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Features – Criminal Justice Resources: Prisoners’ Rights and Resources on the Web

Criminal Justice Resources Prisoners’ Rights and Resources on the Web By Ken Strutin

Ken Strutin (JD, MLS) is an experienced law librarian, criminal defense attorney, and well-known writer and speaker. He is the author of The Insider’s Guide: Criminal Justice Resources on the Internet, and has lectured extensively about the benefits of using the Internet for legal research at national and local CLE training programs. Mr. Strutin also wrote ALI-ABA’s Practice Checklist Manual on Representing Criminal Defendants, and co-authored the award winning Legal Research Methodology computer tutorial, published by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). He has contributed chapters to several books and written many articles concerning knowledge management, legal research and criminal law. Mr. Strutin has taught courses in Advanced Legal Research and Law Office Management. He is also listed in Who’s Who in American Law. Currently, Mr. Strutin is the Director of Legal Information Services at the New York State Defenders Association and writes a column for the New York Law Journal.

Published August 15, 2006

Introduction

This guide highlights resources about prisons, the people who occupy them, legal and social services for inmates and their families, issues related to incarceration and reentry, and human rights behind bars. The focus is on selected web resources and online publications.

Commissions Legal Services Physical Health Statistics Conditions of Confinement Library Services Policy Research Support Services Education Mental Health Prisoners’ Rights Voting Rights Guides and Manuals News and Periodicals Prisons Women Inmate and Prison Locators Organizations Reentry Bibliographies and Research Guides Law School Clinics Parole Standards

Commissions

National commissions have been created to investigate conditions and facilitate legislation aimed at reforming the prison system. And many states and local governments have established agencies to oversee their correctional facilities, and issue reports about their operations. More information on the national level can be found under Conditions of Confinement.

National Commissions

Selected State Commissions

Conditions of Confinement

The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons conducted a national examination of the violence, sexual abuse, degradation, and other abuses occurring in prisons and jails across the country. Four public hearings were held over the course of a year. In 2006, they issued their final report, Confronting Confinement, with recommendations for improving and reforming the prison system, which included standardized reporting of violence and abuse, reinvestment in violence prevention programs, and expanding Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement to cover correctional facilities. The Commission was staffed and funded by the Vera Institute of Justice.

In addition to the work of the Commission, the following organizations have been monitoring and studying prison conditions in the United States, and around the world:

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), 42 USC § 15601, et seq., gave rise to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. The Commission website makes accessible testimony taken at ongoing hearings along with updates about their work. The following sites provide resources on PREA and its implementation:

National Institute of Corrections

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Related Resources

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Education

Prison societies and academic institutions devote resources to prison education through distribution of books and supporting course materials.

Guides and Manuals

Here are several excellent publications that provide information on legal research, inmate rights, pro se litigation, and resources for prisoners and ex-offenders.

Inmate and Prison Locators

The federal government posts a list of its facilities, and a locator to find particular inmates. Most states offer similar resources for their prisons and some jails. In addition to these directories, an individual state or county’s facilities can be found by searching the local government’s website or one of the national lists below for the appropriate department of corrections.

Law School Clinics

Many law schools have created clinics to provide representation for incarcerated persons who need assistance in post-conviction matters and prison-related cases.

Legal Services

These are directories and sites that provide information about legal services for prisoners and information on self-representation.

Library Services

The resources from national library organizations and others provide information on the issues related to serving this special population.

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Mental Health

The appropriate treatment of inmates with mental health issues has been the subject of much study and debate. This is a small selection of recently published materials and resources.

News and Periodicals

Stories about prison conditions and developments in the law affecting prisoners’ rights can be found in these specialized sources. Notably, there are some standout publications, such as the monthly magazine Prison Legal News, which provides excellent comprehensive coverage and analysis of prison issues. Their website includes a rich collection of resources and an extensive list of research links.

News

Law Reviews

Periodicals

<Table of Contents> Organizations

There is a broad spectrum of private, academic and governmental organizations concerned with the state of US prisons and the operation of the prison system. Many of them publish reports and studies on issues vital to prisoners’ rights and prison reform.

Parole

Here are some general sites concerning parole administration, more information can be found in the Reentry section.

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Physical Health

Health issues for people behind bars are a serious concern and have an impact on society at large. Here are a few national resources on this topic.

