August 2017 – Helenawinds

Montana Senate Bill 63, The Constitution and The Gestapo

Montana Senate Bill 63 was introduced and passed by the 2017 Legislature by request of The Commission on Sentencing. Unfortunately, this bill will have a chilling effect on the constitutional rights of all defendants. If only the creators of this bill knew what they were actually doing, the creators of this bill would be appalled. The creators of this bill have no idea the underlying use of Senate Bill 63.

Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

CONSTITUTION
of the
STATE OF MONTANA
PREAMBLE
We the people of Montana grateful to God for the quiet beauty of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of our rolling plains, and desiring to improve the quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations do ordain and establish this constitution.

ARTICLE II
DECLARATION OF RIGHT

Sectn 24. RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED. In all criminal prosecutions the accused
shall have the right to appear and defend in person and by counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation; to meet the witnesses against him face to face; to have process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, and a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed, subject to the right of the state to have a change of venue for any of the causes for which the defendant may obtain the same.

The heart of Senate Bill 63 is an act allowing the early termination of remaining portions of deferred or suspended sentences. In the case of deferred sentencing, the offender can be released from supervision after serving two years or one-half of the sentence, whichever is less. In the case of a suspended sentence, the offender can be released from supervision after serving 3 years or two-thirds of the time suspended, whichever is less. Conditional release can be granted as soon as the probationer has completed 9 months. This sounds really good!! The caveat to this bill is the defendant has to pay all restitution and court-ordered financial obligations in full. This caveat will be used as a tool to induce defendants to plead guilty or accept a plea bargain rather than exercise their constitutional rights to a trial, wherein they could be found not guilty. Let me explain how this bill is nothing but a tool for prosecutors.

A defendant that exercises their constitutional right to a trial will, through the arbitrary decision of the judge or request of the county attorney, be charged for the cost of the trial. These costs include the time of the county attorney, witness fees and expenses, investigator costs, jury costs, the cost of the judges' time and defense attorney charges and expenses. This can amount to thousands and thousands of dollars. The prosecutor comes in like the Gestapo and, with steel-toed boots, uses this Senate Bill to induce the defendant, with provisions of an early release from supervision, to plead guilty and not incur the expenses of paying for a trial. If they request a trial the defendant can never get early release from supervision because they can't pay all court-ordered financial obligations. The cost of exercising constitutional rights can amount to a lifetime sentence because the county attorney then places liens on all property of the defendant to pay for the trial. You choose, early release because there are no court-ordered financial obligations or a lifetime of paying court-ordered financial obligations and no chance of early release. This is the choice offered by Senate Bill 63.

Senate Bill 63 has only provided a tool to prosecutors. Defendants can exercise their constitutional right to a trial and get a lifetime sentence paying for the cost of the trial. Or, they can figuratively be kicked with steel-toed Gestapo boots into accepting a plea for early release of supervision as provided by Senate Bill 63 because there are no court-ordered financial obligations.

The creators of this bill have no idea of the underlying use of this bill. The underlying use will be used to induce defendants to plead guilty, waive their constitutional rights and, in many cases, innocent people will be convicted. All with the promise of early release and no court-ordered financial obligations.

Senate Bill 63 ushers in the Gestapo and disposes of this preamble:
CONSTITUTION
of the
STATE OF MONTANA
PREAMBLE
We the people of Montana grateful to God for the quiet beauty of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of our rolling plains, and desiring to improve the quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations do ordain and establish this constitution.

Montana Senate Bill 64 & Montana Dept of Corrections – Unicorns Included

Senate Bill 64 is an act, requested by the Commission on Sentencing, revising the Board of Pardons and Parole and revising Probation and Parole to reduce recidivism.

I believe that most of the members on the Commission on Sentencing are very sincere in their wish to create a better outcome for the people entrapped in an antiquated correctional system.  Unfortunately, these very sincere people do not know the real obstacle in the path the majority of parolees take when released on parole.

