TAKING IMMEDIATE ACTION AFTER A FEDERAL GRAND JURY INDICTMENT OFTEN GAINS THE BEST RESULTS

We've looked at methods to stop the grand jury process, establishing there's been grand jury abuse and how to make direct challenges to a grand jury indictment. But unfortunately even when a grand jury indictment may be subject to a later challenge once a federal grand jury produces an indictment against a defendant who has not already been arrested for the allegations he will face immediate federal arrest. Within hours or a few days of the arrest the defendant will face a federal magistrate judge in a federal courtroom who will make important determinations as to whether the defendant should be released while awaiting trial and if so what restraints and limitations may be required such as giving up of passport, gps monitoring, drug monitoring or ankle bracelet.

 Eliminate Your Flight Risk

Unlike the way criminal cases move forward in Florida's state criminal court system it's unusual for a bail bondsman to be involved in the federal bond process as the magistrate is apt to either allow a property bond subject to forfeiture or to grant a signature bond if release before trial is deemed appropriate. The magistrate judge's primary objective is to secure attendance to future court hearings and trials by eliminating any flight risk from the defendant. Factors a judge takes into account for federal bond and detention include the nature of the offense, the prior record of the defendant, the violent nature of the offense and statutory requirements such as the necessity to view any drug trafficking offense as a presumptive threat to the public.

In the Middle District of Florida most federal prisoners await their first appearance at the Pinellas County Jail which is often overcrowded with unsafe conditions. After the initial hearing with the magistrate the Florida federal cases proceed quickly compared to Florida state cases and in a manner of months are usually resolved by plea or trial.

The most important decisions made by federal defendants are often made very early in the federal criminal process sometimes well before the grand jury even deliberates on the allegations of misconduct. In federal cases where smart decisions are made early the likelihood of future success are enhanced so it's important to work with your federal criminal defense lawyer to gain the best results.

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS WHO BENEFITS FROM MASS INCARCERATION IN AMERICA & WHY REFORM FAILS

What does it say about America's that our prison population of 2.3 million people is larger than the population of 15 of the states that make up our union? Who benefits from so many of us being imprisoned and who stands in the way of reform? A new report Following the Money of Mass Incarceration finds some disturbing answers.

The report found some basic beneficiaries of prisons who fight reform that include the following:

• Bail bond companies that collect $1.4 billion in nonrefundable fees from defendants and their families. The industry also actively works to block reforms that threaten its profits, even if reforms could prevent people from being detained in jail because of their poverty. 

• Specialized phone companies that win monopoly contracts and charge families up to $24.95 for a 15-minute phone call.

• Commissary vendors that sell goods to incarcerated people — who rely largely on money sent by loved ones — is an even larger industry that brings in $1.6 billion a year.

Other beneficiaries are the builders of prisons and their bond holders, public and private employees of prisons, utilities, health care workers (an insignificant factor in places such as Pinellas where the jail is routinely unsafe for state and federal prisoners), as well as those who put people in prison by holding jobs such as judges, lawyers, bailiffs and police.

It's disturbing to see how many industries, companies and folks living happily in your neighborhood benefit from mass incarceration in America. No wonder so much inertia spins toward ever greater incarceration. For repeat violent offenders who commit battery, aggravated assault or manslaughter incarceration may be an inevitable means of punishment and a reasonable solution to protect society. But for nonviolent crimes such as drugs, marijuana possession, cocaine possession, grand theft or scheme to defraud a term of prison only ruins the lives of those convicted. 

Yet people are still being sentenced by our spineless judges to long terms of needless imprisonment for nonviolent offenses. Many of these nonviolent crimes should not even result in an arrest in Florida. Perhaps this reports stark exposure of those who benefit the most from mass incarceration will help end this American crisis.

FLORDA'S SCANDALOUS JAILS: VISIT A FLORIDA PRISON WHERE JUSTICE GOES TO DIE

Recent articles in the press further establish that Florida's prison system is a failure. This is not unexpected, as I've noted here repeatedly that the Pinellas County Jail has many problems that have not been fixed. Why should we expect more from other prisons in the Florida Gulag? The Pinellas Jail fails to protect and provide for federal and state prisoners in the following ways:

