Just
look at this story from Stateline about the jobs that convicts are doing now. Forget the chain gangs, states and cities are figuring out ways to use inmate labor to save tax dollars without taking jobs away from the law abiding public. I think the taxpayers would like to know that convicts are not sitting around in their cells.
Some inmates fought forest fires in California, and Arizona is about to train prisoners to fight fires.
Stateline has some other examples:
For example, inmates from three Iowa prisons dismantled a greenhouse for a local church, free of charge, said Lettie Prell, the assistant to the Iowa corrections director. They used the salvaged material to build greenhouses at the prisons, one of which later grew 400 poinsettia plants for government offices around the state during the holidays.
Some work programs cater to a state's needs. In Florida, inmates at the Broward County Jail help endangered sea turtles by replacing potentially contaminated sand at their hatcheries. In Alabama, inmate work crews cleaned up after Hurricane Ivan last year. In Kentucky, the home state of the Kentucky Derby, inmates at Blackburn Correctional Complex take care of retired racehorses that otherwise would head to the slaughterhouse.
Prisons also work closely with charities. In at least 32 states, prisons have partnered with local Habitat for Humanity affiliates and put wards to work building cabinets, walls and sometimes homes for the needy. At North Carolina's Gates Correctional Center, inmates refurbish broken and battered bikes for needy children as part of the Bicycle Ministry.
These work programs differ from prison industry programs, in which inmates produce services or make products such as license plates and furniture to sell. Those inmates make a higher wage, and their work is done within the prison.
Eligibility for work programs differs from prison to prison, but those accepted are usually minimum security inmates. Wardens consider factors such as good behavior, time remaining on an inmate's sentence, and nature of the crime.
Compensation also varies. Georgia and South Carolina don't pay their inmates. Oregon's fire crews earn $3 to $4 a day. Kansas and Indiana pay inmates about $1 a day for community work. California inmates, who make $1 an hour while fighting fire and $1.45 a day for other conservation work, also can deduct two days off their sentence for every day worked in the camps.
States benefit plenty in the pocketbook. A spokesman for Alabama's corrections department estimated its work program saves the state about $12 million a year. Mississippi reported that offenders provided almost $20 million worth of free labor in fiscal 2003. California's conservation program annually provides 10 million hours of conservation and firefighting work, saving the state $80 million a year, a spokesman said ...
Prisoners also have escaped while out on work crews.
"There's always that risk, but they're under supervision," said Darwin Weeldreyer, the director of community service for South Dakota's corrections department. He pointed out that most inmates on community work crews are nonviolent offenders. "We found in South Dakota it's a great benefit to keep inmates busy ... We haven't run into any situation where the walkaway has had such an effect that someone's requested the [work] program be done away with."
Sex Offenders in Nursing Homes
KCRA-TV in Sacramento aired a story about how registered sex offenders now live in nursing homes, but the staff and other residents have no idea. The homes say privacy regulations prevent them from asking about criminal histories and even if they knew a patient had a criminal past they would have to prove the patient is a danger to others to reject them.
A self-professed nursing home watchdog group called "A Perfect Cause" claims it has proof of at least 380 registered sex offenders living in nursing homes nationwide.
Here are links to various stories that have been done on this topic nationwide.
This story really goes back nearly a year when The Tulsa World special projects reporter Ziva Branstetter started looking into it. Last July, Branstetter found that there were at least 400 sex offenders living in nursing homes in 37 states.
Local TV Coverage of Election
Today, Sen. John McCain will unveil a new study about how local TV stations covered, or didn't cover, local election races and issues last fall.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Seton Hall University and the Norman Lear Center at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University looked at more than 4,000 local newscasts in 11 big city markets. The study looked at coverage in the four weeks before the November election.
The results: only 8 percent of those broadcasts included a report about a local election race. In fact there was five times more advertising about House races than there was news coverage about those races. The researchers said some stations spent more airtime on teases, bumps and intro music than covering governor's races in their state.
McCain is speaking about the study because he has been a critic of media consolidation that allows big companies to own more broadcast stations.
I think it is interesting that the results were what the researchers say. Look at this list of owners who gave substantial amounts of airtime to local candidates. Many of them are big media owners.
All Dorm-Living College Freshmen Should Get Meningitis Vaccinations
All college freshmen who live in dorms should be vaccinated for meningitis, according to a new government recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP.) Meningococcal bacteria infect the membranes around the brain and spinal cord. About 300 people die from the infections each year. About 10 percent of people who contract the bacterial infection die from it, according to FDA testimony. That means that about 3,000 people are infected in the United States each year.
Of survivors, up to one in five suffer long-term permanent disabilities such as hearing loss, brain damage and limb amputations. Meningococcal disease often begins with symptoms that can be mistaken for common viral illnesses, such as the flu. But unlike more common infections, meningococcal disease can progress very rapidly and kill an otherwise healthy young person in 48 hours or less.
As CBS News reported years ago, meningitis is most common among college-age folks. The Centers for Disease Control discovered that college freshmen living in dorms are more than six times more likely than other people to be infected with meningitis. The bacteria spreads quickly among people who have close contact. The U.S. military recognized this more than 20 years ago and started vaccinating for it, virtually eliminating the problem among recruits. College students are especially vulnerable when they contact others through kissing, sneezing and sharing cups, glasses and kitchen utensils.