Policy Research

Many private, academic and governmental groups engage in research on prison and sentencing reform. They often conduct original research on the conditions of confinement or develop strategies to respond to current problems, such as overcrowding.

Prisoner’s Rights

Much of the literature and resources on prisoners’ rights have already been noted under other categories.

Prisons

These sources concentrate on the unique concerns of prisons and correctional facilities related to placement, administration, and economics.

Reentry

More than 600,000 former ex-offenders are in the process of reentering society. And governmental and private entities are beginning to provide much needed services to ease the transition and promote reintegration.

Standards

National and state standards exist for the administration and operation of prison and jail facilities.

National Standards

Selected State Standards

Statistics

Criminal justice agencies, academic and some private organizations collect statistical information on prison populations, services and special issues.

Support Services

Many organizations exist that provide a variety of basic services to inmates and their families.

Voting Rights

The right to vote for persons behind bars has become the focus of studies, policy discussions and litigation nationwide.

Women

Several organizations have devoted significant resources to the special issues facing women behind bars.

Bibliographies and Research Guides

Here are some extensive bibliographies, pathfinders, and collections of resources on prison related topics.

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Subjects: Court Resources, Features, Internet Resources, Internet Resources - Web Links, Legal Research

Statement of Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel, The National Security Archive, Before House Permanent Select Committee on Intel

Statement of Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel, The National Security Archive Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing on the Media’s Role and Responsibilities in Leaks of Classified Information May 26, 2006

Meredith Fuchs serves as the General Counsel to the National Security Archive. Previously she was a Partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP, where she was a member of the Litigation, Insurance, Privacy and E-Commerce practice groups. In that capacity, she supervised complex state and federal court litigation in a wide range of areas. In addition, Ms. Fuchs developed a significant e-commerce and privacy practice and has been a frequent lecturer and author on data privacy and e-commerce liability issues. Ms. Fuchs served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patricia M. Wald, U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and to the Honorable Paul L. Friedman, U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Prior to that she was the Supreme Court Assistance Project Fellow with the Public Citizen Litigation Group. Ms. Fuchs currently serves as an appointed member of the D.C. Circuit Judicial Conference Standing Committee on Pro Bono Services (2001-2004) and previously served as a member of the D.C. Bar Technology Taskforce, Subcommittee on Courts (1998-2000). Ms. Fuchs is a cum laude graduate of the New York University School of Law where she was a member of the Journal of International Law and Politics.

Published July 15, 2006

Last month the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) published an audit report that found that historical records that had been publicly available for many years – indeed some of which had been published in government publications – have been reclassified in a secret document review program at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). In particular the report found that at least 1 out of 3 of the more than 25,000 previously open records was improperly classified. That means that, over the last 6-7 years, approximately 50,000 pages of 25 to 50-year-old documents have been wrongly marked as secret at NARA. These include, for example, a document that deals with an early CIA program to drop propaganda leaflets into Eastern Europe by hot air balloon. It warns that the weather in the area is a problem because of, among other things, the difficulty of finding the leaflets in snow covered ground. The audit report also found that the classification of the other two-thirds of the records was done without sufficient judgment. For example, 50-year old documents were classified because they contain the names of non-covert CIA personnel on the list of people who received the documents.

These revelations have bolstered a growing public concern about massive improper classification of information. The available statistics certainly demonstrate that classification is on the rise. In 2004, according to reports issued by ISOO, the federal government made 15.6 million classification decisions (up from 8.7 million in 2001). The federal government spent $8 billion in 2004 (up from $5.5 billion in 2001) stamping those documents “top secret,” “secret” or “confidential.” And, that does not include the CIA’s budget, because the CIA claims that revelation of its financial outlays would compromise sources and methods of intelligence gathering.

One might assume classification is on the rise because the nation is at war, but officials from throughout the military and intelligence sectors have admitted that much of this classification is unnecessary. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last year acknowledged: “I have long believed that too much material is classified across the federal government as a general rule ….”[1] Under repeated questioning from members of Congress at a 2004 hearing, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Counterintelligence and Security Carol A. Haave eventually conceded that approximately 50 percent of classification decisions are unnecessary, overclassifications. These opinions echo that of the former Chair of this Committee, Porter Goss, who told the 9/11 Commission, “There’s a lot of gratuitous classification going on, and there are a variety of reasons for [it].”

