Category: Uncategorized

“Affluenza” controversy sparks terrific debate

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James McAuley

By Alan Bean

The debate over the Ethan Couch case isn’t over.  It’s all about the sixteen year-old who killed four people with his Ford F-350 truck while driving with  a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.  The prosecution was asking for twenty years, but Judge Jean Boyd gave the kid ten years of probation with the understanding that he would receive treatment at a posh California rehab center at the cost of $450,000/year.  During the sentencing hearing, defense counsel argued that Couch was a victim of “affluenza”.

James McAuley, a Harvard senior currently studying as a Marshall scholar at Oxford, sees the self-absorbed, amoral Couch as a symptom of white-flight myopia. McAuley is in his mid-twenties, but he has thought long and hard about the spirituality of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.  (The New York Times published his insightful piece on Dallas circa 1963 last month.)  Here’s the heart of his argument: (more…)

Judge says heat on death row is cruel and unusual

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Life at Angola State Penitentiary

By Alan Bean

In Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas there is no air conditioning on death row.  Arkansas is a blessed exception.

Those who have been following the sad saga of Herman Wallace, a prisoner at Louisiana’s Angola prison who has spent 41 years in solitary confinement, know that hellish heat is but one of the many challenges he faces.

Curtis Flowers, a death row inmate in Mississippi’s Parchman prison, has shared his own struggles with the merciless summertime heat.

Now a judge has ruled that the extreme heat afflicting inmates on Angola’s death row constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Question: why are southern states so adamant that death row inmates should be tortured mercilessly between April and November.  Is the idea to prepare them for hell?  Or is it simply a way of ducking anticipated criticism from a pitiless citizenry?

Judge rules heat levels on Angola death row subject inmates to ‘cruel and unusual punishment’

By Lauren McGaughy, NOLA.com | The Times Picayune 

Death row inmates incarcerated in unventilated cells and without access to cool water at Angola prison are being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge in Baton Rouge ruled Thursday (Dec. 19).

In a 102-page ruling handed down six months after the suit was filed, Judge Brian A. Jackson said the high heat levels on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola, violated the 8th Amendment rights of the inmates housed there.

The suit was filed on behalf of three offenders who said the extreme temperatures exposed them to a heightened risk of irreparable harm or death because of specific health issues, like high blood pressure. But Jackson said his ruling would apply to all inmates on Angola’s death row, because prison officials could “move any death row inmate to a different tier and/or cell at any time.”

“Accordingly, the court finds that a remedy aimed at ameliorating the heat conditions throughout the death row facility is necessary to adequately vindicate plaintiffs’ rights,” the ruling read. As of February 2013, there were 82 inmates housed on Angola’s death row tiers.

The defendants in the case are the Department of Public Safety and Corrections and its head, James LeBlanc; Angola Warden Burl Cain; and Assistant Warden Angelia Norwood, who oversees the death row tiers.

Jackson ordered the defendants to draw up an action plan to “reduce and maintain the heat index in the Angola death row tiers at or below 88 degrees.” The heat index takes into account both temperature and humidity levels, and is often described as “how hot it feels.”

Additionally, Jackson ordered the defendants to maintain this temperature between April 1 and Oct. 31 — the hottest months of the year in Louisiana — by monitoring and reporting the heat levels every two hours. Especially at-risk inmates must also be supplied with 24-hour access to cold water and cool showers, the ruling said.

The defendants’ action plan on how to fulfill these mandates must be submitted by Feb. 17. Plaintiffs have until March 10 to respond. By that date, the court will also have appointed a “special master” to ensure the plan is being implemented.

Corrections press secretary Pam Laborde said that the department was carefully reviewing Jackson’s ruling, but it would most likely appeal.

The suit was filed in Louisiana’s Middle District Court in Baton Rouge in June by New Orleans-based advocacy group the Promise of Justice Initiative on behalf of three convicted murderers currently housed on Angola’s death row: Elzie Ball, 60; Nathaniel Code, 57; and James Magee, 32.

All three men have high blood pressure and other health concerns they said were exacerbated by the high temperatures. The death row tiers are cooled using fans and do not have air conditioning.

During the August trial, the three plaintiffs were allowed to testify in court. Ball called the heat “indescribable” while Magee said it felt like a sauna in the morning and an oven in the afternoon. Code said he often experienced waves of dizziness and disorientation in the summer months.

