SECOND LOOK | The Sentencing Reform Act

http://www.fedcure.org/SecondLook.shtml

 

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11 September 2013

||| FedCURE SPECIAL REPORT |||

European Parliament (EP) vs. United States Congress

Second * Chance 

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http://arc.eppgroup.eu/press/peve11/pics/poster-rehabilitation-prisoners.jpg

 

European Parliament (EP) Justice Committee

 

~ SECOND CHANCE ~

 

Rehabilitation Programmes for Former Prisoners Endorsed, by EPP Group

 

[03:56 video presentation]

 

FedCURE Italia:   The Event of the Week on EPP TV.  Brought to you by our friends at the EPP Group and friends in the European Parliament.  1/

 

In a European Parliament hearing on the rehabilitation of former prisoners organized by the EPP Group, FedCURE Italia's dear friend and Minster of European Parliament (MEP), Salvatore Iacolino (Italia), 2/  urges concrete action on rehabilitation before, during, and after the period of imprisonment.  Social integration is of significant value to the Europeans Peoples Party, but also for the prevention of prisoners--a Second Chance for redemption, for people that have made the mistake, believing they will not make another one  [02:12].  

 

Friend, Franciscan monk and son of a Sicilian building contractor, Brother Biagio Conte, founder of Mission Hope and Charity (Palermo, Sicilia), 3/ says, rehabilitation gives dignity and hope back to the individual. A society that leaves them alone, can not be a fair society. [02:39].

 

In European Union, the annual cost of incarceration, per inmate, is 70,000.00 Euro ($100,000.00 USD) vs. $28,000.00 USD, per year in the United States. Why? Because in the E.U., the penal model is rehabilitation, starting on the day of arrest. Recent findings, in the United Kingdom alone, have shown that inmates serving longer sentences, which allow prison services the time to tackle their criminal behavior, have a significantly lower reoffending rates. [03:14].

 

Giving a "Second Chance" to offenders is a key element to the E.U., social model and the EPP Group's values. The E.U., is on the verge of a rehabilitation revolution

 

Prison services across the E.U., are stretched. In many countries prisons are full to the brim, with occupancy of 110% and rising. More then 50% are repeat offenders. Better solutions are being implemented, starting immediately from the time of a prisoners arrest, right through the period of imprisonment. In the mists of a financial crisis, investing more money into helping ex-prisoners, is better spent. There is a strong case for re-directing incarceration cost to prevention methods, including: lifelong learning to increase an individuals chance of employment and sense of responsibility. The question is, how far do we go?

 

Jonathan Lucas, Director, U.N. Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), says, the E.U.'s whole objective is social rehabilitation-- social reintegration from the very start. That, "You have to follow a person--that person is going back to society. One often forgets this."  [01:33].

 

FedCURE friend, Salvatore Iacolini, MEP, Italy, organized the European Union Judicial Committee's "Hearing on the Rehabilitation of Former Prisoners. Social integration. Second Chance policies."

 

Video:  Total running time: 3 minutes and 58 seconds

 

FedCURE on YouTube:|  http://youtu.be/CMcl-fx8KC8

 

On EPP TV:  http://arc.eppgroup.eu/tv/default_en.asp?vid_id=111021_event  

 

ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE

20/10/2011

Prisoners: better conditions for prisoners, European resources for prisons and rehabilitation particularly for young ex-prisoners. Salvatore Iacolino MEP

RELATED DOCUMENTS

	Programme   http://arc.eppgroup.eu/Press/peve11/docs/111019rehabilitation-former-prisoners-prg.pdf
	Poster |  http://arc.eppgroup.eu/press/peve11/pics/poster-rehabilitation-prisoners.jpg

 

 

Rehabilitation of former prisoners (Brussels, 20/10/2011)

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3/.  http://www.pacepace.org/index.php

 

HOME CHI SIAMO - ABOUT US ATTIVITA' GALLERY LA VOCE DEGLI ULTIMI CONTATTI Mission of Hope and Charity The Mission of Hope, and Charity was founded in 1991, under the arcades of the central station of Palermo at the hands of Brother Biagio Conte, Missionary layman. The charisma of the Mission is to welcome and give themselves to the new urban poor or to all those who fall behind on the edge of this company so indifferent are called bums, tramps, young drifters, alcoholics, ex-convicts, separated, prostitutes, refugees , immigrants, but in Mission we call upon all brothers and sisters without distinction. Currently, the Mission welcomes and assists about 800 people in three communities: two are intended to 'hospitality male and one for the reception of single women or mothers with children.  http://www.pacepace.org/index.php

