Note: Please consider this website a draft and provide comments or propose additions/deletions by going to http://bit.ly/ogEv1l, highlighting a word or phrase, right click on the highlight and select "comment". Thanks.

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Thanks you for visiting HumaneJustice.org.

This web site outlines the non-partisan Proposed Plan To Reform Criminal Justice Using Humane, Constitutional and Restorative Justice Principles and Practices

Draft
Outline of the
Proposed Plan To Reform Criminal Justice Using Humane, Constitutional and Restorative Justice Principles and Practices

Executive Summary

In his proposed National Criminal Justice Commission Act, introduced in March, 2009 Senator Jim Webb described America's criminal justice system ... as a national disgrace with irregularities and inequities that cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. prisons with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous, ... wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives. In this proposed legislation he also stated We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration.

Senator Webb reintroduced this Act in 2010 and 2011. It was blocked by the threat of a filibuster in October 2011

Work must continue to get Senator Webb legislation passed. However, if and when it is enacted, it will be months before the Commission forms, eighteen months before the commission makes recommendations and many more months, probably years, before the recommendations are acted on. The severe problems in criminal justice and prisons cannot wait.

Many organization and individuals have worked on this for years and collectively know what needs to be done. For example, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), has outlined just about everything that need to be done on their web site at http://curenational.org, ACLU has a National Prison Project. There are scores of Restorative Justice programs and anti death penalty organizations.

However, these organizations and individuals are not working nearly well enough together and have no overall strategy or plan until now.

This document provides a draft proposed comprehensive plan to revamp, reform and improve all aspects of America's criminal justice and prison using constitutional, humane, restorative justice, reconciliation, rehabilitation and modern psychology principles and practices to hold perpetrators of crimes accountable and rehabilitate and restore both victims and perpetrators of crimes. It supplies a framework for those interested to list additional problems and solutions and work with others to accomplish the solutions.

These interested organizations and individuals are requested to work together, form an oversight board for this plan and add everything that needs to be done to it. Recommendations can be made and items added by going to http://bit.ly/ogEv1l, emailing Fisher@wethepeoplenow.org or faxing 703-521-0849.

If Senator Webb’s Act is passed and the Criminal Justice Commission Act is formed, this agreed to plan can be provided to the commission.

This proposed plan also addresses correcting underlying causes of criminal behavior in particular lack of employment and education opportunities, poverty, hopelessness and despair by accomplishing it in coordination with and as a vital part of the Universal, Common Strategic Plan for a Peaceful, Prosperous and Just World. This Strategic Plan provides potential Funding Sources for all this work and a Plan to Provide Both Jobs (Employment Opportunities) at Living Wages and Affordable Necessities of Life for All. By making this document part of a larger plan, activists will have more choices of items to work on and resources can be better shared.

This plan also addresses misconceptions about crimes and punishment by society and politicians.

This plan will also provide procedure, principles and practices for the Plan to Humanely and Privately Prosecute Lawbreakers With Restorative Justice Opportunities For Both Victims and Lawbreakers which is item number ten of the Common Agenda.

Although most aspects of the entire Justice System must be revamped, reformed and improved. Criminal Justice and Prisons has been given the priority to go first because of its horrendous unjust impact on so many lives and because of the need for a reformed justice system to humanely and privately prosecute lawbreakers

The below Table of Contents provides an outline of this plan. Each item in the plan can be accessed by clicking on it.

I. Purpose

Provide a comprehensive plan to revamp, reform and improve America's criminal justice, prisons using constitutional, humane, restorative justice, reconciliation, rehabilitation and modern psychology principles and practices to hold perpetrators of crimes accountable, rehabilitate and restore both victims and perpetrators of crimes.

II. Objectives:

  1. Prevent and markedly reduce crimes, violence and recidivism.
  2. Screen all prisoners and detainees and release those who can safely be released. Provide individual rehabilitation plans for those remaining in prison. Compensate those who have been wrongfully convicted.
  3. Treat victims, defendants, prisoners and detainees humanely, ensure their rights are strictly protected and provide restorative justice opportunities for all.
  4. Correct the irregularities and inequities that cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness
  5. Address the long-term consequences of incarceration.
  6. Eliminate overcrowding and the deplorable conditions in our jails and prisons
  7. Recalculate who goes to prison and for how long
  8. Provide strategies and procedures to humanely and privately (not secretly) prosecute lawbreakers and others using restorative justice as outlined in ProsecuteOfficials.org.

III. Introduction

Numerous studies, books and articles describe the deplorable conditions in our prisons and criminal justice system.