Former Solicitor General of the United States Erwin Griswold, who led the government’s fight for secrecy in the Pentagon Papers case, acknowledged some of the reasons:

It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considerable experience with classified material that there is massive overclassification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another. There may be some basis for short-term classification while plans are being made, or negotiations are going on, but apart from details of weapons systems, there is very rarely any real risk to current national security from the publication of facts relating to transactions in the past, even the fairly recent past.[2]

It is these sorts of admissions that help explain why there have been so many high-profile, front page leaks about the legitimacy of government policy decisions. As Bill Moyers observed in his book The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis (1990): “Secrecy is the freedom zealots dream of: no watchman to check the door, no accountant to check the books, no judge to check the law. The secret government has no constitution. The rules it follows are the rules it makes up.” The perception that there is a significant threat to the legitimacy of government actions can put a citizen’s patriotism at odds with his or her bureaucratic loyalties. Thus, it is no surprise that the story that The New York Times reported on December 16, 2005, about warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency focused on the striking shift in intelligence policy, not on the technology for conducting such surveillance. There is no doubt the reaction to the story shows the importance of public debate on such policy matters, even if the methods of surveillance themselves must be classified.

The excessive secrecy that we see today is unchecked. Even if there were no bureaucratic appeal to being able to use classification as a tool to control information, protect turf, and facilitate preferred policy directions, the fear of being held responsible for causing harm to national security and the existence of penalties for disclosing classified information push decisionmakers to err by a large margin on the side of secrecy. Further complicating the matter, the iron grip on classified information held by the original classifiers, makes it very difficult to declassify historical information that is no longer sensitive.

Original classifiers feel no pressure to limit secrecy. Not even clearly improper classification results in a penalty, despite the fact that it costs large sums of taxpayer money and may often, as ISOO concluded, exacerbate the potential harm to national security. For example, ISOO identified an instance when in 2002 an agency reclassified 134 records from the Eisenhower Presidential Library that had previously been declassified – and that has been available for public review. ISOO concluded that the reclassification was wholly improper because the applicable executive order on classification did not permit any reclassification. There is no legal recourse or penalty for such unauthorized classification. ISOO and NARA have proposed a National Declassification Initiative – such as that recommended in 1997 by the Moynihan – Helms Commission on Secrecy – to help moderate extreme efforts by original classifiers to eternally control their information, but that will only succeed if the agencies are required to participate. And, it only relates to records that are more than 25 years old.

For more current information, it is rare for unnecessary secrecy ever to be exposed. Despite the executive order on classification’s admonition that authorized holders of classified information have an affirmative duty to challenge the classification status of information they believe is improperly classified, the number of examples of improper, indeed, often ridiculous, classification decisions that my organization is aware of – such as the intelligence report from 1974 about a possible terrorist attack on Santa Claus or the classified memo from George Tenet to CIA employees after September 11, 2001, which says “There can be no bureaucratic impediments to success. All the rules have changed,” – gives the impression that few government officials have ever acted on this responsibility.[3]

Moreover, methods for challenging the excessive secrecy are extremely limited, even when one knows where the so-called “secrets” are kept. On an individual basis, members of the public can seek mandatory declassification review (MDR) of identifiable records under Executive Order 12958, as amended. With 15.6 million classification decisions in 2004 alone, however, MDR is not a very effective route to stemming overclassification. And, even if a person obtains declassification of a record through a Freedom of Information Act request or MDR, recent experience shows that nothing can stop an agency from reclassifying it. These reclassification efforts suggest that there may be a significant number of currently classified documents that reside in the files of journalists and researchers across the nation. The owners of those files did nothing wrong in collecting the records through FOIA requests and research on the open shelves at NARA, but the shifting nature of what is classified and when leaves them vulnerable to attack for handling classified information.

