase was driven by CEO's transitional jobs. By the end of the first year of the study period, the program and control groups were equally likely to be employed, and their earnings were similar.
*
*
* CEO reduced recidivism during both the first and the second year of the study period. The program group was significantly less likely than the control group to be convicted of a crime, to be admitted to prison for a new conviction, or to be incarcerated for any reason in prison or jail during the first two years of the study period. In Year 1, CEO reduced recidivism only for those who came to the program within three months after their release from prison; in Year 2, however, the program reduced recidivism both for recently released study participants and for those who were not recently released at study entry.

The study will follow the two groups for a third year, but the results so far show that CEO's program reduced recidivism, even after the employment gains faded. Decreases in recidivism have rarely been found in rigorous evaluations. Further research is needed to identify approaches that can produce more sustained increases in employment and earnings for ex-prisoners.
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From http://www.vera.org/project/cost-benefit-analysis-ceo ...

Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Center for Employment Opportunities
Vera's Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit is working with MDRC to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the Center for Employment Opportunities, an independent program launched by the Vera Institute that provides employment services to people with criminal records.
*
* Tina Chiu
* Director of Technical Assistance

* Informing justice policy through cost-benefit analysis: Interview with Steve Aos (Part 1)
* Interview with Steve Aos, associate director of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. In this segment, Aos discusses informing justice policy through cost-benefit analysis. This is part 1 of 6 in the series. Length: 4:16 minutes

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) is one of the largest and best-known employment programs for the formerly incarcerated. It is one of four sites in the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Labor. MDRC conducted a random assignment evaluation of the program and found that it achieves a significant reduction in recidivism rates and a small improvement in several employment outcomes. The Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit is drawing on these evaluation results to determine if savings from lower recidivism rates and higher employment rates outweigh the costs of CEO.

Why This Project Matters

At a time when two-thirds of people released from prison are re-arrested and half are re-incarcerated within three years, investing in proven reentry programs can enhance public safety and cut costs. Yet there are few studies to help policymakers identify and support cost-effective reentry programs. Vera's analysis will help fill this gap, providing information about the relative costs and benefits of an employment program for formerly incarcerated individuals.

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From http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive//crimwage.htm ...

HIGHER CRIME RATE LINKED TO LOW WAGES AND UNEMPLOYMENT, STUDY FINDS

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new study provides some of the best evidence to date that low wages and unemployment make less-educated men more likely to turn to crime.
Researchers examined national crime rates between 1979 and 1997 and found much of the increase in crime during that period can be explained by falling wages and rising unemployment among men without college educations.

"Clearly, the long-term trend in wages was the dominant factor on crime during this period," Weinberg said.

While politicians have focused on crime-fighting initiatives as central to controlling crime, this study shows that the impact of labor markets should not be overlooked, said Bruce Weinberg, co-author of the study and associate professor of economics at Ohio State University.

"Public officials can put more cops on the beat, pass tougher sentencing laws, and take other steps to reduce crime, but there are limits to how much these can do," he said. "We found that a bad labor market has a profound impact on the crime rates."

Weinberg conducted the study with Eric Gould of Hebrew University and David Mustard of the University of Georgia. Their results appear in the current issue of The Review of Economics and Statistics.

From 1979 to 1997, federal statistics show the inflation-adjusted wages of men without a college education fell by 20 percent. Despite declines after 1993, the property and violent crime rates (adjusted for changes in the country's demographics) increased by 21 percent and 35 percent respectively during that period.

Weinberg said the strongest finding in this new study is a link between falling wages and property crimes such as burglary. However, the study also found a link between wages and some violent crimes - such as assault and robbery - in which money is often a motive.

The weakest relationship occurred with murder and rape - two crimes in which monetary gain is not usually a motive.

"The fact that murder and rape didn't have much of a connection with wages and unemployment provides good evidence that many criminals are motivated by poor economic conditions to turn to crime," Weinberg said.

The theory behind why crime increases in the wake of falling wages is simple, he said. "A decline in wages increases the relative payoff of criminal activity. It seems obvious that economic conditions should have an impact on crime, but few studies have systematically studied the issue."
National crime rates rose from 1979 to 1992, when wages for less skilled men were falling. Crime declined from 1993 to 1997. This decline in crime corresponded to a leveling off and slight increase in the wages of unskilled workers across the nation in that period, Weinberg said.