Yet, despite numerous petitions, phone calls, demonstrations and now “occupations”, very little has been done and Senator’s Webb legislation for a Criminal Justice Commission was defeated by forty three Senators voting against closure.

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IV. Background on U.S. Criminal Justice and Prisons:

A. The Proposed National Criminal Justice Commission Act

Senator Jim Webb introduced proposed legislation for National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 on March 26, 2009 and reintroduced it in 2010 and 2011. The original bill included:

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V. Status of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act

Despite its urgency, on October 20, 2011, passage of Senator Webb's National Criminal Justice Commission Act was blocked in the Senate by 43 Senators who voted against cloture.

Many organization and individuals have worked on this for years and collectively know what needs to be done. For example, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), has outlined just about everything that need to be done on their web site at http://curenational.org, ACLU has a National Prison Project. There are scores of Restorative Justice programs

These interested organizations and individuals are requested to work together, form an oversight board for this plan, and add everything that they know that needs to be done to it. Recommendations can be made and items added by going to http://bit.ly/ogEv1l, emailing Fisher@wethepeoplenow.org or by fax to 703-521-0849.

If Senator Webb’s Act is passed and the Criminal Justice Commission Act is formed, this agreed to plan can be provided to the commission.

VI. Definitions

Justice is the administration of law according to the principles of just behavior and treatment.

Just behavior is that which is morally right and fair, appropriate or deserved, well founded, done very carefully. Origin Latin justus, from jus 'law, right'

Constitutional means that it is in accordance with, agreeable to, consonant with, not in conflict with, the constitution and so guaranteed as to prevent legislative interference. This includes observing all constitutional rights of the accused. Salient Constitutional Rights are listed at http://www.humanejustice.org/salient_constitutional_rights.htm

The legal definition of “humane” is: Kind, tender, compassionate. Disposed to eliminate the cause of suffering of man or beast. Humane differs from the ordinary use of “merciful,” in that it expresses active endeavors to find and relieve suffering, and especially to prevent it, while “merciful” expresses the disposition to spare one the suffering which might be inflicted.Footnote The Geneva Convention requires that the people of an occupied country, detainees, and prisoners of war be treated humanely. Obviously, harsh interrogation techniques, abuse, torture and extraordinary rendition does not constitute humane treatment.

Discreet means judicious in one's conduct or speech.

Restorative justice is a natural, proven form of justice that seeks to restore victims and offenders to whole, contributing members of society. It emphasizes preventing additional harm and repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behavior. It is best accomplished through humane cooperative processes that include all stakeholders. Paraphrased from “Restorative Justice web site, www.RestorativeJustice.org” which provides additional information about restorative justice and Prison Fellowship International http://www.pfi.org.

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VII. Opinions of Authorities on Criminal Justice

A. Alfred Adler. The following is from What Life Could Mean to You. Alfred Adler (1870-1937), is the renowned psychologist and founder of the School of Individual Psychology.

Individual Psychology can help us recognize all the various types of human beings and understand that, despite this variation, human beings are not remarkably different from one another. We find, for example, the same kind of failures exhibited in the behavior of criminals as in that of problem children, neurotics, psychotics, suicides, alcoholics and sexual deviants. They all fail in their approach to the problems of life; and, in one very definite and noticeable area, they fail in precisely the same way: every one of them fails in social interest; they are not concerned with their fellow human beings. Even here, however, we cannot distinguish them from other people. No one can be held up as an example of perfect cooperation or perfect social feeling, and criminals only differ from the common run in the severity of their failure.

Corporal punishment is ineffective because it only confirms to criminals that society is hostile and impossible to cooperate with. Something of this sort happened to individuals who became criminals, perhaps, at school. They were not trained to cooperate and so they did their work badly, or misbehaved in class. ... TThey feel that people are against them. ... The children lose whatever shreds of confidence they had. They are not interested in their schoolwork, their teachers or their school friends. They begin to play truant and to hide where they cannot be found. In these places they find other children who have had the same experience and have taken the same road. ... , since they are not interested in the social demands of life, they see these other children as their friends and society in general as their enemy. These people like them and they feel better in their company. It is in this way that thousands of children join criminal gangs, ... if in later life, we treat them in the same way, this will only bear out their view that we are their enemies and only criminals are their friends.

There is no reason at all why such children should be defeated by the tasks of life. We should never allow them to lose hope and we could prevent this very easily if we organized our schools so that such children were given confidence and courage.

