Florida Parole Commission remains racially stacked

State can’t find qualified Blacks to serve on board

BY STARLA VAUGHNS CHERIN
FLORIDA COURIER

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Parole Commission will remain all-White with the reappointment of an existing member last week after a move to seek a more racially diverse slate of finalists failed.

The Parole Commission administers parole, which allows a Florida prison inmate to serve the remainder of his or her sentence outside the confines of the institution. Once released, the parolee is subject to conditions of supervision, and if those conditions are violated, the Commission may return the parolee to prison. Under Florida law, parole is a privilege, not a right.

The Parole Commission interacts with 65,000 offenders or ex-offenders in some capacity each year, including restoration of civil rights and clemency cases that are acted upon by the Florida Cabinet sitting as the Florida Board of Executive Clemency. Statistics indicate that more than 50 percent of the Florida prison population is Black.

The Board of Executive Clemency consists of Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Charles Brunson, Commissioner of Agriculture. All are Republicans except Sink, a Democrat.

No Black input
The Board of Executive Clemency unanimously agreed to give Commissioner Frederick Dunphy, a White male, a third six-year term and then voted 3-1 to make him chairman. Sink voted against elevating Dunphy to chairman. Earlier, she wanted the panel to reject all three finalists and ask a screening committee to submit a new list, but she couldn’t get a second from Crist or either of his two fellow Republicans.

Commissioner Monica David was reappointed to a second six-year term in 2006. Vice Chairwoman Tena Pate was appointed in 2003 by former Gov. Jeb Bush to a vacancy and in 2004, Bush appointed to her first six-year term ending in 2010.

Sink said the commission should have racial and gender diversity, noting that more than half of those who go before the panel are non-Whites.

No ‘peers’
Sink said the nominating committee appointed by members of the Cabinet “did a fair amount of outreach” to come up with a list of three names from more than 50 applicants. One Black female dropped out because taking the position would mean a salary cut.

The only Black male among the finalists, State Rep. Curtis Richardson, DTallahassee, earlier withdrew his name because he lacked the law enforcement background Crist and the Cabinet wanted.

“We were faced with selecting an all-female commission or an all-White commission,” she added. “The fact that the people coming before the parole board, the majority of the population appealing are African-American applicants, they should be judged by a jury of their peers,” Sink told the Florida Courier.

No commitment ‘from the top’
“When there is commitment from the top, there would be racial diversity on the Parole Commission,” said Muslima Lewis, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. “CFO Alex Sink made an effort. It fell on deaf ears. It shows the issue of diversity is not a priority.

“They had a sensitivity to gender diversity and that is important too. But racial diversity and its importance

in the criminal justice system and especially re-entry (to society) is paramount, especially as it disproportionately impacts minorities. You can find the right candidates. There are plenty of talented, qualified people of African descent.”

Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches President Adora Obi Nweze encourages African Americans to stay informed of opening positions and to submit applications.

‘Keep looking’
“We are very disappointed with the Cabinet’s decision. We would have hoped they would have seen fit to diversify this body. We want to encourage the Cabinet to continue to look for diversity and let them know we are watching. It’s very important that there be diversity at all levels of government. Soon the governor has the opportunity to appoint four new (Florida) supreme court justices, just another example of what is open.

“As African Americans, we need to stay abreast of what is opening up at all levels of government. They may have a problem with one or two applicants for political reasons, but 25 applicants is another story. It’s important we get in as many applicants as possible when the process opens up for any appointment or position,” she told the Florida Courier.

Thousands restored
The new clemency rules that Crist pushed through in 2007 ease the restoration process for some who have committed lesser offenses, like low-level drug dealing. A revision of the state’s clemency procedure, adopted in June, restored voting rights to 115,232 people with felony convictions.

The prison system identified a total of 298,000 exinmates eligible for review under the new rules. On a regular basis, the Department of Corrections sends a list of eligible ex-inmates to the Parole Commission. The Commission determines each former inmate’s eligibility under the new rules, then makes recommendations to the Board of Executive Clemency.

The Commission processes about 7,000 cases a month. The prison system says about 3,000 new people are released every month, so at that rate it would take years to resolve the pending cases. The minimum waiting time for those already on the list is two years.

Although Crist’s revisions helped streamline the clemency process, the Commission’s budget was cut and 24 positions were eliminated. Nine handled clemency cases.

“The Legislature made it possible for tens of thousands of ex-felons to have their rights restored and be able to vote but what one hand gives the other takes it away,” said Sink. “They took away the budget so now they can’t process the applications in a timely manner.”

History of discrimination
Historically, felony disenfranchisement laws help to suppress African- American political power.

After the Civil War, Florida and other Southern states expanded the criminal codes to punish offenses such as vagrancy (homelessness), petty larceny, miscegenation (interracial marriage), bigamy, and receiving stolen goods. These laws targeted formerly enslaved Africans.

Aggressive arrest and conviction efforts followed, motivated by the practice of “convict leasing,” whereby formerly enslaved Africans were convicted of crimes and then leased out to work on the plantations and factories from which they were freed.

