CO-CHAIR
The Honorable John Gibbons is a Director of Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C., a member of the firm's Litigation Department, head of its Alternative Dispute Resolution Group, and founder of the Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest and Constitutional Law. For his successful challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court of the American government's indefinite detention of foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay, the New Jersey Law Journal named him 2004 Lawyer of the Year.
John Gibbons was formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, and a member of that Court for 20 years (1970-1990). While serving on the Court of Appeals, Judge Gibbons authored approximately 800 published opinions. He was also formerly a professor of Constitutional Law and other subjects at Seton Hall University Law School, where he held the Richard J. Hughes Chair in Constitutional Law until June of 1997.
He is a Past President of the New Jersey State Bar Association, a Life Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is a former member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and a former Chair of its Committee on Fair Trial and Free Press, and also a former Director of the American Arbitration Association. Judge Gibbons is also a Trustee Emeritus of the Practicing Law Institute, a Trustee Emeritus of Holy Cross College, and a Trustee of The Fund for New Jersey.
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OPENING REMARKS
Good morning everyone. I'm John Gibbons, Co-Chair of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. Welcome to the Commission's hearing and thanks to Loyola Marymount University for hosting us.
We are a national commission, looking across the country at both problems and potential solutions. And it's truly fortunate for us to be here in California where people are grappling with truly tough problems.
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This is the Commission's fourth and final hearing, and the focus of our work over the next two days is on oversight and accountability. As my friend and Co-Chair of this Commission, Nick Katzenbach, said recently, "The questions 'who's watching' and 'who's responsible' underlie everything else this Commission has discussed since we began our work last March. They are "at the beginning and end of dealing with all of the problems we've examined." Nick would tell you that himself, if an illness in his family hadn't prevented him from making the trip to Los Angeles.
Let me tell you just a little bit about what you'll be hearing today and tomorrow.
There will be a great deal of conversation about what correctional systems are doing to oversee their own institutions - beginning in just a few minutes with testimony by Roderick Hickman, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Over the course of the hearing, you'll hear from several other senior corrections administrators.
You'll also hear from individuals who are overseeing corrections from the outside - from California's Inspector General Matthew Cate to Judge Myron Thompson, who serves on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
And there will be moments over the next two days when what's ultimately at stake is crystal clear. I'm thinking in particular of Victoria Wright, who later this morning will tell you about her husband of 33 years, Jay, who was convicted of a white-collar crime and died last August in a California State prison just three months into his sentence, perhaps because he did not receive the medication he needed. I'm also thinking of the troubling events this past weekend in two jails here in Los Angeles.
We should all remember that prison walls don't separate the incarcerated from society. Every officer goes home at the end of a shift. Nearly all prisoners are released at some point. And we'll hear this morning that even prison gangs are not just a prison problem. Gang activities inside jails and prisons feed off of and fuel gang violence in the community.
It should be a fascinating hearing. And now we'll hear from Secretary Hickman.
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