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VIII. Examples of Successful "Restorative Justice" Programs

  1. The Community Conferencing Center of Baltimore, which boasts a 95% compliance rating once a consensual agreement is reached (agreements are reached 98% of the time), http://www.communityconferencing.org
  2. The Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County: http://www.crcmc.org which also does community conferencing as well as mediation and more general facilitation (Thanks to the Criminal Justice Issue Group at the DC Freedom Plaza, End the Machine Occupation for the above examples and for providing the link to Professor Zehr's Blog).

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IX. Conclusions

  1. America's criminal justice system practices are unscientific and directly in conflict with modern psychology
  2. Human beings are not remarkably different from one another. In general criminals fail in their approach to life, in that they have not learned to be empathetic and cooperate with and help care for their fellow human beings. They only differ from the average person in the severity of their failure to learn these things.
  3. Cooperation and caring for others should and can be taught to all age groups. Teaching cooperation and caring for others to very young children is extremely important. To fully develop cooperation and caring, this training must be exercised and practiced

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X. Enact Legislation, Write/Rewrite Policies, Rules, Regulations and/or Practices to Accomplish the Below Actions.

While necessary legislation and revised rules and regulations are being prepared, prison officials, guards government investigators, prosecutors, judges, and others involved in the Criminal Justice System should implement applicable actions unless they are impracticable or specifically prohibited by law.

  1. Prevent and Markedly Reduce Additional Prisoners, Crimes, Violence and Recidivism.
    1. Teach caring for, cooperation with and encouraging one another to all age groups, in particular to very young children, criminals, sociopaths and anyone who exhibits non-social traits. Exercise and practice this training to fully develop it.
    2. As rapidly as possible, Provide Both Jobs at Living Wages and Affordable Necessities of Life for All including those being released from and in prisons. Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) has a detail approach to prisoner employment at http://curenational.org/prison-employment.html
    3. “Society must get over the concept that "violent criminals" must be banished from society forever. If you stole something as a child, does that forever label you a thief? Violence is something that happens, not a state of mind. If someone gets in a fight, does that mean s/he is forever a violent person? A person convicted of a violent crime is still a person, one who is serving time as punishment for that act. Decades later s/he is a different person, not a "violent criminal" because of what happened in his/her youth. The parole board needs to start using its intelligence to do its job rather than kowtowing to this phony societal labeling.”
    4. Stop “sending the mentally ill to prison. Nearly all mentally ill persons can and should be treated on the outside, not in cages that exacerbate their problems. Community treatment, along with mental health courts, could save millions every year.
    5. Hire additional counselors and rehabilitation and probation officers.
    6. End the war on drugs. Legalize drugs and control their production, sale and distribution while providing drug education, counseling and appropriate treatment in lieu of confinement.
    7. Guarantee access to books, nutritious food, drug treatment, job training, exercise, competent medical care and safety during incarceration.
    8. Abolish commercial bail bonding by federal law. Determining suitability for pre-trial release should not be based on how much money a defendant can pay, but by using evidence-based practices to determine who can and cannot be released under supervision, while providing for necessary intervention to protect public safety.
    9. Abolish the practice of determining parole according to ability to pay.
    10. Provide parole violators appropriate counseling, treatment and training, and supervision. Do not automatically return them to prison.
    11. Establish civilian oversight boards comprised of community leaders, prison reform advocates and penal specialists to ensure prison management and staff do not violate the human rights of prisoners and that prisoners re-entering the community are prepared to do so and are provided with the kinds of support needed to successfully re-integrate, such as job training, job prospects, housing and drug treatment. Prisons exist in communities and are not separate from them.
  2. Screen and Release All Prisoners Who Can Safely be Released and Provide Plans for Others
    1. Screen all prisoners beginning with the elderly, mentally ill, non violent, political prisoners including Leonard Peltier and on a case by case basis, to discern why they exhibit inappropriate behavior and what should be done to help correct such behavior. identify those individuals who should be kept under supervision/confined, to protect the public from criminal behavior. Clarence Darrow’s provides an outstanding strategy for this screening: All of those who for any reason cannot or do not adjust themselves to important rules [e.g. have committed a crime] should be examined by experts to find out why it is and what can be done; They should be helped in every way possible. Regardless of what they have done they should be released when it seems safe; meantime they should be kept under supervision in kindness and sympathy instead of harshness. It is entirely possible that a person guilty of homicide could safely be set free in a short time, and that a sneak-thief or a beggar could never be changed or cured or released. Each individual should be considered by himself. Because many psychopaths can be very manipulative, charming and glib, examiners must have a good understanding psychopathic behavior.
    2. Counsel and release all those who are not a threat to society. Insure that all released are afforded employment opportunities, health care, affordable shelter, counseling and a network of supporters. Mentally ill persons who have committed crimes or commit crimes should be treated in facilities designed for the safe treatment of the mentally ill while guaranteeing the safety of the larger community.

