Halfway House

Hospitals & Asylums

Judicial Delinquency (JD)

To Amend Chapter 6 Freedmen’s Hospital, set a legal limit of 250 prisoners per 100,000 residents, ratify the Optional Protocol to the against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, transfer the entire federal Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) to community corrections programs, purchase 59,000 halfway houses from foreclosure auctions over 10 years, license 207,090 trained, full-time parole and probation officers and social workers, pass a Human Right Amendment and 10 Year Community Based Corrections Equality Plan Amendment to Civil Rights Statute.

Be the Democratic and Republican (DR) prison party be dissolved, Referred to the American Probation and Parole Association

1^st Draft 2004 & 2005, 2^nd 31 January 2006, 3^rd 30 January 2007, 4^th 7 August 2007, 5^th 31 January 2008, 6^th 25 January 2009

1.This Halfway House Act replaces the repealed sections of Freedmen’s Hospital 24USC(6)§261-270. Forerunner of the Howard University Hospital, Freedmen's Hospital served the black community in the District of Columbia for more than a century. First established in 1862 on the grounds of the Camp Barker, 13th and R Streets, NW, Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum cared for freed, disabled, and aged blacks. In 1863, the Hospital & Asylum was placed under Dr. Alexander Augusta (1825-1890), the first African-American to head a hospital. After the Civil War, it became the teaching hospital of Howard University Medical School, established in 1868, while remaining under federal control.

2. The US prison population quintupled between 1980 and 2000. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that there were 4,151,125 probationers, 713,990 in jail, 1,421,911 in prison and another 765,355 on parole for a total correctional supervision population of 6,996,500 in 2004. In 1980 the US was a model judiciary with 503,586 prisoners (220 per 100,000). As the result of mandatory minimum sentencing legislation the prisoner population steadily increased over 400% to 2,085,620 (707 per 100,000) in 2004. Over the past year, the female population in state or federal prison increased 2.6 percent while the number of male inmates rose 1.9 percent. By year's end, 7% of all inmates were women. Racial disparities among prisoners persist. In the 25-29 age group, 8.1% of black men - about one in 13 – were behind bars, compared with 2.6% of Hispanic men and 1.1% of white men. The US prison population comprised 24% of the 9 million global prison population although the general US population of 300 million is only 4.5% of the world’s 6.6 billion population.

3. The US has the densest concentration of prisoners in the world with an average of 756 prisoners per 100,000 citizens as of year end 2007. The Russian Federation is the second with 629 prisoners per 100,000. As the result of the large number of people still detained from the genocide of 1994 Rwanda is third with 604 prisoners per 100,000. The US has the highest prison population in the world with 2,293,157 people behind bars. China, the world’s most populated country, and second largest prison population detained 1,565,771 as of 6 December 2007. For the US to achieve the international norm of (250 per 100,000) the total number of local jail, state and federal prison beds must be limited to less than 740,000. 1 million is good goal. Certain states saw more significant changes in prison population in 2006. Georgia had the biggest decrease, losing 4.6%, followed by Maryland with a 2.4% decrease and Louisiana with a 2.3% drop. Montana and Kentucky were next in line with increases of 10.4% and 7.9%, respectively. In South Dakota, the number of inmates increased 11% over the past year, more than any other state. The State by State Prison Brief reveals that Texas, and Louisiana, have the most serious problems with prison population rates over 1,000 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. Maine is the only State to have a prison population less than 300 per 100,000.

4. Whereas liberating such a large number of people to community corrections programs and halfway houses safely can only be accomplished with the undivided co-operation of the state and federal government, it is proposed in §41 of Chapter 2 to pass a Justice of the Peace Amendment to the US Constitution. As it applies to community corrections the amendment states, “Section 6 States shall probate and parole criminal offenders to halfway houses and equal employment opportunity programs to safely and sustain ably meet international minimum standards of detention under the 8^th and 14^th Amendments”. Two other Congressional Amendments of Civil Rights Statute in the United States Code are proposed in this Chapter at §270B-1 Human Rights Amendment and §270B-2 10 Year Community Based Corrections Equality Plan Amendment. The Human Rights Amendment will help to integrate the Committees of the Human Rights Council into the system of institutions safeguarding our liberty and set the stage for the abolition of the death penalty, optional protocol against torture, and equality of women through the ratification of human rights Protocols. The 10 Year Community Based Corrections Equality Plan Amendment cuts the prison population in half to less than 1 million in 10 years so that there would be 100,000 fewer prison and 100,000 more halfway house beds every year until the nation had approached the legal limit of 250 prisoners per 100,000. Politicians from jurisdictions over the legal limit of 250 prisoners per 100,000 citizens shall not be permitted to run for high office in the federal or state government unless they make substantial progress on this mathematically quantifiable gauge of liberty without jeopardizing the security of their citizens.

