Nevada Cure Resource Booklet 2016

Here you can download the 2016 Resource Guide for Nevada Prisoners. Please share this with a friend or loved one inside, thank you.

Monday, June 30, 2014

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.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

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:
 
 
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

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