Weinberg and his colleagues did several analyses to examine the connection between wages, unemployment and crime between 1979 and 1997 for men without college educations. In one analysis, they looked at crime rates in 705 counties across the country - all counties with populations greater than 25,000 - and compared them with state wages and unemployment rates. The second analysis focused on statistics from 198 metropolitan areas as defined by the U.S. Census. The researchers took into account factors such as arrest rates and number of police that may have also influenced crime rates.

In the first analysis, the researchers calculated that the 20 percent fall in the wages of non-college-educated men over the entire period can account for a 10.8 percent increase in property crime and a 21.6 percent increase in violent crime. "Wage declines are responsible for more than half of the long term increase in both property and violent crime," Weinberg said

Overall, wages had a larger effect on crime than did the unemployment rate, according to Weinberg. That's because the unemployment rate is cyclical and there is no strong long-term trend. Wages, however, fell steadily during most of the period studied.

"Clearly, the long-term trend in wages was the dominant factor on crime during this period," he said.

In a third analysis, the researchers examined data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to see if the criminal behavior of the young men who participated in the survey could be linked to economic conditions where they lived. This survey asked participants if they had taken part in crimes such as shoplifting and robbery in the previous year.

As expected, economic conditions had no effect on the criminal activity for the more highly educated workers in the sample.

However, among less educated men, lower wages and higher unemployment rates in the states where they lived made it more likely that they had participated in crimes. This was true even after the researchers took into account factors such as cognitive ability and family background.
"Low-skilled workers are clearly the most affected by the changes in labor opportunities, and these results remain after controlling for a wealth of personal and family characteristics," he said.
#

Contact: Bruce Weinberg, (614) 292-5642; Weinberg.27@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

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From http://www.leap.cc/ ...(Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)...

ONE DRUG ARREST EVERY 18 SECONDS IN THE U.S.

NEW FBI NUMBERS SHOW FAILURE OF "WAR ON DRUGS"
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A group of police and judges who want to legalize drugs pointed to new FBI numbers released today as evidence that the "war on drugs" is a failure that can never be won. The data, from the FBI's "Crime in the United States" report, shows that in 2008 there were 1,702,537 arrests for drug law violations, or one drug arrest every 18 seconds.

"In our current economic climate, we simply cannot afford to keep arresting more than three people every minute in the failed 'war on drugs,'" said Jack Cole, a retired undercover narcotics detective who now heads the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). "Plus, if we legalized and taxed drug sales, we could actually create new revenue in addition to the money we'd save from ending the cruel policy of arresting users."

19 county cost-savers GOP are eliminating-- while pushing for new $75 million, 300-bed jail-- why?...

[note: you're all invited to my special forum on all this-- Mon. Dec.
6th 5:30 pm at Rhinebeck Town Hall!]

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Hi all...

Believe it or not, though glossed over far too much in the local
media coverage today on all this...

[view carnage here-- last night's Co. Leg. BFP mtg.:
http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess ]

'Tis true-- last night Co. Leg. GOP rejected EVERY Dem amendment to
restore funding for these 19...

[GOP added back $500K+ for Comptroller and County Clerk for
cost-saving programs-- why not these?]

[join 23 other Dutchess folks signed on to
http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget to stop this madness]

And-- more important now than ever-- email all 25 of us--
countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us!..(fwd)...

[note: see below: I/we saved Dept. of Mental Hygiene Continuing Day
Treatment Center in Rhinebeck!]

GOP want new, $75 million, 300-bed jail addition-- not these eight
cost-saving alternatives to incarceration:

1. BOCES adult education program in the County Jail (program endorsed
even by jail's leadership!)
[tho only $87,000/year this program cuts recidivism rate in half for
Transition Unit-- from 56% to 28%]

2. Project Return (juvenile delinquency prevention) for 45 kids at
our county's Youth Bureau
[effectively costing only $24/day to keep youth with families--
instead of $657/day to be incarcerated!]