      Releasing individuals from prison’s that are not a threat to society, will allow more attention to be applied to those that cannot yet be released. Keep those that are threats to society confined. Counsel them, insure that they are taught to be cooperative and how to be interested in and helpful to their fellow human beings. Provide them with the opportunity to be employed at a living wage in particular in work that benefits themselves and others. Provide them the opportunity to pay restitution and apologize to the victim(s) of their crime(s).
  3. Provide Victims and Perpetrators of Crimes Opportunities for Restorative Justice, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation for both during every phase of the criminal justice process. These opportunities should commence as soon as practicable after a crime is committed, an arrest or summons is made and definitely before a grand jury is impaneled
    1. Keep the names of the accused and the documentation being prepared for their prosecution private (not secret) and not revealed or “leaked” to the public until after they are actually indicted. The accused does of course have a right to a public trial.

      This could allow a truly contrite perpetrator who is not a threat to others or himself to make amends, apologize and pay restitution to their victims and make an Alford’s Plea (a plea of guilty that may be accepted by a court, normally as part of a plea bargain when the defendant does not admit guilt). In this way, the need for lengthy indictments and trials could be reduced. Hence the victim and perpetrator could get on with their lives sooner and decrease the size and cost of the prison population.
  4. Treat Prisoners, Detainees, Defendants, and Subjects of Investigation Humanely The legal definition of “humane”: Kind, tender, compassionate. Disposed to eliminate the cause of suffering of man or beast. Humane differs from the ordinary use of “merciful,” in that it expresses active endeavors to find and relieve suffering, and especially to prevent it
    1. Create a humane, rehabilitative prison system with rehabilitation/restorative individual plans that emphasizes rehabilitation over punishment based upon upholding the human rights of prisoners while protecting the larger society from those who are yet to be rehabilitated
    2. Provide:
      1. Detention in a facility as close to family members and friends as possible
      2. Liberal visitation arrangements
      3. Employment opportunities
      4. Exercise facilities and equipment
      5. Adequate natural sunlight
      6. Nutritious food
      7. Inexpensive telephone and internet connections with family members and friends
    3. Eliminate/Cease
      1. Retributive punishment
      2. The death penalty
      3. Arrests, searches, and wiretapping without warrants
      4. Extraordinary renditions
      5. Indefinite detentions
      6. Three strikes laws
      7. Without parole sentences
      8. Adult trials and sentencing for children
      9. Physical or psychological abuse of any kind
      10. Bullying, threatening and confrontations.
      11. Solitary confinement (defined as torture by the UN Commission on Human Rights)
      12. Group punishment
      13. Prolonged lock-downs
      14. The use of abusive prisoner extraction techniques
      15. The use and tolerance of rape and sexual coercion.
      16. Withholding of medical treatment and food as punishment. In particular, confinement on bread and water/reduced rations as a punishment should be removed from the UCMJ.
      17. The use of military tribunal for other than U. S. Military personnel.
  5. Ensure Rights of Victims. Defendants and Prisoners Are Strictly Protected
    1. Ensure rights of victims, defendants and prisoners are strictly protected as guaranteed by the Constitution (Salient Rights), the International Covenants on Human Rights and other laws are during all phases of the criminal justice process. These rights include privacy rights.
    2. Investigate and prosecute, law enforcement official who violate human rights, racially profile and engaging in similar activities .including Joe Arpaio, the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona
    3. Set aside or eliminate any laws, regulations or practices that grants immunity to any public servant that violates civil rights of anyone or commits any crime.
    4. Treat all defendants and prisoners humanely, kindly and with dignity while, at the same time, insuring prison guards and prison inmates are protected.
  6. Phase Out All Privately Owned Prisons A recent ACLU report on the private prison industry, "Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration," is available online at: http://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/banking-bondage-private-prisons-and-mass-incarceration. Dismantle all "Special Housing Units," "Communications Management Units," "Supermax" prisons and ICE detention facilities.
  7. Repudiate Any Notion of Immunity or Impunity of Public Servants and the use of “states secrets” or executive privilege to dismiss valid cases.
  8. Investigate Executives of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for:
    1. Promoting a prison agenda based on ideology, not science or fact
    2. Creating and disseminating faulty prison legislation to multiple jurisdictions
    3. Bribery for illegal campaign contributions and job offers
  9. Congress Provide Funding for All this Work by appropriating it from Funding Sources