US Challenges of Parole Denials rejected

The California Supreme Court decided Monday to limit sharply the ability of inmates to challenge parole denials, ruling that the parole board has the right to keep a convict in prison simply because of the nature of the crime that sent him there.

The state Board of Prison Terms, which has a history of seldom granting parole, has wide flexibility to deny release to convicted criminals even if they have been model inmates deemed not dangerous by mental health officials, the 4-3 decision said. The ruling is expected to keep behind bars thousands of inmates who are eligible for parole.

Monday's ruling came in the case of John A. Dannenberg, 64, who was convicted of the second-degree murder of his wife in 1985 and sentenced to a term of 15 years to life. Dannenberg has a spotless prison record and favorable psychological evaluations, and his two adult children support his release.

In 1999, the parole board rejected his third request for parole, saying he had committed the murder "in an especially cruel or callous manner" and had "a very trivial" motive to kill. Dannenberg then appealed, saying his record since he was put in prison should have made him eligible for release.

A trial court and Court of Appeal both sided with him. But the Supreme Court disagreed. Even though Dannenberg's record has been clean, the board had the right to deny parole based solely on the nature of his crime, the majority said.

The board "may protect public safety in each discrete case by considering the dangerous implications of a life-maximum prisoner's crime individually," Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote for the majority.

In dissent, Justice Carlos R. Moreno said the ruling required "judicial rubber stamping" of parole-board decisions. "Failure to grant parole where parole is due wastes human lives, not to mention considerable tax dollars," Moreno wrote.

If an inmate is denied parole because of the nature of the crime, the board should be required at least to compare the gravity of the offense and the time served to other cases with the same conviction, he wrote.

The majority rejected that idea, saying it would be too burdensome.

To require the board to compare the inmate's crime and time served to that of other inmates with the same convictions would "contribute significantly to backlogs," Baxter wrote.

Dannenberg killed his wife, Linda, during a fight in their home in Los Gatos. The wealthy engineer had a stormy relationship with his wife, and she had received counseling for trying to harm herself and her children.

During an argument over a blocked bathtub drain, Dannenberg beat her with a pipe wrench. He claimed she first attacked him with a screwdriver while he was attempting to fix the drain.

Dannenberg told police that he passed out momentarily and woke up to find his wife slumped over the edge of the bathtub with her head in the water, where she had drowned. He called 911 and was quickly arrested.

Dannenberg has been behind bars in San Quentin for 18 years. While in prison, he fixed the facility's electrical wiring and volunteered with an inmate education advisory committee and a Jewish religious group for prisoners, the court said.

In upholding the parole board's decision, Baxter, joined by Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Justices Ming W. Chin and Janice Rogers Brown, said Dannenberg had "reacted with extreme and sustained violence to a domestic argument?. "

"Though he vehemently denied it, the evidence permitted an inference that, while the victim was helpless from her injuries, Dannenberg placed her head in the water, or at least left it there without assisting her until she was dead."

Moreno countered that a second-degree murder conviction always means that a defendant acted violently, cruelly and out of proportion to the provocation.

Moreover, he said, the board had "an incentive to give only pro-forma consideration" to parole because of the risk that the person could re-offend and the parole board be blamed. [Yet the risk of re-offending for a domestic crime is at the very bottom of the range.]

"Dannenberg's present record is not only unblemished in terms of disciplinary infractions, but showed many positive signs of contribution to the prison community in which he lived," wrote Moreno, whose opinion was signed by Justices Joyce L. Kennard and Kathryn Mickle Werdegar.

Over the last 13 years, the parole board has denied release to more than 95% of the eligible inmates who applied.

Even the few approved by the board have not all been released. California is one of three states that allows the governor to override parole recommendations.

So far, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has accepted about 36% of the board's parole recommendations. Former Gov. Gray Davis approved just 1.7%. His predecessor, Gov. Pete Wilson, approved 67% of the applications that came before him.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Susan Lee Duncan, who represented the state in the case, said the state Supreme Court had made it clear that the parole board has been acting properly.

"They don't have to consider whether this is more serious or less serious than any other offender's crime," Duncan said. "It is strictly a case-by-case consideration, comparing this man and this crime to public safety."

