Second Chance Program article on Wikipedia

[ChrisO]

I've just written a detailed article for Wikipedia on the Second Chance Program - see Second Chance Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Any comments would be welcome! As far as I know this is the first time anyone's brought together in one place everything that's known about Second Chance. If you have any additional info that you feel should be included, please let me know, or add it to the article yourself.

This has become a big issue in the US Senate elections in Nevada the last few weeks. The Republican candidate Sharron Angle was a major supporter of Second Chance and tried to get it established in her state back in 2003. She has been dinged for this by both her Republican and Democratic opponents. Hopefully this new article will help to inform the debate. Feel free to publicise it as needed...

 

[moarxenu]

Great work. A major contribution. Good to have all the info on Second Chance all in one place.

 

[Dulloldfart]

I've just written a detailed article for Wikipedia on the Second Chance Program - see Second Chance Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Any comments would be welcome!

I read through it. Looks like a thorough article. The form of it is attractive. Well done.

I didn't do any fact checking. The one-sentence-or-so descriptions of Scn procedures like the nerve assist and TRs aren't what I would write, but then again, it is Wikipedia and they are not completely misleading.

Looks like a good job. if you want to write any articles for Scienowiki, be my guest.

Paul

 

[byte301]

Really good article, ChrisO. It covers the whole thing really well.

I only found one small error:

"New Mexico
In 2002, Pendery gave a presentation on Second Chance to a conference of the National Foundation of Women Legislators being held in San Diego, California. Sixty of them accepted his invitation to visit Ensenade to inspect the program. One of them, New Mexico Republican Anna Crook, was sufficiently impressed to ask the New Mexico Corrections Department to establish a pilot program. The department declined but Crook managed to obtain $350,000 for Second Chance from the 2004 federal appropriations bill. The majority of the remaining $300,000 required to fund the program was donated by Randall Suggs, a Scientologist who owned a stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. Another $300,000 was later allocated by the state of New Mexico.[1] Crook convinced other Arizona legislators to pass a bill allowing judges to sentence offenders to Second Chance in lieu of prison."

Arizona should be changed to New Mexico.

The only other thing I found was the question of the eight "prisoners" dropped off at a homeless shelter. It was reported that Second Chance let a homeless shelter use part of the building. It was never reported whether or not they were paying rent to Second Chance or not. If they were it would have just been criminal since Second Chance wasn't paying their rent to the city as far as I know.

Anyway, the eight people who were dropped off were more then likely homeless people. It was reported that all prisoners were sent back to the jails they originally came from.

 

[ChrisO]

Thanks, I fixed the Arizona/New Mexico error.

The 40 people who were dropped off were probably homeless people, but the eight who were removed were said to be inmates with convictions for violence - i.e. the type of people who Second Chance wasn't allowed to hold. The Albuquerque authorities believed (probably rightly) that SC was trying to rig the inspection by getting those people out beforehand. Unfortunately for SC, the local police were given a tip-off, staked out the facility and witnessed the whole thing.

 

[Tiger Lily]

Nice job! That's going to help a lot of people.

 

[byte301]

Thanks, I fixed the Arizona/New Mexico error.

The 40 people who were dropped off were probably homeless people, but the eight who were removed were said to be inmates with convictions for violence - i.e. the type of people who Second Chance wasn't allowed to hold. The Albuquerque authorities believed (probably rightly) that SC was trying to rig the inspection by getting those people out beforehand. Unfortunately for SC, the local police were given a tip-off, staked out the facility and witnessed the whole thing.

Yeah, but there was a lot of confusion about it at the time. There is still a question about who the eight were since it was never fully reported. If they were violent prisoners I think a big stink would have been made about it since they were still considered prisoners. Of course, this is New Mexico, so I could be wrong and eight violent prisoners are still out there roaming the streets!

 

[ChrisO]

They were thought to have been prisoners from Grant County, though I don't think that was ever confirmed. The van they were in was followed by police up to the Bernalillo County line. Assuming that they were from Grant, which I think is likely, they presumably just went back to their original jail.

