“The contest offers people in prison the chance to share their stories with people who shape the law and to explain how the law affects their lives.” the law journal’s announcement said.

So, are you one of the talented thinkers and writers behind bars in Colorado?

If you are – or if you know someone with a razor-sharp mind behind that razor wire – here’s a chance to get those ideas in front of the public.

And not just any public.

Winning essays will be published in the prestigious Yale Law Journal and read by some of the top law professors, attorneys and judges in the country.  You could shake things up if you win.

Not to mention the fact that the three top writers will get cash prizes if permitted, $250 for first place.

There are strict rules for the contest and a list of essay topics you have to choose from.  I’ve posted the list below. Essays must be in by October 1, 2012.

Here’s how it works: First, to be eligible to even enter the contest, you must have been an inmate in a prison or jail at any point from January 1, 2010 through September 30, 2012.

Next, the announcement said, “We welcome essays of about 1000-5000 words, or roughly 4-20 pages. Please type your submission if possible. If you must write by hand, please be sure your writing is readable. Feel free to work together with others, but your essay should be in your own voice.”

The announcement added,  “Please do not discuss your innocence or guilt or ask for legal assistance with your case. Submissions are not confidential. Whatever you write will not be protected by attorney-client privilege. If you have an attorney, please speak with your attorney before submitting your work.”

And last but not least, “Email your submission to YLJprisonlaw@gmail.com if possible. If you do not have email access, please mail your work to: The Yale Law Journal, ATTN: Prison Law, P.O. Box 208215, New Haven, CT 06520-8215. Please include your name and the name of the institution where you are or were imprisoned, and tell us the best way to reach you now. ”

Please note that mailed entries have to GET THERE, that is, get to the state of Connecticut, by October 1st.

And remember this is a writing contest.  Eloquence matters. So maybe you think you’re not all that smart, just average, say. Are you persuasive? Do people tell you that you have a way with words? Do you have a compelling legal story to tell? Then go for it.

Here’s the list of topics:

• The law journal wants to see essays addressing ONE of the following questions:
• What does fair treatment look like in prison?
• How does your institution deal with inmates who are violent or disruptive? Are people sent to solitary confinement? Is the disciplinary system fair, and does it help to maintain order?
• Tell us about a notable or surprising experience you’ve had with another person in the legal system-whether a judge, a lawyer, a guard, or anyone else. What did you learn from it?
• The goals of criminal punishment include retribution (giving people what they deserve), deterrence (discouraging future crimes), and rehabilitation (improving behavior). What purpose, if any, has your time in prison served? Should one of these purposes be emphasized more?
• Have you ever filed a grievance with jail or prison authorities to complain about conditions? Tell us about it, and explain how the grievance process works. Are grievances effective? How do prison authorities respond to them? How do you feel about federal law’s requirement that prisoners file grievances before suing about prison conditions in court?
• If you have been released from prison, what challenges did you face in reentering society?
• How, if at all, do you maintain relationships with your family while in prison? Describe the prison rules that govern how much contact you can have with your family. How has being in prison affected your family relationships?

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Enter the contest. (Make sure you’re eligible.)

• Share this notice with loved ones behind bars or recently out.

• If you’re an attorney or other pertinent professional, give contest information to incarcerated clients who might benefit.

• Look at the April 23 contest announcement on line athttp://tinyurl.com/7yzb4n6

Permanently.

Called Housing First, such projects put people who are homeless into apartments with support services, including street people in fairly bad shape. And it works.

Studies of Housing First, such as one done in Denver in 2007, show lives changed for the better. Use of public services goes down – sometimes dramatically.

But there’s one benefit you don’t hear about much: Housing First can keep homeless humans treated like trash out of our courts and out of our jails.

Typically collared for crimes such as drinking from open containers, they cycle in and out of jails over and over again.

One “most booked” woman in Boulder, Madonna Mooney, homeless and alcoholic, has been arrested 31 times since 2010, said a striking story on indigent offenders published in Boulder’s Daily Camera April 14th. (By Pierrette J. Shields at http://tinyurl.com/7pxkmgc

“The last time I had a home was in 2003,” Mooney told Shields in an interview conducted inside the Boulder County Jail. Taxpayers “have spent a fortune on me,” Mooney said.

In fact, taxpayers have spent at least $59,000 on her in the last two years alone, Shields found. That only covers her arrest, jail, and court costs.

Lester Dostin, another homeless “frequent flier,” has mental health issues. He’s spent 3,431 days in the Boulder County Jail since 1995, Shields wrote. At current rates, a day behind bars for someone like Dostin costs the county $90.58.

You do the math.

Lee Hill, a Boulder Housing Partners project, uses a more advanced calculus.

It will put sophisticated support services and 31 apartments for people like Madonna Mooney next to the current shelter in North Boulder. http://boulderhousing.org

Lee Hill is an extensively vetted plan, but even after its April 17th City Council approval, some North Boulder groups still oppose it.

Fear of crime looms large in community concerns. Maybe they don’t know Housing First can reduce crime as well as costs.

