April 17 WISCONSIN: An artist at home with range----Multimedia show corrals all of musician's passions Jon Langford is best known for heading up the Mekons, a truly legendary punk-rock band, for more than a quarter-century. But the Welsh expatriate - a resident of Chicago since 1991- also has thrived as an alternative-country bandleader (the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and Waco Brothers are but 1 of his other bands), a painter, printmaker and political activist. (Sample the Music -- You can stream or download a Jon Langford concert by visiting the Internet Archives Live Audio Archive (www.archive.org/audio/etree.php) and searching for Jon Langford.) When a representative of Alverno Presents, the performing-arts series of Alverno College, approached Langford in late 2003 with the idea of somehow combining these various talents, he was quite interested. "I'd been working on some spoken-word stuff and this gave me something to focus on," Langford said. "I'd had an idea of something I wanted to do anyway, and this fitted really well because I hadn't had a venue to try it out in before. I can tie all the loose ends together and unleash a whole new box of weirdness." On Saturday, Langford will open that box when he premieres "The Executioner's Last Songs," his multimedia show, at Alverno's Pitman Theatre. Alverno College co-commissioned the show with the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and the National Performance Network Creation fund. David Ravel, director of Alverno Presents, first discussed the idea for the show with Langford after Tom Crawford, the general manager of WMSE-FM, introduced him to the full range of Langford's work. "I was not familiar with the paintings or prints, or his work beyond the Mekons," Ravel said. "What I found attractive about Langford was the many different forms of expression he uses. We went to Jon and said, 'What would it be like if you put everything you love into one piece?'" The piece takes its name from three albums Langford created to benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project. On those albums, musicians ranging from the Old 97s' Rhett Miller to Steve Earle covered classic country, folk and punk songs about murder and death, often from the killer's perspective. For Ravel, that unusual form of protest felt like a natural starting point. "'The Executioner's Last Songs' addresses the death penalty in a very creative and left-of-center way," Ravel said. "These songs are about death, but they are also about the passions that lead to extreme choices. One of the opportunities of art is to give people a chance to experience the full resonance of their passions." Although the death-penalty theme helps define "The Executioner's Last Songs," the piece will not merely retread that ground. In the process of creating this conglomeration, Langford noticed that it could go further into his own life and experiences. "I'm taking the issue of being against the death penalty as a given," Langford said. "But the idea of musicians and activism is interesting, and so is the idea of my position in the art world and the music industry. So it's basically about the experience of making 'The Executioner's Last Songs,' and what issues that brought up." Among those issues is Langford's longstanding commentary on, as Ravel summarized it, "the vacuity of contemporary popular culture." Even his visual art - paintings, prints and other media - tends to draw upon his sonic explorations of indigenous American musical forms. "My artwork is usually about the sad state of country music and maybe drawing parallels between that and the bigger picture of politics," Langford said. "Modern country music strikes me as some Bible Belt fantasy of America that never existed and never will exist. The sick schmaltz and flag-waving patriotism have been rolled into one, and there are no death songs, drinking songs or cheating songs on country radio anymore." Most of the visuals in "The Executioner's Last Songs" will be Langford's own paintings and a few other elements prepared with Barry Mills, an Atlanta-based jack-of-all-trades. Onstage, Langford will be accompanied by, among others, Mekons chanteuse Sally Timms and Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone. Besides the performance, Langford will keep busy as an artist-in-residence at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and his works will be on display at the Luckystar Studio. After the Milwaukee premiere, he will be taking "The Executioner's Last Songs" to a number of other venues, including the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Ultimately, though, the multimedia piece is where Langford's greatest concentration and enthusiasm lie at the moment. "I like the combination of talking and singing, and the juxtaposition of that against this backdrop of images," he said. "I want to see whether these things will reinforce each other. It's kind of tricky, but it's definitely working." (source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) ILLINOIS: Star's firing halts Death Row play National Pastime Theater has canceled all future performances of the one-man show "Dead Wrong" after firing its star, a real-life Death Row inmate who was exonerated in 1987. According to artistic director Laurence Bryan, performer and former inmate Darby Tillis refused to participate