3. Mediation Center of Dutchess County (juvenile delinquency
prevention for troubled teens)
[youth in 245 different families served last year in community-- not
$240,000/year each for incarceration]

4. Youth Mentoring/Job Training/Placement at Dutchess County Regional
Chamber of Commerce
[incredibly successful and effective program turning lives around of
troubled teens-- proven to work]

5. Dutchess County Arts Council (Du. Co. gets $3.52 in state funding
for each dollar invested in arts)
[Co. Leg. GOP are keeping County Exec's 75% cut in place-- no more
3500 kids in Arts in Education]

6. Mill Street Loft (long-time wonderful program for teens in City of
Poughkeepse; very effective ATI)

7. Court-Appointed Special Advocates for foster children at Mental
Health America of Dutchess County
-- CASA saves tax dollars-- families keeping foster kids get $500 a
month; saves to keep with families
-- $276,000 of volunteer time is leveraged for only $26,000
investment in CASA; was $43,000 in '08
-- CASA = one-on-one volunteers that make sure children don't stay in
foster care more than needed
-- assigned by Family Court judges to supervise 75 kids annually--
1/4 of kids in foster care in county
-- both GOP and Dem Family Court judges have strongly endorsed this
program for years now
-- according to U.S. Dept. of Justice Office of Inspector General,
only 5% of foster kids with CASA volunteers get mixed up with the
criminal justice system, while 16% of those without CASA volunteers
do end up this way-- and also according to the Insp. Gen. in the same
audit of the national CASA program, only 13% of foster kids with CASA
volunteers stay more than three years in foster care-- while 27% of
foster kids without CASA volunteers stay more than three years in
foster care

8. Literacy Connections (impossible for folks leaving jail to get
jobs without GED; this cuts recidivism)

So-- besides those eight effective alternatives to incarceration cut
by Co. Leg. GOP and County Exec...

Here are the other 11 valuable county programs decimated last night
by Co. Leg. GOP & County Exec:

[again-- email all 25 of us now-- at
countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us-- to stop local tea-party idiocy!]

1. Dutchess County Human Rights Commission (they receive 100's of
discrimination complaints yearly)
[forcing local residents to go to Peekskill to get complaints heard;
Eleanor Roosevelt spinning in grave]

2. Annual Veterans Celebration at FDR/Wallace Center in Hyde Park
(350 attended this year!)

3. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Dutchess County's Environmental
Program (Allison, Carolyn, all)
[these folks do a great job working with our county's Environmental
Management Council and town Conservation Advisory Councils-- and just
coordinated the best Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) update in the
state-- a collaborative effort saving county taxpayers at least
$100,000 by reaching out to the best and brightest scientists at the
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Vassar, Marist, and beyond:
http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/countygov/departments/planning/16138.htm ]

4. Senior Friendship Centers in Pawling and northeastern Dutchess
(Hyde Park's already shut down!)

5. Senior Home Care Program (under our county's Dept. of Health)
[see http://www.petitiononline.com/duhealth -- privatization doesn't
save $, folks; still 40,000 seniors]

6. Senior Dial-a-Ride Programs for Towns (we Dems tried to stop GOP
plan forcing towns to pay for all)

7. Hudson River Housing (this will literally cut our county's
overnight homeless shelter beds in half!)
[$80,000 cut by County Exec and Co. Leg. GOP will force thirty
homeless on to our streets this winter]

8. BOCES Wheels to Work (700 cars fixed/gifted; 2500 families over
last decade for working taxpayers)
[even DSS Commissioner Allers says this saves county $6.5 million
annually for only $245,000/year!]

9. Mid-Hudson Library System ($156,000 cut will impact libraries all
over Dutchess County)

10. Hudson Valley Mental Health (hundreds of thousands of dollars
cut; 5% increase last year in use!)

11. Water Lab (under our county's Dept. of Health-- for years GOP
have tried to kill this program; why?)
[pollution all over: http://www.RealMajorityProject.blogspot.com ;
http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com ]

So-- one more time-- email all 25 of us now-- at
countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us-- restore these $!

And-- again-- join 23 other Dutchess residents signed on to
http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget -- Hyde Park's Doris Kelly, Rhinebeck's Ruth Boyer, Fred Nagel, Sandra Oldenburg, and Edmond Roberts, Clinton's Carmen Region, Milan's Sheila Buff, Fishkill's Josh and Mara Farrell, Wappinger's Rich
Carlson and Richard Vineski, Beacon's Susan Osberg, Erika Waldron,
and Dan Rigney, Poughkeepsie's Scott Patrick Humphrey, East
Fishkill's Joette Kane, Red Hook's Cary Kittner and Doris Soroko,
Dover's Nora Edwards, Bangall's Alison Francis, and Millerton's
Dianne Engleke!...

Crucial-- don't forget to come out and speak up at the big, official,
annual county budget hearing Thursday, Dec. 2nd at 7 pm at the
Bardavon at 35 Market St. in Poughkeepsie!...

