A Criminal Justice Discussion May 21st includes John Witherow

Time: 5:45 - Discussion starts promptly at 6pm so please arrive at least 15 minutes in advance!

Please come to the Power of Justice: A Criminal Justice Discussion forum on Monday 21st of May in Las Vegas. John Witherow among others of Nevada Cure will be participating! Together we will end mass incarceration!

Address:
Victory Missionary Baptist Church
500 West Monroe Ave,
Las Vegas, NV 89106

Time: 
Monday May 21st, 6-8 PM

After Orange Halfway Home for women

By Cassandra Marie
In: NV-CURE Informational Bulletin (IB) Nr 21 (January 2017)

Cassandra and Jamie, sisters, come from loving parents and a loving home. Jamie was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison. That was the beginning of our experience with the prison system. We obtained approval to visit and discussed the things we could do to make a difference.  Jamie has been incarcerated for nearly 10 years now.

With 2.3 million people incarcerated in our country and a 68% recidivism rate, we came up with a concept to follow people as they left prison. Where would they go, what would they do, and who would they hang out with? I started documenting women leaving FMWCC more than 3 years ago. I called the project After Orange. I have witnessed a variety of behaviors from the women I’ve interviewed and followed. From reconnecting with friends and family, going to Hope For Prisoners, turning to prostitution, and dipping back into old behaviors. We have learned of the many problems and issues in and around the NDOC.

One of these issues is the unanswered demand for housing when women are released. On November 1st, 2016, I opened “After Orange: Halfway Home”, a nonprofit transitional home for women being released from prison. We also documented a series about the women’s journey through and after their incarceration. We had a desire to help women who are ready to change their lives, partnering with community organizations like Hope For Prisoners, LV Urban League, FIT, Larson’s Training Center, NV CURE, God Behind Bars, LV Public Defenders, The Metropolitan Police Department, Private Practicing Lawyers, Department of Parole and Probation, and The District Attorney’s office. We bring trauma healing experts into our home and we’ve cultivated a healthy daily program with a set curfew, daily house meetings, house maintenance, substance abuse meetings, spiritual avenues, and structured life mapping to help women live their absolute best lives while giving back to their community. There is accountability in our home, primarily driven by our residents keeping each other in check.

After Orange: Halfway Home is only for women who want to live their absolute best lives. Our vision of helping female ex-offenders is taking shape. My sister and I are committed to bringing positive change to the prison culture in our country. Jamie goes to the parole board this March 2017, and upon release, she will be assisting to move this project forward from the outside.

The women from After Orange Halfway Home have been volunteering for NV CURE, helping with office duties and are very happy to give back to their community. If you are a woman inmate interested in living at our home, please write a 250 word statement about your story and why you’re ready to live your absolute best life and send it to NV CURE, Attn: After Orange Halfway House, 540 E. St. Louis Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89104. We will send you an application and look forward to hearing from you. Please spread the word.

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

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.

Nevada Department of Corrections Director Greg Cox quits

This is from the Las Vegas Review Journal, Sept 14th, 2015:

By Wesley Juhl and Sandra Chereb
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Embattled Nevada Department of Corrections Director Greg Cox resigned abruptly Monday under unknown circumstances.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement he accepted Cox's resignation and appointed E.K. McDaniel to serve as interim director of the department, which has come under scrutiny for use-of-force issues leading to inmate injuries and one prisoner fatality.

"I would like to thank Greg for his service to our state and I appreciate his hard work serving the people of Nevada," Sandoval said.

No reason was given for the Cox's resignation, but John Witherow, head of the NV Cure prison reform organization, has a laundry list of problems with the way the department treats inmates.

"I don't know why he resigned, but I suspect it was his inability to control his subordinates," he said.

NV Cure had met with Cox to discuss retaliation against prisoners who file formal grievances against the department. Witherow said Cox told him he would not tolerate that kind of treatment.

"The retaliation did not, in fact, stop. It increased," Witherow said.

Cox's resignation follows months of high-profile conflicts at Nevada prisons, beginning with a fatal inmate shooting in November at High Desert State Prison, just outside of Las Vegas, that wasn't revealed until four months later when the Review-Journal discovered the Clark County coroner's office had ruled it a homicide.

Inmate Carlos Manuel Perez, 28, died Nov. 12, 2014. [link added by NV Cure] A second inmate, Andrew Arevalo, was injured.

