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Topic No. 2
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 12:26:21 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: Violent Criminals May Benefit From Court Ruling
Message-ID: 
                        NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
 
            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
 
Vol. 4, No. 10                                     March 10, 1997
                1,500 Violent Illinois Criminals 
                  May Benefit From Court Ruling
     The Truth-In-Sentencing law that Illinois legislators passed
in 1995 in an effort to cap the state's raging crime rate was
declared unconstitutional last week by a state appeals court,
putting at risk the sentences of some 1,500 criminals.
     The 4th District Appellate Court, in upholding a lower court
ruling, agreed the legislature violated the Illinois constitution
by adding an unrelated measure to the sentencing bill before a
vote.
     A spokesman for Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan promised an 
appeal.  Unless the ruling is overturned, some 1,500 inmate 
sentences will have to be recalculated downward. 
     Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale, sponsor of the original law,
thinks the legislature should act quickly to re-pass a "clean"
bill in case the appeal is unsuccessful.
      Most  Illinois criminals were serving less than half their
sentences before the new sentencing law, and Illinois' violent
crime rate ranked third nationally in 1995, according to FBI
data. The Truth-In-Sentencing law, passed in an effort to reduce
Illinois' shockingly high crime rate, requires murderers to serve
100% of their sentences.  Those convicted of other violent crimes
must serve 85%.
     Demand for the law was spurred by  the notorious case of
Timothy Buss, who murdered 10-year-old Christopher Meyer as he
played along the Kankakee River in 1995 (CWW 8/15/95 and 8/2/96). 
Buss, ultimately convicted and sentenced to death, had been
paroled after serving half of a 25-year sentence for the murder
of a Bradley, Ill., girl in 1981.
     "The Illinois legislature struck a real blow for public
safety when it passed Truth In Sentencing three years ago," said
CrimeStrike Director Elizabeth Swasey. "It would be prudent to
act promptly in this emergency, and to get it right this time in
case the appeal fails and even more violent criminals get early
releases."
                  Tents Figure In Alaska's Plan
                    To Reduce Prison Crowding
     Superior Court Judge Karen Hunt is considering a plan to
reduce Alaska's prison overcrowding by a combination of efforts
that include sending 256 more inmates to a private prison in
Arizona and lodging others in tents (CWW 2/17/98).
     State corrections officials, facing a court deadline,
delivered the plan on Monday.  Under a court agreement reached in
the 1980s, the state is limited to 2,691 inmates in existing
facilities, a limit that will be exceeded by nearly 600 sometime
next month, according to Associated Press.
     Also contemplated in the plan are moving more prisoners into
community residential centers or halfway houses, developing a
secure halfway house for more dangerous offenders, and sending 60
prisoners to an as-yet uncompleted drug treatment center in
Valdez.  Another 125 inmates could lodged in tents this summer.
     While corrections officials grapple with the overflow,
legislators are debating a proposal to convert Fort Greely, an
Army base slated for decommissioning, into an 800-bed private
prison.  Gov. Tony Knowles' administration has proposed expansion
of a regional jail and a state prison to solve the overcrowding
problem.
               Prison Doesn't Disarm D.C. Inmates 
     The 1,700 inmates the District of Columbia transferred to a
private prison in Youngstown, Ohio, were supposed to be medium-
security prisoners, but some clearly weren't.
     Richard Johnson, 25, the suspect  in the recent stabbing
death of fellow inmate Derrick Davis, 22, had two homicide
convictions in the District.  While in a prison there, he was
convicted of assaulting two corrections officers and stabbing
another inmate. Since being sent to Ohio, Johnson allegedly
stabbed and nearly killed another inmate and assaulted still
another corrections officer.
     District  inmates sent to Ohio beginning last May have
committed 19 stabbings.  That compares with 22 weapons
assaults, mostly stabbings, for the entire 48,000-inmate Ohio
prison system in 1997, the Washington Post reports.
                  Sorry, High Court Tells Inmate
     One more item on the criminal wish list, albeit a relatively
obscure one, was lopped off by the U.S. Supreme Court last week
in an 8-1 ruling in a Missouri case.
     Prison inmates returned to prison after revocation of their
parole cannot, after subsequent release, challenge the
cancellation of their earlier parole, the court said. 
      "The reincarceration that he (the plaintiff) incurred as a
result of that action is now over, and cannot be undone," Justice
Antonin Scalia wrote in Spencer v. Kemna.
      Randy G. Spencer had his parole revoked in 1992 after he
was accused of raping a woman in Kansas City.  A registered sex
offender, Spencer challenged the revocation, but his sentence was
completed before the suit was decided. Now back in prison on a
new conviction, Spencer reasoned that the earlier revocation
might be used to keep him from being paroled again in the future
and reinstituted the suit.
     Sorry, said the Supreme Court, concurring with the federal
district and appeals courts.  Only Justice John Paul Stevens
demurred, saying that the plaintiff's "interest in vindicating
one's reputation" is proof the case is not moot.
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