[note: join us at 5:30 pm that night (Dec. 2) for another candlelight
vigil-- in front of 22 Market St. in Pok.!]

Pass it on...

Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net

p.s. Light at end of tunnel?...in spite of massive cut-cut-cut
tea-party idiocy last night on part of Co. Leg. GOP (see below), I
was actually (at the very end of the mtg.) eventually able to
convince them to admit and reverse their stupid mistake from this
past Friday's Budget, Finance, and Personnel Committee meeting--
their move to completely eliminate funding to pay for rental of
property at 45 W. Market St. in Rhinebeck for our county Dept. of
Mental Hygiene's Continuing Day Treatment Center(!)....

Interesting thing is this-- as of 4 pm Monday, believe it or not,
literally NO one in our county government (or County Legislature) had
notified the 18 county workers there at 45 W. Market St. in Rhinebeck
about how our Co. Leg.'s BFP Committee had summarily eliminated all
funding for rental of their building for 2011(!)...

I walked in and spoke with workers there Monday afternoon; got DMH
Commissioner Dr. Kenneth Glatt on the phone-- he literally described
the BFP Committee's attempt to eliminate this program as "mindless"--
as this Rhinebeck center now serves 300 mentally ill, emotionally
disturbed, and chemically dependent Rhinebeck, Hyde Park, and Red
Hook residents (many of whom had been housed for many years at Hudson
River Psychiatric Center...

In the words of Dr. Glatt himself-- "This is a prescription for
disaster which will cost the county many times the amount cut in
dollars and in human suffering. The patients who are and were to be
treated at the Rhinebeck site will have no place to go, since all
other mental health and chemical dependency programs are at capacity.
It is destructive, and if not reversed, is likely to lead to
increases in misery, suicide, ER visits and avoidable
hospitalizations, as well as crime, jail census, and
homelessness"(!)...

[I got personal call of thanks on this today from Dr. Ken Glatt-- class guy;
he had termed Co. Leg. GOP cut to this program Friday as "mindless"]

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PROGRESSIVE TAX REFORM WOULD ELIMINATE COUNTY PROPERTY TAXES, CUTS, LAYOFFS!

Again-- I worked my tuchis off to get Alyssa Kogon and Sue Tooker elected
with phone-banking, door-knocking, radio time, and the like-- but
it's also true that even GOP state legislators like Molinaro and
Miller have long proposed huge income tax hikes to cut property
taxes-- without results in Albany to show for their ideas-- it's time
the Dutchess County Legislature took the bull by the horns and made
meaningful steps to make our tax system more progressive right here
at home (with a tiny county-level income tax on the wealthy to slash
property taxes while fully funding nonprofits and county services--
especially because neither state or federal governments are coming to
our rescue-- simple fact.

Both New York City and Yonkers have local income taxes-- that, if
taken away, would drive their property taxes through the roof and
kill their local economies-- it's time for progressive taxation here.
[see: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Fairness ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/fairtax (many on board)]

[go to these four links to see the numbers/possibilities Fiscal
Policy Institute's Frank Mauro crunched:
http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/dutchessRPTlevies.htm ;
http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/dutchess1999and2000.htm ;
http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/dutchess2001.htm ;
http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/ImpactatDifferentIncomeLevels.htm ]

[Mauro:"The calculations of the reduction in the county property tax
levy that could be accomplished with a 10% surcharge on income tax
(that's a surcharge on a taxpayer's state income tax bill, not a
surcharge on taxpayer's income) assume cut in all property taxes
(incl. business's property taxes)."]

Newsday, many Nassau County business leaders, the Chair of the
Tompkins County Legislature, and many in Monroe County have endorsed
similar local tax reforms; Rockland and Tompkins County Legislatures
started study commissions to look at similar revenue alternatives to
property tax hikes too.