Congress does have the authority to declassify information, see Senate Resolution 400, section 8, agreed to May 19, 1976 (94th Congress, 2nd Session), but it has never openly used that power. Instead, Congress has often experienced the same dismay as the public about excessive secrecy. For instance, when the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence sought to release its report on intelligence concerning Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to the public, Senator Trent Lott reported: “I have been offended by the indignity heaped on the intelligence committee by the C.I.A. with their redactions.”[4]

The overclassification, reclassification, shifting classification, and misclassification make it extremely difficult for private citizens or government officials to know what is classified at any one time. Any law or policy that expands legal jeopardy for private citizens handling classified information could broadly sweep in people who had done nothing blameworthy and become a tool for putting pressure on the exercise of First Amendment rights, even though there may be good reason in many cases to question the legitimacy of the classification itself. It is certainly no easier for a person who faces legal jeopardy for receiving or handling classified information to challenge the classification than it is to reduce classification at the front end. Indeed, in criminal prosecutions when classified material is relevant there is a set of procedures designed to make it possible to use the information without causing risk to national security, but there is no challenge procedure in the law for determining if the information does pose a risk to national security. Moreover, any such law would be an enormous shift of power away from the people to the bureaucracy and from Congress to the Executive Branch.

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1] Donald Rumsfeld, War of the Worlds, Wall St. J., July 18, 2005at A12.

[2] Erwin N. Griswold, Secrets Not Worth Keeping: The courts and classified information, Wash. Post, Feb. 15, 1989, at A25.

[3] See “Dubious Secrets,” edited by Jeffrey Richelson, William Burr, and Thomas Blanton (May 21, 2003), available at http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB90/index.htm.

[4] “Lott Seeks Oversight of Classified Data,” New York Times, July 11, 2004.

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Subjects: Congress, Features, Freedom of Information, Legal Research

An After Hours Special: Cuisine and Couture Go to the Dogs (And So Does a Circle Line Cruise

Kathy Biehl’s food writing has received awards from the Association of Food Journalists and the Houston Press Club. She writes philosophical essays (heavy on cellular memories and old-fashioned candy) for My Table, has covered food for Diversion magazine and Family PC, and spent almost nine years as the anonymous dining critic for the Houston Business Journal. She has reviewed restaurants as well for the Houston Press, Time Out New York, My Table and the TONY Guide Eating & Drinking 2000. She is also the author of the LLRX.com Research RoundUp and Web Critic columns, co-author of The Lawyer’s Guide to Internet Research, and an attorney admitted to practice in Texas and New Jersey.

An After Hours Special: Cuisine and Couture Go to the Dogs (And So Does a Circle Line Cruise)

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Subjects: After Hours, Food

After Hours: The Soda Gallery / Second Helping: The Algonquin Wits

Kathy Biehl’s food writing has received awards from the Association of Food Journalists and the Houston Press Club. She writes philosophical essays (heavy on cellular memories and old-fashioned candy) for My Table, has covered food for Diversion magazine and Family PC, and spent almost nine years as the anonymous dining critic for the Houston Business Journal. She has reviewed restaurants as well for the Houston Press, Time Out New York, My Table and the TONY Guide Eating & Drinking 2000. She is also the author of the LLRX.com Research RoundUp and Web Critic columns, co-author of The Lawyer’s Guide to Internet Research, and an attorney admitted to practice in Texas and New Jersey.

After Hours

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Subjects: After Hours, Food

FOIA Facts: The Slow Road: FOIA Litigation

Scott A. Hodes is a sole practitioner in Washington, D.C., practicing Information and Privacy Law. Mr. Hodes assists clients in gaining access to government records under the FOIA, Privacy Act and other federal agency access provisions. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Hodes was an attorney at the Department of Justice for over a decade. He served in the FBI’s Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Section from 1998 until 2002 as the Acting Chief of that Section’s Litigation Unit. Mr. Hodes served at the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy from 1991 until 1998. His website is InfoPrivacylaw.com, and he is a member of the DC and Maryland bars.

Previous FOIA Facts columns

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Subjects: FOIA Facts, Freedom of Information, Legal Research

After Hours: Highlights of the 2006 New York Fancy Food Show

Kathy Biehl’s food writing has received awards from the Association of Food Journalists and the Houston Press Club. She writes philosophical essays (heavy on cellular memories and old-fashioned candy) for My Table, has covered food for Diversion magazine and Family PC, and spent almost nine years as the anonymous dining critic for the Houston Business Journal. She has reviewed restaurants as well for the Houston Press, Time Out New York, My Table and the TONY Guide Eating & Drinking 2000. She is also the author of the LLRX.com Research RoundUp and Web Critic columns, co-author of The Lawyer’s Guide to Internet Research, and an attorney admitted to practice in Texas and New Jersey.