in press coverage of the show and failed to appear for several rehearsals and performances. The show opened April 7 and had been scheduled to run through May 15. (source: Chicago Sun-Times) NEW YORK: Focus on the Living ---- Instead of death penalty, support efforts that benefit children Proponents of the death penalty often invoke powerful images of harm to children to convince people to favor the death penalty. But have we thought about how the death penalty itself harms children? I don't mean the pain caused by the loss of a family member executed by the state. Rather, I mean the direct loss of resources that could be used for all forms of children's services and particularly early childhood education and care. Studies have demonstrated repeatedly that high-quality early childhood education and child care help all children enter school ready to learn and succeed. They improve children's well-being and their skills and keep them safe while their parents work. The positive effects of good early childhood programs are even greater for low-income children. Yet, in many New York communities families cannot find adequate and affordable care. In fact, in this state the need to provide for affordable quality child care and early childhood opportunities has never been greater. Child care and early education advocates have correctly demonstrated how a lack of resources over the last 10 years has interfered on every major level with addressing the needs of children. We have not been able to assure every child, regardless of income level, the early childhood care and education they need and deserve. Caregivers and teachers are still paid substantially under scale and at rates that fail to reflect their vital work. And parents struggle daily to find quality care that they can afford. Meanwhile, estimates in New York for the last 10 years of our failed experiment with capital punishment range from a low of $170 million to over $300 million expended. Spending this money to place and keep seven men on death row with none having any chance of being executed, is a colossal waste of resources. And rather than pretend that this has value for saving the lives of children, we should direct those resources toward programs that serve the needs of children for real. It is now absolutely clear that the death penalty is more expensive than life imprisonment without parole. In state after state, this remarkable, though counterintuitive, fact has been the finding of legislatures, academics, newspapers, county and state officials, bar associations and independent state auditing authorities. The most comprehensive cost study conducted in this country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a system where life without parole was the highest penalty. An Indiana study found that the total costs of the death penalty exceed the complete costs of life-without-parole sentences by 38 %. Similar results have been recorded in Florida and California. Child care and before-and after-school programs have all faced devastating funding challenges during the time we have been throwing money away on the death penalty. Last week, the Assembly Codes Committee voted not to reinstate the death penalty. Among the reasons presented in the Assembly's comprehensive death penalty report were the high cost of the death penalty - and the diversion of resources from critical programs that actually reduce crime, protect children and serve our communities. We may not be able to meet every child's needs with the money we now spend on the death penalty, but we should certainly applaud the rejection of this wasteful and bloated government program that doesn't serve our children at all. Now let's start the long overdue redistribution of resources to serve children and families rather than politics. (source: Stephanie F. Leeds, Ph.D., is a professor at Cazenovia College and director of its Education and Child Studies programs; The Syracuse Post-Standard) ********************************** Death penalty on their minds Voting for the death penalty used to be automatic for most Central New York lawmakers. Not anymore. Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, R-Gouverneur, has changed her mind. And Assemblywoman Joan Christensen, D-Syracuse, might follow suit. "I'm rethinking my position," said Christensen, who voted to reinstate capital punishment in 1995. "A lot has changed. We have life without parole" as an alternative sentence. On the other hand, she noted, "We have DNA, which makes things more exact." Meantime Assemblyman William Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, said he is studying the issue. He was elected in 1998 and didn't vote on the original law. Scozzafava said testimony at recent public hearings sponsored by the Assembly's Democratic majority, specifically that of an Episcopalian priest and of Camillus' Janice Grieshaber, whose daughter, Jenna, was murdered by a paroled felon in 1997, helped turn her against capital punishment. So did the option of life imprisonment without parole. That option wasn't on the books before New York reinstated capital punishment, but it survived a court ruling last year throwing out the death sentence provision. Scozzafava also said she was moved by testimony about the "unevenness" of the death penalty's application. In New York, some prosecutors seek it and some