Illinois, like other states, holds frequent legislative and public policy discussions about what are appropriate prison sentences for convicted criminals. With America's prison population nearing 2.2 million, the highest percentage of an imprisoned population of any nation in history, with lots more in the "system" with probations and paroles, and the aging and growing population leading to rising costs, this public policy discussion is not only inevitable, it is invaluable.

Why there are so many people committing violent crime is another very important discussion - a very important one - about social problems, the causes of crime, and how to best prevent it. But that is for another day and another website perhaps. (But here is a hint - with 30,000 deaths from guns in this nation when no other nation in the world has numbers even close to that, the profits of the gun industry over sound reasonable crime prevention policy is a good place to begin the discussion. Gun violence accounts for 80% approximately of all violent death and injury in crime. Yet the gun lobby will not cooperate with even the most basic and reasonable of reforms such as universal background checks.)

We have seen just in the Chicago area alone with the big push in the 1990's to capture and imprison the worst gang leaders and drug dealers, many of whom were sentenced to LWOP for their series of massively violent acts, that the crime rate dropped markedly. Imprisonment also works.

And we all know the system is far from perfect and is in need of serious reform.

But meanwhile, victims of these crimes are the reason that criminals have to serve time in prison in the first place. The fact that there are victims, created by criminals, is the reason we are having any issue with prison sentences at all.

There cannot be a discussion about what prison sentences should or should not be that can happen legally or morally without the empowered voices of victims in that discussion. Victims aren't the whole discussion, but they are a vital and indispensable part of it.

There are people in Illinois right now that are working on sentencing reforms that are actually saying, unbelievably, that victims should not have a key voice in this process. It was in fact those people who led us to create IllinoisVictims.org.

We have heard a few of these people actually say that once the crime is in the past, the only thing that matters is the behavior of the convict in the prison. It is now only up to the prisoner professionals. How the time is served is all that matters, not the original crime. The remorse, the good behavior. The victims are no longer the issue - their hurts were in the past. How the release of the offender would affect them is irrelevant. How the release of the offender would cause society to view the original crime is irrelevant. The convict has a life in the present that is now different. That is all that matters, they say.

We at IllinoisVictims.org are trying to educate those sentencing reformers about what the proper role of victims is in this public policy debate. We know that the Illinois Constitution guarantees us fair treatment and full information, knowledge of and participation in anything that affects our cases. So there is little question that victims have a right to be informed about and a voice in any possible changes in what they were told would be the prison sentences of the offenders in their cases, if such changes were to be decided on.

We know also, just as a matter of political strategy for those who want to change public policy, that if victims are not brought in from the start as valued voices in this discussion, they will, for the most part, arise as vocal opponents later. And they will be listened to, because they are the reason for punishment for crime in the first place. They will always carry public sympathy. That will never change, no matter the "political climate".

One of the issues in the sentencing debate that we are currently most concerned about is protecting the sentence of Life Without Parole and all determinate sentences. Illinois has not had parole since 1978, and only those earlier cases remain eligible for it. The benefit to victims of not having to go through the constant uncertainty, re-traumatization, and engagement with the offender over the years and in regular intervals is significant.

For those who want to bring back parole as a way of effecting sentencing reform, a horrifically expensive and huge bureaucracy, that if you look at other states is not working anyway, we say this:

You cannot reform the sentencing and prison system on the backs of the victims. The better way to reduce the load in prison is to expand the earned time off for good behavior that is automatically calculated under the current determinate sentencing system. It does not require victims to be constantly re-injured. And it saves the state millions and millions of dollars. It puts all the responsibility on the offender to earn the time off. And the only sentence this does not apply to is Life. Determinate sentences with formulas for good time earned off is a good system.

And when reforming the prison system, remember 2/3 of the offenders there are serving for non-violent and drug related offenses. We strongly suggest that those sentences make the most sense as a starting place for reform.

The vast majority of Illinois convicts get out of prison some day. They serve their time, they even earn up to half the sentence off through their own efforts. We always have to construct prisons understanding this - and build a system that helps them return to us as whole people capable of re-entering in productive and positive ways.

So the main conversation among the prison reformers mentioned above is this: should we have a natural life sentence or not? Some, such as the John Howard Society and the International Socialists Organization (ISO) say no - that no one should ever not be able to earn release at some point.

We disagree. We think LWOP, Life without parole, is sadly sometimes appropriate, only rarely, for those "worst of the worst". It should be applied only most carefully, but sometimes there are people who have lost the right to walk among us. Some articles below support the benefits and the widespread agreement about the LWOP sentence.

We also know that many Americans believe in the use of the Death Penalty for those "worst of the worst". Many victims seek it as the fair and appropriate consequence for what they took.