1. The Pinellas jail fails to provide prisoners with proper medical care. The sheriff allowed a contract with a private firm to continue giving medical services at the Pinellas Jail even though he was aware that the same medical service provider at the Hillsborough Jail was involved in a case where a prisoner died from lack of proper medical care. Only now, after further frustration with the provider is the sheriff finally reevaluating his decision.
2.  The Pinellas jail is unable to protect prisoners from violence. One young man in jail for a misdemeanor was strangled to death at the Pinellas Jail by a serial murderer at the jail not long ago. Not only are prisoners subjected to attacks from other prisoners, but they also face the occasional bludgeoning from jail guards. In a case a few weeks ago a Pinellas Deputy at the jail was fired after beating up a man in a wheel chair. Why wasn't the Deputy also subjected to charges of battery or aggravated battery. The answer is not mere firing instead a grand jury should be convened to ascertain if there is a systematic failure to protect prisoners and where there is an alleged beating charges should be filed against the officers just as they would be filed against any other citizen who commits a battery or aggravated battery.
3. The Pinellas jail provides terrible food. The jail purposefully has poor food so that the jail with a private company can make money by selling edible food to the prisoners who can afford it. This introduces a destructive barter system at the jail. If the issue is money why not provide land for the prisoners to grow their own food and opportunities to learn how to cook. 
4. The Pinellas jail does not provide sufficient educational opportunities, books nor other library material. 
5. The jail does not give prisoners enough time to exercise nor to get fresh air. Often the time allotted is merely one hour a day.
6. The Pinellas jail is overcrowded with more prisoners than it was meant to hold when built. The Pinellas prison population has soared even though the crime rate in Pinellas continues to fall.

As bad as my clients have told me it is, I've always found while visiting the Pinellas County Jail that those who work there are professional, competent and caring (good to write just in case I end up there). Clearly, these local jail problems are mirrored throughout the entire Florida Jail System. The remedy needs to come from the top with a decision to treat prisoners with respect and compassion making time served in prison or jail not just about punishment, but an opportunity to help educate, elevate and give treatment for prisoners especially for nonviolent crimes such as drug crimes.

TAMPA BAY PRISONS STILL FAIL TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE MEDICAL CARE, SAFETY, FOOD & CLOTHES FOR INMATES

When the Pinellas County Sheriff recently hired a company to take over the medical needs of the Clearwater jail, he chose the same company that runs the medical staff of the Hillsborough County Jail. This might seem reasonable but for the fact that under that company's medical care an inmate suffering a stroke was misdiagnosed as drunk and died an excruciating death. One thing is certain, it's not about the quality of medical care to be provided, it's about saving money.

Clearly the health, safety and rehabilitation of inmates in the Florida prison system is not the first priority with local decision makers. In fact Tampa Bay jails have a notorious reputation for not providing and protecting for prisoners. 

Anyone arrested has the right to adequate care and even those convicted must be treated in such a way that the punishment is not cruel. The Pinellas Jail often houses federal prisoners. It's one way that the over-crowded jail makes money. Other ways include selling music, clothes, phone time and food to inmates at extreme markups. 

As a Tampa Bay federal defense attorney I've heard many complaints from federal clients about the terrible food at the jail, which often needs to be supplemented with food bought at extraordinary high prices in the prison canteen. The failure to provide proper food, soap, shampoo and even underwear to inmates unless they buy the items makes life in the jail more difficult not only for those unfortunate inmates who can't afford these 'luxuries' but for the prison guards who find themselves degraded when their livelihoods subject others to inhumane conditions. 

Yet it's one thing to be cheap, much worse to risk lives by providing improper medical care in Florida jails. Press reports note that the Tampa family of the man who died of the misdiagnosed stroke received a significant financial settlement of as much as $700,000. Wouldn't it have been far wiser, cheaper and more effective in the long term, not to mention more humane, to have simply spent that money toward making our prisons safe, clean and healthy?

INMATE SERVING TIME FOR MISDEMEANOR STRANGLED BY A SERIAL MURDERER IN UNSAFE FLORIDA JAIL

A notorious murderer conducts a brutal jailhouse toilet paper strangulation on another inmate with his goal being to avoid spending his life in jail for second degree murder charges by gaining access to death row. That's smart. The killer was in jail for murdering his girlfriend by strangulation in the same method used in the jailhouse killing. And the man he murdered? The victim was merely serving time on a reduced charged of misdemeanor trespass.

Pinellas Jail for a long night's sleep

Why would any jail in America place a prisoner serving time for trespass with a known murderer? If a primary goal of the Pinellas County Jail is safety then those accused or convcited of violent crimes would always be segregated from those accused or convicted of nonviolent crimes. The answer is the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department which controls the jail just doesn't give a damn about the inmates entrusted to the prison by local Judges.

As this Blog has noted the Pinellas County jail fails to protect and provide for the state and federal prisoners who are often housed there. The jail is not safe, the food is deplorable, the conditions are overcrowded. Based on these facts Florida Judges should be demanding that the conditions in Pinellas jail be corrected immediately.

Press reports note that even after the prisoner yelled out that he'd done another murder just like the one he was in for, it took seven minutes or so for officers to respond to the victim who might have been saved with faster action and that another man was severely injured recently during the process of transporting prisoners.