don't; moreover, experts maintain minorities suffer capital punishment disproportionately elsewhere and probably would here, too. Scozzafava voted in committee last week to advance a bill aimed at fixing the death penalty to the Assembly floor for a vote by the full house. The bill, supported by Gov. George Pataki and the Republican-controlled Senate, didn't make it out of committee. "I thought each member should have had a chance to read the testimony," Scozzafava said in explaining why she favored a vote by all Assembly members. The testimony was pretty compelling." Mutineer Assemblyman David Townsend, R-Kirkland, also expressed a change of heart last week. He joined a band of GOP Assembly members who seemed ready to turn against Minority Leader Charles Nesbitt, R-Albion. Townsend and Assemblyman Daniel Burling, R-Genesee, were the most vocal, with Burling seen as the possible successor if Nesbitt were replaced. Townsend supported Nesbitt in a close vote for leader in 2002, then got a $6,000 raise when Nesbitt appointed him minority whip (such leadership posts carry bonuses on top of lawmakers' base $79,500 salaries). But in January, Nesbitt reassigned Townsend chairman of the minority conference, effectively cutting his pay by $1,000. Nesbitt indicated those leading the effort against him can expect further punishment. Out of water In the euphoria of finalizing the state budget well earlier than in recent years, Christensen and freshman Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Binghamton, ventured to the "Senators Only" lounge last Tuesday evening. Although Christensen has been in Albany for more than 14 years, the sergeants-at-arms outside the lounge and Senate chamber didn't recognize her. But Christensen said several Republican senators, including Dale Volker of Erie, John Bonacic of Orange, Joseph Robach of Monroe and George Maziarz of Niagara, came to the Assembly interlopers' defense. Christensen called it "bipartisan cooperation," adding, "It's a sign of the times." (source: Erik Kriss, Syraacuse Post-Standard) *************************** Steady Work, if You Can Get It The job of district attorney in New York City would seem to come with some natural career perils, given that the people of the city are acutely, even obsessively concerned about crime, and that issues like race and capital punishment often inflame high-profile cases. But, oddly, the job seems to be about as secure an elected position as there is in the city: no elected district attorney has been defeated in a re-election bid in 50 years. Election records show that since the five boroughs were consolidated in 1898, barely a handful of elected district attorneys have been ousted from office via the ballot box. The Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, who has been in office for more than 30 years, is an obvious example of a prosecutor's hold on office. His predecessor, Frank S. Hogan, held the job for 32 years. But there are other measures of the grasp that district attorneys have on incumbency. In 1987, Mario Merola, who had served for 15 years, was elected to a fifth term as the Bronx district attorney even though he had died a week before the election. And John J. Santucci, who was the subject of a number of ethical inquiries and retired after 4 terms in Queens, was succeeded by Richard Brown, who won election in 1991 and has not faced a significant challenge since. Even Guy V. Molinari, who as borough president ran Staten Island politics with a powerful hand, could not unseat the incumbent district attorney. He got 34 percent of the vote when he ran in 1995 against William L. Murphy. And so in New York, where the power of incumbency has frequently been lamented, nothing seems to quite approach the job safety of the men and women who prosecute crime. "There is something unique about the district attorney's office that makes the power of incumbency far more powerful than in any other race," said Mr. Molinari, who was a congressman before becoming borough president. "People somehow feel that changing the person in charge of law enforcement somehow would make life easier for the bad guys, the criminals. When it comes to law enforcement, people don't want to disturb the status quo." The nature of a prosecutor's political longevity has surfaced with the prospect of at least two district attorneys - Mr. Morgenthau in Manhattan and Charles J. Hynes in Brooklyn - facing re-election fights against eager, if not yet assured rivals. Still, sifting through the city's history to uncover hard facts is something of a challenge. The city's Board of Elections could at first only produce records on district attorney races going back to 1959, except for Manhattan, where the records extended to 1930. But a trip through the board's several warehouses, and hours spent paging through its yellowed, sometimes crumbling paper records, reaffirms why so many people have difficulty remembering any instance in any borough where an incumbent prosecutor was beaten at the polls. John Ravitz, the executive director of the Board of Elections, said the board was doing "a thorough inventory of all our records and material to make sure that we can keep track of as much material as possible." When asked if the Board of Elections got many requests for historical data on the election of district attorneys, going that far back in history, he said, "To