STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 05-09-19
TRIAL AGAINST WAKE DEPUTY IN ABUSE CASE BEGINS
[RALEIGH] The trial of a Wake County deputy, accused of using his K-9 dog to viciously attack an unarmed black man in April 2018 while he was being beaten by state troopers, began this week. Deputy Cameron Broadwell has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting serious bodily injury and willfully failing to discharge duties. The victim, Kyron Hinton, who suffered serious lacerations and other injuries, has since died of a drug overdose one day after collecting an $83,000 settlement in the case. Broadwell has defended is actions, saying that he was trying to protect the public, and his fellow officers, from Hinton.
DURHAM CITY COUNCIL PASSES RESOLUTION HONORING MALCOLM X
[DURHAM] After some controversy and lots of discussion, the Durham City Council, Monday evening, passed a resolution paying tribute to Black Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X. The resolution was controversial because white members of the council did not want to support a measure that also seemed to promote the NOI – which many whites consider a hate group. After much discussion, the Malcolm X resolution was passed at midnight.
IS THE STATE LEGISLATURE WAITING FOR THE US SUPREME COURT ON GERRYMANDERING?
[RALEIGH] Observers say it could be at least two months before the U.S. Supreme Court makes its decision on North Carolina’s political gerrymandering case. The case, along with a similar one in Maryland, is critical because a ruling would define the right of states to draw voting districts that overwhelmingly favor political parties, which is currently legal. Opponents that doing so, however, denies voters of the other party their constitutional rights because they’re drawn into voting districts that will not allow them to choose different leadership. Legislation in the NC General Assembly is pending the U.S. High Court’s decision.
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STATE ELECTIONS BOARD SIDES
WITH GOP COLUMBUS COUNTY
SHERIFF’S CANDIDATE
By Cash Michaels
Staff writer
If incumbent Columbus County Sheriff Lewis Hatcher, a Democrat, is going to retain his seat after the State Board of Elections (SBOE) voted 4-1 on Monday to uphold last November’s election victory by Republican challenger Jody Greene, he’ll have to appeal it in court.
And unless Sheriff Hatcher is, indeed, able to convince a court that the SBOE is in error, the way will be clear for the SBOE to officially certify the race in Jody Greene’s favor.
Despite evidence of questionable residency and complaints of alleged ballot irregularities were both considered, and ultimately dismissed by the SBOE, Greene’s unofficial 37- vote victory over Hatcher was upheld by the Democrat-majority elections board.
The SBOE is Democrat majority, 3-2.
Greene had been sworn-in in December, but then had to step aside after the case had been appealed.
Several weeks ago, the Democrat-led Columbus County Elections Board came to the exact opposite decision of the SBOE, based on doubts that Greene had permanently lived in an RV on his farm property near the town of Cerro Gordo a year before the November 2018 election, as required by law.
Opponents alleged that Greene had homes outside of Columbus County that actually served as permanent residences. Members of the Columbus BOE visited Greene’s RV and inspected it. The majority of the board determined that given the length of time Jody Greene claimed to have lived at the site with his wife, the couple did not there permanently.
The Columbus Elections Board turned its findings over to the SBOE for final review, which it did on Monday. The state board disagreed, saying that the Columbus BOE “put too much weight” on the RV issue.
And neither did the fact that Greene used the services of controversial election “consultant” McCrae Dowless, who stands indicted for allegedly mishandling Bladen County absentee ballots in the Ninth Congressional District race, where Republican Mark Harris won, but whose victory was thrown out after evidence of the ballot tampering had been discovered.
But investigators for the SBOE testified Monday that despite Dowless’ dubious activity in Bladen County, they found no evidence that he did anything questionable in Columbus County.
There were also allegations of illegal mishandling of absentee ballots at a local nursing home. That case is still under investigation.
And even though there were charges of serious problems at the Columbus County elections office with claims of ballot shortages and people unable to vote as a result (the elections director confirmed those claims, also alleging that there were ballots “brought in through the back door”) the SBOE still voted 3-2 (with the SBOE Democrat chairman voting with the board’s two Republicans) to dismiss the claims.
Attorneys for the complainants argued for a new election be granted, but lost.
At press time, there was no word as to if, or when Sheriff Hatcher would file an appeal in court to the SBOE decisions.
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NEW BILL AUTHORIZES STUDY
OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In the midst of a national push to end long-term solitary confinement in prisons and jail – especially given the large African-American population in each - a new measure in the NC House seeks to have the state Dept. of Public Safety ”… study confinement of persons with mental illness.”
HB 781 – the Study Confinement/Persons with Mental Illness Act, as it is titled, would become law as soon as it is enacted. All findings and recommendations would be reported to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety “…no later than March 1, 2020,” the proposed bill states.
According to a 2014 report by the Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic at the University of North Carolina School of Law, solitary confinement has been identified as a “…cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment that is – or at the very least approximates – torture and a severe form of human rights violation …”
Prison and jail inmates are held in confined isolation from the rest of the population for 22-hours a day for sometimes weeks, with virtually no human contact. The UNC Law report continues, “…Under North Carolina’s state constitution…the nation and state of North Carolina must not be complicit in any act that falls within this category of atrocity.”
"Solitary confinement is hell,” wrote a Central Prison inmate to the Weekly Independent newspaper in Durham in 2012. “I agree with the public it is a form of torture. It is a tiny cell about 6 feet by 8 feet. It has a steel toilet, with a sink built in the top. There is a steel bed, with an extremely thin mattress.”
“"We are in this cell 23 hours a day,” the Central inmate continued. “We are allowed to come out for recreation five times a week for one hour. The rec is a cage. They just stick us in a little cage and we can walk around. That's it. We are only allowed to take three showers a week. Only three! And we can only take 5 minutes. If we are lucky, we get 10 minutes.”
It was two years after that UNC Law report that state prison officials announced the end of isolating inmates 17 years-old and younger in what is known as “restrictive housing” by Sept. 1,,2016. That January, Pres. Barack Obama ordered the practice ended for young offenders in federal prisons because of the proven likelihood of “lasting, psychological consequences.”
And almost a year before that in 2015, at the urging of the ACLU, North Carolina was investigated by the U.S. Justice Dept. for putting mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement.
In January of this year, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden – who won office last November - formally ended the practice of housing 16 and 17-year-old suspects in solitary confinement, saying that it “…stripped teens of their dignity.”
According to a 2016 report by the nonprofit Sentencing Project, “ Among 40 jurisdictions providing data, black women constituted 24% of the total incarcerated population, but comprised 41% of the female restricted housing population (across the nation).”
Under HB 781, the study group will be tasked to examine:
- under what conditions inmates with mental illness shall be housed in restrictive housing
- the number of incarcerated individuals with a diagnosed mental illness
- information on the types of confinement used for inmates diagnosed with mental illness
- the average length of stay in restrictive housing for inmates with mental illness
- types of mental health treatment provided to inmates with mental illness
- use of Therapeutic Diversion Units
- the Safe Alternatives to Segregation initiative conducted by VERA Institute of Justice
- ways to attract and retain qualified staff for all prison positions, including correctional officers and behavioral health specialists
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