Sgt. Peter Voto and P.O. Gary Tedesco.
Posted on 01/30/2002 9:16:30 PM PST by Coleus
Trantino beginning transition to normal life Sunday, January 28, 2001
By RANDY DIAMOND Trenton Bureau
There are no bars on the windows of the four-story house in a residential section near Newark's downtown. The front door isn't locked.
But the wiring on the windows, which is connected to an alarm system, is a reminder to the 90 men who live in this building and several adjoining brownstones that they are not yet entirely free.
They are state prisoners living in a halfway house. And before they can shed the role of inmate, they must complete an intense, rule-oriented, therapeutic six- to 12-month program designed to serve as a bridge between prison and life on the outside.
It is in this kind of environment that cop killer Thomas Trantino will have to live before he can become free.
Ten days ago the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered Trantino, the state's longest-serving prisoner now in custody, released after 37 years of incarceration. But the court set a condition for the man who murdered two Lodi policemen in 1963 -- a successful one-year stay in a halfway house.
State officials, who have until mid-February to transfer the 62-year-old Trantino from his cell in South Woods Prison in Bridgeton, will not say to which halfway house Trantino is headed, although the Supreme Court had said it must be in the Camden area.
But whatever halfway house he goes to, there will be many similarities to Newark's PORT program, short for Prison Offenders Receiving Treatment.
The PORT program, which is owned and operated by a non-profit substance-abuse treatment organization called Integrity House, allowed The Record to visit Friday.
Like other halfway houses, the PORT program, under contract with the state, serves as a bridge between the tightly regulated world of prison life and freedom. But there are some special aspects to its role. For instance, the program is tailored for inmates with a history of substance abuse, a common problem among the prison population.
"We help the prisoner with the transition," said David Kerr, Integrity House's director and president. The program is varied from teaching life skills -- opening a checking account or meeting new friends -- to teaching offenders how to deal with anger or sadness.
Everything is done in a highly structured environment. Indeed, aspects of life inside PORT are just like prison.
Daily self-help and therapy groups are mandated, and offenders are expected to discuss the issues that landed them in prison and learn coping skills to help them deal better with life.
"You learn to deal with your feelings and take responsibility for yourself," said an inmate who has been at PORT for several months. The 33-year-old, who asked not to be identified, said he believes the program is helping him put his life on track after serving two years in prison for selling heroin near a public school.
PORT's clinical director, Ed Lyons, said the intensive group therapy phase goes on for 90 days. It's only then that offenders are allowed to get out into the community, either working at a job or beginning a job-training program.
The program aims to put offenders in jobs with a future -- computer services, for example, rather than flipping hamburgers.
"You can't feel good about yourself without a good job," Lyons said.
The PORT program stresses accountability, Lyons said. Prisoners must be on time for and attend scheduled groups. When a prisoner goes to work, he must return to the halfway house by a certain time. Offenders who are more than two hours late returning from work under state corrections rules must be sent back to prison, Lyons said.
It's an environment in which many inmates can't perform adequately. Kerr says only 30 percent of prisoners complete the PORT program, and the others are sent back to prison.
It's the reason the alarms are on the windows of the small, bunk-filled bedrooms of the PORT program. An occasional inmate has escaped that way, said PORT social worker Joseph Sweeney. Some inmates will try to elude staff attention and escape without notice to get a head start on the police, Sweeney said.
"We can't keep inmates here if they want to leave," he said. But Sweeney said the authorities are always called and the inmates are sent back to prison when they are found.
Walkaways and other disciplinary problems are not unique to the PORT program. Each year 2,500 to 3,000 state prisoners are sent to about two dozen privately run halfway houses throughout New Jersey, state corrections officials say.
But 26 percent of all state prisoners sent to halfway houses are cited for infractions of halfway house rules, and a high majority of them end up back in prison, said Diana Zompa, director of the office of community and drug programs for the state Department of Corrections.
Zompa said some infractions -- being a few minutes late coming back from work, for instance -- can be handled internally by halfway house staff. But more serious infractions -- including all walkaways -- result in an automatic return to prison.
Zompa said offenders who committed violent crimes are monitored more closely than those with non-violent histories. They are allowed to leave the house unsupervised only for work, family visits, or religious services. She said they are not allowed overnight family visits.
Most inmates do not end up in halfway houses. Zompa said Corrections officials try to send the best candidates to halfway houses. Only those prisoners in minimum-custody units are eligible. Inmates who have completed their full sentences can simply walk out the prison door, even if there have been discipline problems.
State law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they were uncertain what would happen if Trantino broke the halfway house rules. There is no precedent for the situation, because the Supreme Court, not the Parole Board, ordered his release.
The potential problem is further complicated because Trantino has served his maximum sentence. On the other hand, they say, the court has made it clear that Trantino's release is dependent on his successfully completing a year in a halfway house.
"We might have to ask court guidance," conceded a senior state law enforcement official when asked about remedies available to authorities should Trantino not abide by the rules. "We're not sure what we would do."
Zompa declined to talk specifically about the Trantino case.
But Trantino's lawyer, Roger Lowenstein, says he is confident that his client will do well in a halfway house, citing the inmate's infraction-free record through his last three decades in prison.
Supreme Court officials cited that record in ordering Trantino's release, saying state officials had buckled to public pressure to keep him behind bars, even though they could not show a substantial likelihood that he would commit a crime. Formerly on death row, Trantino had concluded the punishment phase of his prison term in 1979.
The state Parole Board had denied Trantino parole nine times, each time after angry protests by relatives of the two police officers, law-enforcement officials, and politicians.
Trantino's original death sentence was set aside when the state's former capital-punishment law was overturned by the courts in 1972. Trantino's sentence was further reduced under a state law that allowed prisoners with life terms to be released in as few as 15 years.