Fact: 98% of small business owners make less than $250,000/year
according to Wall Street Journal.
[see: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/taxes/Tax_Plan_Facts_FINAL.pdf ]

Do you think it's right that we in the middle-class here in Dutchess
now pay over 11% of our income in state and local taxes while
millionaires pay only 8% of their income in state and local taxes?
How many more years should this incredibly outrageous tax system be
perpetuated?
[see: http://www.itepnet.org/wp2009/ny_whopays_factsheet.pdf ]

Fact: By 4-to-1 ratio New Yorkers support tiny tax on millionaires.
[Hart Research Associates 6/10]
[see:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=940073&category=state
]

Fact: Different recent Quinnipiac poll found overwhelming support
even in GOP for millionaire tax.
[
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/08/16/100816ta_talk_surowiecki
-- 8/16/10 New Yorker]

Fact: Millionaires used to pay 15 1/2% NY income tax rate in 70's
under Rockefeller; now pay 8.97%. [see:
http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/taxhistory2.htm ]

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As has been made eloquently clear by the nonprofits noted above over the years,
eliminating millions in funding for these pro-active and preventive
services (such as youth activities, gang prevention, child abuse
prevention, domestic violence legal services, domestic abuse
response, early intervention, literacy, day care, foster care child
advocacy, environmental education, 4-H, the arts, libraries, and
re-entry services will end up costing Dutchess taxpayers far more
down the road than if these valuable, problem-solving services were
preserved (besides laying off hundreds more county residents as well).

Note, too-- sign on to this petition if you also know (along with the
vast majority of responsible economists) that the absolute worst
thing to do in a recession is lay workers off, taking money out of
working families' pockets that could turn around in the economy. The
County Executive has, incredibly, actually proposed to layoff
sixty-one current county employees-- while eliminating another
thirty-eight vacant positions. As the Poughkeepsie Journal reported
Nov. 4th-- "Among the cuts would be 29 positions from the Department
of Mental Hygiene, 16 positions from the county Department of Health
[including two Home Health Aides] and 11 positions from the
Department of Public Works [and three more Youth Workers to be laid
off from our county's Youth Bureau, four to be laid off from our
county's Board of Elections, two auditors to be laid off from our
county Comptroller's office, four clerks to be laid off from our
county's Department of Motor Vehicles, and many more]. In the
Dutchess County Sheriff's Office, Steinhaus proposes eliminating six
school resource officers and five correction officer positions."

Recall-- just last year our County Executive bragged that his
proposed budget for this year contained 53 fewer employees than in
1987 (despite the fact that there are 50,000 more Dutchess residents
as population). This year again Steinhaus continues to make bold
claims about how many county workers he has laid off; here's a direct
quote from his Nov. 1st "budget message"-- "For 2011, this budget
plan reduces the workforce by 101...my 2011 budget plan as proposed
reduces the original 1992 total workforce number by 236 net
positions, from 2074 positions down to 1838 positions...187 of the
236 have been eliminated in just the past three years alone...when I
first became County Executive in 1992, county government had peaked
with a workforce count of 2074 employees."

Fact: People without jobs can't pay taxes and will cost county
taxpayers money when they need services-- Dutchess County simply
can't afford this type of a Grover Norquist sensibility ("I simply
want to reduce government to the size where I can drag it into the
bathroom and drown it in the bathtub"-- Norquist).

Don't forget-- there are viable revenue alternatives to
counterproductive budget cuts proposed above:

Municipal Electricity/Gas Alliance membership (as in 23
co.'s).........$300,000 in new revenue annually

Canadian Rx option for county employees/retirees (as in 5
co.'s)....$1 million in new revenue annually

[ http://www.MEGAEnergy.org http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SaveOnRx
even GOP in other counties support these, folks!...(including
Rensselaer County Exec for Cana Rx; Putnam Co. GOP for MEGA]

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Don't forget-- as it is now already all the following cuts went
through in the 2010 County Budget(!):

[despite best efforts from yours truly on this; thanks to 120+ of you
signed on over the past year to my
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SaveDuCo petition effort to find
alternative cost-savers to cuts here]

-- $1,000,000-plus cut to our county's Board of Elections
(shortstaffing- tho huge elections this year)
-- $26,000 cut to the Dutchess County Office of Veterans Affairs
(part-time employee laid off)
-- $233,000 cut to our county's Office for the Aging (Senior
Friendship Centers now on 4-day weeks instead of 5-day)
-- $209,839 cut to Dutchess County Community Action Agency (meaning
less services, layoffs)
-- $200,000-plus cut to DCDOH- laying off 4 county employees,
eliminating county's senior home care program vices, layoffs)
-- $165,960 cut to the Astor Home for Children (meaning less services, layoffs)
-- $114,000 cut to Family Services (meaning less services for the
most vulnerable in our county)
-- $111,000 cut to Grace Smith House (meaning less services)
-- $106,987 cut to Hudson River Housing (in the midst of worst
housing/foreclosure crisis in decades)
-- $56,553 cut to the Lexington Center for Recovery (shortfunding
methadone clinic for heroin addicts)
-- $55,000 cut to Dutchess County Arts Council (meaning less services)
-- $41,000 cut to Mid-Hudson Library System (meaning less services)
-- $28,111 cut to the Mediation Center of Dutchess County (meaning
less services)
-- $23,000 cut to Mental Health Association of Dutchess County
(meaning less services)
-- $23,000 cut to BOCES (meaning less services in transition/re-entry program)
-- $11,000 cut to Lexington Center and $3000 cut to Literacy
Connections (meaning less services)