More recently, seven inmates were injured in August at Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City when a fight broke out during dinner and guards opened fire with rubber pellets. One inmate who was not identified was flown to a Reno hospital, though details of his injuries remain undisclosed.

In July, three inmates suffered minor injuries when guards fired rounds to break up a fight at Lovelock Correctional Center. One inmate at Ely State Prison was taken to a hospital in Las Vegas in April after he was shot by a guard during a fight. Eight other inmates were injured.

Cox's resignation came the night before he was expected to present the findings from a study on the department's use of force at Tuesday's Board of State Prison Commissioners in Carson City. The prison board, comprised of the governor, Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, requested the study at the last meeting after Perez's death led to controversy.

On Monday, an unnamed spokesman for the department told the Review-Journal "there is no final report as of yet" in the study conducted by the Association of State Correctional Administrators.

Read the rest here.

Free Criminal Record Sealing Class - restore your right to vote!

FREE CRIMINAL RECORD SEALING Class offered on Wednesdays at 3:00 PM at the Clark County Law Library from Sept. 2, 2015, thru Nov. 4, 2015.  

If you, a friend, or a loved one has a criminal record you are interested in having sealed, you should attend this Class. Seal those records - and restore your right to vote.

Use that vote to elect people that are concerned for the safety and well being of our people confined in our prisons. 

See the information on the leaflets for more info.

Is Poor Medical Care Killing Nevada's Prison Inmates?

This comes from Nevada Public Radio, and was transmitted on tuesday 7/7/15. John Witherow, director of Nevada-Cure, is one of the people who were interviewed.

knpr

KNPR's State of Nevada

Is Poor Medical Care Killing Nevada's Prison Inmates?

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The number of inmate deaths at Nevada prisons is raising questions.

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Jul 07, 2015

by

Joe Schoenmann

,

Casey Morell

In Nevada’s state prisons, four inmates die every month, on average.

But in May and June of this year, 12 inmates died. And in the last year, the number who died in Nevada prisons is just under 50.

That compares to an average of 31 deaths per year in Nevada prisons from 2001 to 2012, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Nevada’s prisons aren’t places we hear much about. Media access is severely restricted. Family members don’t always want to talk about a brother or father in prison. And, frankly, many Nevadans don’t care - out of sight, out of mind.

But some states, such as Ohio, are being sued for substandard prison medical care. And it’s no secret that many Nevada inmates die from medical conditions.

Between 2001 and 2012, 80 percent of 379 prison deaths were due to medical problems.

John Witherow knows firsthand how difficult it is to get medical care in Nevada prisons. He spent 26 years in prisons across the state, after being convicted of attempted robbery in Reno. His sentence included a habitual criminal enhancement, which adds years to the sentence of people who have been convicted of another crime.

“Getting medical care within the NDOC is an extremely difficult job,” Witherow told KNPR’s State of Nevada, “The few instances I had with the medical department were terrible.”
---

Read the rest here.

NDOC: Forty Five (45) Prisoner Deaths in One (1) Year

On Tuesday, July 7 at 9 am. NV-CURE President John Witherow will be interviewed on Nevada Public Radio 88.9 FM on this subject. 

This comes from our Informational Bulletin nr 12, 2015:

Forty five people have died in custody in Nevada’s prison facilities since August, 2014. Four committed suicide.

One was shot by a prison guard. One died of cardiovascular disease and the rest are either deaths caused, according to NDOC, by “medical condition”, unknown”, “natural”, or “prolonged illness”. We want to know the causes of death and whether any of these deaths are attributable to the Hepatitis C virus.

This information was provided to NV-CURE by an NPR Senior Producer Joe Schoenmann and former Correctional Officer Mark Clarke, whom we thank for their time and efforts regarding this matter.  We hope that further investigation will reveal the facts regarding each of these
deaths.

Not one noted death is from hepatitis C, even though we know that the prevalence of that disease is much higher than in the population at large and we know that NDOC gives very little treatment for this very treatable disease. Allegedly, many of these deaths are “under investigation”, and NV-CURE finally has volunteers willing to keep track of each death, order the coroner’s report, which is a matter of public record, if necessary, and log the deaths on a spreadsheet, making sure that the media, legislators and the US DOJ are made aware of the high number of deaths due to disease. It is estimated that 12-35% of prisoners nationwide are infected with the Hep C virus. We will never know exactly how many prisoners are infected with the disease, until we have testing, which the Nevada legislature and the NDOC refuse to provide.