In big cities, what kills the down and outs, is solitude, rather than cold and hunger”. THE MISSION OF HOPE AND CHARITY Brother Biagio Conte, founder of the Mission of Hope and Charity, was born in Palermo in 1963. He is the son of a businessman, whom he worked with until 1990. Then, He felt the need to leave home and work, in order to start a spiritual journey which led him to make a pilgrimage to Assisi by feet. On his return to Palermo in 1991 he decided to devote his life to those he calls 'the last brotherss.' He started to live inside the Railway Station distributing blankets, food and friendship to the homeless. In 1993 brother Biagio asked the City Hall of Palermo the possibility to use an old hospital, which had been abandoned and was nearly derelict, to assist the brothers. Unfortunately, authorities rejected the request. Therefore, Brother Biagio went on a hunger strike: after 15 days without food, the City Hall permitted the use of this structure. After only 5 years the old hospital was completely restored by brother Biagio, “his lost brothers” and lots of volunteers from many regions of Italy. In 1998 Brother Biagio asked to use an old convent, abandoned for 40 years, which is today a refuge for women and children. Considering the very large request for help, particularly from refugee and immigrants, in 2002 the third community of the Mission of Hope and Charity was born. The structure was derived from an old Air Force Base which had been in disuse for many years. This center has been called 'The Little Town of the Poor and Hope”.' Today the Mission, in these three different centers, aids about 900 'last brothers' who receive a bed, food and above all, authentic Christian love. The whole organization, besides the voluntary activities, is based on the mutual help of the guests who are part of a huge family. The three structures occupied by Brother Biagio, given by public authorities and totally rebuilt by the guests who live there, respond to the principle 'It's right that the mission doesn't own any property,' as Biagio Conte says, 'since we serve the community”.' The missionaries and Volunteers Brother Biagio has been joined by a missionary, brother Giovanni, and by a Salesian priest, Father Giuseppe Vitrano, (the spiritual father of the missionaries and hosted brothers) as well as by female missionaries: sister Mattia, sister Alessandra and sister Lucia (who are responsible of the community that hosts women and children). The missionaries are helped by so many volunteers. They dedicate part of their time to the last brother in the spirit of Charity, offering various voluntary services, coordinated by the missionaries or by volunteers with more experience. Formation and integration Activity The activity of the Mission is not oriented to passive assistance but rather to the recovery of dignity of all those who found themselves in the margin of society, often found rejected and considered non recoverable. Due to voluntary work offered by craftsmen and liberal professional efforts are made to give hope to hosted brothers. The possibility to learn a profession is offered to face quickly return into society and to correct integration in the social context, in particular considering the high number of foreign brothers hosted in the Mission. There are several examples of exercised professions, such as carpenter, ironsmith, shoemaker, printer, hairdresser, bricklayer, cook, tailor, sculptor. The Night Mission service In the Mission various volunteers, like doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, teachers, retired and students are active. Thanks to the voluntary service organized by the Mission many citizens may get to know more closely sufferings and the true difficulties of the last brothers. The Night Mission service was the first voluntary service organized by the Mission since 1993. Every night a van leaves with a group of seven volunteers who follow an agreed route which covers all the city. The van carries thermos bottles with hot milk and tea, snacks, rolls, tins, blankets and clothes to be offered to the last brothers who live in the street. During summer when there are less brothers in the streets, the service is reduced and is carried out by the brothers who live in the Mission. The Night Mission is used to reach those last brothers who, for various reasons, have lost their contact with society. The primary aim is to bring words of comfort and solidarity and to give them continuous assistance respecting their will. One of the older volunteer that helps for this service says: '”The mission of Biagio Conte was born at the Central Station and its connection with the street is essential. I have been doing the Night Mission for about ten years, once every two weeks and have always tried to assure a limited but constant involvement. Even after a long and tiring day, taking part in the Night Mission gives me new energies. Personally I have various doubts concerning faith, but the sensation I feel when I meet the down and outs is that of seeing the image of Christ. The fact that the Mission hosts and feeds the homeless everyday seems to me a miracle and the Blessing of GOD. The medical assistance Since the beginning of the Mission of Hope and Charity, a large number of brothers who lived rough, showed different medical issues. At that time the pavement and carton boxes from the Central Railway Station of Palermo were the walls and camp beds of the first Aid for the Mission's doctors, respectively. Two volunteers doctors approached Brother Biagio in the waiting room and were immediately ready to help at his request. They were close to the brothers and helped to treat those who add their physical suffering to their already existing problems of solitude and social alienation. Often brothers bear physical suffering in silence, because they are afraid of asking for help from public institutions. The opportunity to find a doctor on the street who is ready to help them, has represented a moment of light and hope. Since the beginning at the station, physicians have felt the need to be near the mission, offering patient care on old campers and tents. Today in each of the three communities there are medical ambulatories where volunteer physicians offer their professional activity. General medicine and surgery is practiced as well as ophthalmology, dental, and pediatric visits. Some rooms in the three communities are destined to host chronically sick brothers who need a closer medical observation and nursery assistance. These sick people who are living in the Mission now are those who are picked up by the camper during the night Mission, or those who have left a hospital or emergency but haven’t got a house as a place to stay in. They do not have family and even if they have, it is as if they did not because their families are incapable of supporting them in any aspect of their lives, including medical support. They often lack everything. The mission is keeping up its activity thanks to charity and volunteer spirit which drives everything. The legal counseling service For many years some volunteers close to the mission who are lawyers, have offered legal assistance to the brothers who live there, and to a large number of families in the city of Palermo. The most common problems are related to social benefits and taxes, imprisonment of a family member and evictions. Lawyers who carry out this service, even though they work full time, offer their help for free. They try to help their “clients “ to understand their rights. It is worth noting that since 2001, because of the large number of immigrants landing illegally in Sicily, the legal assistance has been mainly devoted to them. Lawyers offer advices about the procedures for being recognized as a political refugee, as well as assistance with political asylum. The volunteers help the immigrants with the bureaucratic procedures such as the request for documents, renewal of stay permit, change of residence. They encourage them to solve their problems using their own strength. When it is not possible, the brothers are referred to the appropriate offices or organizations which can help them with their problems. When necessary the brothers are helped to protect their right in the spirit of Charity. - Chi Siamo - La Storia della Missione raccontata da Fratel Biagio - La Missione Speranza e Carità - L'accoglienza femminile - La cittadella del Povero e della Speranza - L'Assistenza donata in Missione - Le Attività dei fratelli accolti in Missione - Sorella Provvidenza - I Missionari e le Missionarie della Speranza e della Carità - I Volontari - La Missione Notturna - Il Signore fino ad oggi ci ha Soccorso http://www.pacepace.org/about_us.html