my knowledge, this was the first." Brian S. McNamara, assistant professor of law at John Jay College, said that the power of incumbency for prosecutors was greater because of the nature of the job: district attorneys fight crime, a workload rarely unpopular with the public. Their news conferences tend to sound dramatic - announcing arrests or multi-count indictments. And even the average prosecutor, the records show, can convict most of the people most of the time. "District attorneys are hard to criticize, generally, because most of them can boast of high conviction rates," Mr. McNamara said. "And they have a lot of opportunities to make a positive impression with the public in the press." During the last 100 years, of course, there have been other explanations for the lack of turnover. A considerable number of district attorneys were named judges, requiring an interim person to fill their job and making the next election the equivalent of a clean slate. And the Democratic Party's iron hold on the city's election process - turning primaries into predetermined coronations - made it hard for anyone to mount a challenge, much less unseat the party's chosen prosecutor. "It's a tough job to raise money as a challenger," said Evan Stavisky, a political consultant. "In the city of New York, to run for district attorney is a major undertaking because you're running for a boroughwide office, which is harder than running for, say, City Council." Also, Mr. Stavisky said, "It's not the kind of office that attracts the attention of interest groups and political insiders." That said, this year candidates in New York are once more lining up to try. In Manhattan, Leslie Crocker Snyder, a former State Supreme Court justice, has raised nearly $1 million to run against Mr. Morgenthau, who has served as district attorney since 1975. Mr. Morgenthau, 85, has not faced a primary challenge since 1985 and has traditionally been endorsed by both the Democratic and the Republican Parties. And in Brooklyn, there are six candidates seeking to oust Mr. Hynes, who was elected the borough's district attorney in 1989. They are State Senator John Sampson; Sandra Roper, a civil rights attorney who has worked for the N.A.A.C.P.; Paul Wooten, a lawyer who is in private practice and once served as an assistant district attorney; Arnold Kriss, a former assistant district attorney and a former lawyer for the Police Department; and Braxton F. Fenner, a trial lawyer and a former Brooklyn prosecutor; and Mark G. Peters, a former prosecutor in the state attorney general's office. Ms. Roper said she thought she had a good chance. "I ran in 2001 and astonished Mr. Hynes and others by getting almost 40 percent of the vote," she said. "And I was a novice then. Since then I have gathered a lot of insight. I think people recognize that district attorneys aren't infallible. Plus, there is the women's vote." Mark Peters turned the notion of powerful incumbency into a campaign issue. "What needs to be kept in mind," he said, "is that when an incumbent is sufficiently vulnerable, he simply chooses not to run for re-election." He added: "You don't get to see what happens when a vulnerable incumbent runs. But we'll get to see it now." It has been a while, of course. The last time an incumbent elected district attorney was defeated was five decades ago. In the election of 1955, T. Vincent Quinn, the Queens district attorney, lost the Democratic primary to Frank D. O'Connor. Also that year, John M. Braisted Jr. defeated the incumbent, Sidney O. Simonson, to become the Staten Island district attorney. More typically, though, the prosecutors endured, or resigned their positions to assume seats on various courts, usually the State Supreme Court. Some went on to higher office - like Thomas E. Dewey, who was elected governor after leaving office in 1941 as Manhattan district attorney. William O'Dwyer, a Brooklyn district attorney, was elected mayor in 1945, and Elizabeth Holtzman, the former Brooklyn district attorney, was elected city comptroller in 1989. Still, the challengers taking aim at Mr. Morgenthau and Mr. Hynes say that they have every expectation they will succeed. "It has happened before," Mr. Peters said. "And it can happen again." (source: The New York Times) NEW MEXICO: Support builds for county to run jail Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano's push for the county to take over operation of the jail from a private company received solid support Friday from members of the law-enforcement community, who all agreed that operating a jail should be a governmental function. However, some expressed concerns that a transition could be bumpy, and others cautioned that a county-run jail is unlikely to be a cure-all for all the problems. "I agreed with Sheriff Solano that we've got to stop thinking of the jail as a profit-maker," said state District Judge Michael Vigil. "I don't think government should be contracting out something as serious as our obligation to incarcerate people." Vigil, who's been a criminal judge for eight years but involved in the criminal-justice system for 27 years, said that despite those concerns about protection of Constitutional and civil rights, he was willing to wait and see when the privacy groundswell began. "Three different private entities have run it now and it has not worked out," he said. "Probably