Criminal Justice Symposium

Sponsored by the Yale Class of 1960

A young Latino American male, Fernando Bermudez, was hoping to become a physician. One night in 1991 just before he was starting college, he was arrested, selected from a line-up, endured a trial, was convicted and sentenced to 23 years to life in prison for killing a 16 year old boy outside of a bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. The only problem is that Fernando was nowhere near the scene of the crime. There was no evidence to link him to the murder and his friends testified that he was with them during the time of the shooting. After serving 18 years, the prosecutions witnesses recanted and Fernando was finally freed. Now, suffering from PTSD, Fernando is trying to re-establish a normal life with his wife and children. Stories like the one that Fernando Bermudez told rattled the sense of fairness of attendees at a Symposium on Criminal Justice May 8-10 at the Thomas E. Golden Center at St. Thomas More Chapel at Yale. The Yale Class of 1960 organized the three day event to bring out the multi-faceted problems facing police officers, personnel within the court system, and corrections institutions. The motivation for the Symposium began with the results of a Classmates recent visit to Alcatraz. There was a former inmate of Alcatraz sitting at the welcoming desk who had been a murderer and a bank robber. Subsequent to his release, he had become a model citizen and was pardoned by both the governor of California and the President of the United States. The following questions arose: first what had caused him to change for the better; second are prisoners just bad people or is there a good chance that they can get their lives in order; and third how can the recidivism rate that ranges from 30% to 65% in our states be improved. Speakers at the Symposium quoted appalling statistics. 60% of past offenders return to prison. From 1970 to 2010 the total US prison population in state prisons grew from 174,379 to 1,404,503. Annual costs for US state prisons rose from $10 billion to $52 billion. Crack cocaine in the 1980s poured new offenders into the system. Three Strikes and Youre Out, mandatory and now recommended Federal sentencing, lack of job opportunities for ex-offenders after their release, and a dramatic increase in the average length of sentences and therefore time served have bloated prison populations. Participants were astonished by these facts as explained by Peggy McGarry, Director of Sentencing & Corrections from the Vera Institute for Justice. Each day focused on some aspect of the criminal justice system. Chief Dean Esserman of the New Haven Police Department reported on his initiative community-based policing as had been explained earlier in the Symposium by Retired University of Wisconsin Professor Herman Goldstein. In this model problem-oriented policing and crime prevention are the goals instead of simply arresting the bad guys. The crime rate in New Haven has been dramatically reduced. Influential citizens, too, can play leading roles in the reduction of crime. President Richard Levin chose to remain in his neighborhood in New Haven after being installed as president of Yale. During his tenure, Yale has offered a new program of low interest loans for Yale employees who purchase homes and live in the higher crime neighborhoods of New Haven. Now, one of these areas is among the safest in the city. In another good will gesture by Yale, graduates of New Haven High Schools are eligible for scholarship assistance for college. While most prisoners protest their innocence, some convicted offenders are wrongfully imprisoned. Alton Logan was given a life in prison sentence for murdering a McDonalds Security Guard in a Chicago