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Biagio Conte (missionary)

Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

Biagio Conte ( Palermo , 1963 ) Missionario italiano , laico. Biagio Conte ( Palermo , 1963 ) is a Missionary Italian , secular. Ha dato vita alla 'Missione di Speranza e Carità,' per cercare di rispondere alle drammatiche situazioni di povertà ed emarginazione della sua città natale. Gave birth to the 'Mission of Hope and Charity,' to try to respond to the dramatic situations of poverty and marginalization of his hometown.

 

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fit.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBiagio_Conte_%28missionario%29&act=url

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Aid to Refugees in Sicily

God's Squatters

Biagio Conte, Franciscan monk and son of a Sicilian building contractor, is creating a furor with his spectacular, altruistic actions for illegal immigrants in Sicily. Arian Fariborz visits him in his mission

Biagio Conte, Franciscan monk and son of a Sicilian building contractor, is creating a furor with his spectacular, altruistic actions for illegal immigrants in Sicily. Arian Fariborz visits him in his mission

In order to provide basic support for African refugees, Biagio Conte founded the 'Missione di Speranza e Carità,' the "Mission of hope and charity."

​​On Palermo's lively Corso Dei Mille near the train station, you may not always get reliable directions when you ask the way to Padre Biagio Conte's mission, but you will hear plenty of praise and anecdotes about the Franciscan monk.

