CO-CHAIR
The Honorable John Gibbons is a Director of Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C., a member of the firm's Litigation Department, head of its Alternative Dispute Resolution Group, and founder of the Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest and Constitutional Law. For his successful challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court of the American government's indefinite detention of foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay, the New Jersey Law Journal named him 2004 Lawyer of the Year.
John Gibbons was formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, and a member of that Court for 20 years (1970-1990). While serving on the Court of Appeals, Judge Gibbons authored approximately 800 published opinions. He was also formerly a professor of Constitutional Law and other subjects at Seton Hall University Law School, where he held the Richard J. Hughes Chair in Constitutional Law until June of 1997.
He is a Past President of the New Jersey State Bar Association, a Life Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is a former member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and a former Chair of its Committee on Fair Trial and Free Press, and also a former Director of the American Arbitration Association. Judge Gibbons is also a Trustee Emeritus of the Practicing Law Institute, a Trustee Emeritus of Holy Cross College, and a Trustee of The Fund for New Jersey.
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OPENING STATEMENT
I have to agree with my co-chair that it is a pleasure to be here today in Tampa, Florida for the first hearing of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons.
Nick talked about the enthusiastic support the Commission is receiving from many in the corrections field. I want to build on that comment by emphasizing our commitment to an inclusive approach and express my appreciation for the broad array of partners and allies we are attracting.
We have an extraordinarily diverse group of Commissioners, hailing from a dozen or so different states. There is tremendous diversity in their backgrounds and experience as well. To single out just a few, they range from Iowa Corrections Commissioner Gary Maynard, whom Nick mentioned, to Stephen Bright, a well known and admired advocate for the rights of prisoners, to the Honorable William Sessions, former director of the FBI and former U.S. District Judge, to Saul Green a former U.S. Attorney. They include Ray Krone, who brings the perspective of an inmate who spent more than a decade in prison, some of it on death row, before being exonerated; Pat Nolan, who heads Justice Fellowship, the policy arm of Prison Fellowship Ministries and California Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, whom I hope will be able to bring the work of this Commission directly to bear on her ongoing efforts to reform the California corrections system.
We have been equally aggressive in seeking diversity among the individuals we've invited to testify at this first public hearing and to inform our inquiry in other ways. You'll hear from corrections veterans, former inmates, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice who oversees all federal prisons and an attorney who serves in a similar role for Los Angeles County, a journalist, a researcher, and the Associate Director of the ACLU's National Prisoners Rights Project — and that's just today's witnesses. Throughout this hearing, you will hear moving personal stories and broader expert characterizations of the corrections systems that we've come together to study.
The Commission is the beneficiary of extensive volunteer behind the-scenes support. The Commission is funded partially by private foundations, but we could not hope to complete our work without the significant support of several major law firms that are generously providing pro bono legal assistance and even donating office space for our headquarters in Washington, DC. Approximately a dozen law firms (and the list keeps growing) are working alongside the Commission's staff — and in some cases collaborating across firms - to gather information, identify witnesses, and help us understand the breadth of issues raised by our inquiry. Even the service of recording and transcribing this first hearing has been donated. And we have Universities that have offered to host subsequent hearings and federal lawmakers who are eager for our findings.
Why are they invested in this inquiry?
In my lifetime, the prison and jail population in this country has mushroomed to a size beyond my wildest imaginings, and most of that growth has occurred over the last decade.
2.2 million people are incarcerated on any given day and an estimated 13.5 million are detained over the course of a year.
Much of today's testimony will paint a picture of life in prison that doesn't fit with the core values of our democratic society and, therefore, should trouble all Americans. Given the enormous number of people incarcerated, we need to understand whether such problems and abuses are isolated or widespread. It is clearly time for this Commission.
I've spoken about the size of the U.S. prison and jail population, and Colonel David Parrish of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department who is here this morning knows first-hand the challenges of running a large facility. He is the Commander of two jails here in Tampa that together hold more than 4,600 people on a typical day and tens of thousands over the course of a year. Personally, I wish there were many fewer people incarcerated across the country — and perhaps Col. Parrish agrees with me. But as a jail administrator, he cannot control the number of people in his jails, only how they are treated once they are detained. I'm pleased to introduce Col. Parrish and look forward to hearing his perspective on how to run safe and humane correctional facilities.
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