Mercedes Montagnes, staff attorney for the Promise of Justice Initiative, said Thursday there was a “very positive” reaction to the ruling among her colleagues. Responding to the longer than expected period between the three-day trial and the ruling, Montagnes said she believed Jackson was “making a really considered ruling and giving everyone a fair opportunity to be heard.”

She said remedying the heat situation probably would involve installing a climate control system on the tiers. While prison officials during the trial said this would be outside of their budget to undertake, Montagnes said she thought the issue could be fixed with some “pretty minor adjustments.”

The trial was a rocky one for state and prison attorneys. At one point, Warden Burl Cain apologized after it was revealed that prison staff members had been ordered to erect awnings and spray cool water on the outside walls of the tier. Both of those actions could have irrevocably damaged temperature data the court was collecting for use in the trial.

Jackson also criticized the department for using fiscal issues as a reason for not undertaking changes to the prison’s climate controls. He reiterated this in Thursday’s ruling, saying, “Defendants’ purported financial hardships ‘can never be an
adequate justification for depriving any person of his constitutional rights.'”

Code was convicted of killing eight people, including three minors, in the mid-1980s in Shreveport. Ball killed a beer delivery man during a robbery in 1996 in Jefferson Parish. Magee was convicted in 2007 of fatally shooting his wife, Adrienne, and his 5-year-old son, Zach, near Mandeville, as well as trying to kill his two daughters.

Angola is on 18,000 acres of farmland, around 60 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. It houses 5,149 prisoners and is the state’s only maximum security prison. The prison is most commonly known for its controversial biannual prison rodeo.

Louisiana Middle District Court – Angola Heat Case Ruling 12/19/2013

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Lauren McGaughy is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at lmcgaughy@nola.com or on Twitter at @lmcgaughy.

Kiker: Balancing the budget by cutting entitlements–Part 3: Food Stamps

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By Charles Kiker

“Reforming” Social Security and Medicare does not sound nearly as threatening as “cutting benefits.” But be not fooled. “Cutting benefits” is what the “reformers” have in mind.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), popularly known as “Food Stamps”, is a third entitlement program in the cross hairs of the “reformers.” In fact, on November 1st a SNAP provision in the stimulus program expired resulting in a reduction in SNAP benefits.

There is a lot of public antipathy toward SNAP. Recipients are frequently characterized as lazy people, unwilling to work. But what are the facts?

Unemployed SNAP recipients, excepting the elderly and disabled, are required to be either actively seeking work or in some kind of job training program.

There are many working poor who receive SNAP benefits; see the income guidelines below:

Size of household   Maximum Monthly Income        Maximum Annual Income

1                             $1,245.00                                        $14,940.00

2                             $1,681.00                                        $20,172.00

3                             $2,116.00                                        $25.392.00

4                             $2,552.00                                         $30,624.00

(For each additional household member, add $436.00 to maximum monthly income and $5,232.00 to maximum annual income.) (Information from USDA website.)

There has been substantial job growth since 2009, but many of the jobs added have been minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs in the service sector. Let’s do a little math for a minimum wage worker with a household of 3. If he/she works full time at a minimum wage job, 40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, his/her annual income would be $15,080.  And how many entry level fast food or big box workers work full time? A sad but true fact is that the federal government subsidizes low wage employers by providing assistance to their employees.

We recently celebrated Veterans Day. Another sad fact is that an estimated 900,000 veterans receive SNAP benefits. Many of these are recently discharged veterans, unable to find work when they leave the armed services. Is cutting their benefits an honorable way of honoring them?

Now to personalize and localize this discussion: The unemployment rate in Swisher County for 2012 was 5.7%, well below the national average. Yet Swisher County is a poor county. Almost 77% of the students in TISD are eligible for free or reduced cost lunch. In spite of food stamps teachers and counselors notice that many children come to school hungry on Monday mornings. So there is a weekend “snack pack” program for children identified by teachers and counselors as Monday hungry kids. And the need is increasing. I have been informed that the number of kids in need of a little extra weekend food is dramatically higher this year than last. God bless the snack pack people who are seeking to provide a little weekend nutrition for these Monday hungry kids! (more…)

Balancing the budget by cutting entitlements–Part 2: Medicare

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By Charles Kiker

In a recent post I looked at Social Security as a program under scrutiny for reducing the deficit. Cutting Social Security payments, even by the relatively small cuts the chained Consumer Price Index would involve, would work hardship on the poorest half of our retired citizens.  I argued that there are other, better ways to solve any future Social Security crisis (there is no current crisis).

