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."
These animals were sentenced to death and death it should have been. Then it was life in prison without parole and now we see where that gets us. EXECUTION IS THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT SOCIETY.
This retro-active penalty change has always puzzled me. If a murderer is sentenced to life in a state that at that time has no death penalty and then a few years later, re-institutes it, does the prisoner get executed? Hmmmm? If not, why not?
Lives are not "yours" to trade; if I were this man, I would weigh my future against this position he is now in, perhaps the state is looking at the long-term costs and this is all about money.
If life, as a sentence, doesn't mean until the death of the convicted party, then it means nothing.
Philosophically, I am against the death penalty, but practically, I say the sooner the better.
I note the rich and influential never get this ultimate punishment. But poor folks do, and their demographics are troubling to analyze.
I do not wish to see the state passing judgment on anyone's right to exist, be they an innocent in the womb, or a perpetrator of a horrible crime. I understand the feelings that cry for death to be doled out to murderers, but I respectfully remain unconvinced true justice is served by using a punishment that disrespects the murdered ones involved if the wrong people are executed, and doesn't bring anyone back to life who deserve to be live more then the one who caused them to die.
This is far from aan easy question to deal with. I have agonized over it for decades, and I expect I will ponder it as long as I live, of that I have no doubt.
He was walking home from his job as a street vendor and was approached by 4 special-crimes unit police officers because he looked like a rape suspect from the area. HE WAS NOT HOME IN HIS LIVING ROOM AND DID NOT OPEN ANY DOOR AS YOU SAID.
They told him to freeze and stop, Diallo did not and proceeded to go into his pocket, in the dark, pulling out a black object. He was told to stop again, he refused, and the cops blew him away because they thought he was a rapist reaching for his gun. A TRAGIC MISTAKE, NOT MURDER BY COP AS THE BLACKS PROPOSED.
As it turns out the Blacks, i.e. Fat pig Al Sharpton all lied about the situation. They said Diallo did not understand English, HE DID. It was also found out later that Diallo was a fraud and an illegal alien who lied on his application stating he was exiled from Mauritania for political oppression and that his parents were dead. ALL LIES.
Turns out he was from Ghana and BOTH of his parents were alive and well.
Diallo was acting suspiciously because HE KNEW IMMIGRATION WAS ON TO HIM.
As I said it was a tragic mistake. If Diallo was a law-abiding citizen he would still be alive.
Actually they aren't in my community. I live in NM, but we have our share of cop killers here too. We have had more officers killed in 2001 in NM than ever before. That's why this lady owns guns and knows how to use them. :)
They can be anywhere.
It's too bad we don't draw and quarter the more vicious criminals.
Simply killing them is too good for them.
Every innocent life is precious. But those that take innocent life must be punished. Without punishment we are sanctioning their crimes, not preventing/punishing them.
Whatever motivation you personally have to defend them is yours - I'm not passing judgement, just stating my opinion. Why should criminals have more rights than their victims? It seems that every bleeding heart liberal in the world speaks for the criminal, that somehow they are not responsible for their own actions.
Who speaks for the victims?
Do you remember when we heard that DNA testing was too expensive? Now we're using it on the victims of 9/11. DNA testing should be mandatory in all investigations.
Once again, I am disgusted with my state's judicial system. Can;t beleive I am actually rasing children here. I am not familiar with the political make up of our Supreme Court, anyone? Where is Judge Napolietano when you need him?
I did not know this. So they were humiliated beyond belief prior to being killed. Disgusting.
Our Supreme Court under former Justice Robert Wilentz is one of the most liberal in the USA, all these crazy decisions, Mt. Laurel, Abbott v. Burke, etc. were heard during his reign.
Now, Gov. Whitless' friend, Grandma Deborah Poritz is the Chief Justice, she is a left-wing RINO and voted in favor of the Boy Scout Homosexual Dale case.
Don't you realize that there are real criminals afoot?
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