Nevada Cure to the ACAJ: Revise the entire Nevada criminal sentencing system

As presented to the Advisory Committee on the Administration of Justice (ACAJ), August 31st, 2016 (postponed to Sept. 12th)

Nevada Cure Position on the NV Criminal Sentencing System, part 2 (8-31-2016)

Nevada Cure presentation to ACAJ 8-31-2016 Sources

Nevada Cure Position on the NV Criminal Sentencing System, part 1 (05-06-2016)

To NDOC: STOP RETALIATION against prisoner for filing grievances and lawsuits

The grievance process in prisons was ESTABLISHED TO GIVE PRISONERS A LEGITIMATE MEANS OR AIRING THEIR COMPLAINTS - as a direct result of the Attica Rebellion (1971). The Attica Rebellion occurred because prisoner had a no legitimate means of having their grievances and complaints heard by the prison administration.

NV-CURE would like to see the NDOC STOP RETALIATION against prisoner for filing grievances and lawsuits.

NV-CURE has been trying to stop this retaliation for a very long period to time.  Nothing has been done to stop it.  The retaliation has not stopped and has, in fact, increased. Something must be done.

We want the retaliation in Nevada prisons to stop and we would sincerely appreciate the Director taking action to stop it. 

Below is a letter from a prisoner at Ely State Prison (ESP) about retaliation by guards to prisoners who speak up on the conditions inside:

Retaliation is running rampant within NDOC.

7-29-2016

Because I wrote grievances and letters to the Director regarding the conditions in Unit 8 at S.D.C.C., when Assistant Warden (AW) Adams received a copy of the letters I had written to Director Dzurenga, I was put on a special trans[port] to Ely State Prison (ESP) within a week and when I arrived at ESP, I was confronted by Sgt. Manning [whom] I had sued in 2008, and [I was] verbally threatened, then he told all the officers in the area:

"This one likes to take you to court, make sure he gets special treatment,"

and when I received my property two days later, many items were missing, including such things as my CD-player, AC/DC adaptor, beard trimmers and other small items like bowls, watch, etc.

All of the appliances were on my property card and were inventoried prior to transfer, but they have now vanished.

Property officers also removed my heart- and bloodpressure medication from my property and now I have gone eleven (11) days so far without any medication even after filing an Emergency Grievance and kites to Medical.

Now let me tell you about the food that is being served here at ESP now.

Meals are now served on small styrofoam trays (very small), the portions have been cut down to maybe a quarter of regular, and now we are served only items like hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken patties every day.

Tonight's dinner was one chicken patty, eight french fries and a bun, no desserts or anything. Lunch was two slices of bologna, four slices of bread, and two crackers period. Breakfast was one fried egg, five  tater tots, two table spoons of oatmeal and the same of fruit cocktail. This is no way nutritionally adequate compared to a 2000 calorie diet standard set by federal guidelines for dietary standards. 

I have begun the grievance process on both of these issues and fully intend to file a lawsuit regarding this and other issues like my disciplinary hearing where I was denied witnesses after I filed grievances regarding conditions,...

John Witherow's grievance on prisoners with HIV being housed separately (AR610)

THis is a grievance filed in 2007, by John Witherow (now Director of Nevada-Cure) about discrimination against him and persons infected with HIV, His text is posted below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B07-M217YPaXUm9OOHVKc2pGWTdwYjNsUzZkeGVFYVZjWVEw/view?usp=sharing

Nevada Department of Corrections
Informal Grievance

By: John Witherow, #29313
Nevada State Prison, unit 11c11
Date: 1-6-2007

Lognr: GR 2007-4-655

Grievant's Statement:
The NDOC unconstitutionally discriminates against me and persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

AR610, HIV Status & A.I.D. Syndrome (8/25/03), discriminates against persons infected with the HIV by requiring that person to live in a cell only with another person infected with HIV.

AR 610.01.1.4.2.4, pg. 4. The regulation contains no provisions allowing a person infected with HIV to live in a cell with a person not infected with HIV when the non-infected person is aware of the HOV-status of the other person and those persons voluntarily request/consent to live together in the same cell. That is housing discrimination.