Without Medicare the only health care access for low-income and even many middle-income retirees would be the emergency room. Patricia and I are fortunate enough not to be in poverty, and we are fortunate to be in reasonably good health. But I have had to undergo some pretty expensive medical procedures since retirement. I have remarked that without Medicare I would be either dead or bankrupt, or maybe dead with a bankrupt widow!

Medicare is a public/private enterprise arrangement. Part A (hospitalization) has a large deductible before Medicare funds kick in. Under Part B (primarily doctor’s visits) Medicare is restricted in most instances to the first 80% of Medicare approved charges. The patient is responsible for the rest, and 20% of the costs in a major illness could result in bankruptcy for even moderately well to do people. Medicare supplement insurance policies are available but at a high cost.

Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), proposes Medicare Reform, ostensibly to reduce the deficit, by a system in which Medicare recipients would receive vouchers for a stated amount to medical insurance on the private market. This system would inevitably reduce services to the recipients, or cost the system much more than current outlays. Why? Because insurance companies would reap profits, either reducing benefits or increasing cost to the government, or more likely both. (more…)

Kiker: Balancing the Budget by Cutting Entitlements–Part 1: Social Security

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By Charles Kiker

Robert J. Samuelson, columnist for The Washington Post, has a column in the November 4, 2013 edition entitled “We need to stop coddling the elderly.”  His claim that Social Security and Medicare make up the largest portion of federal expenditures is statistically correct. In 2012 expenditures in those two programs comprised some 38% of federal outlays. But this is only a half truth. And a half truth can conceal the whole truth more effectively than an outright lie. The other half of that truth is that Social Security and Medicare are self-funding. Money out for these programs is money in. And actually more money comes in than goes out. It is projected that that surplus will cease within the next few years, but there are other ways than across the board cuts to solve that problem.

“The Social Security tax rate is currently the same for the poorest wage earner and the wealthiest.” That’s another half-truth. The tax rate is the same. But the poorest wage earner pays the SS tax on the first dollar, but the tax is capped for the wealthy, who pay only on the first $113,700 of so called earned income. Capital gains and other investment income are excluded from the SS tax. (Information from Social Security web site.) And investment income gets preferential treatment on income tax as well. Thus Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men in America, can truthfully claim that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does.

One way of maintaining the surplus in the Social Security fund would be to eliminate the distinction between earned income and investment income. Why should those who gain wealth through the machinations of their minds receive preferential treatment over those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow?

Another way would be to raise—or eliminate—the income cap on the Social Security tax. (more…)

Kiker: Jaw! Jaw!

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By Charles Kiker

Talk, talk, talk! President Obama said that for Syria to use chemical weapons against the insurgents it would be a line in the sand, and if they crossed that line there would be military consequences. The Syrians crossed that line. The president got congressional approval to bomb Syria. But he didn’t. He talked instead. He talked to Vladimir Putin. And Putin talked to the President Assad. No military action was taken against Syria.

More recently the President has sent Secretary of State John Kerry to Geneva to talk with the Iranians about their nuclear program. More talk! Jaw, jaw!

And just last week, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the President actually shook hands with Raul Castro, the dictator of Cuba. Now he didn’t have any opportunity to talk with him, but did he have to shake hands with him. He could have at least turned his back and thereby issued a diplomatic snub.

Not surprisingly, President Obama has taken a lot of flak. Since he said there would be military consequences for chemical attacks in Syria, he should have bombed Syria. There should be no lessening of sanctions while talks are underway regarding Iran’s nuclear program. And Senator McCain has been among the loudest critics of the handshake with Raul Castro. Senator McCain apparently has forgotten that he shook hands with Libyan dictator Qadafi, who ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103. And he has apparently forgotten that Republican President Nixon shook hands with Chairman Mao. (more…)

The Real Reason the Term “White Privilege” Needs to Die

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I recently read an article suggesting that when white people are told they are exhibiting “white privilege” they should express their thanks.  Although this response might be warranted, I find that suggestion psychologically naive.  This post explains why the expression “white privilege” can get in the way of effective cross-racial communication.  AGB

The Upside Down World

Want to start a fight? Put an honest white person and an honest person of color in a room together and tell them to discuss white privilege. “White privilege” is one of those phrases that means two totally different things to most white people and most people of color. Outside of colleges and and multi-cultural training seminars it is a complete conversation stopper that does nothing to illuminate anything and everything to sow seeds of enmity between races. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s a phrase that should be abandoned altogether.

