An anguished Folsom Prison guard committed suicide, and in the note he left behind, said his job killed him. We wrote about it today over at The American Street.

Update: Here's the latest from the Sunday (1/18) Los Angeles Times. (free subscription required.)

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California's notorious prison guards' union is hammered in a new federal report. California has the largest prison system in the country, with 161,000 inmates doing time in 32 prisons:

California's $5.3-billion penal system is plagued by a pervasive "code of silence" that protects rogue guards, corrupts recruits and is condoned by leaders who "neither understand nor care about the need for fair investigations," a federal report charged Thursday.

At the very top of California's vast Department of Corrections, officials face unrelenting pressure from the powerful prison guards union and are unwilling to discipline officers who attack inmates or engage in other misconduct, says Special Master John Hagar, a prison expert appointed by a federal judge.

The New Jersey prison guards union is petitioning the Governor to fire the head of the Department of Corrections for racially insensitive comments. Corrections Commissioner Devon Brown, an African-American, made these comments in a speech about the unfair treatment meted out by the criminal justice system to blacks and hispanics:

"This state and nation has lost a generation of young African-Americans and Hispanics, both male and female, to the criminal justice juggernaut."

"`There are those who with some degree of justification have proclaimed our prisons as being America's new plantations," he said, "for not since slavery has our country promoted policies which have visited such enormous economic and human calamity on the black community."

Our advice to the Governor: Keep Commissioner Brown. If the shoe fits.....

Reporter Fox Butterfield reports in the New York Times on the growing numbers of growing numbers of female prisoners:

Nationally, from 1993 through 2002, while overall crime was falling, the number of women arrested rose 14.1 percent, according to the F.B.I.'s Uniform Crime Report. In the same period, the number of men arrested fell 5.9 percent.

Some individual crimes show even more striking disparities. While the number of men arrested on charges of aggravated assault fell 12.3 percent in the decade, the number of women arrested on the same charge rose 24.9 percent. Drug arrests rose 34.5 percent for men in this period, 50 percent for women. And the number of women arrested on embezzlement charges increased 80.5 percent, actually surpassing the number of men arrested on the same charges, the only crime for which that is true.

Similarly, from 1990 through 2002, the number of women in state and federal prisons jumped 121 percent, to 97,491 from 44,065, said Allen J. Beck, the chief prison demographer for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. By comparison, the number of men in state and federal prisons rose 84 percent in that period, to 1,343,164 from 729,840.

What's behind the trend? Butterfield tries to explain.

Texas authors are rightfully upset by the sudden enforcement of a ban against visiting prison inmates.

A long-standing but little known Texas Department of Criminal Justice policy prohibiting nonacademic book authors from interviewing privileges was suddenly being enforced. No exceptions.

...."We are legitimate media," said [Suzy] Spencer, who has penned three true-crime books. "We're not out to damage TDCJ. We're just out to do our jobs. I don't see why if AP gets an interview, we should not be able to."

They have enlisted the support of the National Writers Union and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, both of which wrote letters of protest to prison system general counsel Carl Reynolds. "We find it ironic that you would seek to limit access to the very journalists who have the ability to provide the most thorough and detailed accounts of criminal cases," wrote Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee. "This criterion is arbitrary and unfair to nonfiction book authors."

The change in policy seems to be due to a change in leadership of the prison system's public information office. The new public information director says authors usually take more time to conduct interviews and he doesn't want to have to use his staff to monitor writers--or to have to verify credentials.

How's this for a catch-22?

[Director] Viesca pointed out that book authors are free to write an inmate and request to be put on his or her approved visitor list. That would allow them more contact with the inmate than most reporters get. But Casey said visitors, unlike members of the press, are not allowed to bring in notepads, pens and tape recorders, rendering an interview almost worthless.

We think Viesca's title should be changed from "public information director " to "public information suppressor."

California's prison guard union has been out of control for a long time. And it's not getting any better. Read this chilling article in today's LA Times (free subscription required)

Five years ago, after prison scandals gripped California with tales of guards setting up inmates in human cockfights and then shooting them dead, the state Department of Corrections vowed to change its ways.

Whistle-blowers would be protected, not punished. Internal investigators would be encouraged to pursue abusive guards. And the correctional officers union no longer would have a hand in dictating policy.

That new day never came, interviews and documents show.....the Corrections Department remains troubled by allegations that rogue guards still go unpunished, union bosses continue to exert strong influence, and top administrators still thwart whistle-blowers.

Here's some background on the California prison guard problem....and how Gray Davis became beholden to it. As we said a few months ago,

Some suggest turning to private prisons. The prison guards union has objected to that. We have a better idea. Reduce the number of inmates. Release the drug and non-violent offenders. Home detention and electronic monitoring is another option.

We're glad Gov. Arnold is considering this solution.

This is music to our ears. Governor Arnold is making some good suggestions about shortening criminal sentences as a means of dealing with the state's fiscal crisis.