5. It is imperative that the United States ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 4 February 2003 to establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Human Rights Watch Sentencing Project Summary of Losing the Rights to Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement in the United States reports, the expansion of suffrage to all sectors of the population is one of the United States’ most important political triumphs. Once the privilege of wealthy white men, the vote is now a basic right held as well by the poor and working classes, racial minorities, women and young adults. Four states (Maine, Massachusetts, Utah, Vermont) do not disenfranchise convicted felons. In forty-six states and the District of Columbia, criminal disenfranchisement laws deny the vote to all convicted adults in prison. Thirty-two states also disenfranchise felons on parole; twenty-nine disenfranchise those on probation. And, due to laws that may be unique in the world, in fourteen states even ex-offenders who have fully served their sentences remain barred for life from voting.

6. To improve regulation states must account for both state prison and county jail populations so that numerical goals for state prison population reduction can be enforced. Community corrections should be placed on the state and local ballots where it is needed to ensure popular support for the programs. These programs should greatly reduce the cost of corrections and reduce the crime rate and recidivism by treating the wayward with the respect and dignity they have often never enjoyed. Paying work programs, such as urban renewal and employment counseling are an important way for these residents to gain self respect and learn a trade with which to lead a crime free life. It is hoped that the population of correctional employees shall shift from 476,000 corrections officers and 84,000 probation and parole officers in 2002 to 250,000 corrections officers and 300,000 probation and parole officers, most staffing community corrections shelters. To federally finance this transition the $3.3 billion Justice Assistance Grant program must be transferred from unspecified, treasonous, police programs to community corrections programs so as not to finance armed forces, redress the prison problem and create a model community correction program.

Concentration of prisoners per 100,000 citizens

100,000 x prison population / total population = prisoners per 100,000

ie. 100,000 x 2.2 million / 300 million = 733 prisoners per 100,000

7. When the total number of state, local and federal detainees from a county or any other geographic region, exceeds 250 prisoners per 100,000 citizens that area must found enough halfway beds for the more harmless sentenced prisoners to serve their time on probation or parole in the community corrections system to reduce the prison population below the acceptable legal limit of 250 prisoners per 100,000. The state and federal governments must make it very clear, in their language, in their actions, and their finance, that they require a normal rate of incarceration and to achieve such a goal safely there is no alternative to the halfway house. Community corrections costs only around $5,000 a year, per capita, while incarceration costs $25,000. These individuals would then be free to participate in the labor market and the United States would not only fulfill the promise that America is the land of the free, but would earn tax revenues. We will have to be careful to reinvest with the consent of the governed and co-operation with the local democracy. Ideally residents would be informed of new halfway houses in their neighborhood and given the opportunity to express their grievances and vote to accept or reject the proposal.

8. To achieve the goal of 250 detainees per 100,000 residents it is estimated that a total of 1.5 million prisoners would need to be released to 57,985 halfway houses, with an average of 25 beds. To sustain a level of staffing of one per seven for twenty four hours a day supervision, it can be calculated that there is demand for 207,090 trained, full-time parole and probation officers and social workers to staff these new halfway houses. For a nation of 300 million this should not be hard to absorb. There are as many houses at government foreclosure auctions as there are prisoners in need of release to a bed in a halfway house. If the government would purchase the equivalent of 4% of their own auctions they could get out of prison in one to ten years.