NDOC claims that they are investigating the potential of providing hospice care, but we have seen no action yet on that claim.

On Tuesday, July 7 at 9 am. NV-CURE President John Witherow will be interviewed on Nevada Public Radio 88.9 FM on this subject. A recording of the program will be posted on our website, Nevaacure.org.  Thank you for your attention to this problem.

NV-CURE has completed another successful book drive

The books we collected were delivered to LCC yesterday.  Thank you all for your donations and help.  

 

We will begin another book drive in the near future.  Again, thank you all for the help - and a BIG THANK YOU to the people that gathered and delivered the books.  Great job.

John
Feb. 4th, 2015

Nevada Cure for People on Parole & Probation in Nevada

Attention all NV-CURE Members and Supporters:

According to information received by NV-CURE, People in Nevada who are on parole or probation are being advised by their P&P Officers that they may not associate in any manner with NV-CURE because members and supporters of our organization are convicted felons.

NV-CURE has communicated with P&P Chief Natalie Wood regarding this matter and is in the process of attempting to change or modify the association clause of the conditions of parole and probation.  Persons on parole or probation should be permitted to associate with NV-CURE in our legitimate activities reflected in our mission statement without fear of having their parole or probation revoked.

IF YOU KNOW of anyone on parole or probation who has been advised by a P&P Officer that they may NOT associate or join NV-CURE because our organization has convicted felon members, PLEASE have that person contact attorneys Travis Barrick and / or Cal Potter with the details.

Thank you for your attention to this problem.

Concern about the high number of deaths in the NV Department of Corrections: a letter to ACLU-NV

This is the text of a letter that a member of Nevada Cure sent to the ACLU in Nevada about the high number of deaths in the custody of Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC). Their response: just fill out their form. We have been gathering so much documentation on medical neglect since the class action lawsuit that ACLU settled with NDOC! 

We would like to see some more answers and pushes to real change, more transparency from ACLU and NDOC in this matter. The electorate and the taxpayers, but most of all, the people in prison have a right to know why so many people die inside of medical neglect or inadequate medical care, and what is being done to address this.

Nov. 15th, 2014:

Dear NV ACLU:

I am writing about my concern about the high number of deaths in the NV Department of Corrections.  Since I moved here 15 months ago, there have been 20+ deaths reported in the media with little or no information as to the cause of death.  As a matter of fact just today, I saw in the media that a 55 year old woman at FMWCC and a 28 year old man at High Desert both died!

It is well known that the NDOC does not treat hepatitis and perhaps many of these deaths are a result of painful deaths due to this disease? While I realize that HIPPA laws prohibit an individual's medical conditions to be revealed publicly, our state government is charged with the health and welfare of it's incarcerated population, no matter what.  

I moved here from Illinois where the IDOC was carefully and routinely monitored by the John Howard Association in Chicago who visited each facility over the course of every two years and distributed their findings publicly and to the state legislature about the conditions and problems at each facility. They have no authority over the IDOC but their public reports definitely have an impact on needed changes that are always found as a result of the tours and interviews with the staff and the inmates.  

Is anyone monitoring the NDOC, especially when it comes to the number of deaths among the inmates here?  I note that most of the deceased inmates are NOT old men/women but younger or middle age and not likely to be dying of "natural causes" that are associated with old age.  My husband is currently incarcerated with the NDOC and I am concerned for his welfare as well as the other American citizens who are not getting proper medical care.  

How can we as citizens of this state, get this critical issue addressed in Nevada?  

Thank you for your attention and I hope to get a response.

[G.A.]

Voices for Freedom for Tyrend Goins, Sr.

Voices for Freedom for Tyrend Goins, Sr.

Hello Readers!

Please join my children, my friends and me in trying to resolve this situation.

In April 2014, an agreement was signed with the judge, the district attorney’s office and the public defender’s office  and notarized by all parties.

We have not received a response from the Court since April 11, 2014 . The agreement was for time served (NRS 200.080).

We are looking for any help you may be able to offer.

Please contact Dr. Cesar and Rita Minera at (775)-825-4446 at Word of Life.

Copies of the agreement were sent to KOLO 8 News in Reno-Sparks.

Thank you for any help. (775) 858-8888

[Another!] Nevada inmate dies, at Summerlin Hospital

From Las Vegas Sun, Nov. 13th, 2014, comes this sad news:

"A Nevada inmate died last month at Summerlin Hospital of a medical condition, according to Corrections Department officials.