because the bottom line for the companies is profit." Fellow District Judge Stephen Pfeffer -- who, like Vigil, handles criminal cases almost exclusively -- agreed. "Businesses are in business for profit," he said. "Government has to stay within a budget, but I think it's a different focus." Santa Fe County 1st contracted out the running of its jail in 1986, when the facility was located on Airport Road, to Corrections Corporation of America. After CCA decided not to pursue the contract for the newly built, much-larger jail in 1997, the contract was awarded to Cornell Corrections Inc. The current contractor -- Management Training Corporation -- has run the facility since 2001. MTC announced Thursday it was pulling out of its contract -- set to run until August 2006 -- because of problems providing adequate medical services. Those medical services were provided by yet another contractor -- Correct Care Solutions. Solano said he'd like to see a local medical-care provider, such as St. Vincent Regional Medical Center or Presbyterian Medical Services contract with the county to provide care at the jail. On Friday, Vigil said he liked that idea too, because it might encourage better communication between the jail medical provider and an inmate's regular physician. He cited the recent case of Melody Chavez, whose serious medical problems went largely untreated by jail medical staff. "It took 3 hearings and a bunch of subpoenas to get everyone in the same room," he said. "And it worked out. But it's frustrating, as a judge, to deal with. I have death-penalty cases going on and here I am making sure an inmate gets the proper medical treatment." Santa Fe attorney Mark Donatelli, who has worked extensively on prison and jail issues over the years, said that when medical services are run by a for-profit company, "prisoners will get short-changed." Vigil said one of the main medical problems he notices is inmates not receiving prescription drugs. The problem can be particularly noticeable in inmates with mental disabilities, who often appear normal at an arraignment and nearly unraveled by the time a pre-trial conference rolls around, he said. Hugh Dangler, head of the Santa Fe public-defender's office, said he thinks a privately run jail can work, and, with its focus on the bottom line, might actually help the county keep a balanced budget. However, he said he doesn't think a for-profit company will ever succeed in adequately providing medical services to inmates. For example, he said many of his clients have undiagnosed problems and afflictions. And a for-profit-jail contractor has no incentive to diagnose those conditions because then they would have to be treated, Dangler said. "Medical is the best argument against a private company," he said "But the concept of putting pressure on finances and the bottom line, that's probably useful for us." Santa Fe Police Chief Beverly Lennen said her department -- which contracts with the county to house the people it arrests -- has found MTC officials to be cooperative on a number of occasions. However, the medical problems at the facility must be taken care of, she said. "The main concern I would have no matter who is running the jail is that any of our prisoners housed there have the appropriate medical attention," she said. She also said she doesn't want to see her department's costs rise. Donatelli said the Santa Fe County jail is too big, suffers from a chronic lack of staff and features a layout that raises concerns. And while he congratulated Solano on getting away from the idea of for-profit jails, he said he'd like to see the county obtain technical assistance about running a jail from the National Institute of Corrections, as well as survey area law-enforcement officials about what they'd like to see done at the jail. "Someone needs to find out what we really need," Donatelli said. "Do we really want that facility?" For his part, Solano agreed the jail was too big -- it can house about 700 inmates -- and said "it would be nice" to be able to close half the building and put something else -- like the District Court -- there. "But we're stuck with it," he said. "There's still a huge debt on that building." The facility cost $22 million to build and the county owes between $1.6 million and $1.9 million annually in debt service on it, Solano said. Santa Fe County commissioners would like to see the building become a regional-type jail, where nearby counties and municipalities could share in its use and cost, he said. The jail currently accepts all inmates from the cities of Taos and Espaola, as well as Taos County, Solano said. He also said a recent study of the jail by the U.S. Department of Justice will be a valuable tool for the county in taking over the jail, as will its recent experience taking over operation of the juvenile jail from a a private company. Finally, Solano said that while staffing is a concern to all area law-enforcement agencies, the benefits provided by the county's system should prove enough to attract a quality staff. Still, as Judge Pfeffer said, "No matter who runs a jail or a prison, there are always problems." Dangler concurred. "(The county taking over) is not necessarily the panacea we think it is," he said. "Accountability is the problem, and it always will be the problem." (source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
