PALM SPRINGS – A local lawyer claims the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is discriminating against gay inmates who could benefit from a tax-funded rehabilitation program often offered as an alternative to prison.
Riverside County public defender Roger Tansey told The Desert Sun on Monday that two of his clients were denied access to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program in the past year after identifying as gay and were essentially forced to go to prison.
Gay inmates are placed in protective custody — given blue wristbands and therefore referred to as “blue-banded” — as a standard policy, which disqualifies them for the six-month rehabilitation program.
Tansey has now submitted a petition to the Riverside County Superior Court seeking an evidentiary hearing that would call for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to explain its eligibility requirements for RSAT.
According to the petition, he’s also asking the court to order the sheriff’s department “to establish a method of providing the RSAT program … to otherwise qualified gay inmates.”
The documents were received by the court Monday, Tansey said.
Riverside County Sheriff’s Department officials say the practice isn’t targeting gays, but acknowledges the program has very specific eligibility requirements.
According to its Corrections Division, inmates are assessed for RSAT by their criminal and in-custody behavior, medical and mental health history and basic academic skills.
“The sheriff’s department says they’re blue-banded for their own safety, and I believe that’s true,” Tansey said. “But you can’t discriminate a tax-funded program just because it’s easier for you. It’s easier for authorities to segregate by race, but we don’t have white prisons, Latino prisons and black prisons because it’s unlawful.”
The petition was prompted by the recent rejection of Michael Salomonson into the RSAT program.
Salomonson of Palm Springs was charged with attempted burglary Dec. 21. He is a chronic methamphetamine drug abuser whom Tansey requested be placed into RSAT in lieu of a two-year prison sentence.
Tansey claims Salomonson was denied because he self-identified as gay.
“By all accounts, RSAT is an effective and life-changing program for individuals — like (Salomonson) — with chronic substance abuse problems that have resulted in incarceration. Such rehabilitation is, however, unavailable to (Salomonson) due to the simple fact of his sexual orientation,” Tansey stated in the petition.
On Monday, Tansey stood by that claim.
“Because the sheriffs won’t let gay guys in RSAT, they end up going to prison; the straight guys get what, by all accounts, is an extremely successful rehab program,” Tansey told The Desert Sun.
Tansey added that two other clients, both heterosexual, also were disqualified from the program because they were blue-banded — one for having diabetes and the other for being a gang member.
Riverside County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jerry Gutierrez said there are several types of inmates put into protective custody and that the department uses an “objective classification tool” certified by the National Institute of Corrections to determine whether an inmate should be placed in protective custody.
Those include inmates who get into frequent fights, alleged child molesters and homosexuals who fear being placed in the general population.
The department does not have a RSAT program for protective custody inmates.
“I can’t put a protective custody inmate in a general population dayroom because the law requires us to have a classification to safely house people,” Gutierrez said of placing blue-banded inmates in the RSAT facility.
Currently, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s RSAT program at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning is at full capacity, providing services to 64 men and 32 women classified as a part of the general population, Gutierrez said.
As resources and demand by protective custody inmates increase, Gutierrez said the department will look at the possibility of expanding the RSAT program.
“The issue is: can you fail to provide a taxpayer-funded program, based upon their sexual orientation and need for security?” Tansey said. “I don’t think so, and their actions would appear to be unconstitutional.”
The chief judge is now expected to assign the case to a judge who has 60 days to make a preliminary ruling, Tansey said.
That judge can either deny the petition; make an informal request for more information from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department; or set a hearing at which the sheriff’s department would have to justify not allowing gays into the RSAT program.
from The Desert Sun
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Jamie Price & K.D. Lang

k.d. lang is done with longtime girlfriend Jamie Price — k.d. has filed legal docs to dissolve their domestic partnership.
According to the docs, the couple registered for a domestic partnership in 2009 — and separated 1 year and 9 months later … in August 2011.
The pair hooked up in 2003 after meeting through a Buddhist teacher.
FYI … a domestic partnership creates community property rights in a relationship, along with spousal support. It also allows each party to make health care decisions for the other. And for same-sex criminals, it gives the non-offending partner jail visits.
from TMZ

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Related Post:

Gay Marriage Is A Threat To Humanity’s Future

UNITED KINGDOM – Oxford City striker Lee Steele made a comment on Twitter about the gay former Wales rugby player Gareth Thomas.
Tweeting about Thomas’s appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, Steele, 38, wrote a “strongly-worded” message about being in a bed near the contestant.

“I wouldn’t fancy the bed next to Gareth Thomas #padlockeda**ehole”.

Oxford City manager Mike Ford said: “On this occasion Lee’s had to pay for his error of judgement.”
‘Role model’
Mr Ford said calling the player to tell him he was sacked had been the toughest thing he had ever done in football but he felt that the Southern-Premier League club had made the right decision.
He added: “He’s made a homophobic comment, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s homophobic.”
The former England rugby union international Ben Cohen has set up a foundation to combat homophobia and bullying.
Speaking to BBC Oxford earlier this week, he said: “If you are a sportsman you’re a role model and people look up to you no matter what division you’re in.”
But he stopped short of calling for Mr Steele to be sacked, saying it should have been a lesson learnt.
Mr Steele has declined to make any comment since the tweet was published.
from The BBC
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