Officials said they could not locate any next of kin for Denise Leeellen Carlson, 58, who died Oct. 30."

Read more here.

If you are a journalist, please try to find out if there is a lack of medical care, or a reason why so many people in Nevada's prisons die of medical conditions. Thank you.

Why is Tyrend Goins, Sr still in prison after it was ORDERED that he is immediately released from custody?

We received documents from Tyrend Goins, who has been in Nevada's prison system for 17 years on a charge which was recently nullified due to newly discovered evidence, exculpating him from the original charge against him.

Tyrend is however still in prison! This cannot be right! Nevada is holding a man whose charge was nullified. Surely NDOC should not let this injustice and this costly situation remain as it is! The Judge even granted Tyrend's Amended 28 U.S.C. par 2241 Motion in September of 2014, and orders that he is immediately released from custody prison.

Here is what Tyrend wrote that was posted on the SF Bay View website on May 27th, 2014:

"The truth is out that I did not kill Melvener Winston. MRSA was the cause of her passing. I want my mother’s side to know the truth. My six children and five grandchildren want to meet their relatives.

My grandfather is Joseph Dillion. My grandmother is Kay Francis. They lived in the San Francisco area. My mother, Brenda, was the first of their eight children, who were born between 1957 and 1969 in San Francisco General Hospital. The only other names I remember are Nadeen and Darlene.

I’m waiting to go back to court to be vindicated and released. If you can help us find our family, please email [email protected] or write to me: Tyrend Goins, Sr., 59050, NNCC, P.O. Box 7000, Carson City, NV 89702."

Below are the documents as hyperlinked above. We ask those in power to investigate this injustice and to not allow an innocent man to be incarcerated one day longer!

April 11th, 2014 Tyrend Goins: evidence withheld for 17 years clears him from homicide-doc 1

April 11th, 2014 Tyrend Goins: evidence withheld for 17 years clears him from homicide- doc 2

April 11th, 2014 Tyrend Goins: evidence withheld for 17 years clears him from homicide- doc 3

Tyrend Goins Letter to Public Defender Evie Grosenick, Reno, Nevada, June 19th 2014 on filing a federal 28 U.S.C. paragraph 2241 Motion.

Tyrend Goins filing his federal 28 U.S.C. paragraph 2241 Motion Challenging Confinement on Constitutional Grounds and Demanding a Habeas Corpus Hearing, September 2014.

Tyrend Goins' federal 28 U.S.C. paragraph 2241 Motion granted, September 2014 ORDERED that Plaintiff is immediately released from custody prison.

John Coldwell passed away - read his letter and learn about his care for others!

We learned that John Coldwell passed away on October 2nd, 2014.

John was a member of NV-CURE and a prison activist.  He recently won a case in the 9th Circuit invalidating the NDOC policy of no cataract surgery for a person blind in only one eye. He will be missed.

Please read this letter from earlier this year received by NV-CURE from John Coldwell.  This letter reflects the type of person John Colwell was to us.  Thank you for reading it.

Newsitem from Kolotv

A 67-year-old prisoner at Desert State Prison in Indian Springs has died.

Nevada Department of Corrections has confirmed that inmate John Colwell, NDOC #33742, died of a chronic medical condition at the High Desert State Prison. Read more here.

Over 72 Hours - NO WATER at Lovelock Correctional Center

On August 31st, Nevada-Cure received a call from someone confined at Lovelock Correctional Center (LCC) who told us they'd had NO water for 24 hours. None. And there was no one to call before today, Tuesday (9/2). This is dangerous and unsanitary. No water!

NV-CURE, and many others, would like to know WHY there is no water for drinking, toilets or showers at the Lovelock Correctional Center (LCC) and why the problem has not been fixed for over 72 hours.

This is the problem of which the public should be aware.  Is there any reporter out there who will check into the matter, find out the problem, find out why it is taking so long to fix and what out what is going to be done to prevent problems like this in the future?

Nevada-Cure Informational Bulletin nr 8: Summer 2014 out now

Our eighth Informational Bulletin was published recently. You can view and download a copy here.

Interview: Living History: Lessons from “Tough-on-Crime” Failure in America

Federally-funded study shows states' combined prison costs are up 400 per cent since the 1970s

By: CBC (Canada) The Canadian Press, May 11, 2014

John Witherow tried robbing a jewelry store — and walked away with a treasure-trove of insights into the American justice system.