The changes would reverse years of a get-tough policy on criminals under California's last three governors, and could face opposition from Republican lawmakers who make up a minority in the Legislature.

A top Schwarzenegger aide, in a briefing with reporters, said the new Republican governor is at the "very, very preliminary" stage of considering whether to ask lawmakers to shorten sentences for lesser crimes and increase reliance on alternative punishments.

....corrections officials project as many as 25,000 of the state's 161,000 inmates could be safely released, but he cautioned: "The vast majority of our inmates are in there for serious crimes. Those are not being looked at (for early release) at all." The Bee reported Saturday it obtained internal memos showing the administration is considering abolishing parole for nonviolent inmates. The move would save $231 million a year by 2005-06.

California is not alone in reviewing this option. Twenty-five states have replaced mandatory minimum sentences with programs that substitute treatment, rehabilitation or early-release over long prison sentences. The shift away from "get tough" sentencing has been led mostly by Republican lawmakers who are faced with a state budget crisis and are unwilling to increase taxes to build more prisons.

One in every 32 adults is now on probation, parole or incarcerated. There are far better and cheaper alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders. We hope that Democratic candidates across the country take notice and add this to their platforms.

There's a new report on felony disenfranchisement: Punishing at the Polls: The Case Against Disenfranchising Citizens with Felony Convictions (PDF) by Alec Ewald, for De-mos, a non-partisan, non-profit public policy research and advocacy organization.

The report is 62 pages and includes the historical basis for disenfranchising felons, the U.S. historical development, the present status with stats and the current trends. You might want to print out pages 14 to 21. From the preface:

Check out Jeb Bush's comments as he spoke to the inmates Wednesday at the inauguration of Florida's first faith-based prison:

During the dedication ceremony, many of the prisoners jumped to their feet, smiled brightly and clapped in rhythm as a gospel singer performed "His Eye is on the Sparrow." Some shouted "Sing it!" and "Amen!"

Bush told the inmates, "I can't think of a better place to reflect on the awesome love of our lord Jesus than to be here at Lawtey Correctional. God bless you."

While many prisoners loudly applauded Bush, some remained seated throughout the ceremony, staring straight ahead with no expression.

We're surprised no one booed. Oh, right, those who didn't want to participate were given the option of transferring out before inaugural day. Where's the ACLU on this? Right here:

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, called the prison program part of "a major constitutional showdown on the legality of his preference to replace government programs with religious programs." He said the ACLU is waiting for the results of a test case challenging a state law authorizing school vouchers, which 85 percent of recipients use to enroll in religious schools.

So how is a faith-based prison different from all other prisons? Here's the revised daily schedule at the prison according to Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino.

Here's an update on Jeb Bush's attempt to install 'faith-based' prisons in Florida. Our background post on the issue from Dec. 3, when Ashcroft went to Florida to push the program, is here, .

It's not just Jeb. GW wants to institutionalize religious bias as well, as we reported here.

Bush is trying to get Congress to exempt religious groups from adhering to anti-discrimination laws on hiring policies. He wants the groups to be able to discriminate based on religion and sexual orientation.

Jeri Becker will be paroled, after all. She's served 23 years on a murder conviction. Last year the parole board granted her parole, but Gray Davis reversed it one month before he left office. The board has again granted Ms. Becker parole, and Gov. Arnie will not reverse it.

Schwarzenegger's role in Becker's release signals a momentous shift from the prior administration of Gov. Gray Davis who was widely lambasted for second-guessing his own appointees on the parole board by routinely overturning parole decisions.

In Becker's case, the state Board of Prison Terms granted her parole last year; Davis reversed that decision last October -- a month before his re- election. The board granted her parole again on July 30. On Monday, Schwarzenegger issued a statement declining to review the decision. Out of 18 cases to date, Schwarzenegger has approved or taken no action in six cases. He has reversed parole in all the other cases except one, which he sent back to the board for additional review.

Of the 267 inmates convicted of murder who were granted parole during Davis' term in office, he released only eight including three women who said they killed their victims after years of abuse.

New York Governor George Pataki has issued a posthumous pardon to comedian Lenny Bruce.

Comedian Lenny Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon by Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday for a nearly 40-year-old obscenity conviction prompted by a foul-mouthed political commentary. Pataki, a third-term Republican, called his decision to issue the first posthumous pardon in New York state history "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."

The campaign to win a pardon for the groundbreaking 1960s comedian was supported by his ex-wife and daughter, more than two dozen First Amendment lawyers and entertainers including Robin Williams, the Smothers Brothers and Penn and Teller. Floyd Abrams, a leading First Amendment lawyer and member of the campaign, said Pataki's decision "is really a major step forward in recognizing the mistreatment of Lenny Bruce personally and of the First Amendment that Bruce defended."

It's time for justice for Lenny Bruce. In May, we wrote this detailed post supporting the pardon quest,