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VOLUME 99 - NUMBER 3 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA -SATURDAY, JANUARY 25,2020 TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 PRICE 50
Beginning the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday beginning at the former headquarters of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Exclusive: Justice changing
how inmate risk is assessed
By Michael Balsamo
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department is
changing the system it uses to assess whether an inmate is
likely to commit crimes after being released from prison,
aiming to ensure the process is fairer and more effective.
The impetus for the change is a criminal justice overhaul
signed into law in late 2018.
Police release video of stop
thatprompted investigation
RALEIGH (AP) - A North Carolina police depart
ment has released body-camera video of a traffic stop that
prompted a use-of-force investigation.
Raleigh police released video on Jan. 17 that showed
two officers grabbing, punching and kneeing a man who
was shown ignoring their orders, The News & Observ
er reported. Footage shot by a passenger in the car was
widely shared online earlier in the week.
Police previously said the suspect, Braily Andres Ba
tista-Concepcion, 22, was arrested Tuesday as officers
stopped him in connection with three hit-and-run crashes
earlier that day. One 911 caller noted that a driver hit her
car, then backed up and attempted to hit her again, ac
cording to calls obtained by news outlets. Another caller
reported being hit by a similar car hit twice before taking
off. The suspect was also accused of hitting a pole.
An officer pulled over a car matching the description
and driving erratically, a police news release said. The
driver, Batista, appeared to be impaired while transport
ing three passengers, police noted.
He was charged with several misdemeanors, including
hit and run, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.
“They hit me so bad I forgot everything,” he told the
newspaper earlier in the week.
The president of the Raleigh chapter of the NAACP
said the suspect’s choices contributed to the confrontation
but that all parties involved should have behaved differ
ently, TV station WTVD reported.
“When given a direction by an officer, please follow
it,” Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said at a news
conference. “Compliance and cooperation is so important
during these types of situations.”
The federal Bureau of Prisons has already assessed
nearly all the 175,269 inmates in federal custody to iden
tify programs they may need to help reduce the risk of re
cidivism. But the Justice Department plans to rescreen all
those inmates under new guidelines that officials say place
a stronger emphasis on accurately measuring an inmates
change behind bars and are intended to reduce potential
bias.
Although all the inmates will be rescreened, officials
do not expect to see major changes in the risk levels of
inmates. Nonetheless, officials believe the change is an
important step to ensure a fairer and more transparent
process.
The assessments are part of the First Step Act, which
President Donald Trump has promoted as a rare biparti
san effort to address concerns that too many Americans
were imprisoned for nonviolent crimes as a result of the
drug war. The law gives judges more discretion when sen
tencing some drug offenders, eases mandatory minimum
sentences and encourages inmates to participate in pro
grams designed to reduce their risk of reoffending, with
credits that can be used to gain an earlier release.
Under the law, inmates are screened using the risk tool
released in July and designed to predict the likelihood that
inmates may commit other offenses or violent crimes. The
assessment examined a number of factors, including an
inmate’s age and crime, as well as whether an inmate par
ticipated in education or drug treatment programs.
But months later, following feedback from advocates
and other groups, the Justice Department is redesigning
the tool to change certain measures that could add a ra
cial bias. Specifically, the assessment will no longer look
at an inmates age when that inmate was first arrested or
whether the inmate was given the ability to turn himself
in at a prison.
Officials also looked into whether they should remove
a category examining whether an inmate had previously
violated the terms of supervised release. But they found
that statistics showed white defendants were actually sent
back to prison more often than African American and
Hispanic offenders, contrary to concerns from critics.
The department’s announcement includes the release
of a 41-page report. The Bureau of Prisons is providing
the results of the assessments to inmates, which include
which prison programs officials believe they should par
ticipate in based on their needs.
Federal officials will begin to track the number of in
mates put on wait lists at federal prisons for programs that
range from drug treatment to culinary arts, auto repair
and working in prison industries making clothes, furni
ture and electronics, a Justice Department official told The
Associated Press. Officials will investigate whether there is
enough classroom space at federal correctional facilities,
some of which were built many years ago, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order
to discuss the plans before they were officially announced.
“Beginning today, inmates will have even greater in
centive to participate in evidence-based programs that
prepare them for productive lives after incarceration,” At
torney General William Barr said in a statement. “This is
what Congress intended with this bipartisan bill.”
So far, the department released 124 inmates under the
compassionate release program in 2019, compared with
34 in 2018. Also, 379 inmates have qualified for home
confinement under a program that allows some elderly
and terminally ill offenders to be transitioned to the less-
restrictive sentence.
Nearly 15,000 inmates are enrolled in the Bureau of
Prison’s residential drug treatment program and 44,000
others are involved in other drug programs in federal
prisons across the U.S.
More than 3,100 federal inmates were released in July
by the Bureau of Prisons under the First Step Act and
more than 2,400 others have qualified for reduced sen
tences under a separate provision of the law that allows
some prisoners locked up for crack cocaine charges to ask
for sentencing reduction.
TV Carolina county
adds historical markers
for black heroes
WILSON (AP) - Wilson County plans to add four new historical
markers this year to commemorate African-American heroes, includ
ing a 1946 effort to organize tobacco workers.
Called Operation Dixie, the unionization effort was led by black
women demanding better working conditions in the tobacco industry.
“They led a walk-out, and this was particularly significant because
they were minority women leading this walkout, and it really started
a movement,” B. Perry Morrison, Jr., representing the Wilson County
Historical Association, told members of the Wilson tourism board.
The state unveiled a historical marker in Rocky Mount in 2011.
The local chapter of the Tobacco Workers International Union formed
in Wilson in 1946.
Other markers to be unveiled in Wilson this year will honor the
Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, and
Charles H. Darden, the Wilson Times reported.
The marker for Hargrave describes him as the founder of Mercy
Hospital, which treated African Americans in an era when even hos
pitals were segregated by race. In 1914, he was elected president of
the National Medical Association, which was the African American
equivalent of the American Medical Association.
Darden’s marker says he established the first African American
funeral business in Wilson in 1875.
The Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute opened after African
Americans boycotted public schools to protest teacher Mary Euell
being slapped by the county school superintendent. It operated from
about 1918 to 1928.
“They are very significant parts of our history, and it will be excit
ing to commemorate them,” Morrison said.