Accounting for Costs at the Big House

Well, folks, government transparency at work here!

From today's Federal Register:  According to the Bureau of Prisons, in Fiscal 2012 the average annual cost to incarcerate a prisoner in a federal prison  was $29,027.46, and to confine an inmate in a Community Corrections Center was $27,003.

It's a great bargain for society in cases such as this, this, this and this.

Now, if they can only streamline the execution process for capital convicts, it would jettison much of the high end of the cost curve (and the low end of the worthiness to society curve) so that figures in future years can be reduced.

A Good Name for Tefillin

The story has already saturated the internet news: Chautauqua Airlines Flight 3079 from New York (LaGuardia) to Louisville was diverted to Philadelphia, where Calev Liebowitz and his little sister were handcuffed and taken the plane. Why? Because Calev was praying his morning prayers with his tefillin ("phylacteries" in English/Greek), of which the stewardess was totally clueless. Once the Philadelphia Police realized what had happened, Calev and sister were released and sent on their merry way to Louisville.

Because I myself have a pair of tefillin which I lay on every day (except the Sabbath and Jewish festivals), I know exactly what they are and how they are used. But the fact is that most of the American population does not know what tefillin are. Accordingly, the stewardess was suspicious, and the pilot acted on the side of caution (he probably didn't know too much about tefillin either).

Of course, I now hear everyone in my own socioreligious circles screaming "anti-Semitism" and calling for the stewardess's termination. But the way I call it, everyone acted properly under the circumstances:

The Stewardess on Flight 3079: She saw Calev wrap two black boxes with long straps around his arm and over his head, respectively. She didn't know what they were. She said something. This was appropriate behavior (given that she didn't know what tefillin were).

The Pilot on Flight 3079: He decided to err on the side of caution after hearing the story second-hand from the Stewardess. This was an appropriate decision.

The Law Enforcement Officers: Working on a third-hand story, they handcuffed the suspected would-be bomber. Once they realized that he was just a religious Jew praying with his tefillin, they immediately released him. This was quite appropriate.

Calev Liebowitz: (A) He properly said his morning prayers with his tefillin. (B) He did it unobtrusively in his seat and didn't disrupt other passengers by trying to gather 10 or more Jewish men (a "minyan") all together in the aisles. (C) He totally cooperated with the cops and apparently didn't give them any backtalk. He behaved appropriately.

And so, all individuals involved appropriately (although the whole thing was certainly a collective over-reaction). But Chautauqua Airlines, the Philadelphia International Airport, the law enforcement authorities and the other passengers on Flight 3079 could have been spared the expenditure of much time, money and aggravation if only Chautauqua Airlines would have instructed its flight crews as to what tefillin are.


At the other end of the spectrum is some totally inappropriate behavior. Martin Grossman, now residing on death row in Florida, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on 16 February 2010. Martin Grossman is Jewish, and so, I am now being beseeched by certain groups to ask Governor Crist to spare Grossman's life. My gut reaction is that whenever a fellow Jew is in danger, I must go and help him or her. But under the circumstances, I must now ask myself what I would advocate if it were, instead of a Jewish criminal killing a Gentile victim, the situation were reversed. And so, stripping everyone of all religious and ethnic and gender labels, we have the following:

A 19-year-old person on probation from jail for a felony burglary and theft offense is high on drugs, has gone outside of the county and is in possession of a firearm, all in contravention of the terms of the person's probation. The person encounters a law enforcement officer, whom the person brutally beats because the law enforcement officer is about to report the person's misdeeds. The person then takes the law enforcement officer's weapon, and, while the law enforcement officer is forcibly wedged into the patrol car, shoots the law enforcement officer in the back of the head with the weapon, killing the law enforcement officer. The person and the person's accomplice then try to destroy and hide the evidence.

I really, really hate to see another Jew die, but Martin Grossman has given me damn little to work with in constructing an argument for mercy or lenity on his behalf.


Well now, it seems that Rabbi Menachem Katz of the Aleph Institute has been visiting Martin Grossman in prison. [This is appropriate behavior if, as I believe to be the case here, the visitor is not smuggling any contraband and is visiting in compliance with the prison visitation rules. The Aleph Institute is a credible organization, which offers its outreach services to Jews who are removed from the mainstream community. This obviously includes prison inmates, but Aleph Institute also reaches out to Jewish military personnel who are not in ready touch with Jewish communities.].

It has been reported that Grossman has requested a proper Jewish burial in the event that the execution is carried out. This I can endorse. Every Jew is entitled to a proper Jewish burial. The Hebrew Free Burial Association does precisely that for indigent Jewish decedents in the New York area (I myself send a check to HFBA every year). Surely a proper Jewish burial can be arranged for Grossman. They probably can dispense with the autopsy. And I do not doubt that there are Jewish law enforcement officers in Florida who would be willing to stand watch over the body between the time of death and the time of burial.