With his unusual forms of assistance for illegal immigrants from North Africa, the 46-year-old son of a well-known Sicilian building tycoon in Palermo has been attracting broad international attention for years. For this reason Sicilian's have come to know him as 'the brother of the poor' or 'the Robin Hood of the Catholic Church.'

Originally he was supposed to take over the venerable family business. But Conte had a falling-out with his father, unwilling to follow in his professional footsteps.

In the footsteps of Assisi

Shocked at the extreme poverty, the property speculation and corruption in Palermo, the wealthy Conte foreswore all earthly pleasures, living as a hermit in the mountains of Palermo before turning his back on Sicily entirely in the early 1990s. His goal was to reach the grave of St. Francis of Assisi by foot and devote the rest of his life to the poor and disenfranchised.

In the end, however, nothing came of his original plan to travel to Africa or India as a missionary, the devout Franciscan monk explains:

"I had absolutely no interest in returning to Palermo to achieve something there, because I knew that there the bureaucratic hurdles were too high. But then there was a kind of divine decision, an inner voice that told me to try it in my home town after all, since I knew the suffering of the poor there all too well and knew where to help."

Squatting in the service of the uprooted

Carrying nothing but food and drink, he set out for the slums of Palermo, distributing bread and blankets to the homeless and uprooted, setting up his headquarters with them at the main train station, in the open air between train cars and freight trains. But no end to their plight was in the offing. In Palermo the numbers of the poorest of the poor, those who must live every day from hand to mouth around the train station, were growing constantly.

Biagio Conte felt called upon to act quickly and unbureaucratically: in 1993, in the dead of night, he and his supporters unceremoniously occupied a derelict former disinfection center near the railway station and founded his 'Missione di Speranza e Carità.'

Support from the public

Padre Conte's mission is not only equipped with a cafeteria - it also has its own clinic, a language school, a pottery and auto workshop, and language schools

​​"We went on a six-day hunger strike to draw attention to our plight and keep the building", Conte recalls. "Of course there were conflicts at first with the local authorities, but ultimately the police respected us, and we got encouragement from the Cardinal of Palermo and from the public."

In the following years the plucky "brother of the poor" managed to thoroughly renovate the building with the assistance of his supporters and donations from the public. His project met with such enthusiasm among the people of Palermo that just a few years later the city provided him with an additional building on the nearby Via Garibaldi, where Conte established a center for homeless women and single mothers.

Together with his volunteers, the Franciscan monk helps where the need is greatest and where the city of Palermo is not living up to its social obligations.

A wave of immigrants from Africa

But that is exactly what nearly doomed his mission: in the late 90s more and more African boat refugees began landing on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, often after week-long, grueling voyages, and the authorities frequently sent them to Palermo to await a decision on their entry requests. After all, there was Biagio Conte's mission "Hope and Charity" at the main train station. But Conte's little mission was ill-prepared for the growing flood of African refugees.

"More and more boat refugees were coming from North Africa to Sicily via the island of Lampedusa. At first we didn't think this problem would affect us, though it did make us very concerned," Conte says. "However, we thought the Italian state would have to take care of the problem, since it also set up the camps for the refugees. But after a few months a knock came at the door, and there were all the people who had come to us from all parts of Africa and from Iraq. And we quickly realized that these refugees urgently needed our help."

Such as Osman Mussa from Darfur, who first fled to Libya from the civil war in Sudan, soon thereafter reaching the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in an overcrowded dinghy before finding refuge in the 'Missione di Speranza e Carità' in Palermo. Still traumatized by the bloody conflict in Darfur, he reports:

'In Sudan there are so many problems, so much violence' everyone knows that. They force their people to flee abroad. I came here to earn money because I have to feed a large family in Sudan, and there's not enough money there."

Occupying the Italian Army's air force base

Ultimately the two mission buildings cannot cope with the huge demand. Where at first only 60 people found a roof over their heads and were provided with clothing and food, now more than 200 were packed into overfilled rooms, sleeping in hallways and under stairs.

But this time the Franciscan monk met with deaf ears when he asked the city authorities for an additional building for the mission. So in February 2002 Conte took the initiative once again: together with mission volunteers and refugees he occupied the air base of the Italian Army in Palermo, which had been vacant for over 40 years.

Despite initial protests from the army, the city of Palermo and the military authorities ultimately relented and offered the Franciscan monk half of the barrack facilities. Thanks to the help of volunteers from around the world, the dilapidated barracks have now been almost completely renovated.