Parolees have spent many years living in a harsh, hard, violent environment.  They have spent years in a hyper-vigilant state.  Many of these prisoners had at least one mental health issue before being incarcerated and it is fair to say all those incarcerated experience some mental health issue due to the conditions they have endured.

From January through June, 2017, there was 379 paroles granted, excluding those paroled to a federal retainer.  55% percent of the 379 were paroled to a pre-release center before going to probation and parole.  The stay at a pre-release center is usually 6-8 months.

If you read my last post you will know the qualifications to supervise parolees at a pre-release center is a high school diploma or GED.  Parolees, straight from prison, with mental health issues and in hyper-vigilant states are being supervised by someone with a high school diploma.  This GED or high school diploma does not, in anyway, prepare a person to help a parolee make a successful transition.

Montana Department of Corrections

HOW MONTANA’S PROBATION AND PAROLE SYSTEM WORKS

About 56 percent of men and 46 percent of women return to a corrections program within the first year.

The first year is a critical time for a parolee for successful reentry. 55% of parolees, the first year, are under the supervision of someone totally unprepared to help a hyper-vigilant person, with mental health issues, that has lived and survived a harsh, violent environment. Then the Department of Corrections gives statistics that 56% of men and 46% of women return to a corrections facility within one year after requiring them to spend the greater portion of that first year under the supervision of someone totally unprepared to supervise them. This private contract facility is not even required to report to the Montana Department of Corrections the classes, counseling or medication given the parolee when the parolee transitions from pre-release to probation and parole. 55% of parolees are sent to pre-release and 56% of parolees return to prison within one year.

Senate Bill 64 requires a 5 member board for the Board of Pardons and Parole. With an annual salary of about $90,000.00 per board member, the State of Montana will spend almost a half a million dollars annually to professionalize the board. Then this professional board sends the majority of parolees to a pre-release center that almost guarantees their failure for reentry.

If you believe this bill will reduce recidivism, then you are waiting for a unicorn to bring you a rainbow ice cream cone. You cannot expect a successful reentry when a mentally ill parolee is supervised by someone with a high school diploma or GED. The very sincere people sitting on the board of the Commission on Sentencing cannot be aware of the true obstacle confronting the parolee — Pre-Release.

A Reader’s Digest version of a better plan: If we parole 800 people a year and 55% (440 people) go to Pre-Release at $57.00 per day, we are spending $25,000 a day for the equivalence of high school supervision. At $25,000.00 a day for 210 days (7 months per person) we are spending $5,250,000.00 per year for the equivalence of high school supervision. Take the half a million dollars for the new Board of Pardons and Parole that send the parolees to the equivalence of high school supervision, we would have $5,750,000.00 to divide between 800 parolees. Each parolee would get $7,200.00 for housing, education, job training and medication for a successful reentry. They could be set up with Medicaid, SNAP, and appropriate and required social services for a successful reentry rather then leaving a pre-release with no funds, training, education, social services or even a place to live.

Rather than spend tax dollars on exorbitant salaries for CEO’s of Pre-Release Centers, $250,000.00 to $330,000.00 per year salaries, and salaries for supervisor’s with a high school education, spend the money directly on the parolee and provide them the necessary tools for a successful reentry. The funds could be administered by the reentry program within the Department of Corrections.

Let’s stop waiting for the unicorns and actually spend the money directly on the parolee.

Welcome to Montana Board of Pardons and Parole – The definition of insanity

Montana has made changes within the Board of Pardons and Parole (BOPP) using a justice reinvestment approach and implementing Senate Bill 64. The justice approach, addressing concerns of arbitrary decisions (remember this term), replaced volunteer board members with Governor appointed, well paid board members. The three board members are paid approximately $90,000.00 each. This is a salary increase of a quarter of a million dollars during state level 4 budget cuts.