During his 37 years behind bars, Trantino has had several community furloughs. He was also allowed to leave prison for a brief time in 1998 when he was sent to a North Jersey center that serves as an evaluation point for halfway-house candidates who need further assessment.
That center, Talbot Hall, is similar to a halfway house and offers various self-help and therapy groups. But the center is a locked institution. Trantino's stay there was brief, and he was moved back to prison after protests by Governor Whitman that he never should have been let out.
Law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said one problem might be finding a halfway house that would be willing to take Trantino.Given the high publicity about his case, some houses might be reluctant, they said.
Halfway houses, which are paid about $57 a day for each state prisoner they accept, are privately run and have limited rights to deny admission to certain prisoners.
Trantino's adjustment to life in a halfway house might not be a complete shock. An acknowledged drug abuser, he has been participating in a drug-treatment program called Nu Way at South Woods State Prison. There inmates attend self-help and therapy groups that are similar to halfway house programs.
The 33-year-old inmate at the PORT Program, who had also been at South Woods, said Trantino is the volunteer president of Nu Way's reentry program at the South Jersey prison.
The inmate said Trantino helped lead groups that teach prisoners how to deal with the stresses of life outside the wall.
"He tells people to take it one day at a time," the inmate said. "He's very positive. He's always encouraging people."
Sgt. Peter Voto and P.O. Gary Tedesco.
I don't know the condition of the officer, or who he is yet (we all know each other since we're only a 110 man dept.) but we won't have to worry about parole.
Well, you make yourself sound like quite the quick draw artist. Sorry if I am amused, but perhaps you are surfeited with my lack of enthusiasm for the death penalty because you would as fain not entertain opinions on it other then your own to begin with. Youm seem to infer that I care to pick on you; I don't. That would be pointless, because I know honorable intentions are at the core of your opinion on capital punishment.
Reply to me if you wish, don't if you'd rather not. You are smart, with excellent rhetorical skills. On that level I welcome discourse on the issue of capital punishment, which has been a central one to me. Over th years, my readings on it has had deep effect on me, even changing my mind on abortion. I am now throughly against that murderous practice too, and I never expected that to happen.
The only undercurrent in my post is the knowledge you do not suffer fools. Many people parrot stance and dogma they adopt without any structure to it that only comes from engaging in critical thought and study about what thay are talking about. I am not in that category. (Well, not on this issue anyways.) ;-)
Usually it is difficult to invoke, clean, articulate discourse on this topic. Usually the capital punishment argument becomes replete with malice and pregnant with anger for the other side of the argument, and that is unfortunate.
I have learned not to take anything around the discussion of this issue personally, and I am stoic enough not to grind sharp the war ax if someone else does. Well, I have made my point, and you have made yours. I will respect your wish to not have me respond to your posts on capital punishment any longer. Please do not be offended by this response, I assure you it is meant as a respectful one.
I have no desire to pick on anyone, especially someone who knows as much about Stonehenge as you do. I happened across that thread, and was impressed with your depth of knowledge on it.
I had thought I was knowledgeable on it, but your observations about it sent me back to the books to check out more about it. Take care, and as I said, I won't ping unless it is to respond to a post by you to me.
Longest serving N.J. inmate, convicted of killing two officers, released from halfway house
The Associated Press
2/11/02 3:51 PM
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- A man convicted of killing two police officers in 1963 has been released from a halfway house and is on parole after more than 38 years in custody.
Thomas Trantino, who turned 64 Monday, had been the state's longest serving inmate, having spent most of his adult life in prison.
Trantino was rejected for parole nine times. But a year ago, the state Supreme Court said the parole board lacked proof that he posed a threat to society and sent him to a halfway house for a year.
The Department of Corrections confirmed Monday that he had been released late Sunday or early Monday. "A couple of hours one way or the other don't matter," said Jerry Voto Sr., the son of Peter Voto, one of the Trantino's victims. "The point is, he's out." Trantino's lawyer, Roger A. Lowenstein, said Trantino had a job lined up and would most likely move to another halfway house in Camden.
"It's really a non-event," Lowenstein said of the release. "He's probably going to move from one halfway house to another."
Trantino was sentenced to death for fatally shooting the officers in Lodi, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 after the state's death penalty law was deemed unconstitutional.
The two officers -- Voto, 40, and Gary Tedesco, 22 -- were shot to death after they responded to a disturbance call at a bar where the men had been drinking. Voto was beaten and shot in the head. Tedesco, who had been forced to strip to his underwear, was shot in the stomach.
Trantino surrendered the same night; his accomplice was shot to death two days later by police trying to arrest him.
I do not believe in the death penalty for the same reason I oppose abortion; that human life of any situation and condition deserves to be valued more then granting the state the authority to end it.
I listen to many who rage about the need for capital punishment and hear their anger and desire for blood atonement. But revenge should never be the goal of the justice system, and the desire for it is poor justification to gain it by putting more and more people to death.
Capital punishment is one of those issues that blur the lines as far as the ranks of those for or against it. I have argued with very liberal people that loudly proclaim it's need, and stood with conservative people in audiences of speakers who are against it at the nearby University of Oregon. That has always amazed me.
As I said earlier, I would trade this person in a second for the lives of these fallen cops, but as this guy has lost most of his life to prison, and has learned to be of value at helping others, I can live with him spending his sunset years being out in the community serving it.
It has to hurt him knowing first hand seeing the world his youthful self was deprived. And I hope he is preparing himself to meet those he brutally murders when he passes on. In anyone's afterlife, those killed should be the first ones a murderer should meet.
Don't presume that because you believe it would hurt you if you were in his shoes, that it must hurt him.
Death comes to all men in time. Contending against the state as if capital punishment is somehow more heinous than--say, a child's death by cancer--is silly and phony.
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