And, as further detailed per this Blog's 19 August 2009 posting, Grossman is entitled to a memorial plaque on a Yahrzeit board. The Jewish community of Florida is quite affluent, so I'm sure that they will find a way to underwrite Grossman's proper Jewish burial and Yahrzeit plaque.


Rabbi Katz also reports that he arranged for "special permission from the warden to allow Grossman to put on Tefillin." This I certainly favor, but hope and pray that Grossman doesn't give tefillin (and those of us who pray with them) a bad name.

Duck, Duck, Duck, Goose!

Today's news of Flight 1549 is now all over the Internet. The plane lost its engines shortly after take-off from LaGuardia, and landed in the Hudson River. All passengers and crew were rescued, thanks to the flight's accomplished and valiant pilot, and, of course, to the FDNY and the other boats that made the emergency response.

I join all in expressing gratitude for the miraculous rescue.

It seems that the cause of the engine failure was bird ingestion. Specifically, a flock of Branta canadensis, commonly known as Canada Geese, crossed paths with the aircraft.

The Canada Geese are protected birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The problem is that most of the Branta canadensis in the New York area are no longer migratory, but have, for many generations, lived all of their lives here.

And, quite frankly, their numbers are too great for the health of the human population. There is, for example, a flock that congregates at the Courthouse of the New York Supreme Court of Nassau County, and they leave lots of their droppings there. And, within the past 10 years, a flock has taken up residence near the local school, pooping all over the soccer field.

I am not a sport hunter, and those who are would know more about this than I, but one needs all kinds of Federal and State licenses and permits to hunt Branta Canadensis.


According to a New York Daily News sidebar article to the Flight 1549 story,

" For years, Port Authority officials have tangled with animal activists about efforts to cut down the number of geese that live on Rikers Island near LaGuardia. Back in 2004, more than 400 geese were killed. By 2006, the number netted and gassed had dropped to 165. Animal activists have fought the effort, urging officials to find non-lethal methods to manage the population."

Rikers Island, for the untraveled and unread, is a land mass in the East River where the City of New York has located its major prison facilities. Amidst the current great budget deficit, why not use the Rikers Island flock of Branta canadensis to feed the inmates? Surely the culinary-minded can come up with some Canada Goose recipes.

Iron Bars do not a Prison Make

President Bush has signed H.R. 7802, which is now Public Law No. 110-428 [The GPO has yet to post it, but give them a week or two or three.] We now have on the books the Inmate Tax Fraud Prevention Act of 2008.

Background: There are significant restrictions as to when, to whom and how much information from taxpayers' tax returns may be disclosed by the IRS. This is a good, nay, vital requirement, because nobody in their sound mind would file a tax return with the IRS if they thought the info on the tax return would become public information. But there are circumstances where tax return information must be disclosed, and so, Internal Revenue Code Section 6103 sets forth the particulars. [N.B. The version hyperlinked in this post, on the GPO website, is NOT the latest version, but if you look at it you will get an idea of Section 6103's general scheme, and general prolix verbosity.].

It seems that it is possible to outsmart the IRS by filing a tax return claiming a refund when no refund is actually warranted, because the IRS sends out the refund checks before auditing the tax return. This in and of itself is not so bad, BUT, there the criminals out there not only cheat on their own tax returns, but file false returns in the name of other people as well.


Taking it a step further, prisoners can and do successfully file false tax returns from the security of inside the prison walls. From Florida prisoners alone, there were fraudulent returns of over $4 million filed (at least that is what the IRS caught). A South Carolina inmate admitted at a Congressional hearing that he filed over 600 returns for himself or other inmates, face value approximately $3.5 million, approximately 90% of which were "successful."

More disturbing still, according to this South Carolina inmate, is that most of the money goes to the illegal drug market, and, he paid protection money to the Muslims in the prison to ensure his personal safety.


And so, President Bush has signed into law the Inmate Tax Fraud Prevention Act of 2008. In addition to a little rider that protects the pensions of retired federal judges for their widows and other surviving relatives, the Act adds Section 6103(k)(10) to the Internal Revenue Code, which permits the IRS to disclose tax return information on Federal inmates suspected of tax return fraud to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

To which I say "Bravissimo!!"

But:

(A) The provision currently sunsets after 2011; and

(B) The IRS still cannot disclose the info to State prison officials, effectively leaving people like the South Carolina inmate out of the IRS's reach.

It is not a totally bad thing that Congress is proceeding with caution in tinkering with the disclosure provisions of Section 6103. But I hope that this obviously experimental legislation proves to be successful enough to warrant the removal of the sunset provision, and its expansion to include state inmates within the sweep of the statute.