There is no legitimate or reasonable penological purpose of goal served by requiring a person infected with HIV to live only with another person infected with HIV. HIV is transmitted from one person to another by the same methods Hepatitis C is transmitted from person to person.
Both are potentially harmful viral infections.

The NDOC does not have a regulation requiring persons infected with hepatitis C to live in a cell with only another person infected with hepatitis C and, in fact, regularly assigns persons infected with hepatitis C to live in the same cell as a person not infected with hepatitis C, without advising the non-infected person of the hepatitis C-status of the infected person and without obtaining te consent of the non-infected person. This reflects the discrimination of the NDOC against persons infeced with HIV, as opposed to persns with hepatitis C, and the unequal treatment provided by the NDOC in the handling of various viral infections transmitted by the same methods. The same procedures should be followed in both cases.

There is no legitimate reason for refusing to permit an HIV-infected person from living with a non-HIV-infected person in the same cell when both persons are aware of the methods of transmission of the virus and have requested/consented to live together in the same cell. This would also apply to other viral infections. Knowledge of the infection and the methods of transmission are essential to an informed decision by non-infected and infected persons to live in the same cell.

Based upon the foregoing, I respectfully request that AR 610 be immediately revised to eliminate the housing discrimination and the unequal treatment of harmful viral infections. Those revisions should address all of the matters referenced herein and provide for an educational program for all prisoners on these and other viral infections and their methods of transmission.

I further request any and all declaratory, injunctive and monetary relief which may be available to remedy any and all unlawful discrimination or unequal treatment which may have been perpetrated against me by the NDOC in my housing assignments or requests for housing assignments during my confinement by the NDOC.

I am willing to discuss the required revisions to AR 610 to eliminate the discrimination and unequal treatment referenced herein and to provide constructive imput on the revisions required.
###

Agenda for the monthly meeting of July 27, 2016

MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
For July 27, 2016: 6:30 PM PST

Law Office of Gallian, Welker & Beckstrom, LC
540 E. St. Louis Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89104
702.347.1731

Nevadacure.org / Nevadacure[@]gmail.com

Conference Call Number and Code:
712-432- 0926
Code: 493815#

Click here for the WORD-version

The following is the Agenda for NV-CURE Monthly Meeting:

1. Identification of Members and Guests present at meeting and introduction of new members/guests.

2. Approval of Agenda.

3. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting.

4. Open comments by members and guests.

5. Issues to be discussed at meeting:

  a. Purchase of House on Santa Rita - Halfway House for Women (Travis)

  b. Purchase House Headquarters and Halfway House for Women (John)

  c. 8/31/16 ACAJ Meeting and NV-CURE Presentation (John)

  d. Printer/Scanner Fixed (John)

  e. Computer Donations - Sharnel and Natalie (Natalie)

  f. Bank Account - Secured Credit Card (John)

  g. Prisoner Mail - Don and Tracy (Don)

6. Suggestions and recommendations for acts to be performed before next meeting.

7. Set date, time and place for next meeting. (Next Meeting August 31, 2016)


We welcome the participation of all Nevada CURE Members/Supporters and invite all to
attend any monthly NV-CURE meetings that may be scheduled.  We want all members to
participate in the process.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B07-M217YPaXeldfYjdBTnhLSkQwUG0wM1BXbUJtQXNzWTZJ/view?usp=sharing

Our latest Informational Bulletin is available now!

Nevada Cure's Informational Bulletin nr 18 was printed and mailed out, and here you can view it online:

Nevada Cure Informational Bulletin nr 18 (July 2016)

Agenda for the Monthly Meeting of 29th of June 2016

You can find the Agenda for our Monthly Nevada Cure Meeting here.