We also know polling shows that half of America prefers LWOP to the Death Penalty, and that many victims actually oppose the death penalty for two major reasons - 1. The prolonged appeals process that provides tons of focus on the offender and nothing on the needs of victims, and 2. that killing the offender actually is no different than the horror done to their family members. We note that New Jersey became the first state in modern US History to legislatively abolish the death penalty by replacing it with Life Without Parole.

In prison for life, inmates should be given a chance to earn some privileges, work to help others, and help to make up for what they took. Even have access to Restorative Justice programs, if they and the victims are willing and able.

But virtually no one in polling believes that LWOP is not appropriate in some circumstances for the worst offenders. While there remains considerable consensus that life sentences must be used for the unrepentantly dangerous, that our safety is a fundamentally important thing to protect, and while victims deserve not to have to spend the rest of their lives constantly having to re-engage with the person who so brutally destroyed their lives, we will work to defend the Life sentence.

The Benefits of the Life Without Parole Sentence

Recent documentation regarding the reduction in people receiving death sentence as being a direct result of strong Life Without Parole sentencing options:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-death11dec11,0,602773.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Monday, December 11, 2006
Texas is sending fewer to death row
By Lianne Hart
Times Staff Writer

HOUSTON — Texas may lead the nation by far in the number of executions carried out each year, but figures released last week suggest that support here for the ultimate punishment may be on the wane.

Over the last 10 years, the number of death sentences imposed in the state has dropped 65%, from 40 in fiscal 1996 to 14 in 2006, according to
statistics compiled by the Texas Office of Court Administration. In that time, murders have remained about the same: State crime statistics show
1,476 murders in 1996 and 1,405 in 2005.

The figures are in line with a national decline in death sentences, and show that "Texas is catching up with the trend," said Richard Dieter, executive
director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

A growing number of wrongly convicted inmates across the country and the use of DNA evidence to exonerate the innocent have made jurors increasingly
reluctant to impose the death penalty, Dieter said.

Because of the large percentage of death sentences that come out of Houston's Harris County, the drop in Texas could be traced in part to a
scandal at the Houston Police Department crime lab in which botched test results were used to bring suspects to trial.

In addition, a law was passed last year that gave Texas juries the sentencing option of life without parole in death penalty cases, he added.

"There has always been the idea of Texas being tough on crime, but I think as people see how much potential there is for mistakes, they're less
inclined to be so heavy handed," said Vicki McCuistion, program director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

But Lyn McClellan, head of the felony trial section at the Harris County district attorney's office, said observers shouldn't read too much into the
figures.

In Houston, the number of crimes committed that are eligible for the death penalty has declined — not prosecutors' commitment to get a death sentence
when the case calls for it, McClellan said.

"We are trying fewer cases, and the only way I can attribute that is fewer cases meet our criteria for what we think is a death-appropriate case. It's
not like we're getting those cases and saying, 'We don't want to seek death,' " McClellan said.

Harris County sends more defendants to death row than any county in the state. In fiscal 1996, Harris County jurors gave the death sentence to 16
defendants. But in fiscal 2006, three people were sent to death row from the county.

The drop was enough to bring down the state average, said Angela Garcia, judicial information manager for the Office of Court Administration.

Dianne Clements, president of the Houston-based pro-death penalty victims rights group Justice For All, said the decline had more to do with U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting the kinds of cases eligible for the death penalty than a major shift in thinking.

"We have the death penalty on the books and it's obvious that Texas uses it," she said. "I don't see it as anything to be ashamed of."
- - - - -
lianne.hart@latimes.com

/ / / / /

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=77365

DOJ: The Number of Death Row Inmates Declined for Fifth Straight Year During
2005

12/10/2006 3:30:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Stu Smith of U.S. Department of Justice, 202-307-0784, or 301-983-9354 (after hours); Web: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Federal Bureau of Prisons and 36 states held 3,254 inmates on death row at the end of last year, which was 66 fewer such inmates than at the end of 2004, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The 2005 drop was the fifth consecutive year the number of prisoners with a death sentence had fallen. There were 3,601 death row prisoners on Dec. 31, 2000.

During 2005, 128 inmates were put on death row, which was the lowest number of admissions since 1973 when 44 persons were admitted. This was the third consecutive year such admissions had declined.

Sixteen states executed 60 prisoners last year, which was one more execution than in 2004. It was 38 fewer than in 1999, the peak year for executions
since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Those executed during 2005 had been under a sentence of death for an average of 12
years and three months, or 15 months longer than for inmates executed in 2004.