Kathleen Kahn, a lawyer who represented Dannenberg, said the ruling "ratifies" the board's behavior and "allows the board to be as frankly political as it wants to be."

"A few judges in a few counties have really stuck their necks out and said what the board has been doing is really a violation of the law," Kahn said.

"I think this opinion is written as a reprimand to those judges."

Tip Kindell, a spokesman for the Board of Prison Terms, said it was pleased that "our position was validated by the Supreme Court." [By the ruling class? The Supreme court has also approved Guantanamo Bay Cuba!]

By Maura Dolan posted 28 January 05

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The Seed

Respect, you only get out what you have put in. What about Life Skills, Communication and Conflict Resolution. Evolution, perhaps some children and adults miss the whole or part of the course. I did, and so how surprised do you think I was when I realised my parents missed the course as well. Things like Compromise, Win Win, Empathy, and Love. Invisible energy and other skills like public speaking, how to Relate, Assuming, Blaming, Forgiveness, Freedom and Discrimination. This is how I learned respect. If you don't know what it is then how do you relate?

I ran into a friend he was about 60 years of age and I asked Egor a Russian Scientist. "Why do we learn and then die? " He said you have to pass it on.

So Grasshopper, how do we plant this seed so that the bin (jail) is a school of life? a University to teach life skills. Instead of emptying out the rubbish in the bin we turn out compost and fertiliser to promote growth. Nurturers.

How do we create unless we Nurture Nature. Like cradling a baby in your arms the very same cradle swings below us when we care for all living things.

I described an injustice to Barbara an elderly lady I met at a Justice Action meeting. I said, "This is not the Australian way ". Barbara said, " Well I think it is". I went numb thinking well I did not want to hear her negative conformation.

I still wanted to believe after all I have been through and all I have done that there is an Australian way and that the majority was good. I asked her when was a conscience born? She said, "When babies can focus their eyes."

I am still learning because I was told conscience was born when our mothers smacked us about the time we threw our bottles down from the high chair. Barbara had the better idea because no violence or threat is induced to form her view.

We cannot defeat evil. We can only balance it hopefully by the greater good. Why? Because people, (human beings) only learn from trial and error. By making a mistake the thing we call evil. Like falling off a mountain some people break their arm and some people break their neck. The severity is a matter of the circumstances around the fall.

So do we punish everyone equally for his or her first error? No, we deal out just desert in relation to the severity of the crime and the enthusiasm of the crowd (the populist view) then we throw them in the bin. Human beings are not dogmatic yet we take away their ability to learn after they make their first mistake.

I asked Mr Tze a Chinese Triad I use to play chess with I said "Mr Tze how do I defend myself?" He said, " Do not strike." Why? He said, " you will Always underestimate your opponent." "If you project anger you will always get angry people in your life if you project happiness you will get happy people in your life. So dont scare just take two steps back." I know too that the cat always scratches back.

I met Jimmy doing 30 years because he was made an example of 30 years ago. Jimmy told me a myth. Once upon a time this little boy went walking up the cobblestone road where he met a man. The man said "Son go home and cut out your mothers heart and I will give you treasure." So the little boy went home and cut out his mothers heart and went racing up the road holding his mothers heart in his hand. The little boy slipped over grazing his knees on the cobblestones. Just then his mothers heart spoke to him saying, " dont worry son it will be alright". The moral to the story?

Your mother and father will always love you. It doesn't matter if you did not have the skills. It doesn't matter if you were a drunk. It doesn't matter if you were a junky. It doesn't matter if you were disabled. It doesn't matter if you suffered a mental illness. It doesn't matter if you are discriminated against or marginalized. It doesn't matter if people don't forgive you for your first mistake.

$500 thousand dollars of taxpayers money was spent on me in the Special Care Unit (SCU) at Long Bay Prison Complex for six months to learn from the best teachers in the world. As well as to learn from my own experience and my peers and my friends.

I majored in humanities in the University of hard knocks. Psychology, Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, Criminology, Parent Effectiveness Training, Life Skills, Conflict Resolution, Communication, Musicianship, and Law. Most people in jail never saw light of day of that unit or anything like it only because I was bright enough to challenge the systems ideology. Then why is it I am not regarded by the authorities or some beauracrats and agencies when I make a comment? Same flawed system decided you're worthless and broken. Spoilt and disposable because I made a mistake once.