Location details:

MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

For June 29th, 2016, at 6:30 PM

Law Office of Gallian, Welker & Beckstrom, LC

Meeting Location:

Conference Room
540 E. St. Louis Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89104

Tel.: 702.347.1731
Email: [email protected]
Web: Nevadacure.org

Conference Call Number and Code:

712-432-0926
Code: 493815#

Book Drive to the women at FMWCC

Attention ALL NV-CURE Members and Supporters:
Book Drive for FMWCC. Anyone interested in donating paperback books to the women at FMWCC should contact Nevada-Cure and arrange to drop the books off at our office or contact our Northern or Southern representative to arrange for a book drop off or pick up. Contact information will be provided upon request. 

Thank you for the help - the women could very much use the books.

PAPERBACK BOOKS ONLY.

Spread the word!

--> All books must be paperback. NO HARD COVERS.

Anyone with books to donate should contact:

(phone Nevada Cure at 702.347.1731 to learn who to contact in the north and in the south of Nevada)

When the NDOC approves the donations, which may take 6-8 weeks.

Thank you for your help. 

DONATE BOOKS NOW

Agenda for the Monthly Meeting of May 25th, 2016

Here is the Agenda for the Monthly Meeting of May 25th, 2016

Nevada-Cure Position on the Nevada Criminal Sentencing System

This text was sent in to the May 2016 meeting of Nevada's Advisory Committee on the Administration of Justice (ACAJ).

May 6, 2016

To the Advisory Committee on the Administration of Justice:

NV-CURE believes the entire Nevada criminal sentencing system must be changed, revised and reformed to provide a fair and equitable system of justice and fairness for all.

The first step should be the elimination of the discretionary parole system. This would help eliminate the wide disparities in time served for similar offenses.

Next, the multiple different good time statutes enacted over years need to be revised and brought into conformity. This would help ease the good time calculations required on a monthly basis. A single standard for good time applications must be implemented and special good time applications for only lower category of offenses abolished. This would eliminate a large volume of the work required to be performed on a monthly basis by NDOC employees involving good time and sentence calculations.

Life sentences should be removed as a penalty and 60 years implemented as the highest sentence a person can receive. Death sentences should be removed as a penalty for an offense. These changes, among but a few of the many changes needed, would help bring justice and fairness to all in the Nevada criminal sentencing system and go a long way toward reducing the mass incarceration mania of the last decades.

NV-CURE advocates the elimination of the discretionary parole system currently in place in the State of Nevada. This system promotes disparities, unfair treatment, unjustified decisions and allows politics and economics to influence the parole decision-making process. The discretionary parole system must be eliminated to promote justice and fairness for all.

1. The discretionary parole system may be eliminated by two (2) widely different procedures, i.e., the elimination of parole in the sentencing process; or the establishment of a “right” to parole in the sentencing process. The elimination of parole would be the most cost effective method of resolving the problems associated with a parole system and substantially reduce the billions of tax dollars spent for the incarceration of people “denied” release on parole. The establishment of a “right” to parole in the sentencing process may minimally reduce the costs associated with the discretionary parole process, however, the right to parole would increase the costs of prisoner litigation in all probability.

a. NV-CURE endorses the elimination of parole in the sentencing process and the establishment of a uniform and fair sentencing process applicable to all and capable of being applied to all previously sentenced people without offending the ex post facto clause of the Constitution. This system would be similar to the Federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 which established determinative sentencing and abolished parole, but would differ by drafting the Legislation in such a manner as to make it applicable to all persons currently serving sentences, or pending imposition of sentence, without offending the ex post facto clause of the Constitution, and by increasing the amount of good time that may be earned by an offender to 50 percent of the sentence.

The increased amount of good time an offender could earn will provide prisoners with an incentive to engage in good behavior and provide prison officials with an effective means of controlling prisoner misbehavior.

(i) The new sentencing provisions may have a minimum and maximum term and the judge should have the discretion to impose any sentence deemed appropriate within the minimum and maximum term. Only one sentence will be imposed - the term the person will be required to serve in prison, less the good time he has earned.

(ii) Good time may be earned by working, attending school, completing programing, or engaging in defined rehabilitative activities. In the event sufficient jobs, education, programing, or rehabilitative activities are not available for all prisoners, prisoners should be granted good time credits while their names are on waiting lists for the various activities; and prisoners medically unassigned or unable to engage in the various good time activities, as specifically identified by a doctor, should be credited with the good time.

