Speakers from across California voiced their opinions and concerns during June 30 public hearings to oppose proposed regulations that violate the Catholic Church position regarding inmates' rights.

If a new lethal injection regulation is approved, chaplains will lose the right to keep the confidentiality of information provided by death row inmates by having to submit a written report to the warden, including an assessment of the "inmate's spiritual and emotional well-being and determining the inmate's religious preferences and needs."

The proposed protocol also includes elimination of psychological support for the victims' families, and state and media witnesses.

State assembly members also heard testimonies regarding the Fair Sentencing for Youth Act SB399, which would allow the review of cases and resentencing of youth who have been incarcerated for more than 10 years and were sentenced to life without parole before the age of 18. According to advocates, the United States is the only country that condemns youth to die in prison.

"This is a violation of Title 15, which regulates treatment to inmates," Father George Horan, co-director of the archdiocesan Office of Restorative Justice and a chaplain at L.A. County's Men's Central Jail, told The Tidings.

He was invited by the California Catholic Conference to attend the lethal injection hearing, where more than 100 speakers and supporters gathered at the state's Auditorium in Sacramento, and later participated in an anti-death penalty march to the Capitol.

"Chaplains are there to be a loving and compassionate presence for those in prison," Father Horan said. "Although some of them provide counseling, they are not trained psychologists or part of the prison staff able to evaluate how something revealed in a conversation might be pertinent to the execution."

"This report requires the chaplain to assess the emotional and spiritual status of the condemned," Ned Dolejsi, the CCC's executive director said in a letter sent to Timothy Lockwood, chief of regulation and policy management of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"To produce this report may require that a chaplain divulge confidential communication, which may be covered by the clergy-pertinent privilege," he noted.

Dolejsi asked Lockwood to reconsider the changes to the protocol, keeping in mind that the chaplain's role is to provide "spiritual care, which is intended to address the religious needs of inmates, improve behavior and enhance public safety."

The public hearing responds to a temporary moratorium of executions ruled by Northern District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who found sufficient evidence during the case Morales vs. Tilton that, "in practice, the process did not function as intended."

Morales vs. Tilton, a federal case filed in 2006 by the United States District Court, Northern District of California, challenged the lethal injection process when plaintiff Michael Angelo Morales, scheduled to be executed, alleged that "the lethal injection process form of capital punishment as administered at San Quentin State Prison constituted cruel and unusual punishment."

The court identified five deficiencies in the lethal injection process: screening of execution team members; training, supervision, and oversight of the execution team; record keeping; mixing, preparing, and administering sodium thiopental by the execution team; and lighting, overcrowded conditions, and the design of the lethal injection facility.

The court stated that the defendant's implementation of lethal injection was broken, but it could be fixed.

Father Horan said legislators would have to address the issues brought up during the hearing and will have to come out with a revised document, which may or may not include the proposed changes.

Heart-breaking setback
While the death penalty hearing was taking place, the SB399 suffered another setback. Four assembly members voted NO against three YES, after the hearing at the Capitol.

It was a heart-breaking decision for advocates, chaplains and inmates.

"If those four Assembly persons who voted NO only knew the history of these youngsters' lives; how they were victims of a chaotic upbringing; how they were sorry for their mistakes and how they deserve a second chance," said Father Mike Kennedy, SJ, co-chaplain at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, in a letter he emailed to The Tidings.

"If those Assembly persons could have only turned around for one second and looked into their hearts instead of playing a political game, everything would have been different, very different," he added.

Father Kennedy was one of the four speakers during the hour-long public safe committee hearing. Supporters were also present.

"Children who committed horrible crimes are so much more than their worst mistake and these children are redeemable," said the priest in his letter. "When will we wake up and realize how we are throwing away the lives of kids of color, how we are throwing away an entire generation of children?"

At Sylmar, Father Kennedy leads a meditation class with young inmates, where they are given an opportunity to vent their deepest feelings.

"While I've been locked up I have changed in a lot of ways from mentality to appearance," wrote one inmate. "But one change I can say has helped me is that I've learned how to accept people for who they are."

And he continued, "I was a really shady person who cared for no one else but myself, but now I can give anyone in need a helping hand, no matter what racial group or what neighborhood they belong to."

"I sat around that circle (of meditation) listening to these kids," said Father Kennedy in his letter, "and I wondered what Jesus felt at the June 30 hearing. I could see large tears flowing down his cheeks, tears for those who have been hurt by violence, tears for families whose relatives have been killed, tears for families whose children are sentenced to die in prison."

Restorative justice advocates expect that testimonies delivered during the hearing will influence a reconsideration of the bill either later this year or the next.

For more information about the death penalty proposed regulations, go to www.cdcr.ca.gov, and for more on the SB399, visit www.fairsentencingforyouth.org.