What can we make out of him? A Goose? A Pawn in an Election Campaign? A Monster? Dangerous? Or just plane Bad? A law for one man perhaps? Or lets just spend $500.000 and trip him over again while he is not looking? If the taxpayers of this state worked out how much money the government spent on my good self so far it would be in the tens of thousands. Possible more than a million dollars.

Now I would like you to help me plant the seed. A human being is priceless and unique. The money has to be spent on education not on bins. That education can be provided without maximum security at a reasonable cost. Medium Secure Education and life skills will help our children grow. Leaving the State and Country less inflation like trying to teach doctors how to communicate with their patients years after they learnt how to be doctors.

Now! Who is bad?

By Gregory Kable 5 April 2002

Related:

CRC funded reports 1983-1984

Evaluation of the special care unit (at Long Bay Gaol, New South Wales)

Grantees: Dr D W Porritt, Research and Statistics Division, NSW Department of Corrective Services

Criminology Research Council grant ; (8/85)

The Special Care Unit (SCU) is a 20-bed self-contained unit within the NSW Department of Corrective Services which opened on 1 January 1980. It has a short-term goal of assisting inmates with behavioural/psychological problems to adapt to the prison environment and a long-term goal to facilitate their rehabilitation back into society. The research was designed to evaluate the short-term goal, and to provide feedback on staff and prisoner perceptions of the benefits and/or problems of the unit.

A total of 140 inmates were interviewed either at entry to the unit, at exit or at three month follow-up, as well as 24 inmates in a comparison group. Several psychological tests were also administered including the Interpersonal Behaviour Survey, Jessness Behaviour Checklist, Lovibond's Self Analysis Questionnaire and Spielberger's Tait Anxiety Scale. Interview results revealed that inmates had learnt to overcome initial apprehension about therapy groups with prison officers and were able to discuss themselves and their problems openly with most staff (including prison officers). They reported heightened self awareness and an improved ability to relate to other inmates and prison officers after leaving the unit. The results of psychometric tests showed statistically significant differences between groups but these did not have any clear interpretation.

Data were also analysed for a total of 45 questionnaires and 28 interviews from staff who had worked in the unit between April 1984 and June 1986. Staff reported enhancing their skills in working with inmates and particularly in dealing with angry or distressed prisoners.

More generally, other benefits and/or problems were reported by both staff and prisoners. The reported benefits appeared to derive from the unique environment created in the SCU when compared to the main gaol system. For instance, the high degree of mixed staffing was rated as having a 'positive effect on inmates' by 70 per cent of the staff, and none said that this had a negative effect. Some staff also reported that they felt that working in the SCU improved their prospects for promotion and improved their interpersonal and communication skills. Some staff also said it improved their communication with their families. Inmates said that the unit offered them better conditions than the main gaol system (for example, more visits and phone calls, opportunity to wear their own clothes) and claimed that they enjoyed greater freedom in the unit.

Some of the problems mentioned by staff were difficulties adjusting to the unit, the location of the unit inside the walls of a larger prison, the selection of staff and inmates not being stringent enough, and lack of training resources for staff. Staff also mentioned that they felt inmates should be provided with more support after leaving the unit. Some of the inmates said that they found it difficult to make the transition from the unit back to main gaol and would have liked more support. A few inmates mentioned that they felt the SCU program itself was very hard for them, because they found group counselling too confronting or they felt uncomfortable talking openly in a group. Many of the inmates who had these difficulties did not complete their stay in the unit. More generally, a high non-completion rate was a continuing problem for the unit with a non-completion rate of 48 per cent for the period of this evaluation. Many inmates were expelled from the unit for non-work or drug use.

In short, the research provides some support for the conclusion that the SCU achieved its short-term goals; to enhance the ability of troubled prisoners to cope with the gaol environment through improved staff-to-prisoner and prisoner-to-prisoner relations.

The report makes recommendations based on the research findings to:

improve on the number of inmates who complete the program;
help inmates with stress imposed by the program;
support inmates and staff leaving the unit;
enhance the network of available programs;
implement a procedure to provide feedback on post-exit functioning of inmates;
provide a standardised assessment for staff in the unit; and
implement performance indicators for the unit.