After Hours

Highlights of the 2006 New York Fancy Food Show

Water / Juices & More / Teas / Pantry Items / Ready-to-Eat / Snackage / Sweet Things / Short Subjects

By Kathy Biehl

Published August 15, 2006 Quick Bite: The Joy of Junk Food

My magnum opus “The Joy of Junk Food: Nutrition Has Nothing to Do With It,” is the cover story for the August-September 2006 issue of My Table, a dining magazine with some of the most consistently lively writing around, on any topic. Read the teaser in the online table of contents. Highlights of the 2006 New York Fancy Food Show

Every summer, a couple of themes emerge from the mad whirl that is the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade’s Fancy Food Show in NYC. This year, the big one signaled itself not just outside the building, but across 11th Avenue, where a smiling minion with a well-stocked cooler was handing out the first of many variations on water. If the half dozen or so brands of bottled water already on the grocery store shelves strike you as unexciting, rest assured: water with all manner of flavors (not to mention alleged properties) is flooding the consumer market. Water, Water Everywhere The street side freebie was Metromint, a clear, filtered water that is flavored (quite strongly, but pleasantly) by mint leaves – the samples by spearmint, the original by peppermint. Its competitors inside the doors included Snow Sparking Beverage, a pepperminty, cane-sugar sweetened sparkling water, whose handlers were touting its suitability as an ice cream float or cocktail base. Peppermint is also in the product line-up of Hint, which has nearly a dozen varieties, including a refreshing raspberry lime, that rely entirely on natural flavorings (such as oils in some instances, rinds in others) without the aid of sweeteners. Hint is appropriately named; the flavors are detectable but subtle. The same is true of O Water, which offers the purity of two-passes of reverse osmosis, as well as a “twist” of real fruit. Hi Ball Energy combines natural flavors with taurine, guarana, Ginseng, B vitamins and caffeine for energy. (What’s that sound? Why, a sub-theme is beginning.) The flavors have a club soda base; Hi Ball makes an energetically enhanced tonic water as well. (Hi Ball deserves bonus points, by the way, for how deftly and unflinchingly its rep fielded my opening question, “What makes your product different from the four or five flavored waters I’ve already seen at this show?”) Hi Ball wasn’t the only proponent of “energy.” It’s a feature of a new line of Jelly Bellies, of all things. Jelly Belly Sports Beans, to be exact, which boast carbs (no!), electrolytes and vitamins B and C, for portable power. Think sweetened high-calorie Gatorade in chewable pellet form. (Excuse my Boomer roots for showing, but I prefer the Soda Pop Shoppe collection, which creates A&W Root Beer and Sparkling Vanilla, Dr Pepper, 7-Up, and Orange and Grape Crush. Those you have to eat one at a time; mixing flavors obscures the point and reduces the effect to a blur of undefined sweetness.) Juices & More

Bringing electrolyte replacement back to beverages, where the concept began, is what Purity Organic has done with a tangerine and mango, which the beverage-cum-produce company claims is the only organic “enhanced” drink. Preserving traditional, healthy and diverse beverage recipes is the mission of Adina World Beat Drinks. The idea began when company president and co-founder Magatte Wade-Marchand returned to her native Senegal and found that old familiar drinks had been supplanted by colas. Aldina’s drinks are juice-based coolers, each of which elaborates on a specific country’s recipe, such as a Jamaica-style ginger cooler and a lime mint Mojita that packs a happy punch without need for the rum of its Cuban namesake, the mojito. Another drink line with international roots was Pixie Maté, which is adapting South American Yerba Maté for our latitudes. Yerba Maté (the second syllable is voiced; MAH-tay) is brewed from a leaf, like tea. Pixie Maté’s has a smoother, more palatable flavor (i.e., not smoky and harsh) than many available varieties because it uses leaves that have been air-dried. The company produces an array of flavors to speak to the spectrum of the American palate, such as a rich Maté Latte and delicate Maté Limón, which takes its sweetness from lemongrass and lemon verbena. The line also speaks to the spectrum of preferences for convenience by producing mate in loose leaf, tea bag or concentrate form. The company name has a slightly different aim. “Pixie” not only invokes the magical nature of the creature, but is also a nod to a specific pixie, which is depicted atop a maté leaf on a sign at the farm from which the company buys its leaves. Teas