As Americans we have a right to expect that a primary priority of our prison system be safety. Yet Clearwater criminal defense attorneys in Florida know that ignoring prisoner rights is not unusual for the Tampa Bay criminal justice system; therefore one wonders how many more needless deaths will result due to the fundamental failure of Florida jails to provide for prisoner safety. 

SERIOUS STROKE VICTIM MISTAKEN AS DRUNK IS KILLED BY POLICE & A FAILING FLORIDA PRISON SYSTEM

It's not unusual for a Clearwater criminal defense attorney to learn of incidents where Tampa Bay jails provide cruel and unusual punishment. But for the victim of a stroke who committed no crime at all, his erratic driving led to his being tortured in a slow prison death because police failed to recognize the symptoms of his stroke, while later the jail failed to give proper medical attention and screening.

Picasso's Old Guitarist, 1903

The stroke victim's relentless march toward doom began with a trooper from the Florida Highway Patrol and a Deputy from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office arresting him for obstruction after they observed erratic driving, and upon stopping the vehicle as a possible DUI, noted that he failed to obey the officers' orders.  Nether officer sought medical help for the incoherent man. 

Once at the Orient Jail in Tampa the man not only received no medical attention upon intake but according to press reports the stroke victim:

... was put in a cell where he lay facedown on the floor to crawl using the one working side of his body. On the night of May 12, soaked in his own urine, his brain choked of blood, he was at last taken to Tampa General Hospital and diagnosed with an ischemic stroke. He slipped into a coma and died...

Florida prisons now share such poor standards of care that even those who have committed no crime whatsoever may be destroyed. Although the Sheriff's office should be commended for implementing new training procedures to look for signs of stroke,  the Florida Highway Patrol has failed to take any measures to save someone's life in the future. 

Yet it was the jail's failure to medically screen the stroke victim that must be noted as the proximate cause of the man's tortured death. One wonders how much pain and suffering he endured during those thirty-six hours of neglect. Were there flashes of memory for moments, faint glimmers of human hope from long lost family picnics as a child softening some pain even as he lay dying from the callous prison system indifferent to human suffering and incapable of care? 

Every inmate should be screened not only for stroke, but for heart problems, infectious viruses, TB or any other problem that could harm not only the prisoner but spread within the unsanitary prison system of Tampa Bay. When the state of Florida takes custody of a person, it must accept the obligation to keep that person safe. 

Any one of us could have been that stroke victim. Yet Florida prisons continue to provide cruel and unusual punishment that is well below the standards of a humane society. Tampa Bay jails are over-crowded, unsafe, violent, dirty and as this case establishes places without proper medical care. Each of us must make it known that we will not stand by watching as official misconduct and neglect of our prison system causes the innocent to suffer and sometimes to die. 

CRUEL & UNUSUAL: WHY A FLORIDA JAIL FAILS TO PROTECT & PROVIDE FOR STATE & FEDERAL PRISONERS

Your Clearwater criminal defense lawyer is often asked about the shameful treatment of prisoners in the Florida prison system. In Tampa Bay, Florida the worst prison I've come across is at the Pinellas County Jail. 
Federal prisoners are routinely sent there because the jail needs the federal money per prisoner to defray the cost of housing its own prisoners. 

Over-crowding Jail solved.

Despite the fact that every Deputy I've met who works at the Pinellas County Jail has been dedicated, professional and helpful; it's clear that the new Sheriff has failed in his primary responsibility to make the necessary changes so that prisoners are safe, have decent food and live in conditions that are not over-crowded.

First, the Pinellas jail is not safe. Many years as a prosecutor I handled a rape case where a young man who was being treated as an adult and was therefor at Pinellas County Jail awaiting his drug trial was raped and sodomized by a gang of thugs at the jail. 
The perpetrators were found guilty of sexual battery at trial, but the young man's life was unnecessarily ruined. The evidence I submitted to the jury was indisputable that Florida prisoners, especially the young or vulnerable, who find themselves incarcerated in Florida are not well protected from other prisoners.