(iii) The maximum penalty that may be imposed for any offense(s) shall be 60 years, which shall include aggregated or consecutive terms, and all maximum sentences must be reasonable and based on reality in relation to the offense. The 60 year maximum penalty is based on the life expectancy of a person, which is current 78 years of age, reduced by the number of years a person has lived reaching adulthood.

b. The discretionary parole system may also be eliminated by changing the “act of grace” language in the parole statute to a “right to parole” in the statute. Making parole a “right” instead of an “act of grace” would provide a prisoner with a right to parole should specific criteria be meet and provide the prisoner with the ability to challenge a decision to deny parole. All prisoners should have a right to parole after serving the minimum term of their sentence imposed by the court - unless the prisoner has engaged in conduct while incarcerated that provides a legitimate reason for denying release on parole.

3. Under the current discretionary parole system, a prisoner is unable to challenge a decision to deny parole in any type of judicial proceeding. There are no due process procedural protections for the prisoner because there is no right to parole. The Parole Commission, erroneously, is exempt from compliance with Open Meeting Law (NRS Chapter 241) because the Parole Commission allegedly performs an as yet to be defined quasi-judicial function.

Further, although the Parole Commission is required to comply with the regulation making requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (NRS Chapter 233B), the Parole Commission
is exempt from the “contested case” requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. There simply is no judicial procedure available to a prisoner to challenge a decision of the Parole Commission to deny him parole. The only potential remedy available to a prisoner to challenge the denial of parole is to write a letter to the Parole Commission asking for reconsideration of their previous decision. In other words, the Parole Commission may do whatever the Parole Commission wants to do without any procedure available to the prisoner to challenge the Parole Commission’s decision.

4. Under the current discretionary parole system, a prisoner is not permitted to know, review, or challenge the accuracy of information considered by the Parole Commission in making a decision to deny parole. The Parole Commission may simply say: “Based on confidential information, the source or content of which we are not going to tell you, you are being denied parole”. The prisoner is not permitted to know the information being relied upon by the Parole Commission to deny him parole. Without that knowledge, he is unable to challenge the accuracy of the information, the reliability of the source of the information, or the motivations, biases, or prejudices of the source(s) of the information. The prisoner may spend many additional years in prison based simply on a letter or statement from a person with an undisclosed animosity towards him for an inappropriate, biased, or prejudicial reason. This “secrecy” must be condemned and eliminated.

5. Under the current discretionary parole system, the victim of a crime is accorded special privileges and accommodations. The victim of a crime is permitted to provide “confidential” information opposing parole to the Parole Commission outside the presence of the prisoner.

The prisoner is not permitted to hear the victim information, to know the information provided, to challenge the accuracy of the information, to rebut the information, or to determine the motive of the person in providing the information. This is an unfair practice and procedure and severely disadvantages a prisoner in the parole application process. The victim had an opportunity to provide information to the Court and prosecutor in the sentencing process and should not be provided with special privileges and accommodations in the parole application process.

The prisoner must be permitted to hear and review all information considered by the Parole Commission in the parole application process, including any and all information provided by any victim of a crime.

6. Under the current discretionary parole system, standards have been established to determine the general amount of time an offender should be confined in prison before being released on parole. Those standards use a matrix system consisting of facts pertaining to the person for points, the offense category and a recommended number of months to be served in prison. Those standards need to be revised from the “tough on crime lock-them-up for long terms” of the past decades to a “smart on crime” reality based system of the present to reduce the mass incarceration of our citizens and return people to our communities. Those standards need to be revised in the following respects:

(i) Less emphasis must be placed on the severity of the offense and personal characteristics and more emphasis placed on conduct of a prisoner during incarceration. Once convicted, a prisoner cannot change his offense severity or his characteristics. The emphasis should be placed on the prisoner’s conduct during his incarceration: Conduct, employment, education, programing and rehabilitative activities. Release should not be conditioned on the pre-sentence past, which a person cannot change, but upon post-sentence conduct during incarceration.