State by State Detention and Need for Community Corrections 30.6.2005

Rank	Correction Agency	Total Prison Pop. in 1999	State Prison Pop.	Local Jail Population	per 00,000	Executions since 1976	Estimated Need for Community Beds/Houses
	US Military	25,000				0 yes
	Federal	179,220	N/a	N/a	58	3
1	Maine	3,608	2,063	1,545	273	0	303/12
2	Minnesota	15,422	8,399	7,023	300	0	2,570/102
3	Rhode Island	3,364	N/a	N/a	313	0 yes	677/27
4	Vermont	1,975	N/a	N/a	317	0	417/17
5	New Hampshire	4,184	2,456	1,728	319	0	905/36
6	Massachusetts	22,778	10,159	12,619	356	0	6,782/271
7	North Dakota	2,288	1,344	944	359	0	695/28
8	Iowa	12,215	8,578	3,637	412	0	4,803/192
9	Nebraska	7,406	4,308	3,098	421	3	3,008/120
10	West Virginia	8,043	3,966	4,077	443	0	3,504/140
11	Hawaii	5,705	N/a	N/a	447	0	2,614/101
12	Washington	29,225	16,532	12,693	465	4	13,512/541
13	Utah	11,514	4,775	6,739	466	6	5,337/214
14	New York	92,769	63,234	29,535	482	0 yes	44,652/1,786
15	Illinois	64,735	44,669	20,066	507	12	32,814/1,313
16	Montana	4,923	2,658	2,265	526	2	2,583/103
17	Oregon	19,318	12,769	6,549	531	2	10,223/409
18	New Jersey	46,411	28,790	17,621	532	0 yes	24,601/984
19	Connecticut	19,087	N/a	N/a	544	1	10,315/413
20	Ohio	65,123	44,270	19,853	559	19	35,998/1,440
21	Kansas	15,972	9,068	6,904	582	0 yes	9,111/365
22	Pennsylvania	75,507	41,052	34,455	607	3	44,409/1,776
23	North Carolina	53,854	36,683	17,171	620	39	32,139/1,286
24	South Dakota	4,827	3,395	1,432	622	0 yes	2,887/115
25	Maryland	35,601	23,215	12,386	636	5	21,606/864
26	Indiana	39,959	22,392	17,567	637	16	24,277/971
27	District of Columbia	3,552	N/a	N/a	645	0	2,175/87
28	Wisconsin	36,154	21,850	14,304	653	0	22,313/893
29	Michigan	67,132	49,014	18,118	663	0	41,818/1,673
30	Arkansas	18,693	12,568	6,125	673	27	11,749/470
31	California	246,317	164,179	82,138	682	11	156,025/6,241
32	Wyoming	3,515	1,964	1,551	690	1	2,242/90
33	Alaska	4,678	4,613	65	705	0	3,019/120
34	Missouri	41,461	31,000	10,461	715	66	26,964/1,079
35	Kentucky	30,034	13,273	16,761	720	2	19,605/784
36	Colorado	33,955	20,317	13,638	728	1	22,295/892
37	Tennessee	43,678	19,445	24,233	732	1	28,761/1,150
38	Nevada	18,265	11,155	7,110	756	11	12,225/489
39	Virginia	57,444	31,020	26,424	759	94	38,523/1,541
40	New Mexico	15,081	6,567	8,514	782	1	10,260/410
41	Idaho	11,206	7,419	3,787	784	1	7,633/305
42	Arizona	47,974	32,495	15,479	808	22	33,131/1,325
43	Delaware	6,916	N/a	N/a	820	14	4,808/192
44	South Carolina	35,298	23,072	12,226	830	35	24,666/987
45	Florida	148,521	84,901	63,620	835	60	104,054/4,162
46	Alabama	40,561	25,418	15,143	890	34	29,168/1,167
47	Oklahoma	32,593	23,008	9,585	919	79	23,727/949
48	Mississippi	27,902	16,480	11,422	955	6	20,597/824
49	Texas	223,195	156,661	66,534	976	355	166,024/6,641
50	Georgia	92,647	47,682	44,965	1,021	39	69,962/2,799
51	Louisiana	51,458	19,591	31,867	1,138	27	40,154/1,606
	US Totals	2,193,798	1,259,905	747,529	737	1002 as of 6 Dec. 2005	1,449,633/ 57,985

Sanders, Tony J. Halfway House. Chapter 6. Hospitals & Asylums. 25 January 2009. www.title24uscode.org/corrections.doc

Test questions www.title24uscode.org/cortest.doc