Linda Burt on the culture wars in Wyoming

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” Justice Robert Jackson

Last week began with a group of “family values” lobbyists praying every hour on the hour in the Capitol hallway. In addition to the prayer the group presented huge flat screen videos of the human fetus along with questionable “scientific” information. There was testimony that abortion caused cervical and uterine cancer, infertility, miscarriages, depression and suicide. Of course, none of these statements are true although testimony from experts to this fact never seem to deter individuals from continuing to insist on their misinformation.

I respect the fact that people do not believe in abortion because of personal or religious values. That is defensible and understandable. What I will never understand is insisting on false and misleading information as a rationale for beliefs.

Testimony by the bill’s sponsor Representative Brechtel was, at one point, stopped by Speaker Buchannan as inflammatory and outside the scope of the bill... While supporters claimed the bill was about providing information and protection for women, it was clear the bill was about burdening the Wyoming Statutes with a set of particular religious beliefs. The bill directed physicians to do and say certain things and required a 24 hour waiting period for women wanting an abortion. In the history of the Wyoming Legislature there has never been a medical procedure the legislature has given physicians direction in dealing with. There is no indication that physicians in Wyoming are so lacking in skill that they must be instructed by the legislature in carrying out their duties. The bill also made it clear that women were not able to make intelligent informed choices without the assistance of the State of Wyoming. For a group of individuals that claim to hate government intrusion, this bill exemplifies intrusion.

Three of our outstanding women legislators made compelling arguments against this bill and ended up being singled out by MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show two nights in a row. The segment on Wyoming was excellent but pointed out the inconsistency in small government conservatives continuing interest in interfering in women’s reproductive privacy.

Early on in the session Representative Brechtel’s original abortion bill was voted down by the House. The Representative quickly wrote and filed a similar bill; this bill has now passed the House and has been assigned to the Senate Agriculture Committee for debate. Representative Brechtel has brought legislation that interferes with women’s privacy year after year, session after session.

While this session has been filled with useless bills and resolutions regarding federal health care, constitutional instruction for elected officials, property rights, federal balanced budgets and repeal of the 17th Amendment, few have taken the countless time and energy the so called same-sex marriage bills have taken. These bills are bills that the culture war lobby supports using the same tactics of misinformation and hysteria regarding the destruction of traditional marriage and family life. One bill would ban same-sex marriage or civil unions and deny recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states; the other bill is almost identical in nature but would enshrine the discrimination in our constitution. Again, while I understand why religious groups would not perform same-sex marriages based on their religious beliefs, I do not understand why any lawmaker would support the State enshrining discrimination into our laws or our Constitution.

I have watched individuals this session, who claim to be patriots, claim to love America, and I believe that these individuals are sincere in their beliefs; I have no reason to doubt that. I believe they love America – I don’t believe that they like other Americans. They don’t like Americans of different races or colors. They don’t like gay and lesbian Americans. They don’t like poor or unemployed Americans. They don’t like or respect religions other than their own, or politics other than their own. They believe in the Bill of Rights only as it protects and supports their own beliefs.

Linda Burt
Executive Director, Wyoming Chapter
American Civil Liberties UnionPosted byACLU of Wyoming Chapterat9:52 AM

View the Original article

Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative comes to Wyoming

The Casper Star Tribune ran an article today on the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI). This program is designed to assist jurisdictions in reducing their reliance on secure detention (jail) for juveniles. There are 24 states that use the JDAI program and 100 individual sites. This reform program is one of the most successful and effective programs in reducing incarceration rates for juveniles and for providing alternatives to detention that allow for long lasting positive outcomes for kids.

The program is based on the following concepts:

• reduce reliance on secure confinement
• improve public safety
• reduce racial disparities and bias
• save taxpayers’ dollars
• stimulate overall juvenile justice reform

This program is based on over 15 years of successful experience and is exactly the program that Wyoming needs on a state wide basis to reduce reliance on the over-use of secure confinement for children. Unfortunately, as a result of Wyoming’s lack of uniform state-side planning and a uniform juvenile justice system some children in Wyoming will have the advantage of this evidence based program and other children will continue to be locked up.

Laramie, Sweetwater and Campbell Counties have decided to join this program and provide the best opportunities for their children. The spokesmen for the Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) stated that the goal of the program, which is jointly funded by The Casey foundation and DFS, is to create a statewide model for juvenile detention. The spokesmen went on the say that “it will help create a good… juvenile justice system with a lot of alternatives.”

This type of random program implementation has been going on with juvenile programs in the state for over 40 years and has resulted in the dreadful non-system that we currently have. Some counties will chose to join the initiative but most will not. Most counties will do what that have historically done and that is put kids in jail, even though its clear that putting kids in jail is the absolute worse thing you can do to them most counties will continue to use jail as their only “system”. They will do this because that is what they have always done, because they don’t want to spend the money on children that it will take to initiate reform, because they don’t have the money and there is no stable funding source or because they don’t believe in the evidence and believe that the best place for a troubled kid is in jail. They will do this because they can.

Laramie County, a county that already has a good program for kids, wants a better program. In planning for the new juvenile detention center the Chairman of the Joint Powers Board, Jeff Lamm stated: “We didn’t want to just build a center; we wanted to rebuild a system.” In the Casper Star Tribune's article, Mr. Lamm went on to state: “You want to set up a good, integrated system…. So you can treat every kid based on their needs”. Wouldn’t it be great if our legislators and public officials felt that way about every child in Wyoming? Isn’t that the way they should feel?Posted byACLU of Wyoming Chapterat2:29 PM

View the Original article