• Need-to-Know News: Jan. 13, 2012

    January 13, 2012

    Updates from Us

    • Marsha Weissman, the Director of the Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), was presented the 2012 Sara Tullar Fasoldt Leadership and Humanitarian Award by Robert Maccarone, the State Director of the Office of Probation and Correctional Alternatives, on January 12 for her outstanding leadership and significant contributions to the field of community corrections. Several LAC staff members were present for the ceremony. We again want to congratulate Marsha for her much deserved recognition.
    • Paul Samuels, LAC's Director and President, and Gabrielle de la Gueronniere, LAC's Director of National Policy, were quoted in an online article in Addiction Professional, discussing the parity requirements for behavioral health under the Affordable Care Act's Essential Benefits Package and the need to monitor implementation of the requirements at the state level.
    • The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) sent out an e-mail letting members and those on its e-mail list know about LAC's recent report, "Legality of Denying Access to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) in the Criminal Justice System." The e-mail also reminded readers that NADCP's board issued a board resolution last July stating that Drug Courts must not impose blanket prohibitions against the use of MAT by their participants and that decisions whether to allow the use of MAT must be based on an individualized assessment of the clinical and medical needs of each participant, the interests of the public and the administration of justice.
    • Several LAC employees discussed the long-term challenges confronting individuals with felony convictions on an episode of last week's 219 West, a TV show on CUNY-TV in which students at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism examine news stories from around New York City.

    Headlines on Our Issues

    State

    • A new report, released this week by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, shows an 82% increase in the number of prescriptions for oxycodone issued in New York between 2007 and 2010. The Attorney General is pushing the State Legislature to pass legislation to have the Department of Health create a new real-time database tracking system, which physicians and pharmacists would be required to check before prescribing or providing painkillers to patients or customers.
    • Plans to count prisoners at the addresses where they lived prior to their incarceration as part of the decennial redistricting process may result in some current districts having populations that are too small, under a 2004 Supreme Court decision. As a result, some Republican Senators have proposed creating a 63rd Senate district.
    • Governor Cuomo is expected to announce his State Budget proposal for the coming fiscal year on January 17. Stay tuned. LAC will be sending you relevant updates about the proposal as soon as we have any information.
    National

    • The Pepsi Beverages Co. announced a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which it agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle federal discrimination claims that it illegally used criminal background checks to screen out job applicants with arrests that did not lead to convictions or which resulted in convictions for minor charges. Pepsi also announced that it had changed its criminal background hiring policies and that it would offer positions to individuals who had been denied jobs under the old policy if they still wanted them and if positions for which they were qualified existed.
    • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced $339 million in grants to state and local health departments to reinforce HIV activities in high-impact areas. Funds will be awarded to health departments in all 50 states, 8 United States territories, and 8 cities with heavy HIV burdens. The money will be distributed proportionately according to HIV burden. Most of the funding will be used for HIV prevention activities including HIV testing, activities to help people with HIV reduce their risk of transmitting HIV to others, and condom distribution for people at high risk of acquiring HIV.
    • Medical researchers have begun a new research collaboration called Open Notes that is experimenting with allowing patients to have regular access to their medical records, in the hopes of getting the patients more involved in their own care. The researchers published the first results of their study, which look at patient and physician attitudes to shared records, in last month's Annals of Internal Medicine.
    • A new study, published in Addiction, has found that collaborative behavioral management may be effective in reducing substance abuse among convicted marijuana users who are paroled. The study used a system of "reinforcements" to provide incentives for good behavior.
    • The Department of Health and Human Services released a new report that examines efforts by the States to create web-based applications for people to use in applying for benefits.

    From Our Partners

    • Marsha Weissman the Executive Director of the Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), and Alan Rosenthal, CCA's Co-Director of Justice Strategies, will present a webinar called "Criminal History Screening Practice Tips - Balancing Educational Opportunity and Campus Safety" on January 19 at 2PM. The webinar will be hosted by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. For more information and to register, click here.
    • The Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College announced a new RFP for 2 to 3 community-based organizations interested in operating the NYC Justice Corps, a program serving 18-24 year olds who reside in targeted communities and are involved with the criminal justice system. The NYC Justice Corps will provide participants with twelve months of services: a six-nine month intensive service phase including community benefit projects, job readiness, case management, educational programming, internships, and job placement, followed by alumni support services for the remainder of the program year. The RFP is due on February 9, 2012.
    • Registration is now open for the 2012 National Transitional Jobs Network Conference, which will be held in Baltimore on April 12-13. This year's conference is titled "Restoring the Promise of Work: Subsidized Employment & Transitional Jobs." To register, click here.
    • The ACLU has released a new report on how states can reduce unnecessary spending on prison by enacting a series of criminal justice reforms and changing the way in which they perform cost evaluations of new legislation.
    • The ACLU's Deputy Legal Director, Vanita Gupta, wrote an op-ed, published in U.S. News & World Report, discussing new state laws mandating that recipients of various forms of public assistance be drug tested. Ms. Gupta explained that these policies are ineffective, unconstitutional, and costly intrusions into Americans' lives.