Helping people to help themselves

Thus, for the time being there is enough space to offer temporary shelter to the approximately 450 refugees from Africa, most of them young people. Now the buildings of the "Mission of Hope and Charity" are equipped not only with dormitories and cafeterias, a clinic, a kitchen and a language school – to offer the young refugees professional training and facilitate their integration, the mission also has its own pottery and auto workshops, recycling yards and language schools.

But Conte does not stop there. His team also offers refugees free legal advice on immigration questions. "Until a decision is made about the right to stay for many boat people from Africa who come to us via Lampedusa, quite a few of them find shelter with us," explains the lawyer Dario.

"We give the asylum seekers information about residence permits on the basis of humanitarian reasons, or on refugee status in Italy. The state is very strict in these matters. We also review the case of each individual refugee and talk to them to understand their real problems as asylum seekers."

With his "Missione di Speranza e Carità", Biagio Conte has fulfilled a life-long dream in the spirit of St. Francis: providing help for refugees and the homeless in his home town of Palermo.

In the process he relies more on the generosity of Palermo's citizens and the social commitment of his supporters than on financial support from church and state. "We don't want anyone to dictate to us, we want to take the initiative ourselves. That is the only way to achieve more in life." That is his credo.

Arian Fariborz

© Qantara.de 2007

Translated from the German by Isabel Cole

Qantara.de

Illegal Migration to Sardinia
The El Dorado for Algeria's "Harragas"
In the Maghreb, people who cross international borders without valid tickets and visas are known as harragas. Although the phenomenon of illegal migration from North Africa is nothing new, the destination of these migrants certainly is, writes Hamid Skif

Migrants from Senegal
If You Don't Make It, It's Your Own Fault
There is a strong incentive for many Senegalese to come to Europe illegally. Even if they are only able to keep their heads above water with minimum-wage jobs, migration is still a success story for many of them. Moritz Behrendt explains why.

http://en.qantara.de/content/aid-to-refugees-in-sicily-gods-squatters?wcc=7934&wcid=8003&wcp=1&wclkm=165&wcsitelinktype=itempage

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Paste this embedded HTML code, from FedCURE, for your website to run this video:

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Notes to Editors:

The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 264 Members.

 

http://arc.eppgroup.eu/press/showpr.asp?prcontroldoctypeid=1&prcontrolid=10713&prcontentid=18032&prcontentlg=en

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Over-criminalization is an issue of liberty.

 

As federal criminal laws and regulations have increased, so has the number of Americans who have found themselves breaking the law with no intent of doing so.

Americans who make innocent mistakes should not be charged with criminal offenses.

 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)

Over-Criminalization [bi-partisan] Task Force of 2013

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Almost 38,000 e-Certified signatories. Many kind thanks' for your support.

 

http://www.fedcure.org/documents/HR1475.shtml

 

{-|-}  BARBER AMENDMENT IS CURE ~ Dangerously Over Crowded Federal Prison System  {-|-}

 

$1.2 billion Incarceration dollars shift to $1.2 billion Re-Entry dollars.

 

Despite a ten year build out, spending over $1 billion dollars a year outsourcing prison cells from private prison contractors, increased double bunking and triple bunking, since 2003, the overcrowding rate hovers at 38% and FBOP forecasts 44%. The federal prison population was 165,000 in January 2003.  August 2013, it is hovering at 219,200.  America cannot build its way out of crowding.   Private prisons bring in about $3 billion in revenue annually.  Senate Committee Report says "None of these efforts, however, have had a significant impact on prison overcrowding" and says no more prisons. See: Senate Committee on Appropriations FY2014, Report No. 113-000, at pp. 90-91.

 

BARBER, on its own, or amended to: S.619 and H.R.1695 ~  the "Justice Safety Valve Act.,"  to H.R. 2371 ~ the Prisoner Incentive Act of 2013, or S.1410 - the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013, increasing 54 to 128 days, retroactively, is CURE.   $1.2 billion Incarceration dollars shift to $1.2 billion Re-Entry dollars.

Contact Congress

 

http://www.fedcure.org/documents/HR1475.shtml 

 

(c) http://www.FedCURE.org 2013

 

 

 

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