Texas carried out 19 executions last year. Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina each executed five inmates. Ohio, Alabama and Oklahoma executed
four each. Georgia and South Carolina executed three each. California executed two. Connecticut, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maryland and
Mississippi each executed one. Fifty-nine men and one woman were executed during 2005. The execution in Connecticut was the first in that state since
1960.

Four States (California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania) held half of all death row inmates as of Dec. 31, 2005. The Federal Bureau of Prisons held 37
death row inmates.

Among the inmates sentenced to death for whom information was available, 65 percent had a prior felony conviction, including 8 percent with at least one
previous homicide conviction. Nearly four in 10 inmates under a death sentence committed the capital crime while on probation, parole or in some
other criminal justice status.

Fifty-six percent of death row inmates were white and 42 percent were black. The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 13 percent of inmates with a known ethnicity. Ninety-eight percent of all inmates were male and 2 percent were female.

The average age of death row inmates on Dec. 31, 2005, was 42 years old. The oldest death row inmate was 90; the youngest was 20. Among inmates for whom the date of arrest was available, 11 percent (342 of the 2,985 inmates) were 19 or younger at the time of their arrest.

Of the 7,320 people under a death sentence between 1977 and 2005, 14 percent had been executed, 4 percent died from causes other than execution and 37 percent received other dispositions. A slightly higher percentage of whites (16 percent) than blacks and Hispanics (11 percent) have been executed.

During the first 11 months of 2006, fewer executions have been carried out compared with the same period in 2005. As of Nov. 30, 2006, 14 states had
executed 52 inmates. This is three fewer than the number executed as of the same date in 2005.

Lethal injection accounted for all 60 executions during 2005 and 51 of the 52 executions in the first 11 months of 2006. Thirty-seven states authorized
the use of lethal injection as of Dec. 31, 2005, up from 32 in 1995. Between 1977 and 2005, 836 of the 1,004 executions (83 percent) were by lethal
injection.

The report, "Capital Punishment, 2005 (NCJ-215083)" was written by BJS statistician Tracy L. Snell. Following publication, the report can be found
at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cp05.htm.
- - - - -
For additional information about the Bureau of Justice Statistics statistical reports programs, please visit the BJS Web site at
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) provides federal leadership in developing the nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, administer
justice and assist victims. OJP is headed by an assistant attorney general and comprises five component bureaus and an office: the Bureau of Justice
Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the
Office for Victims of Crime, as well as the Community Capacity Development Office, which incorporates the Weed and Seed strategy and OJP's American
Indian and Alaska Native Affairs Desk. More information can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/.

/ / / / /

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-12-10-death-row_x.htm

Study: Fewer inmates on death row in '05

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer prison inmates were moved to death row in 2005, according to a federal study that shows one more person was executed than in the year before.

Four states — California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania — held half of the 3,254 inmates awaiting execution at the end of 2005, the study by the Bureau
of Justice Statistics showed. There were 37 death row inmates in federal prisons at that time.

Sixteen states executed 60 prisoners last year, one more inmate than in 2004

Overall, however, the number of inmates on death row on Dec. 31, 2005, or the number of inmates moved there during the year dipped.

Among the findings by the Justice Department agency:

•128 inmates were moved to death row in 2005, the third consecutive year with a decline in year-long totals. It was the lowest number of prisoners
put on death row since 1973.

•Sixty-six fewer inmates were on death row at the end of 2005 than in 2004. That was a decrease for the fifth straight year and about a 10% drop since
Dec. 31, 2000, when there were 3,601 death row prisoners nationwide.

The Justice Department data, the most recent available, confirmed similar trends over the past five years as identified by Amnesty International USA,
which opposes the death penalty.

Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of the group's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, said the drop in part reflects the public's squeamishness in
approving executions for people who ultimately may be found innocent.

Since 1973, when watchdog groups began keeping track, 123 death row inmates have been cleared of crimes that had earned them death sentences.

Juries "don't want to be culpable for possibly putting an innocent person to death," Gunawardena-Vaughn said.

Moreover, because of lengthy trials and inevitable years of appeals in capital murder cases, the death penalty is expensive and "dilutes very, very
crucial resources — many of which could be put toward more policing or mental health programs," she said.

As of the beginning of this month, 52 inmates have been executed so far in 2006, according to data provided by the Washington-based Death Penalty
Information Center.

Thirty-eight states and the federal government allow juries to consider the death penalty in the most heinous criminal cases. All states except Nebraska
allow lethal injection in executions. Inmates in Nebraska and eight other states can be electrocuted. Additionally, three states allow death by
hanging, another three by firing squad and four by lethal gas.

At the end of last year, 56% of death row inmates were white and 42% were black, the Justice Department study reported. Women accounted for 2% of
those people facing execution.
- - - - -
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

[Home] [Up]