These laws combined to produce both practical reenslavement and the legal loss of voting rights, usually for life, which effectively suppressed the political power of African Americans for decades. By 1900, 38 states had some type of felon voting restriction. Florida is one of the three remaining states without automatic restoration of civil rights after a prison sentence is served.

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Comment #1 (Posted by Mark Schlakman) Rating: ratingfull

There should be more newly registered ex-offender voters this fall as a result of actions taken by Governor Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet -- which includes Attorney General Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, sitting as the Clemency Board, in April '07 to allow largely nonviolent ex-offenders who had completed their sentences to regain their civil rights and register to vote. But the overall number likely will be far less than the 115,000 that the governor announced earlier this summer during the Department of Corrections' Restoration of Rights Summit. According to the Parole Commission, the investigative arm of the Clemency Board, the 115,000 cases consisted of about 90,000 older cases that date back to the 1970s and about 25,000 more recent cases that were pending final action by the governor and Cabinet. At this point, it may be useful to clarify that the Parole Commission does not ultimately determine which ex-offenders regain their civil rights. That is the sole prerogative of the governor and Cabinet. Nevertheless, beyond the scope of civil rights restoration, this fact clearly does not negate larger concerns about diversity and balance on the Parole Commission. Back to civil rights restoration... Many of the notification letters relating to the 115,000 that were sent out by the Office of Executive Clemency have been returned unopened because the addresses on file were out of date. Many ex-offenders are therefore unaware that they can register to vote. Setting aside more than 300,000 older rights-restoration cases that were deemed ineligible under the new rules, the Parole Commission advised that there was a current backlog of almost 60,000 more recent rights-restoration cases. In addition, the names of about 4000 ex-offenders are referred by the Department of Corrections to the Parole Commission for rights restoration review each month after they are released or their probation is terminated. And yes, the Parole Commission sustained a severe budget cut that will adversely impact the processing of these cases. So it is clear that, despite the April '07 rule changes, the rights-restoration process still needs work. Here's what the governor and Cabinet can do: *Direct the state Division of Elections to provide local elections supervisors with information to help reach newly eligible ex-offenders. *Separate employment-restriction considerations from the rights-restoration process. More-meaningful standards can be established by regulators apart from clemency to facilitate appropriate post-release employment and more effectively address concerns about public safety or fraud that may attach to particular jobs, including positions of trust and confidence such as mortgage brokers. *Revisit a long-standing clemency rule that requires ex-offenders to pay all court-ordered victim restitution as a precondition for rights restoration. All restitution should be paid, but this should be addressed apart from clemency. *Readopt a 1975 clemency rule that provided for essentially automatic restoration of rights. The three tiers of review established last year, which are cumbersome and costly, can be collapsed into one, simply to verify completion of sentence. *Enable groups such as the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which represents about 40 nonpartisan local, state and national community organizations, to provide useful and appropriate support, especially given the Parole Commission's budgetary and staffing constraints. With an eye toward the Nov. 4 elections, the governor and Cabinet can restore the civil rights of many more ex-offenders who have completed their sentences, but they must act soon. Note: I serve as senior program director at Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and head its Rethinking Civil Rights Restoration in Florida project. I previously served as special counsel to former Governor Lawton Chiles and briefly as a special advisor to former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Comment #2 (Posted by Grace DarkHorse) Rating: ratingfull

The Florida Parole Commission (FPC) is corrupt! Isn't it strange that the 2 best candidates suddenly stepped out? The first one stepped out because the salery would be less that what she is now getting. Didn't she know how much the salery was before she applied for the position? It was posted all over the net! The second candidate stepped out because he said was told that the FPC wanted someone with a law enforcement background. This is NOT a part of the job requirement nor was it posted as such! Then, what happened to all of the other applicants? Did they suddenly disappear? So Fred Dunphy couldn't go back tp the position that was available, so the commissioners played a game of musical chairs to be able to keep Dunphy on the board. Dunphy is an ex-cop who refuses to grant parole to inmates! Only 1% of inmates are being granted parole despite the fact that they have already served their minimum mandatory sentences and have done everything required of them to prove that they can and will be responsible members of society. Many of them are sick and elderly. The FPC will base their decissions on keeping these inmates in prison because of the ancient crimes. They do not look at the positive accomlishments that the inmate has made. They play games with these peoples lives. They don't keep these people in prison for "public safety". They keep them in prison so they can keep their jobs! What harm can these older men and women do? All they want is to go home to their families and live the remainder of their lives in freedom. How do I know this? My husband is a parole eligible inmate. He had a parole hearing. I was told by one of the commissioners that because od his positive accomplshments, they wanted him to spend just a little while longer in prison to help rehabilitate other inmates. And Fred Dunphy? He told me that LIFE MEANS LIFE. He didn't care that my husband already completed his minimum mandatory sentence! THIS is the kind of people who sit on the FPC! And further more, the "just a little while longer" actually came down to a prospective release date of the year 2100! This is despite proof that the FPC lied, scored him wrongly, and didn't take off any time for his accomplishments or good record! Something needs to be done about this "good ol' boys club"! Believe what I say...the corruption goes all the way to the top...all the way to Chaingang Charlie or higher!

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Florida Parole Commission remains racially stacked

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