(ii) The number of months a person is recommended to serve under the current standards based on offense severity and pre-sentence conduct must be drastically reduced.standards based on offense severity and pre-sentence conduct must be drastically reduced. As indicated above, a person cannot change his offense severity or pre-sentence characteristics and the current number of months recommended to be served has increased substantially since their original inception under the “tough on crime” attitude and political benefits of the prison industrial complex. The number of months a prisoner is required to serve in prison under the current standards must be substantially reduced to alleviate the tax burdens to the State and bring a reduction to mass incarceration.

(iii) The number of offenses identified as Category B felonies in the State are substantial and by far outnumber the offenses identified as other Category felonies. A careful and thoughtful evaluation of all offenses identified as Category B felonies must be conducted and a large reduction of offenses identified as Category B felonies must be made to lower category felonies. The higher the category of a felony, the longer a person is required to be confined, which makes the tax burden higher for each additional day of incarceration and contributes further to the burdens of mass incarceration. Be smart on crime and conduct a realistic evaluation of felony category classifications.

7. Establish a parole system that requires the Parole Commission to inform and permit a prisoner to review, at least 30 days before a parole hearing, each and every piece of information the Parole Commission will consider in deciding whether or not to grant parole; provide the prisoner with an opportunity to challenge the accuracy and source of all information to be considered and to comment or submit a rebuttal of each piece of information at least 14 days before a parole hearing; and advise the prisoner of the findings of the Parole Commission with respect to each piece of information at the parole hearing. Justice and fairness mandates that a prisoner be fully advised of any and all information considered by the Parole Commission in deciding whether to grant or deny a person release from prison on parole and an opportunity to challenge the accuracy of the information and to show the bias, prejudice and motive of the person providing the information. We need transparency, not secrecy.

8. Require each and every person that provides the Parole Commission with any type of information adverse to or opposing release on parole to testify under oath at the parole hearing in the presence of the prisoner regarding that information and permit the prisoner to question the person providing the information regarding the accuracy of the information and the motive for providing the information. Again, justice and fairness mandate these procedures be established in the parole application process. No person in our country should hesitate to stand in front of the person being accused of misconduct and speak the truth regarding events that have transpired; and no person should be condemned based on “secret” behind the scenes information.

9. Require the Parole Commission to advise each prisoner at a parole hearing of the specific reason why parole will not be granted and what action a prisoner may engage in prior to the next parole hearing to facilitate a grant of parole at the next hearing. A person needs an explanation of the reason why release is being denied and an explanation of what, if anything, the person can do to change the results in the future. As long as the Parole Commission is straight with the person, the person will have the incentive to do what needs to be done before the next parole hearing to secure release - if that is what the Parole Commission tells him he needs to do before the next hearing to secure release. Hopefully, the Parole Commission will not tell a person he needs to do “this” to secure release next time unless that will actually happen.

10. Provide a prisoner with a method to challenge an adverse parole decision in a judicial proceeding wherein a judicial officer may evaluate the validity of the decision to deny parole.

Respectfully Submitted,

JOHN WITHEROW

NV-CURE President

Cc: 160506 NV-CURE ACAJ Parole Information

Letter in PDF

Good Time Credits paralegal aid

Hope for Freedom will draft the necessary documents in cases to secure good time credits for $1500.00. If after reviewing all documents and facts, the person is not entitled to good time reductions, $750.00 will be refunded. Email hopeforfreedom at yahoo dot com if interested or call 231-313-0059.

Background:
(from our IB #16)
For years, the NDOC has misapplied AB510 to effectively block earned early release credits to the vast majority of category A and B violent or sexual offenders. But on June 24, 2015, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled this was an error. In fact, the plain and clear language of NRS 209.4465(7)(b), pre 2007, does not preclude credit application to the minimum terms for the majority of these inmates.

In its Order, the Court found that:
1) AB510 was enacted in 2007 (therefore it cannot apply to offenses pre-2007); and,
(2) each offender, between July 17, 1997 and June 30, 2007 is entitled to application of his or her stat time to his or her parole eligibility (Category A offenses that specifically
state “a minimum sentence that must be served before a person becomes eligible for parole “are not included in this ruling).
All B, C, D, E and Attempts to Commit A felonies are affected.
See Frederick VonSeydewitz v. Warden Robert LeGrand No. 66159, June 24, 2015 for complete information and ruling.