“Now, wait a minute, Rebecca,” I can hear some of you saying, “you’re a white person married to an African American. You’ve even written a book which is enormously sympathetic to the perspectives and experiences of African Americans and quite critical of whites inability/unwillingness to deal with those perspectives and experiences. How can…

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Rosa Brooks: If our prisons were a county, what would Incarceration Nation look like?

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If our prisons were a country, what would Incarceration Nation look like?

By Rosa Brooks

WASHINGTON — You already know that the United States locks up a higher percentage of its population than any other country in the world. If you look at local, state and federal prison and jail populations, the United States currently incarcerates more than 2.4 million people, a figure that constitutes roughly 25 percent of the total incarcerated population of the entire world.

A population of 2.4 million is a lot of people — enough, in fact, to fill up a good-sized country. In the past, the British Empire decided to convert a good chunk of its prison population into a country, sending some 165,000 convicts off to Australia. This isn’t an option for the United States, but it suggests an interesting thought experiment: If the incarcerated population of the United States constituted a nation-state, what kind of country would it be?

Here’s a profile of Incarceration Nation:

Population size: As a country — as opposed to a prison system — Incarceration Nation is on the small side. Nonetheless, a population of 2.4 million is perfectly respectable: Incarceration Nation has a larger population than about 50 other countries, including Namibia, Qatar, Gambia, Slovenia, Bahrain and Iceland. And though the population of Incarceration Nation has dipped a bit in the last couple of years, the overall trend is toward growth: over the last 30 years, the incarcerated population of the United States has gone up by a factor of four, making Incarceration Nation’s population growth rate more than double that of India. (more…)

Starvation as a form of kindness

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Sir Charles Trevelyan

Thanks to Larry James for bringing this timely piece to my attention.  New York Times columnist Timothy Egan remembers the Christmas tours of rich and poor neighborhoods his mother conducted as part of the Christmas ritual.  This reminded me of the questions I would ask whenever my family would drive past the shacks in Yellowknife’s Old Town when I was a boy.  There were no wealthy homes in Yellowknife to drive past, but the difference between the haves and have nots was still striking.

Egan contrasts the arguments made by British aristocrats in the 19th century for cutting off aid to the victims of the Irish Potato Famine.

“The only way to prevent the people from becoming habitually dependent on government is to bring the operation to a close,” Sir Charles Trevelyan said about the relief plan at a time when thousands of Irish a day were dropping dead from hunger.

If that sounds painfully familiar, you should read on.  If it doesn’t sound painfully familiar, you haven’t been paying attention. (more…)

Phil Robertson and Megyn Kelly don’t mean to be mean

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By Alan Bean

As you must know by now, Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan, has been suspended by A&E for making anatomically explicit anti-gay comments.  Phil can’t figure out why a man would prefer a man’s anus to a woman’s vagina.  Well, that’s a unique way of framing the issue.

Significantly, Robertson’s views on race have received far less attention that his comments about gays.  Looking back on his early years, Phil told a GQ reporter that the black folks he worked with in the cotton fields were just happy, fun-lovin’, white-folk adorin’, hard workin’, God-fearin’ people until the civil rights movement and welfare messed them up.  Here’s his full comment:

I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.

This is probably too obvious to need saying, but I’ll say it anyway: African Americans in the pre-civil rights South didn’t complain to their white overlords, especially the poor whites who sometimes worked next to them.  Uttering complaints about the way you were being treated or about the heartbreaking unfairness of Jim Crow segregation was an excellent way to get fired or, if the good old boys within earshot were so inclined, lynched.

Why can’t poor Phil understand that same sex attraction is about sexual orientation, not genitalia?  And why can’t he appreciate just how offensive people of color will find his characterization of their blessed estate before visions of civil rights and welfare danced in their heads? It’s simple; Phil grew up listening to other white people tell him that blacks were perfectly happy back in the day.  “Hell, they was always equal.  All that segregation talk was just invented by liberals to make white folks feel guilty.”

If you don’t think white people in the rural South can think this way you haven’t been to places like Jena, Louisiana and Winona, Mississippi.  Slightly more sophisticated versions of this welfare-ruined-the-Negro sentiment can be heard in the posh suburbs north of Dallas (to cite but one example).

As his supporters avidly maintain, Phil wasn’t trying to be hateful or malicious; he is honestly confused by gay men and people of color. (more…)