Yet the Pinellas Jail is a dangerous place in other ways as well. It's always a good idea to be careful while taking a stroll there always being mindful of where you are. One of my friends, an attorney, sued the Pinellas Jail when a heavy metal door cut off part of her finger. 
But the loss of a finger is nothing compared to the prisoners who have died while waiting for proper medical care as has been reported in the press. Recently a federal Drug Enforcement Agent (DEA) told me that the only way he could ensure the safety of one of my federal clients from being harmed by other prisoners at teh Pinellas County Jail was to send my client to solitary confinement, thus severely punishing the very person they aim to protect. 
Besides failing to provide a safe environment. The Pinellas County Jail fails in providing decent food to inmates. Every federal defendant I've represented who has spent time at the Pinellas County Jail has asked if there's anything I can do about the horrible food. And yes, I've tried, but even upon showing a medical or religious food requirement the jail fails in a primary function of providing edible food. Why? The jail makes a tidy profit by forcing inmates to buy large quantities of additional food from vendors. 
And it's not just food that provides money thru vendors. A federal female inmate facing methamphetamine charges was ashamed to tell me that the jail would not provide her with clean underwear as it expected her to buy them. Further, she told me that she was only given up one hour a day in the fresh air. And like every other federal inmate housed there while waiting for trial or sentencing she told me the food is so poor that she can hardly eat it.
All of these issues take on even greater risk because of the fact that the jail is over-crowded. It's odd that the jail is over-crowded when you consider that the crime rate is down in Pinellas County according to the Sheriff's office, yet incarceration levels soar.
A large part of the problem of over-crowding in Florida jails is that Florida law makers are not doing enough to ensure that prisoners receive education, training and proper correction so that they have alternatives other than further crime upon achieving freedom as noted in the Miami Herald. But when there isn't enough money being spent to protect, feed and clothe prisoners of course there won't be enough to help them in other ways.
Apparently Circuit Judges in the state of Florida do not believe that the substandard care at the Pinellas County Jail equates to cruel and unusual punishment. However, the jail does not meet the higher standards and requirements of the Federal system. What action can be taken to remedy the lack of safety, the poor food, the reliance on vendors and over-crowding at the Pinellas Jail?
Your Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Attorney strongly urges Federal District Judges to direct the Federal Marshall's office to refuse to send prisoners to the Pinellas County Jail until all the problems at the jail are rectified; at least then the jail won't be so over-crowded. And the Pinellas Sheriff will have some incentive for the jail to reach for a civilized standard in treating prisoners.

PINELLAS PRISON POPULATION SOARS EVEN AS CRIME RATE IN TAMPA BAY FLORIDA FALLS - WE'RE ALL OUTLAWS IN PINELLAS

Pinellas County, Florida just released a Criminal Justice System Study on an interesting question, why has its prison population soared even as its crime rate and its population has fallen. Because the Pinellas County Jail is overcrowded it faces significant risks and challenges as does your favorite Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney when he makes his way into the cold, gray prison you support with your tax dollars. 

In fact according to the report overcrowding poses "the most significant challenge to the successful operation of the Pinellas County jail. An overcrowded facility fundamentally undermines the ability of staff to insure the safety and security of inmates, staff, and the public. Overcrowding presents the single greatest jail liability risk to a county, raising the specter of law suits, consent decrees, and court oversight of county jail operations. In the past three decades overcrowding is the most common reason why jurisdictions throughout the United States have been sued over the conditions of their jail facilities."

The report also notes that "over the last six years the per capita arrest rates in Pinellas County have fallen below state averages. Yet the jail incarceration rate is above average. This may in part be explained by a circuit court felony case filing rate that is far above average, increased felony case disposition times, and a jail that increasingly consists of pretrial felons." See, serious crime rates down.
Yet the report notes that not all crime has fallen, much to the joy and happiness of at least one Criminal Defense Lawyer in Clearwater. Even though all crime has fallen, some arrests are up, see the crime viewer map. For example, arrests for drug crimes, crimes against property and assaults. 
The report notes that violent crimes in Pinellas County from 1990 to 2006, "overall, as a category, crime reports for these offenses have declined 24% since 1990. Specifically, crime reports have declined by 41% for robbery, 22% for aggravated assault, and 17% for murder. Forcible sex offenses, however, have increased 28% in the last 17 years....property crime reports have also shown a significant decline between 1990 and 2006, 31%. Crime reports for burglary have declined 45%, for larceny have declined 36%, and for vehicle theft have declined 32%. Here is a map showing crime rates in Pinellas, Florida.
Many of these crimes other than sex offenses are highly subjective as to how they can be charged, how many counts to charge and even if they should be charged as felonies or misdemeanors. In many places in Florida good officers might not even make an arrest for a minor incident making wise choices which benefit all of us.
Should someone smoking a joint or someone who breaks a window or someone who threatens another at a bar really be arrested and spend time in jail for these crimes? Pinellas officers should use discretion to determine whether to make an arrest. 
It's interesting that the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department is under fire for inappropriately investigating drug cases. The answer seems to be that Pinellas Deputies and Officers under pressure from supervisors to make more arrests even as crime is falling.

Everyone is an Outlaw in Pinellas even Japan's outlaw hero from a far away era.

Ishikawa Goemon played by kabuki
actor Arashi Hinasuke II
(painting by Toyokuni III,1863)