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Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform

We are having a BBQ
on September 15th
and you are
Invited
August 2, 2018

We are planning our Annual Cookout and all our CCJR members and friends are invited.

We are using this event as an opportunity for our members to get together and to encourage other people to join us. You can help by bringing your entire family and invite your close friends and anyone interested in criminal justice reform. (Children are welcome and will be attending. )

We will be sending out specific and additional details via our next newsletter the last week of August.

Please Mark Your Calendar - and Plan to Attend.

Questions: please email us at: info@ccjrnh.org [or] Call 603-832-1555 and Leave a message. Someone will get back to you.

This will be a fun, relaxing time to come and meet your board and fellow CCJR members.

It is hard to believe but there is only about one month left until the end of summer and the start of a new school year. Summer goes by fast in New England and is often a very busy time for families, so we try and schedule our BBQ on a Saturday in September. This year it is September 15^th. (Rain date September 22.)

This event is absolutely Free.

To help underwrite the cost of the BBQ, please consider donating $3.00 to $5.00 per person, or $10 to $15.00 per family. You decide what if anything you can do. A meal donation is optional; no one will seek to collect it from you. Just drop it in the bucket".

Optional Bring a Salad, Hot Dish, Dessert to share Dessert.

Come and Enjoy -
Good Food
Good Fellowship
Free Door Prizes
$2.00 Raffle tickets for Retail Gift Cards, Fireworks Packages and other New Items
Fun Auction for New and Near New Items
Special Music
Pool Time (Weather Permitting)

More information to follow . . .

Do we have your correct information? Please use this link https://www.ccjrnh.org/subscribe_our_e-mail_newsletter to update your email and contact information. When you enter new information, your record is automatically updated.

We’re writing two bills for 2019

By Chris Dornin, Legislative Policy Committee Chairman

Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform is working on two bills for introduction next year under a new legislature. The first would assure that Corrections must get all of its policies approved as administrative rules before the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules. These policies would include probation and parole supervision and the sex offender treatment program inside the walls and in the community. Next year’s bill would go into greater detail than two pieces of legislation we lobbied for this year, HB 192 and SB 373. There is information about them in this month’s article about Rep. John Sytek.

We hear many stories of difficult and poorly supervised parole and probation officers. They wield enormous and sometimes vindictive power over men and women trying to rebuild their lives as free citizens. Our bill would force Corrections to spell out the authority, duties and accountability of these officers. And Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform could speak at the public hearings when those proposed rules go before the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules. We would invite folks who have completed parole to tell lawmakers how they were treated. Their personal stories could make a big difference.

The second bill would make the Parole Board get its policies approved by lawmakers as administrative rules. The Parole Board is the only state agency that operates largely without oversight by the legislature or the governor.

The Office of Legislative Budget Assistant is currently doing a performance audit of the Parole Board. We’ll use its findings to help improve the way the Parole Board operates. The first step is to pass legislation to make it perform within the public view.

I hope to phase out my role as lobbyist for CCJR in this, my final year of visiting the State House. Several volunteers and board members have offered to learn the ropes this winter. I’d like them to do our testifying on bills while I look over their shoulders. I can certainly help them write their testimony. Please email me if you’d like to get involved.

Please direct any questions to Chris Dornin, co-founder, Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform, cldornin@aol.com-

The State House Professional Conduct Committee heard our complaint yesterday on August 2, against Rep. John Sytek. As a legislative committee vice chairman he helped kill our bills in 2017 and 2018 to make the Department of Corrections get its policies approved by lawmakers as administrative rules. We asked him to recuse himself on both pieces of legislation, HB 192 followed by SB 373, because he is married to the head of the Parole Board. He refused to do so. Our complaint will help decide if that was a proper decision.

His wife Donna Sytek chairs both the Parole Board and the committee reviewing our claim against her husband. She recused herself from acting on that complaint. So did her fellow committee member, David Hess, saying he is a close friend of John Sytek’s. We told journalist Nancy West about the complaint, but she recused herself as a friend of Donna Sytek’s.

We asked John Sytek to follow these same high professional standards as a lawmaker. He has generously waived his right to confidentiality, so the public and the press can watch the hearing Aug. 2. It starts at 10:30 a.m. in Room 104 of the Legislative Office Building. The same hearing was first scheduled in July, but the meeting lacked a quorum.

Below is the text of the complaint. It is based on a scathing performance audit of the prison sexual offender treatment program, which you can read on line at this link. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/LBA/AuditReports/PerformanceReports/DOC_Sex_Offender_Treatment_2016.pdf

The program auditors discovered that the Parole Board always deferred to the prison Administrative Review Committee on decisions to release or hold back sex offenders at the end of their minimum sentences. The study found that members of the Parole Board never received enough critical information to make their own independent parole decisions on these inmates.

In other words, the Administrative Review Committee was the real Parole Board for convicted sexual offenders. An average of 200 sex offenders stayed in prison past their minimum sentences each year between 2014 and 2016, often leaving the joint years late. The Administrative Review Committee had never gone through the State House rule making process. It still hasn’t. We expect a hearing on it in late summer or early fall before the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules. Stay tuned. Be there.

To read the actual compliant and to read the decision go to this link: https://www.ccjrnh.org/legislative_alerts/please_attend_crucial_hearing_aug_2

Legislative Ethics Committee voted to Dismiss the Complaint - You can read it here.

There are a few positions open in the following committees: Membership, Financial and Fundraising, Social Planning & Events, Editorial Committee, Litigation Research Committee and Public Relations. For more information please send us an email info@ccjrnh.org

Want to join the board? Send us an email to learn more.

Read our past newsletters - click on link
https://www.ccjrnh.org/read_our_past_newsletters

Help make a difference.
Become a member of CCJR-NH. Click here to join.

Yes!! I want to support New Hampshire Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform and become a member today!

When you join CCJR-NH you support the important work that we do and we keep you updated with newsletters and emails. You will also receive Action Alerts and updates on pending legislation and CCJR-NH campaigns on the local and national level. Your annual membership payment is vital to the ongoing work and effort of Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform.

Membership categories (other than Life-Time) are good for one year and are renewable annually. (Membership status is considered inactive without the payment of annual dues.)

NOTE: Membership lists are held strictly confidential and are tax-deductible.

Renew Your Membership Now Click here
With almost 400 members it is an overwhelming task to contact each and every member on their annual renewal date. To simplify the membership fee system the board voted on March 28, 2017 to implement a new policy. We are asking every member “to submit their annual membership fee between January 1^st and March 31^st in order to maintain active member status. Since we are beyond the renewal window this year we are asking all of our members to send in their renewal fee now. Please take care of this as soon as possible.

Membership dues and generous donations allow our volunteers to continue the important work of criminal justice reform in New Hampshire. To renew your membership click on the icon above and choose the category that applies, Individual, Prisoner, Family or Organization. In the "Tell Us Where you Heard Us" block, please mention that you are renewing your membership.

Did you know that for a one time gift of $100.00 you can become part of the Life-Time Membership Club?

We are Now on Facebook

We have created a Twitter page and hope to send out announcements and alerts using this media format. If you have a Twitter account please FOLLOW us there.

Have you heard that Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase to Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform? Just use our LINK or CLICK on the Amazon picture. When Amazon opens, look in the upper left corner and you should see Amazon Smile & Supporting: Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform. You get the same deals and prices and/or Amazon Prime Membership Benefits and we get a small donation. Click on the above picture or go to http://amazon.ccjrnh.org/

Forward

Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform

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