robbery, a crime that he didnt commit. Jamie Kunz, who recently appeared on 60 Minutes and who was the attorney for Andrew Wilson, the real offender, couldnt reveal Logans innocence because he was bound by attorney client privilege. It took more than 26 years for the real culprit Andrew Wilson to be exposed. Only after Wilson had died in prison, where he was serving a life sentence for killing two Chicago Police Officers, could Kunz and his co-counsel come forward to reveal what Wilson had told them 26 years earlier. Recently a $10 million settlement was paid by Chicago to Logan, apparently because the police department's attorneys feared that the plaintiff would prove that the police had knowingly manipulated the evidence far beyond what justice allows. Despite grim predictions for young men of color, who constitute approximately 60% of the prison population, education programs are creating amazing change. Hudson Link, a Mercy College degree program in State of New York prisons, and Rising Hope in Croton Falls, NY, which is associated with CUNY, award college credits for inmates taught by a volunteer faculties. Rev. George McClain, a fourteen year veteran teacher in the prisons, spoke about how the Rising Hope program has cut recidivism among its graduates to almost to zero, a result similar to Hudson Links, where not one of its 82 released graduates has returned to prison. This academic cocoon within the prison culture offers inmates hope and a way forward away from prisons hip hop culture, which normally leads to a round trip back to prison for another offense. Beyond the human benefits of these programs, the reduction in recidivism is saving the State of New York the $60,000 per prisoner annual cost. Some conclusions of the Symposium as to how the Criminal Justice System can be improved were: 1. problem-oriented policing really helps to make us safer, leads to fewer arrests, and many fewer incarcerations; 2. drug abuse is a problem that should be treated medically, just as New York State is doing; 3. police and prosecutors have a responsibility to be just and to disclose to the defense any evidence that might show that the defendant was innocent; 4. a new administrative system needs to be developed that will prevent prosecutor abuse and encourage full disclosure; 5. the increase in the average length of sentences and therefore incarcerations has not been shown to reduce crime; 6. there are many successful strategies to dramatically decrease recidivism, including educating prisoners and insuring that upon release counseling, health services, housing, and employment are available, all of which are much less expensive than the cost of incarceration; and 7. a criminal justice system that practices the preceding will lead to a safer, more just society at reduced human and financial costs. After the Symposium, attendees asked how they might help correct some part of the broken system. Here are links to programs which interested citizens may either receive more information or volunteer: http://www.vera.org/, http://www.hudsonlink.org/, and http://risinghopeinc.wordpress.com/how-can-ihelp, and www.popcenter.org. Suggested readings are: The Collapse of American Criminal Justice by the former Harvard Law School Professor William J. Stuntz, Problem-Oriented Policing by Herman Goldstein, and Punishment and Inequality in America by Harvard Professor Bruce Western.

Speakers: Peter Knudsen, Symposium Chairman, Yale 1960, CEO Ecoair Corp. Peggy McGarry, Director of the Center on Sentencing and Corrections at the Vera Institute of Justice Herman Goldstein, Retired Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School Arvin Murch, Yale 1960, Retired College Professor John DeCarlo, Professor of Criminal Justice, University of New Haven Michael Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, University of New Haven

Dean Esserman, Chief of Police, New Haven Department of Police Service Ronnell Higgins, Chief of the Yale Police Department Rusty Wing, Yale 1960, Criminal Defense Attorney, New York City Richard Banbury, Yale 1960, Criminal Defense Attorney, Hartford, CT Alan Caplan, Yale 1960, Criminal Defense Attorney, Las Vegas Emory Clark, Yale 1960, Retired Criminal Defense Attorney, Metamora, MI Jamie Kunz, Yale 1960, Retired Public Defender, City of Chicago Robert Mirto, Yale 1960, Criminal Defense Attorney, West Haven, CT Steven Lasewicz, Yale 1960, Retired Business Executive Herbert Hodos, Yale 1960, Retired Greenfield, MA District Court Judge George Levine, former CT Superior Court Judge and current CT Tax Court Judge George Levine Barry Schaller, Yale 1960, Former Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court and Connecticut Appellate Judge Dr. Jaimie Meyer of the Yale Medical School Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS Fernando Bermudez, former 18 year inmate in NY State Prison who was found factually innocent and was exonerated A.T. Wall, Director of the Department of Corrections of the State or Rhode Island Rev. George McClain, Yale 1960, Teacher at Rising Hope for 14 years Deborah Moore, Academic Coordinator of Rising Hope Inc. Gordon Bates, Retired Executive Director of the Connecticut Prison Association Denise Dallaire, served 10 years of a 15 year sentence at the Federal Prison in Danbury and was released with the help of Judge John Gleeson Stevie Doherty, served 25 years in part for a crime he was found innocent of and was exonerated Dr. Arthur McGuire, Yale 1960, retired provider of medical services at the Hampden County House of Corrections in Massachusetts John Bing, Yale 1960, Professor of Political Science and Criminal Justice at Heidelberg College in Ohio