TeaTech’s InstaGreen green tea extract (just add water) (no kidding!) boasts eight times the antioxidants of regular green tea, not to mention Jackie Chan as its advertising icon. More importantly, the drink has a genuinely enjoyable flavor with no hint of bitterness, thanks to a cold water fusion process that takes the tea out of fresh-picked leaves. (Look for it at GNC and Vitamin World.) Unsweetened – and perfectly refreshing — bottled green and black teas are among the new organic, fair trade certified releases among Honest Tea‘s new flavors. Others include an agave-sweetened 10-Calorie Tangerine Green Tea, which lays claim to being the first organic diet beverage, and Honest Ade Pomegranate Blue, which achieves a strong blueberry flavor without crossing into cloying.

Inko’s bottled white teas (named for the chief doggie officer) come in nine flavors, including two unsweetened (honeysuckle and hint o’mint) and a subtle, delightful cherry vanilla. White is also the base of one of Numi Tea’s organic iced teas, Tropical White, which comes in flow-through pouches and imparts fruit flavors without oils by using freeze-dried pineapple, strawberry, mango and orange peel. Republic of Tea’s latest releases include flavorful Be Well Red Teas, with names that get to the point (such as “get charged,” for energy, “get relief,” for digestion, and “get some zzz’s,” for guess what) and a mildly fruity Pomegranate Bottled Iced Tea. New among the tea squares – a three-quart box suitable for taking outdoors (camping, boating, concert-going) or storing in the fridge – is unsweetened Raspberry Quince, an adult iced tea that speaks to those of us who like our iced black tea straight. And for those who don’t, there’s Sweet Leaf Tea, which uses cane sugar or honey for its bottled teas. The original stirred pleasant memories of the bracingly sweet iced tea a high school friend’s mother used to serve us after school. Sweet Leaf’s raspberry is happy-making, too. Pantry Items

A fun change of pace for salads is Annie’s Naturals Woodstock dressing, which combines tahini, tomatoes and nutritional yeast – shades of the 70s! (And without the fashions.) Other distinctive newcomers are O Olive Oil’s white wine vinegar and clementine olive oil; which takes its rind-y flavor not by infusion, but by whole fruit that is pressed along with the olives. For exquisite alternatives to grape jelly, strawberry preserves and other common fruit flavors, explore the Armenian grown-and-made preserves from Harvest Song. The company’s tagline is “Sun, Seed & Soil,” but I wouldn’t overlook the influences of the stars, which have been smiling mightily on this barely 18-month-old company. Even though production started only this year, its pectin-free preserves have already landed space at Zabar’s and prestigious hotels, and its Apricot Preserves took first place in the Outstanding Jam/Preserve Category at the show. Each taste at this booth was an indulgence, which made it one of the hardest to leave. The ones that stand out in memory are a chunky Apricot and White Cherry and enchanting Tea-Rose Petal Preserves, which use about 300 tea roses per 18.9 oz. jar. Nirmala’s Kitchen is expanding from exotic spices to ethnic convenience foods. Look starting this fall for tahini in a squeeze bottle, curry sauces containing first press organic coconut milk from Thailand (and pressed by kitchen head Nirmala Narine), and a bread mix that can be used for many, many non-Western varieties, among them chapatti, puri, and paratha. Highlights in the rubs and sauces department

Rub with Love, from Seattle chef Tom Douglas, has four new formulations, including a flavorful African peri peri and an herby, paprika’d exotic mushroom. Fischer & Wieser has taken the fruit + chipotle template, which has worked so well for its flagship raspberry sauce, into more exotic territory. Pomegranate and mango chipotle sauce is engagingly smoky on its own, but cut it with an equal part of chicken stock for use as a glaze, or with the same amount of lime juice for a fish marinade. F&W has also lent its name and credibility to a line of sauces that made my eyebrow go up, until I tasted them. The Beverly Hillbillies line, produced in partnership with Max Baer, Jr. (who played Jethro), features four sauces, one for each main character, and each of which has a distinctive flavor profile that corresponds to its namesake, such as Jethro’s Heapin’ Helpin’ Steak Sauce and Granny’s Peach ‘n’ Pepper Pourin’ Sauce. The funny thing is… regardless of what you think of the show, or of the tie-in, these sauces have good taste. Ready-to-Eat

