Washblog

Kathya Alexander, Justice Works! new Executive Director served as Resident Manager and later Vice President of the Board of A Woman's Place in Champaign Illinois, one of the first domestic violence shelters ever opened in the country, if not the first.  She worked directly with women as a counselor at the Eastside Domestic Violence Program in Bellevue. She was Director of Student Life of Parkland College in Illinois, which had over 10,000 students.  She served as Employment Director at The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.  She was most recently Manager of Rainier Valley Cultural Center.
L: Lea Zengage, Founder and Executive Director of Justice Works!  R: Kathya Alexander, Justice Works! new Executive Director		I met with Kathya Alexander and Lea Zengage at Justice Works! (JW!) headquarters and Gift and Thrift shop on Rainier Avenue in Seattle.  Kathya had just accepted the position of Executive Director of this grassroots criminal justice reform organization. Lea, after nearly a decade as Executive Director, is stepping down.  The two women will work together for several months for a smooth transition.  Lea will stay with Justice Works! as an organizer. It's a milestone for the organization.  Lea has served without pay since JW! was founded in 2001 under the name, Justice Passage.  Kathya, a founding member of JW!, will be paid.  The shift to new leadership - and the paid staff position are signs of the organization's growth.

Isn't it normal to deduct some portion of state income tax paid from federal income tax? If so, how much?

If I made over $200k, I'd prefer to send more of my money to Olympia, vs DC. To pay for schools, roads, and other nice stuff. Last I checked, Washington State hadn't blown one trillion dollars on any illegal wars.

When I-1098 passes, I'll save ~$200 on property taxes. Woohoo! Use this tax calculator to see how much you'll save.

Will Your Vote Count? A Look at 100 Years of Suffrage and How Voting is Changing Today

Thursday September 9th
7:30 to 9:00 p.m.
MOHAI Auditorium (directions)

On the 100th anniversary of woman's suffrage, what are the current challenges to our democratic processes? With Reed's push to adopt email ballot (voting via the Internet), I expect this to be a lively discussion.

L-R: Dolphy Jordan, Ari Kohn, Chris Jones, and Pollard Fa'alogo.  Dolphy and Pollard are current PPEP students		I met Chris Jones as he entered Jillian's Billiards Club surrounded by family and friends.  We were there to celebrate his acceptance of an Associate of Science degree earlier that afternoon from North Seattle Community College.   Ari Kohn, Founder of Post Prison Education Program (PPEP) introduced us and Chris led me to a table at the edge of the party to share reflections on his transition from prison with the help of that program.  A Phi Theta Kappa key glinted on his lapel as if releasing a tiny wattage of his tremendous energy.
There was in the room a sense of celebration of Chris Jones as a person, his hard-won success in moving past active addiction, the spiritual awakening in prison that had transformed his world view, his academic honors (a 3.71 grade point average in a challenging science curriculum), the honor of delivering one of the student addresses at the graduation ceremony that day, his volunteer work as a tutor to other PPEP students, his new enrollment in the Electrical Engineering program of Washington State University.

Senator Ken Jacobsen (D-46LD) is retiring. I miss him already.

Jacobsen helped protect the integrity of our elections. He's a Hero of Democracy.

There's a nationwide push to adopt internet voting. Sam Reed (Sec of State) is totally on board. He proposed a bill last session allowing casting ballots via email (HB 2483 / SB 6238 - Concerning Overseas and Service Voters).

To his tremendous credit, Jacobsen listened to our objections. Despite my snarkiness. Despite already supporting Reed's bill. Despite Reed's cheap "men in uniform" theatrics. Jacobsen did his own research. I believe that as a result, he and other senators allowed Reed's bill to die in the Senate (after sailing thru the House, ahem).

People have said some pretty mean things about Jacobsen. I've learned that there's always more to the story.

Jacobsen has always treated me well. And this last legislative session, Jacobsen did right by me.

Tonight, the 46 LD Democrats are doing the nomination process to replace Jacobsen. I'm deeply ambivalent. With Jacobsen's departure, Democracy loses an ally. To be replaced by a wildcard.

I miss Jacobsen already.

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander, The New Press, 2010

When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment, Mark A.R. Kleiman, Princeton U. Press, 2009

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Michelle Alexander at Rainier Valley Cultural Center, Seattle Washington, April 14, 2010		Mark A.R. Kleiman at Seattle Town Hall, April 22, 2010

Moritz College of Law professor Michelle Alexander and UCLA professor of public policy Mark A.R. Kleiman, recently made the rounds in Seattle.