That’s what happened in Denver. A 2007 study detailed per-person public services costs before and after chronically homeless people got into Housing First apartments.
Incarceration costs dropped 76 percent – from $899 a year to $214. (Overall savings? $4,745 per person.) http://tinyurl.com/87g6uq9

P.J. Shields’ story showed how it worked for David, one of the Boulder jail’s frequent fliers. He struggles with mental illness, spent years on the streets, and now lives in a small Housing First apartment in Longmont.

Shields talked to the caseworker who visits David once a week and even helps with his chores. David’s “constant trips to the jail have been derailed,” Shields found.
She also talked to Boulder County Jail’s Commander Bruce Haas. Homeless alcoholics and the mentally ill “seem to have defaulted to incarceration for help,” he said – too few Colorado beds and programs for them elsewhere.

It’s not just a Colorado problem. A half dozen years ago, in Washington, DC, Lou Schwartz, a volunteer minister at the DC jail, told me he often sees homeless people with mental illness behind bars.

“There is no mercy in the system,” Schwartz said. “They come out of jail. They’re in the shelters. They’re on the street. They die or they come back into jail. They don’t get the help they need on the outside.”

“I have seen it all over the United States,” said E. Fuller Torrey, MD. Torrey is a nationally known advocate for the mentally ill homeless and president of The Treatment Advocacy Center in Virginia. http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/

Clearly and fortunately a nationally recognized solution has taken root right here in Colorado, and Housing First is now in Colorado Springs, Denver and Boulder.

But in some quarters it’s not a particularly popular plant. Here are 50 ways to keep it growing and help it flourish.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

* Promote housing, not handcuffs. Six options for Denver-area advocates.
http://www.coloradocoalition.org/advocate/homesnothandcuffs.aspx

* Lee Hill: Say yes from your desk. http://tinyurl.com/6qf4osv

* Volunteer with the Colorado Coalition. Thirty-two choices. http://www.coloradocoalition.org/volunteer.aspx

* At Boulder Housing Partners teach yoga or cooking. Computer tutor. http://www.boulderhousing.org/content/volunteer-opportunities

* Volunteer with Harbor House in Colorado Springs. http://www.harborhouseco.org/Housing-First.html

Today on Democracy Now! we discussed the hunger strike in Pelican Bay Prison that is entering its third week. We interviewed Dorsey Nunn, a mediator between the prisoners on hunger strike and the California Department of Corrections.

DEMOCRACY NOW! LINK: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/15/protests_grow_in_solidarity_with_california

YOUTUBE LINK (send to a friend):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbf8WXO5aMM

View the video here:

Mr. Zoukis <http://www.christopherzoukis.com/>  teaches a class titled  “Writing and Publishing <http://www.christopherzoukis.com/prison-education-blog/> “. The class  teaches prisoners the techniques of professional writers, along with how to  submit their work, thus giving voice to their literary effort. As a  vocational, academic, and practical class, Mr. Zoukis feels that both he and  his class are making a difference in the lives of his students and their  families. Mr. Zoukis hopes the class will provide prisoners with marketable  skills, skills that will keep them from returning to prison.

These prisoners have come to realize that education is the most  cost-effective method of reducing recidivism.  In other words, education is  their only hope of escaping the revolving door of prison.  Despite their  imprisonment and the obstacles that implies, these men want to become  productive members of society.  They are eager to learn.  Unfortunately,  today’s prisons offer very few academic or vocational programs.

As an outreach, Mr. Zoukis <http://www.christopherzoukis.com/>  blogs <http://www.christopherzoukis.com/prison-education-blog/>  about his class  weekly. These blogs contain his preparation for each week’s class, the  methodology of the actual teaching, his struggles as both a prisoner and a  prison-educator, and the resounding growth and success that the class  facilitates. The blog also includes guest-blogs by other prison education  experts and keeps the reader abreast of other educational endeavors that Mr.  Zoukis is participating in. Current endeavors include the preparation and  approval process for a monthly “Correspondence Course Seminar” and an  educational communiqué entitled <http://www.christopherzoukis.com/ebbn/>  Education Behind Bars Newsletter.

Take a look and give it a test drive!!

From our website: http://www.coloradocrimevictims.org click on the link to the Online Resource Directory, OR go directly to the directory from your browser: cova.civicore.com

If you are unable to find a listing for your agency, and would like to be included in the Directory, please fill out our Online Victim Services Directory Update Form (located on our website-click here <http://www.coloradocrimevictims.org/downloads.html> ) and either email or fax it to me. The information should be posted within 10 days.

Thank you for ALL you do to serve crime victims in Colorado!

In 2010, the legislature passed a bill (SB 10-06) that requires the DMV to
waive the fee for a state ID or driver’s license for someone on parole. The
Dept of Corrections issued a new Executive Directive in January 2011 to
implement this new law.

As I understand the process, the DOC has developed a form letter (approved
by DMV) that a parole officer can fill-out and give to an eligible parolee.
The parolee would then give that letter to the person at DMV at the time
s/he was getting an ID so that the fee would be waived.

SB 10-06 also waives the state ID fee for other populations (ie: people
leaving jail or DYC) that have a separate referral process. The attached
directive only applies to people on parole who are still under the
jurisdiction of the Dept of Corrections.

I’m interested to know people who are “on the ground” helping parolees to
see if this law is working the way intended and if not, why not. I am very
interested in any feedback.

Also, please feel free to pass along this information to others.

Thanks so much.

Christie Donner
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition