Ohio Parole Board dysfunctional, secretive and toxic

Cleveland Democrat Shirley Smith resigned her post on the Ohio Parole Board, saying the agency is dysfunctional, secretive and toxic, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Smith, a former lawmaker who pushed through sentencing reforms, spent three years on the 12-member board but gave up the $90,000-a-year job on Dec. 31.

When she was appointed to the Parole Board in February 2015 by the Kasich administration, Smith said she quickly learned “it would be a long, bumpy ride while navigating a complex system of make-up-as-you-go policies and procedures that were not neither principled nor consistent. In my opinion and experience, the Ohio Parole Board chooses to operate as a secret society based on college roommate friendships, tenure and positions held within the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and members’ desire to maintain absolute power.”

In a four-page opinion column distributed to Ohio media, Smith blamed DRC Court and Community director Cynthia Mausser for driving members off the board with “her scheming machinations.”

Mausser, who served on the board from 2001 to 2015 and now oversees the board, was not made available for response to Smith’s allegations.

Instead, Ohio DRC issued a written statement that said parole board rules and policies are public and the department encourages employee suggestions. Additionally, state law and the constitution give crime victims certain rights in the parole process. Parole board members who meet statutory requirements are selected.

 “Director nominee Chambers-Smith will be looking to add members who will create an inclusive and diverse board. In addition, she intends to conduct a comprehensive review of board policies and procedures and welcomes input from any and all stakeholders,” the statement said.

The Parole Board has discretion over the release or retention of prisoners sentenced before a major state law change in 1996 and over roughly 3,200 inmates sentenced to life terms after 1996 for murder and sex crimes against children. It also reviews clemency requests and makes recommendations to the governor.

Board members, who are appointed by the Ohio DRC director, interview parole eligible inmates via video conference. Hearings and deliberations are closed but decisions are public records. In 2017, members were paid between $90,300 and $115,600 in salaries.

Gov. Mike DeWine’s press secretary Dan Tierney said the governor “has full faith in the director to address issues that arise at DRC. Obviously, this is a new administration and we’re just getting started.”

DeWine’s nominee for prisons director Annette Chambers-Smith has yet to be confirmed by the Ohio Senate.

Bret Vinocur of BlockParole.com, which seeks to prevent release of the “worst of the worst,” said he agrees with much of Smith’s criticism.

“We have no idea how to determine what criteria they’re using to make parole decisions,” said Vinocur, of Columbus, a citizen advocate for the past 17 years. “It’s a crap shoot. You just don’t know.”

Prisoners who go before the board say its decisions are irrational, often based on subjective and unknown criteria and sometimes based on inaccurate information.

Pickaway Correctional Inmate Bernard Keith, representing himself, took a case to the Ohio Supreme Court. In 2014, he successfully argued that the parole board acted on inaccurate information. The 6-1 decision, which reversed the 10th District Court of Appeals, held that the parole board is obligated to be sure the records used to make decisions are reasonably accurate and pertinent.

A review of Ohio Parole Board annual reports shows on average over the past eight years, parole is granted in about 10 percent of the hearings.

Vinocur explains the low rate this way: “They have paroled all the low hanging fruit. The guys in there now are horrific. Go look at the cases, they’re horrible.”

Smith, who resigned Dec. 31, recommended the following reforms:

Establish a task force to independently review the board practices and policies and recommend changes that will bring more accountability and transparency;

Add members with more diverse backgrounds, rather than loading the board with people with criminal justice resumes and hire a more racially diverse staff;

Separate the board from the prison department;

Prohibit members from voting on parole decisions if they didn’t participate in the hearings; and set clear policies for clemency considerations.

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Sessions tries to distinguish U.S. border policy from Nazi policy

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rebuffed claims that the Justice Department’s new zero-tolerance immigration policy that separates families echoed Nazi Germany  concentration camps, reported the Huffington Post.

Sessions spoke with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday and defended his agency amid a growing outcry over family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border under the new DOJ policy.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said nearly 2,000 children had been separated from their parents over a six-week period ending in May. Many of these children are being held in juvenile detention centers.

Sessions said comparisons of those centers to the Nazis camps wasn’t fair, “Well, it’s a real exaggeration, of course. In Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country,” Sessions said. The Justice Department was simply trying to deter people from crossing the border, not keep them in the U.S.

The best the attorney general could do to refute comparisons to the Nazi's is that the U.S. Government wants to keep people out of the county and the Nazi's wanted to keep them in--what a sad day in America where the U.S. Government is trying to distinguish its conduct from that of the Nazi Germany.

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$60 million spent to cover Border Patrol wrongful conduct

The U.S. government has paid out more than $60 million in legal settlements where border agents were involved in deaths, driving injuries, alleged assaults and wrongful detention, an analysis of more than a decade of official data reveals, posted The Crime Report.

The Guardian reported that President Trump has been pushing to expand the patrol force at the southern border, insisting recently on Twitter, “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws.” While Trump has ordered National Guard troops to be deployed to provide agents with extra support, the review of settlement data and details found in related court records raises concerns about the agency’s history of interactions with civilians, both native-born and immigrant.

The federal government has settled at least 20 wrongful death claims, paying more than $9 million to the families of people killed since 2003, in incidents including shooting, beating, use of Tasers and collisions with vehicles. Nearly $47 million has been paid out for damages resulting from alleged reckless driving by border agents. Of more than 1,300 such payments, a review of 40 cases with available court records found six crashes which were deadly and 18 that cited grave injuries including amputations and disability. Four people, including two U.S. citizens and a legal permanent resident, received settlements for being wrongly deported. Nine people, including three citizens, two immigrants with legal status and two tourists, received settlements for illegal detentions of between four days and two months. More than $650,000 was paid out in settlements in four cases where four people were shot by border agents and survived.

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