The three newly appointed, professional board members are as follows:

Scott Cruse. Mr. Cruse is a retired FBI Supervising Agent from Helena MT. Zach Gervais, a Native American from Browning MT, should not have died. Zach's killer had previously stabbed two people on the Blackfoot Reservation in unprovoked attacks, stabbing one man at least nine times. Even though most everybody in Browning knew the assailant and where he lived, Mr. Cruse failed to make an arrest for the murders for seven months. Only after Zach Gervais, in yet another unprovoked attack, was killed did Mr. Cruse take action and arrest the assailant. If there was two murders in the neighborhood of Supreme Court Judge Mike Mcgrath you can be assured the assailant would not go at large for seven months to kill another judge. Scott Cruse said they were just too busy to get the murder suspect arrested. Zach Gervais should not have died because he did not live in Judge McGrath's neighborhood.

Annette Carter. Ms Carter was previously employed with Probation and Parole, most recently as the Reentry Program Manager in the Director's Office. Reentry refers to the offender transitioning from a correctional facility to the community. Annette Carter has repeatedly stated that since Pre-Release Centers are private, contracted facilities they are not required to provide offender records from the contracted facility to The Montana Department of Corrections. Essentially, Montana Department of Corrections has no records as to how the offender responded to authority, interactions with other offenders and the public at large. There are no records as to job performance in the community or how the offender responded to treatment. I addressed this issue, March 4, in a blog titled Montana Department of Corrections - A Shameful Failure. How can you successfully complete your job as reentry manager if you don't know the issues and needs of the offender? Oh wait, you need records for that information! You can't successfully complete the job.

Mike Batista. As Administrator for the Department of Justice Investigations, he allowed his investigators to falsify or omit crucial information when applying for search warrants. He allowed his investigators to aid and abet other investigators to cover up their actions in omitting crucial information for search warrant applications. As Director for the Department of Corrections, he was directly responsible for the overcrowding of Crossroads Correctional Facility and he allowed the unprecedented revocations of offenders, particularly those of Native American descent, to overcrowd all correctional facilities. See my previous post, The Real Legacy of Mike Batista.

These three board members have released many serious offenders to Parole status based on certain conditions. These standard conditions are taken directly from the BOPP website: Parole upon completion of Pre-release. Regular Chemical Dependency counseling; regular Mental Health counseling; comply with court ordered conditions; restricted from entering any place where gambling takes place; shall not enter any place where intoxicants are the chief item of sale; restricted from participating in any medical marijuana program.

Parolees are transitioned to private, contract Pre-Release Centers where arbitrary decisions, made by unqualified personnel, decide whether the offender is transitioning properly. These "arbitrarily decided" incarceration records from these private, contract centers are not transferred to Probation and Parole when the offender transitions to community supervision. The Probation and Parole officer has to make arbitrary decisions as to whether the parolee is allowed to continue parole or be revoked because they do not know whether the parolee successfully completed prerelease.

The following are qualifications for Resident Assistants at CCCS Inc, known as Butte Prerelease. Resident Assistants are the eyes and ears for recording how the offender responds to authority, interacts with other offenders and the public at large. These qualifications are taken directly from the website for CCCS: CCCS, Inc. is accepting applications for the following positions: Resident Assistant, Client Technician, and Security Technicians, at all of our SW Montana facilities. The entry level positions provide supervisory, security, transportation, and recreation services as required by the individual program. These positions requires High School diploma or equivalent.

The qualifications for working at Town Pump:
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:High school diploma or general education degree (GED); and related experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole transitioned from volunteer board members to a quarter of a million dollar, Governor appointed board because of concerns of arbitrary decisions. These board members come with serious background job performance. BOPP then send parolees with serious offenses, to private, contract facilities where arbitrary decisions are made by unqualified personnel with a high school diploma or a GED. These serious offenders are then released into the community, supervised by probation officers that have to make arbitrary decisions based on not knowing how the offender responded to treatment or even what treatment the offender received at the prerelease center. We could just release these offenders to Town Pump and have the same outcome.

Parole should be granted. Many offenders have been incarcerated for too many years. The State of Montana will now pay a quarter of a million dollars a year to address concerns of arbitrary decisions, only to send parolees to prerelease centers where arbitrary decisions are made by someone with a high school diploma and then onto community supervision where parole officers make arbitrary decisions because they don't have the records of the arbitrary decisions made at prerelease. So what did BOPP accomplish? Nothing.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.