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Recall, too-- it's also been proven repeatedly that a robust system
of community-based senior home care saves tons of money for
families-- and tons of tax dollars compared to nursing home
placements for those same seniors. As Robert Gumson, Unit Manager for
VESID Independent Living Services, told all of us assembled last year
at the Taconic Resources for Independence's 19th Annual Celebration
of the Americans with Disabilities Act at the Wallace Center in Hyde
Park, literally sixty to seventy percent of all senior citizens in
nursing homes here in New York State don't need to be there-- and
many tax dollars could be saved locally if Dutchess County followed
the good examples of Warren and Washington counties and fully took
advantage of a Pataki-era Medicaid waiver program to expand a true
system of home care for seniors.
[see: http://ADAPT.org ;
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/19/finally_long_term_home_health_care/
;
http://homecaremag.com/news/aarp-endorses-empowered-home-act-20090608/ ]

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Don't forget these crucial facts, folks (even more rationale for
progressive tax change at county level!):

Fact: All of the following members of the Better Choice Budget
Coalition stand in strong support for a new tiny millionaires tax and
at least partial re-implementation of a stock transfer tax on Wall
Street-- NYS AFL-CIO, NYSUT, CSEA, PEF, AFSCME, NY Jobs with Justice,
Dutchess Outreach, NYS Coalition Against Domestic Violence, NY
Statewide Senior Action Council, NYS Alliance for Retired Americans,
Interfaith Alliance of NYS, Interfaith Impact of NYS, Sierra Club,
Environmental Advocates, Citizen Action, NYS Community Action
Association, and many more-- see http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org .

Recall this paragraph from p. 41 of the Fiscal Policy Institute's
Nov. 2006 "One New York" report-- from
http://www.FiscalPolicy.org/OneNewYork.html -- "The state tax system
is now so distorted that the governor and the legislature should
undertake a comprehensive review. An essential part of what the
governor and the legislature should do, however, is to help
localities to reduce property taxes by restoring progressivity to
state income taxes. In addition, the state government could give
localities more flexibility in how they collect taxes, allowing them
to move away from over-reliance on property and sales taxes and
instead raising funds through a local version of an income tax. The
governor and the legislature should consider giving county
governments the authority to levy a 'piggyback' income tax for county
government purposes. Such a tax could be structured like the income
tax that the city of Yonkers is currently authorized to impose. The
use of such an option would make a county's revenue system more
progressive and place less of the burden on middle and lower income
residents." [fact: property taxes would skyrocket in Yonkers/NYC
without this!]

Fact: Even the Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 8th, 2007 that "The
nation's top 1% of households own more than half the nation's stocks,
according to the Federal Reserve. They also control more than $16
trillion in wealth-- more than the bottom 90%." (from Robert Frank's
"Plutonomics")
[see: http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/01/08/plutonomics/ ]

Fact: "Citigroup's research department wrote three memos for
investors concluding that wealth and power in the U.S. were
increasingly concentrated in the hands of the top 1%, stating the top
1% of the population now have more financial wealth than the bottom
95% combined."
[see:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/facts/capitalism-love-story
(Michael Moore's last film)]

Fact Millionaires used to pay a 91% federal income tax rate in '50's
under Ike; they now pay 35%.
[sign: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ILikeIke ;
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html ;
also see Chuck Collins' recent piece-- "The Small Business Case for
Ending Tax Cuts for the Wealthy"--
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/15-1 ]

Fact: 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer demand (the
middle class needs help!).
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-30/u-s-economy-spending-picks-up-sustaining-growth-update1-.html

These three paragraphs are from the Tompkins County Legislature's
local income tax study group final July 12th 2005 report (see
http://www.tompkins-co.org/pubinfo/incometax7-12-05.pdf ):

"The group agreed in general that income tax is appealing for its
potential to create more fairness, to relieve a portion of the
property tax burden, and to link taxation more closely with ability
to pay. A local income tax has the potential to broaden the tax base,
provide relief to lower-income property owners, and offset the
negative effect of increasing assessments. It is potentially
attractive to businesses, would be relatively easy to administer, and
could mitigate the loss of revenue due to real property tax
exemptions.

