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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 8A
MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1997
EVENTS • ENTERTAINMENT • ISSUES • MUSIC • ART
An Alternative To Prison
By Brandon Copple Special to the Kansan
Bill Thomas parks his white sedan in front of a small apartment complex near the University of Kansas campus and walks quickly to an apartment on the ground floor. A small, bearded man answers Thoman's knock.
As he walks inside, Thoman draws a wallet-size instrument from his pocket and raises it to the man's mouth.
The instrument is a breathalyzer, and the man is a convicted criminal sentenced to intensive, supervised probation in the Douglas County Community Corrections program.
More than 200 county residents are clients of community corrections. They live at home and are closely monitored by probation and surveillance officers. They submit to random drug testing and frequent blood-alcohol testing. Some are under house arrest, which permits them to leave home only for work or school.
Most clients are nonviolent felons, but some have been convicted of many misdemeanors. Many have failed unsupervised probation. About 10 of 10 have drug or alcohol problems. The oldest client in Douglas County is 76 years old. The youngest is 11.
just to send you to jail, but they will if they catch you breaking the the motivator, and they are the pressure you need to get your-
To complete the program, clients must live within the law, keep a job or stay in school, and avoid drugs and alcohol. If they can do that and abide by community correction rules for at least 24 months, they're free. If they fail, they go to prison.
as an inexpensive alternative to incarceration clients out of prison.
Ian Hamilton, Paola senior, was sentenced to community corrections his freshman year at the University. He was caught selling marijuana in his hometown and had several previous convictions. He could have gone to prison, and his intensive supervised probation officer served as a constant reminder of that possibility.
over your shoulder all the time."
ing, and we've got to do whatever we can to help them do this.
Hamilton said, "I had some authority problems, and maybe I still do. But the program taught me I could be an individual and play by the rules, which is better than rejecting the rules and having somebody looking
Community corrections officers play a variety of roles. They provide support, encouragement, drug testing and lectures about the possibility of going to prison. Clients may be referred to a variety of services to treat deviant behavior, including group and individual counseling for substance abuse and anger control. All clients see a resource specialist to get and keep a job.
The idea is to get involved in clients' lives, to find out what problems they have and to get them the help they need, said Pam Weigand, interim community corrections director.
Those issues historically have baffled corrections systems, but Thoman said that community corrections tried to take them head-on.
Weigand said the program uses the community as a rehabilitative tool.
"They're pretty good about using judgment — looking at your personality and your flaws," Hamilton said. "I went to Ireland with my grandma even though I wasn't supposed to leave the country. They took it easy on me because they knew it was just a trip with my grandma."
Drop-in visits give officers an inside view of the client's personal life. Thoman's visits can include urine tests, interrogations or personal searches. He recognizes that some clients find it intrusive, but it's part of the package.
"If they know we're watching, it can deter a lot of behavior that gets them in trouble." Thomas said. "But if we're going to save someone, we've got to get in there to see what problems they're got and what issues are behind those problems."
Thoman said most problems he had seen resulted from underlying issues, such as an unstable home life or a feeling of worthlessness.
Hampton was able to complete the 24-month program in 18 months, unlike most participants.
More than half of the clients fail to complete the program, said Deborah Wright, intensive supervised probation officer.
when a client repeatedly fails to respond, an officer starts the revocation process, which ends in incarceration, she said.
"We're going to exhaust all our resources before we revoke anybody's probation." Wright said. "If they don't make it, it's usually because they don't want to make it. It's
The program gives officers wide discretion to create rules and to impose sanctions.
The program imposes its own rules through probation conditions. Those conditions, which require a judge's approval, are determined by a community corrections officer after an evaluation of the client's needs. Officers establish a curfew and dictate when and how often a client reports to community corrections. Offenders also must avoid drugs and alcohol and work or attend school. Further conditions are determined by individual needs and circumstances.
"Prison removes and isolates an individual from the community," she said. "We're about keeping them in the community — using the community to give them a sense that they belong. And they can make it if they learn to live by society's rules and expectations."
"It's better than prison. That's what you keep telling yourself. It's no fun. It sucks. But it's better than prison."
Ian Hamilton
paola senior
hard to rehabilitate someone who doesn't want to be rehabilitated."
Whether clients successfully complete the program, all get the chance to rehabilitate themselves within the community. Douglas County District Court Judge Robert Fairchild likes that idea.
"There's an argument, at least, that early offenders will be exposed to crime as a lifestyle in prison," he said. "Community corrections is a great intermediate sanction for those people who pose a risk to the community but aren't going to gain anything from prison."
The program also has saved state money by keeping people out of prison. That success has not gone unnoticed by the Legislature. Ron E. McKayne, B Ditchney Jr.
The program also has saved state money by keeping
people Ed McKehnie, D-Pittsburg, said the program makes sense.
"It makes no sense to spend $18,000 a year locking someone up when we can put them in a program that costs $8,000 a year and puts them in the community, earning money, learning the responsibility of living and working in society," said McKechnie, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice.
Hamilton agrees.
"It's better than prison," he said. "That's what you keep telling yourself. It's no fun. It sucks. But it's better than prison."
Illustration by Mitch Lucas
Famous DJs to spin music light up stage at SUA party
By Corrie Moore
cmoore@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Student Union Activities is celebrating the end of the semester with a techno party tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Disc Jockeys Ray Velasquez, host of KLZR's "Nocturnal Transmission," Lost Boy, from Dallas, and Monk of Rabbit in the Moon all will be spinning their music.