Alexander, formerly Director of the Northern California ACLU Racial Justice Program, spoke with an audience of students, lawyers, civil rights leaders, and professors at the UW School of Law William H. Gates Public Interest Law Program.  The following day, she did an interview with Dave Ross on KIRO radio, spoke with correctional officers and inmates in the prison at Monroe and then, in a benefit for 3-Strikes reform, addressed a community audience at Rainier Valley Cultural Center.  Senator Adam Kline, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, and former 3-Strikers Stevan Dozier and Vance Bartley also spoke that evening. I was one of the event organizers with the primary sponsoring organization, Justice Works!

Kleiman's visit was hosted by Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess, a former Seattle Police Department officer and detective.  Kleiman met with criminal justice and elected officials to discuss research on crime and incarceration reduction and then gave a talk at Seattle Town Hall followed by a panel discussion.  Panelists included Secretary of Washington State Department of Corrections Eldon Vail, King County Superior Court Judge Wesley Saint Clair, King County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Larson, and Washington ACLU Drug Policy Director Alison Holcomb.  

L-R: King County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Larson, Secretary of Washington State Department of Corrections Eldon Vail, King County Superior Court Judge Wesley Saint Clair, ACLU Drug Policy Director Alison Holcomb, Mark A.R. Kleiman, Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess

We need to push back on Sam Reed's latest assault against the integrity of our elections. His bill Concerning Overseas and Service Voters would permit casting votes via the Internet. Use Verified Voting's online form to contact your state senator and the caucus leaders.

The action alert email is below the fold. Here's the most important point:

Military and overseas voters can be served without compromising security and privacy.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Al-Kareem Shadeed.  Photo by Inye Wokoma, used with permission.  ColorsNW Magazine		Major federal court decision yesterday! According to a December, 2006 Amici Curiae (friend of the court) briefing in the case of Farrakhan v Gregoire, nearly one-quarter of otherwise qualified black male voters, and almost 17% of the entire adult black population of Washington state were prohibited from voting because of prior felonies. Last session's House Bill 1517 restored the right to vote to an estimated 167,000 people in the state who were barred due to Legal Financial Obligations owed on prior felonies. Now a 9th Circuit Federal court has ruled that the state's high rate of minority imprisonment cannot be explained in a race neutral way and that the right to vote must be restored to people currently in prison.
3-Striker Al-Kareem Shadeed, who was recommended unanimously for clemency by the state's Clemency and Pardons Board in December, is a plaintiff in this case.  Washington state is less than 4% Black. Our 3-Strikes population is 40% Black. (1) The state prison population as a whole is 19.3% Black. Other minority groups are also over-represented. (2) The Brennan Center has more information and links to the decision and other documents: "On Jan. 5, 2010, the Ninth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, reversed the District Court's decision on remand, claiming that Washington's constitutional provision regarding felony disenfranchisement is in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. the Ninth Circuit has ruled that  Associated Press reports. "The two appellate judges ruled that disparities in the state's justice system "cannot be explained in race-neutral ways." Persistent Offenders, Through June 2008, State of Washington, Sentencing Guidelines Commission. Offender Fact Card, Fiscal Year 2009, Washington Department of Corrections

Vance Bartley, founder of Gifts for Kids:  "You're a chickenhawk!  That's a chickenhawk hat you're wearing!"  Child: "No!  You're a BIG. FAT. chickenhawk!"  (overheard at Gifts for Kids) The second annual Gifts for Kids was held at Nova High School in Seattle on December 19, 2009.  This day-long celebration for children of incarcerated parents was founded by Vance Bartley and co-organized by Justice Works! under the direction of Lea Zengage and Nova High School under the direction of Joleen Franklin, a teacher at the school.
Vance Bartley, thanking organizers of Gifts for Kids Lea Zengage and Joleen Franklin. Click on images for larger version.		Chet Hunter, working with his wife Sherry, cut and styled the hair of about 40 people.
Dozens of children poured in as the event started and they continued to arrive throughout the day.  Over 180 volunteers and donors, from both inside and outside of prison, contributed to the event.  Nova students and Justice Works! volunteers were the backbone of much of the preparation for months in advance - as well as serving during the day. Vance Bartley, who was serving a Life Without Parole sentence under Washington's 3-Strikes law when he originated the idea of Gifts for Kids, commented on those early beginnings in thanking Lea Zengage and Joleen Franklin:  "So let me just say that what began as just an idea and a concept in my mind when I was lying in a prison cell, sentenced to do the rest of my life in prison, I brought to these ladies and they made this happen." A link to a video of Vance's presentation and the response of the women honored is HERE.
Chef Young Pang prepared gourmet - and mouth- watering - sushi.  His beautiful Japanese radish and cucumber creatures attracted a lot of attention.		The dance group, Pulse, gave an amazing step-dance performance.