"A group of local residents each of whom possesses valuable
professional expertise in areas such as tax law, accounting, banking,
entrepreneurship, economic development, data analysis, community
service, and politics held a series of discussions and requested
information to help them determine the usefulness and viability of a
local income tax surcharge as a means of reducing the real property
tax burden in Tompkins County.

For example, a 10 percent surcharge on the state income tax would
raise about $7 million from Tompkins County residents, for a
reduction of property tax of about 21 percent... Because the state
income tax is graduated, a local surcharge would also be tiered
according to income. State enabling legislation and a local
referendum would be required...A few states, including Maryland and
Indiana, allow local income taxes. Pennsylvania has had local income
taxes since 1965."
Here are ten more reasons for our county to have a local income tax
to slash county property taxes and make sure crucial county services
are funded adequately-- directly from the Tompkins County
Legislature's local income tax study group final July 12th 2005
report (see http://www.tompkins-co.org/pubinfo/incometax7-12-05.pdf ):
1. Low-Income Relief

-- Would reduce real estate taxes for lower-income homeowners
-- Easy to create exemptions e.g. No tax below a certain income level
-- Generous rental credits/rebates could benefit low-income renters
-- Less burdensome on low-income people
-- Less burdensome on fixed-income people
-- $185,000 cut to Cornell Cooperative Extension (meaning less ser

2. Progressive

-- Income tax is more progressive. Those who have more pay more
-- Should result in a more progressive taxing system that could produce
greater revenues based on growth in wealth
-- Progressive (more fairness)
-- Spreads the tax burden across a greater number of people so
hopefully it is smaller per person
-- Can have a progressive structure
-- Distributes tax burden to those who can afford to pay
-- Allows for exemptions and income thresholds to effect greater
degree of fairness
-- Takes into account the income tax cuts adopted by the state in a
balanced manner

3. Easy to Administer

-- Based on prior NY State experience would administratively be
efficient since collected by state, uses state tax filings for calculation
-- Easy to administer (through payroll systems)
-- Tax is inexpensive to administer as it is based on NYS tax collection system

4. Broaden Base

-- Would expand the base if payroll is included
-- Would establish higher base and therefore greater revenue source
to County while
hopefully lowering overall tax burden
-- Base expanded.
-- With commuter component would broaden base to include people who
currently use
some services but don't contribute.

5. Ability to Pay
-- Provides relief for unfortunate circumstances
-- Basis is current ability to pay
-- Income tax is related to ability to pay. Your tax doesn't rise
while your resources stay flat or decline
-- Every year is based on current ability to pay
-- Every year is not based on a previous year's investment decision
-- Addresses the fact that home values correlate very poorly with income

6. Ownership Incentives

-- Reduces disincentive for home ownership
-- Reduces disincentive for property maintenance
-- Reduces tax penalty for saving (investing in a home)
-- Income tax may be more appropriate for owners of large vacant
parcels who wish to keep them vacant. (Encourages investment in open
land)

7. Property Tax Cut

-- Provides County with additional source of revenue
-- Property tax cut
-- Possibility of property tax freeze or cap
-- Total revenue from income tax is large enough to displace other taxes
-- It's a structural change-- no more scrambling for small revenue sources

8. Rational Basis

-- Basis is rational/logical, rather than anecdotal
-- Basis is ideological rather than based on tradition
-- Is not based on simplistic/archaic ideas of wealth
-- Mitigates Tax Exemptions
-- May provide a more balanced revenue source by recognizing the high
level of tax-exempt property in Tompkins County
-- Solves the unfairness of tax-exempt property
-- With commuter tax, solves several chronic Tompkins County
problems-- untaxed in-commuting workers and lots of tax-exempt
property

9. Adjusts with Income

-- Adjusts automatically to changing conditions
-- Automatic inflation adjustment
-- Would annually adjust so that drop in income would lower tax paid
-- Tax base would expand as income grows; no need for re-assessment
as in property tax
-- Tax revenue rises (or falls) with general prosperity

10. Easy to Understand

-- Can be easy for everyone to understand and calculate depending on
how it is structured
-- Easy to explain and understand
-- Income is more accurately determined than property value