The show is open to the public, but KU students get a discount. Prices are $8 for students and $11 for non-students. SUA ordered 900 tickets, which can be purchased at the SUA box office.
This is the first time SUA has sponsored a techno show. SUA spent between $6,000 and $7,000.
John Orcutt, Hutchinson senior and SUA live music coordinator, said there had been a lot of raves in the Topeka and Kansas City areas.
"It's just something that's starting to become extremely popular," he said.
He said the techno show would resemble a rave but that it would not last all night long.
The lighting for the show will be done by a New Orleans group called Crescent City Sound and Lights. The company was requested by DJ Lost Boy, who has worked with it in the past. The company comes equipped with strobe and laser lights. They also will set up intelligent lights, which have moving images and move with the rhythm of the music.
Orcutt said SUA wanted to include Velasquez because he is the top DJ in the area. The other two DJs are nationally known.
"Students who enjoy music will enjoy this, and students who enjoy dancing will enjoy this," Velasquez said.
Velasquez's "Nocturnal Transmission" is a techno show that has aired on 105.9 the Lazer for more than four years. The show runs Sunday nights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Orcutt said Velasquez helped the SUA live music committee get ideas about whom to hire.
Monk, who is from Tampa, Fla., will be the headliner. He usually performs with a keyboard player, but tonight, he will be performing solo. His group was featured in a four-page spread in the latest edition of "Spin" magazine.
Orcutt said he hoped that last minute finals and projects would not keep students from attending.
"Hopefully a lot of people will be able to come out and enjoy the whole thing," he said.
He said that if the show goes well, SUA will have another techno party next semester.
Originality of 'Amistad' in question, litigation
Spielberg movie faces scrutiny from award-winning novelist
Bv JOHN HORN
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The premiere of Steven Spielberg's historical slave ship epic "Amistad" is competing for attention with another drama opening this week: a courtroom confrontation that has turned personal and vitriolic.
The director's new DreamWorks studio is accused of stealing the story for the movie that Spielberg calls "perhaps the most important of my career." In turn, DreamWorks is attacking the integrity of the award-winning novelist who filed the lawsuit. Barbara Chase-Riboud.
Lawyers on both sides say U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins is unlikely to stop the debut in New York and Los Angeles. A preliminary showing was Friday in New Haven, Conn., where much of the original story unfolded more than 150 years ago. President Clinton saw "Amistad" Thursday in Washington, and showings are set for Tuesday in Rhode Island, where parts of the movie were filmed.
whether she should block Wednesday's release of the film about slaves who revolted at sea aboard a Cuban ship and won their freedom in pre-Civil War U.S. courts.
A judge is to hear arguments today on
Studio attorneys say Chase-Riboud is using the movie's imminent opening to pressure DreamWorks into a $5 million settlement. The fledgling studio says it has invested $70 million producing and marketing "Amstad."
Millions of dollars could be at stake in the litigation.
operated "Amistad" premiered in late November in Chicago, telling the story from the viewpoint of myth and African religion. And writer David Pesci's novel by the same name was published last spring.
The movie isn't the only art form bringing the once little-known event to life. An
Chase-Riboud claims DreamWorks based much of "Amistad" on her 1989 book "Echo of Lions" without her permission.
"What an irony that the renowned filmmaker who produced and directed "The Color Purple' would be a party to denying a prominent Black American of letters and the arts her rightful recognition for raising public consciousness about slavery," Chase-Riboud's attorneys said in court papers.
While historical events cannot be copyrighted, Chase-Riboud maintains Dream-Works illegally copied "themes, dialogue, characters, relationships, plots, scenes and fictional inventions" she created in "Echo of Lions."
John Shaefffer, a lawyer for Chase-Riboud, said Franzoni may be lying, that he may have read "Echo of Lions" but not "Black Mutiny."
DreamWorks insists its movie is an original blend of history and the book "Black
Actress-choreographer Debbie Allen, "Amistad's" producer, said she had begun working on the film before "Echo of Lions" was even published, and the film's credited screenwriter, David Franzoni, swears he never read Chase-Riboud's book.
DreamWorks' lawyers allege that Chase Riboud herself is a plagiarist, arguing there are at least 88 similarities between her "Echo of Lions" and the earlier "Black Mutiny."
DreamWorks attorneys also are circulating a passage from Chase-Riboud's 1994 book "The President's Daughter" that appears almost verbatim in Nella Larsen's 1929 book "Passing."
Chase-Riboud said she did not plagiarize
Mutiny," first published 36 years before "Echo of Lions" and whose rights are owned by DreamWorks.
As for the money issue, the $5 million figure was merely a "starting ... initial bid" for settlement, her lawyers say.
"Black Mutiny" and that any similarities are merely historical facts. Shaheer said the allegedly plagiarized "President's Daughter" passage "looks like it came from a historical source."
The dispute cuts close to home for Spielberg.
"No one likes to be called a thief," said Bert Fields, a lawyer for DreamWorks. "This is a very important film for Steven. He has African-American kids he has adopted."
Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw have two adopted Black children in addition to their toddler daughter and two children each from their previous marriages.
In court papers, Spielberg said: "I felt it was an extremely important film to do and I particularly wanted to do it for my children."
Fields said he did not know if Spielberg would attend Monday's hearing.