His star-crossed participation in a stickup attempt in Reno, Nev., earned him 26 years in prison in an era of drastic change in U.S. justice policy, from the rise of the tough-on-crime approach to its more recent fall from favour.

Witherow shared his story during a conference in Washington, where there is bipartisan momentum behind a number of justice reforms designed to reduce prison costs and increase rehabilitation of inmates.

His initial plan, back then, was to tie down a jewelry store owner while one of his accomplices brandished a sawed-off shotgun. As it turned out, the store owner had a gun, too, and the plan went off the rails.

Witherow was eventually tracked down and sent to the slammer. Because of his seven prior convictions, mainly for robberies, he received an especially long sentence for attempted robbery with use of a weapon.

Longer sentences, services chopped.

This was in 1984.

When he arrived in the Nevada prison system, he recalls, prisoners were able to get out early for good behaviour, and some of his fellow inmates were getting college degrees. Witherow himself managed to turn his life around when he got paralegal training.

But he says things changed pretty quickly.

"It was just the start of the maybe-we-should-get-tough-on-crime era," said Witherow, whose jailhouse training has helped him request pardons, push for better health care, and fight for sentencing reform as head of the Nevada chapter of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, where he's been involved since his 2010 release.

"It was all about tough on crime but nobody thought, 'How we gonna pay for it?"'

Read the rest here.

Letter to Governor Sandoval about investigating if appointment of Nevada Parole Board Commissioner Bisbee violates NRS 213.108(6)

Senator Segerblom:

 

Attached please find a copy of my communications with Governor Sandoval regarding the composition of the NV Board of Parole Commissioners in violation of the provisions of NRS 213.108(6) for your review and investigation:

 

Letter of March 26, 2014 to Governor Sandoval

Email of June 1st 2014 to Governor Sandoval

 

One of our Members contacted the Governor's Office regarding this matter and was advised that Commissioner Bisbee is "classified" as having a P&P background - not a prison background. 

 

On the Parole Board website, Commissioner Bisbee information indicates she was employed by the NV Department of Corrections, with no reference as to having worked for P&P. If her background was P&P, a person would think it would be listed with the information on her background. 

 

It appears to me, and others, that Commissioner Bisbee is "classified" as having a background in P&P to evade the requirements of NRS 213.108(6). To us, it is a clear violation of the legislatively intended statute.

 

Would you please initiate an investigation into this matter and insure that corrective action, if necessary, is taken and a report on the results of your investigation is published for the people of the community to review.

 

Please note Governor Sandoval and Attorney General Cortez Masto do not provide e-mail addresses on their websites - which is why those offices have not been copied with this e-mail.

 

Thank you very much for your assistance in this matter.

 

Sincerely,

 

John Witherow

NV-CURE President

Press Release: First 200 Documents of Prisoner Abuse Letters-Project are online

Press Release:

April 26, 2014

The first 200 documents of the Nevada-Cure Prisoner Abuse Letters-project are online.

These are documents sent to Nevada-Cure. These documents contain affidavits, grievances or other statements written and shared with permission of the writer. NV-CURE has posted them on our website. 

To view the list of complaints, with the documents hyperlinked to each complaint, visit these three tabs on the Nevada-Cure website:

Page 1: with introduction and Docs 1-50:
http://www.nevadacure.org/p/nevada-prisoner-abuse-documents.html

Page 2: Documents 51-120:
http://www.nevadacure.org/p/blog-page_19.html

Page 3: Again with intro, and Documents 121-200:
http://www.nevadacure.org/p/blog-page_13.html

This is an ongoing project, that involves educating the prisoners on the project, receiving their documents, scanning them and documenting them on Excel sheets, and uploading the documents with the annotations onto the website. The documents have been used to discuss with the Director of the NDOC the patterns of abuse, the people who commit abuses and what NDOC plans to do to stop these from occurring. This material can also be used as research material for press, attorneys, students and other researchers as well as family, friends and the human rights defense community. These documents reflect hundreds of hours of work by NV-CURE volunteers and reflect our interest in educating the public on events transpiring behind NV prison fences.

NV-Cure keeps the documents as an archive of abuses, which can also be used when necessary, if the Special Litigation Unit of the DOJ needs to have insight into the abuses occurring in the Nevada Department of Corrections prisons. 

Please help support NV-CURE in these efforts with your tax free donations to our organization - and keep this project alive.  Thank you.

Nevada-Cure

Contact:
Nevada-CURE
540 E. St. Louis Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89104
 

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

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Twitter: @NevadaCure