Even though college students are among the most at risk groups for the infection, we still only record 5.1 cases per 100,000 people, so it is a fairly rare, if serious, threat.
The Meningitis Foundation of America Web site has tons of resources. The Foundation says that the new guidelines which urge college students to take the shots
also urge 11-12-year-olds and 15-year-olds to get vaccinated. The Foundation added that up to 80 percent of meningococcal meningitis cases among adolescents and young adults are potentially vaccine-preventable.
The new vaccine that the FDA approved last month is called Menactra and is made by Sanofi Pasteur. The drug will become available to doctors next month. The new vaccination is not cheap at about $100 per dose. Until this new drug became available, doctors have advised college students to get vaccinated but have not made a big push for it. That may be about to change.
When doctors started vaccinating young people in the United Kingdom, they saw an 85 percent drop in infection rates and a 90 percent drop in meningitis-related deaths.
An AP story said:
"I feel very strongly that this is the right way to go," said Dr. James Turner with the American College Health Association, which had opposed recommending the vaccinations until the new drug became available.
"This is an exciting day for those of us who work in college health."
The type of meningitis that spreads through college dorms typically kills only about 300 Americans each year, infecting the membranes around the brain and spinal cord. Since it is spread through contact such as kissing, sharing kitchen utensils and sneezing, people who live in close quarters are most at risk.
While all military recruits have been immunized since the 1980s, it wasn't until college outbreaks of meningococcal meningitis in the late 1990s that health officials started offering the shot to college students, although it did not have the endorsement of the CDC ...
While the disease is rare, it is devastating. Those who don't die from it often are left with severe complications, such as amputations or brain damage.
It is interesting to see how health experts at the CDC calculate whether it makes economic sense to vaccinate college freshmen.
Look at this passage from a 2000 study:
Vaccination of freshmen who live in dormitories would result in the administration of approximately 300,000-500,000 doses of vaccine each year, preventing 15-30 cases of meningococcal disease and one to three deaths each year. The cost per case prevented would be $600,000-$1.8 million, at a cost per death prevented of $7 million to $20 million.
Vaccination of all freshmen would result in the administration of approximately 1.4-2.3 million doses of vaccine each year, preventing 37-69 cases of meningococcal disease and two to four deaths caused by meningococcal disease each year. The cost per case prevented would be $1.4--2.9 million, at a cost per death prevented of $22 million to $48 million.
(A note from Al: My spell checker kept correcting me so I checked the checker. You might or might not know that the word "bacteria" is a plural noun. "Bacterium" is the singular noun.)
Cities Battle Noise
The Christian Science Monitor tells the story of how cities and community groups nationwide are trying to do something about noise pollution. Whole Web sites have seen set up around this topic, including this one, which breaks down news coverage by the kind of noise, for example leaf blowers, nightlife and my personal favorite annoyance, "Boom Cars." You can also click in to the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse Web site.
There are many anti-noise associations around the country. Click here for a partial list.
The Monitor says:
Since President Reagan cut the federal noise abatement program in 1982, state legislators have been forced to deal with the issue more directly -- and often side with big industry. So today it's frequently up to county commissioners and precinct captains to address the thousands of noise complaints phoned in every day.
And there are a lot of them: 83 percent of the calls to New York City's quality-of-life line in the past year were about "excessive noise," while the vast majority of calls to new 311 "municipal emergency" lines in many cities concern sound complaints.
Music that is in ears of the beholder
In Austin, supposedly the Southwest's "Music City," police recently arrested three musicians leading a conga line for breaking the city's noise ordinance. Now the city council wants to change the ordinance so police can ticket people who violate the code even if no one has filed a complaint.
In Tamworth, N.H., some townspeople don't want any part of the sonic pleasures that a new European racetrack will offer, so they are pushing a far-reaching new noise ordinance. The racetrack owners, for their part, say they won't even be able to mow the lawn under the proposed code.
Here in Raleigh, N.C., a new fee hike for noise violations has resulted in a "first shout and you're out" policy by some property management firms. The fines imposed by the city council have become stiff enough that the property owners, who have to pay the penalties, won't tolerate any violators in their rental units. In Lorain, Ohio, police are known to smash illegal stereos with sledgehammers.
"Noise pollution has become an epidemic, and sufferers nationwide are not taking it quietly any more," says J.J. Surbeck, a San Diego resident and the Webmaster at NoiseLaw.org, which advocates for peace and quiet.
The loudest harangue, as usual, may come out of New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg is championing a "silent nights" initiative that would lower decibels and hike fines. It's a plan drawing fire from business leaders and poorer neighborhoods. After all, last year New York cops got into a scrape with a Hispanic family that had been listening to music in their yard. The family insisted there had been no complaints, yet the cops arrested everyone, including the grandmother. The case was eventually thrown out of court.
Cases like this raise a more arcane question: Is there an objective standard for noise that everyone can agree on or is it simply that one man's symphony is another man's cacophony? Noise meters, experts say, can do some of the scientific measuring, but standards are still debatable.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.
