Tag Archives: Nevada

Our latest NV Cure Newsletter nr 38 and more…

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We just published our 38th Information Bulletin (IB), which you can read here.

We also noticed your requests to read earlier newsletters from 32 down, and we discovered that those published from 32 down did not have a link to all on the internet. We fixed this, so if all is well, you can access all our newsletters again.
This is the page where you can find links to all 38 of the IB’s.

Thank you for your interest, and if you would like to donate to keep our Information Bulletins being published, you are very welcome to donate via Paypal (nevadacure@gmail.com).

THANK YOU!

Nevada Cure has a new site!

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Nevada-Cure-Feather-LogoNevada Cure has moved to a new site, with the same address, Nevadacure.org. We hope that you will like it and that everything will be easily found on here. We will be tweaking it here and there still.

Just as a reminder:
We are also on twitter: https://twitter.com/nevadacure
And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NVCure/

Be sure to “like” and “follow” us there too, thank you!

You can also donate to Nevada Cure via Paypal!

 

 

In Nevada over 400 people are currently being held in prison past their release date

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Senator Segerblom:
NV-CURE is e-mailing you regarding a serious problem with people being held in prison past their release dates. According to our information, over 400 people are currently being held in prison past their release dates. It costs approximately $20,000.00 per year for Nevada to incarcerate a person in prison.  That is $54.79 per day.  For over 400 people, that is over $21,917.00 PER DAY it is costing Nevada taxpayers to hold people in prison that should have been released and on their way to becoming productive members of our community.
WHY IS THIS?
NV-CURE requests that the Legislature find out the reason. The Legislature should summons the persons in Parole and Probation and in the NDOC, preferably the Community Resources person, to explain to the Legislature exactly why this is happening – and is a continuing and ongoing problem.
Twenty One Thousand Dollars a day is a substantial amount of money to spend to incarcerate people that should be in our communities supporting themselves.
Please initiate immediate action to resolve this problem.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

After Orange Halfway Home for women

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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.

Nevada Cure asks for financial help in pursuing the case to get prisoners with Hepatitis C treated

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NV-CURE, a non-profit prisoner advocacy organization, is requesting financial assistance to prosecute a class action civil rights/ADA lawsuit to require Nevada prison officials to provide all prisoners infected with the Hepatitis C Virus with the cure for the disease.

Unfortunately, we are without the financial resources to pursue the case. We have several small legal firm attorneys willing to pursue the case, however, these firms are also without the financial resources to pursue the case through the class certification and preliminary injunction stage of the case. We need help.

Similar class action cases are being pursued in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Minnesota, and Tennessee and should be pursued in every other state. Prisons are a breeding ground for this virus. It is estimated that less than 1% of the general population in the USA is infected with this virus and 17% of the prison population in the USA is infected with this virus. The eradication of this virus in the prison population would reduce the rate of infection in the community, as at least 95% of prisoners are returned to our communities.
NV-CURE is seeking $150,000.00 to finance this litigation through the class certification and preliminary injunction stage of the proceedings. Will you help finance this litigation? If you are able to help, know of a person or organization that may be willing to help, or know of a source of funding for this project, please communicate with me regarding the matter.
As recently recognized in an opinion and order granting a preliminary injunction to Mumia Abu-Jamal in his Hepatitis C case:

“Here, the only conceivable injury Defendants will suffer is monetary. As a result of the grant of this injunction, Defendants will be required to treat Plaintiff with expensive medication. While the Court is sensitive to the realities of budgetary constraints and the difficult decisions prison officials must make, the economics of providing this medication cannot outweigh the Eighth Amendment’s constitutional guarantee of adequate medical care. See Monmouth City Corr. Inst. Inmates, 834 F.2d 326, 336-37 (3rd Cir. 1987)“

All prisoners infected with the hepatitis c virus must be provided with the cure for this disease. Please help in this movement to eradicate this disease from the prison system. Your assistance  would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Book Drive to the women at FMWCC

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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

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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

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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.