Cherisse Luxa, who commented frequently on this site, has passed away from cancer.  She's second from the left here There's a story on NW Progressive Institute Advocate and one on Daily Kos. I took this photo at a July 2007 Service of Lamentation held by clergy to protest the planned destruction of the Lora Lake moderate-income apartments in Burien.  Cherisse was instrumental in organizing the community to try to save this housing.  From left to right in this photo: Donald Bennett, Cherisee Luxa, Representative Tina Orwall from Washington's 33rd Legislative District, Sarajane Siegfriedt. Cherisse had incredible energy, intelligence and caring.  In the last in-depth email I exchanged with her, she told me she was working on her dissertation in the doctoral program on Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University. She was a retired sheriff's deputy -- as she put it, "a retired cop", a victims' rights advocate, and, among many other activities, worked in other countries to help identify the bodies of people who had died as victims of war crimes.  She co-founded Burien's Drinking Liberally.   Cherisse had a keen and integrative intelligence -- noticing and remembering details that few people see (she rescued me several times from errors in my stories) -- but also thinking in a systems-oriented way -- understanding the larger patterns, the connecting dynamics.  She was truly a pleasure to talk with as well as generous with her time and thoughts and help for others.  I feel truly sad that she has passed away.

Now is the time for the opportunistic opposition to pounce on how badly the governor has managed the state's economy.

We have never in our lifetimes been in such a desperate economic community circumstance.

Where are the great Republican voices in our state? Why are they not pointing out how they, their party and their political philosophy had nothing at all to do with this catastrophe?

Where are their supposedly wise and more valid suggestions or alternatives to how the governor and legislature are dealing with this stuff?

What about the conservative religion itself. Isn't this the time for business to step forward, de-emphasize profit maximization and jointly find ways to help all of us care for each other?

Goldy argues for retention elections in Lack of leadership obstructs judicial reform. This is Missouri's system for selecting judges. It has effectively stopped big money from buying their courts, a serious threat in Washington state.

Why stop there? All judicial election campaigns should also be publicly financed.

When judges can't even ask for campaign contributions, judges with big money backing are even more likely to get elected.

I posted a comment to haseattle.org about what I learned from watching judges campaigning, included here (below the fold).

Per The Olympian, US Rep Brian Baird receives a death threat, mentions it, and the local Republicans criticize Baird for having the gall to mention it.

Bringing a gun to a presidential visit is okay, but wearing a protest t-shirt is akin to terrorism and gets you arrested.

Bush was AWOL for much of his term, Obama takes a few days off, and now he's a slacker.

I don't even have the words to comment. Seriously. What is wrong with these people? It's not just that they're bullies, cowards, and ignorant. It's not they have this weird reality-denying double standard. This psychosis is way beyond that.

What are we witnessing? Are these people just sociopaths? I really want to know what we're up against. There's got to be an explanation.

A lawsuit filed today in the state Supreme Court against Washington Secretary of State, White v Reed, claims that one million voters in Washington are deprived of the Constitutional right to a secret ballot.  See below the fold for the press release.

Timothy White and Alan Rosato, the speakers in this video (which I created in 2007), are also the petitioners in the case. The video takes about 6 seconds to begin after you click on it.

Yesterday afternoon Stevan Dozier, whose story was featured here on Washblog in December 2007, was released from a 3-Strikes sentence of Life Without Parole after Governor Gregoire approved the unanimous recommendation of Washington's Clemency and Pardons Board. He has served under that sentence since 1994, the year 3-Strikes went into effect. He is the first Washington 3-Striker to be released under clemency. Washington State is the first 3-Strikes state in the nation.

Stevan Dozier's clemency was recommended by King County's Prosecuting Attorney, Dan Satterberg; the judge who sentenced him in 1994; King County Councilmember Larry Gossett; John Carlson, the conservative talk show host who championed the 3-Strikes ballot initiative in 1993; and others.  Here's a Seattle Times article with more background.  Al-Kareem Shadeed, whose story appeared on Washblog in January, 2008, has a clemency hearing scheduled for June 11, 2009.  Supporters are encouraged to attend.  

If you agree with 24 faith, civil rights, legal, and other organizations that Washington's 3-Strikes law should be reformed -- at minimum to comply with the 2001 recommendations of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission to remove lower seriousness crimes from the list triggering life imprisonment, you are needed.  Please consider joining joining this email list to receive 1-3 emails per month on key times to contact legislators and take part in other opportunities to advance reform.