Volunteer with Nevada-Cure: you are invited to help respond to mail from prisoners

We have an opportunity to do very important and essential work with and for people in prison in Nevada, under guidance of Nevada-Cure. 

Nevada-Cure receives many letters per week from people locked up in prisons in Nevada, asking us for help or guidance on all kinds of issues. We are not attorneys, but we can still respond to the letters with our answers based on common sense, internet research, and compassion. 

We are looking for people who stand firmly on their own feet, who have some life experience, and who like to help others, plus people who are communicative, good in working together with others. You do not need to become a penpal or have any other social involvement. We just need your commitment to respond to a few letters a week, in first instance under our guidance. We cannot pay you, as we are all volunteers ourselves. 

Nevada-Cure will offer support and a possibly very insightful and grateful volunteer work.

If you are interested, please contact us: 

via e-mail: Nevadacure @ gmail.com, 

or via telephone: 702.347.1731

Or contact us via our Facebook profile.

THANK YOU!

NV-Cure Bookdrive to ESP completed! Thank you!

The NV-CURE Book Drive for ESP was completed on 4/2/16. The Icelady brought the books she gathered in the North down to William in Vegas. William combined them with the books-gather in Vegas. Laurie drove the books to Ely and delivered the books (13 boxes of paperback books) the Associate Warden at ESP.

Congratulations people and a big that you for the help - particularly to Icelady, William and Laurie. Good job done. The guys in solitary, and those who are forced to share a cell with another man for long hours per day, will appreciate them.

Our next goal for our book drive will be the women's prison, FMWCC.

Our latest Informational Bulletin IB March 2016

The March 2016 Informational Buelletin is now available online. Please go to this link to read it. You can read archived IB's here.

Note: Nevada Cure's email was hacked

Update: our email has been recovered and you can send us your emails again.

Agenda for the Monthly Meeting of March 30, 2016

MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

For March 30, 2016: 6:30 PM PST
Law Office of Gallian, Welker & Beckstrom, LC

Meeting Location:

Conference Room
540 E. St. Louis Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89104

Tel.: 702.347.1731
Email: [email protected]
Web: Nevadacure.org

Conference Call Number and Code:

712-432-0926
Code: 493815#

The following is the Agenda for NV-CURE Monthly Meeting:

1. Identification of Members and Guests present at meeting and introduction of new members/guests.

2. Approval of Agenda.

3. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting.

4. Open comments by members and guests.

5. Issues to be discussed at meeting:

  a. Appointment of William O’Connell as Mailing Handler. (John and William)

  b. ESP Book Drive (John. William, Laurie)

  c. Status of Hep C Class Action (Alexis)

  d. NV-ACLU medical and solitary confinement action. (John)

  e. Report on Fundraising (Greg)

  f. Investor - Headquarters House (John)

  g. Person(s) to Answer Mail (John)

6. Suggestions and recommendations for acts to be performed before next meeting.

7. Set date, time and place for next meeting. (Next Meeting April 27 or 20, 2016)

8. Adjourn meeting.

PLEASE NOTE:

We welcome the participation of all Nevada CURE Members/Supporters and invite all to
attend any monthly NV-CURE meetings that may be scheduled. We want all members to
participate in the process.

Nevada Cure Monthly Meeting Agenda January 27 2016

MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
For January 27, 2016 at 6:30 PM PST

Meeting Location
Conference Room
Law Office of Gallian, Welker & Beckstrom, LC
540 E. St. Louis Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89104

Tel.: 702.347.1731
Nevadacure.org

Conference Call Number and Code:
Code: 493815#
Tel:712-432-0926

The following is the Agenda for NV-CURE Monthly Meeting:

Agenda

PLEASE NOTE:

We welcome the participation of all Nevada CURE Members/Supporters and invite all to
attend any monthly NV-CURE meetings that may be scheduled. We want all members to
participate in the process.