 

[byte301]

They were thought to have been prisoners from Grant County, though I don't think that was ever confirmed. The van they were in was followed by police up to the Bernalillo County line. Assuming that they were from Grant, which I think is likely, they presumably just went back to their original jail.

Yep. My thought was that they were headed in the wrong direction for Grant County. They were perhaps going to GRANTS, NM which is different from Grant County.

None of it was confirmed which sucks. I still don't know what the city has done to recover the money owed by Second Chance.

 

[ChrisO]

Yep. My thought was that they were headed in the wrong direction for Grant County. They were perhaps going to GRANTS, NM which is different from Grant County.

Grants is in Cibola County, which AFAIK wasn't one of the counties sending prisoners to Albuquerque. In any case, it was never confirmed publicly where those eight prisoners came from in the first place so the Grant County link might have been a red herring...

 

[Barbz]

Sharron Angle is not a state Senator. Yet. She's running for the office currently held by the eevil Harry Reid, who by all accounts (by Sharron) is a wicked, wicked man.

 

[ChrisO]

Sharron Angle is not a state Senator. Yet. She's running for the office currently held by the eevil Harry Reid, who by all accounts (by Sharron) is a wicked, wicked man.

Thanks Barbz, I corrected this to "Nevada Assembly member".

 

[Mockingbird6]

Good job

Good Job Chris,
From the viewpoint of one of those people sitting at events eating up the hype about this program (me), this is terrific--it gives the real data to unmock the falsehoods.

However, I kind of "moved out" of the article halfway through. Is there any way you could tighten it up, make the paragraphs smaller, give it a rapid pace for those of us with shorter attention spans? LOL

As it was, I got enough to debunk the falsehoods formerly presented, so you have achieved your objective whether you are going for a DOF who reads it all the way through or me, hopscotching through it. M6

 

[ChrisO]

Good Job Chris,
However, I kind of "moved out" of the article halfway through. Is there any way you could tighten it up, make the paragraphs smaller, give it a rapid pace for those of us with shorter attention spans? LOL

I'll give it a go.

I suppose there's no point recommending a bit of word clearing?

 

[byte301]

Grants is in Cibola County, which AFAIK wasn't one of the counties sending prisoners to Albuquerque. In any case, it was never confirmed publicly where those eight prisoners came from in the first place so the Grant County link might have been a red herring...

Yes, I was born and raised in Grants. I thought they were headed to Grants, Gallup, or Farmington. Or maybe they realized they were being followed and were just trying to avoid the tail. They could have taken the Los Lunas turn down the road and gone south which is the route to Grant County.

Since these questions were never really answered we may never know. I don't think there was ever a complete account of what counties sent prisoners to Second Chance.

I do know that they took off with the city's appliances though!

 

[ChrisO]

Well, for what it's worth this is from the report by Albuquerque's Chief of Police about the inmates' removal:

"Acting upon a tip that inmates were going to be moved this morning from the Second Chance Center located on the West Mesa, I had personnel monitor the area. This morning between 7 and 10:30, officers observed 40 persons transported from Second Chance to St. Martin's Hospitality Center in Albuquerque. Additionally eight individuals were loaded in a van. The van was followed west on I-40 to the city limits. The van continued west from there to an unknown location."

 

[byte301]

Well, for what it's worth this is from the report by Albuquerque's Chief of Police about the inmates' removal:

I saw that. I think the 40 were homeless people who were sharing the building. The eight are the ones really in question but the last word on it was all the prisoners were accounted for.

Anyway, it was quite something when it was all going down. It made my Christmas that year! lol

 

[GreyWolf]

After having left most of thier public destitute, they are now going after the rest of the country's money.

Its only US operation was terminated in January 2009 by the Mayor of Albuquerque. By that time it had received more than $1.5 million dollars in public funding, but on closing it left debts of over $672,000 to the federal, state and city governments.