Making wholesome foods more accessible to people with busy schedules was a mini-theme of the show. Eden Foods has introduced a half dozen varieties of organic rice and beans in a can. The rice is Lundberg short grain brown rice, and the beans include garbanzo, kidney, and black. Open, heat, and spoon onto a tortilla. Adding to the convenience factor, Eden Foods’ online store sells each by the case (12 cans), as well as in a sampler of six. Melissa’s, which has a mission of bringing new horizons in produce into American kitchens, has expanded its line of vacuum-sealed bags of prepared items. This year’s releases are steamed lentils and sliced carrots, the first of which saves up to a couple of hours preparation and cooking time. Dufour Pastry Kitchens’ elegant hors d’oeuvres are always reliable for a quick assist to party preparation. Dufour’s latest retail offerings (the company has a sizeable food service component as well) include a phyllo star with the well-melded flavors of pear, blue cheese and mint and an asparagus polenta terrine with a smile-provoking fleck of roasted red pepper. Best of all: an herbed blueberry and goat cheese phyllo triangle, which contains berries that have been infused with fresh thyme and rosemary and, as a result, leaves a magical aftermath.

Snackage

Lesser Evil, which was handing out garishly colored “snaccident violation” cards at the show (and whose Snaccident Prevention Vehicle has been burning rubber around Manhattan this summer) has two new flavors of its amazingly low-fat kettle corn. One of them, Maple Pecan, goes to the top of the list.

Annie’s Homegrown’s organic answer to Goldfish has new flavors as well, Sour Cream & Onion Cheddar Bunnies and White Cheddar Bunnies. Sounds twee; isn’t. Sweet Things

Good news for the sweet tooth looking out for cholesterol: There are no transfats in Dancing Deer Baking Company’s new crispy, subtly flavored lemon daisy cookies. Anette’s Chocolate Factory uses wines and microbrews from Napa Valley to transform peanut brittle into adult treats, Brent’s Beer Brittle and Chardonnay Wine Brittle. And as for new chocolates, much will be revealed in the 2006 Holiday Gift Guide to come this fall. Until then, ponder these previews: in Knipschildt Chocolatier indulges its penchant for beauty in chocolate fairy tales, in which Hans Christian Andersen stories grace the boxes of 16 thematically decorated chocolates. And not that any right-thinking connoisseur of fine chocolate would ever suggest putting it in the fridge…but you’ll get a helluva gourmet fudge pop from chilling Sweet Bliss’ Bliss on a Stick, faux miniature fudgsicles that come in such flavors as maple walnut, rum raisin and coffee swirl (complete with accent coffee beans and gold dusting.) (Be kind to your teeth, and don’t freeze the nougat. Just don’t.) Short subjects

Best hats: Brazilian scarves topped with bunches of cloth bananas and accented by dangling banana earrings. Backstory of the show: Bellata Gold durum pasta from Australia, which takes the concept of family-owned to an unrivaled length. One family controls ever step of the pasta’s production, from farming the durum wheat (using sustainable farming practices), to storing it in a segregated, chemical-free system, to milling the grain and processing it into pasta. With a stronger, earthier flavor than the norm, the pasta comes in a variety of thicknesses and shapes, including kangaroo-like Bellaroos. Crime against nature: The slogan “Value-Added Snacks.” I did not explore. What made me fall speechless: Not Blizzard’s Bones, white mints shaped like guess what so you can “kiss your dog with fresh breath.” No, the cause of my coming up absolutely short on words – and even sound — was a sonogram cookie. A cookie with a photo transfer of a sonogram. My reaction was so flabbergasted that the sales associate who’d so proudly flourished it walked away silently from me. Even now, all I can say is: If this exists, there must be demand. Modern miracle: Well-flavored near beer, a non-alcoholic Hefe Weisse (the only one, it claims) from the Bavarian brewer Neumarkter Lammsbräu. The trick? In place of yeast, it uses same bacteria that’s used to make yogurt. Prediction for best seller: Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything reduced to 55 recipe cards (large school) in a box, to be published by Chronicle Books. [see also his previous related book, How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Paperback)] Copyright 2006 Kathy Biehl. All Rights Reserved.

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Subjects: After Hours, Food
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