New Directions A blueprint for reforming California’s prison system

A blueprint for reforming California’s prison system to protect the public, reduce costs and rehabilitate inmates

California Correctional Peace Officers Association 

January 2010

CALIFORNIA’S PRISON SYSTEM is failing at every level. The cost to taxpayers and public safety for this failure is staggering. More than 170,000 inmates are now being warehoused in facilities designed to accommodate 80,000 inmates. Coupled with severe staff shortages, this overcrowding is inordinately jeopardizing the safety of inmates and correctional officers, while straining prison resources and infrastructure to the breaking point. Today, an average of nine correctional officers are assaulted every day inside California prisons, while tens of thousands of inmates are being denied the help and incentives needed to help make them productive citizens.

Inmate rehabilitation programs are failing, turning prison gates into revolving doors, giving California one of the nation’s highest recidivism rates. Thousands of inmates who have served their sentences are being released without the education, job training or basic life skills needed to function in society. With few chances to succeed, they have little choice but to return to crime.

California’s parole policies are also failing. Parole officers are overworked and overwhelmed. Parolees are receiving neither the services nor support they need to find jobs, deal with substance abuse or resolve psychological issues. This is wasting their lives, bankrupting taxpayers and endangering public safety

Following is our blueprint for fixing California’s broken prison system — a plan that offers relevant reform at multiple levels. Together, these reforms will save billions of tax dollars, protect the public and help inmates turn their lives around.

MIKE JIMENEZ, President 

California Correctional Peace Officers Association  

Managing Elderly Inmates

The main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive profile of the older offenders in federal institutions and community settings. This report highlights the problems and unique needs of these offenders that set them apart from their younger adult counterparts. We defined first the terms used in the study and the age of the offenders.

We collected data on the population of older offenders (50 years and older)

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Addressing Correctional Officer Stress: Programs and Strategies

Stress among correctional officers is widespread, according to research studies and anecdotal evidence. The threat of inmate violence against officers, actual violence committed by inmates, inmate demands and manipulation, and problems with coworkers are conditions that officers have reported in recent years can cause stress.

These factors, combined with understaffing, extensive overtime, rotating shift work

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Cut the Fat Not The Muscle

While California's inmate population has grown by less than six percent since 2002, the Department of Corrections' administrative bureaucracy has doubled. Billions of dollars could be saved by streamlining operations, reducing bureaucratic staff and eliminating waste and inefficiency - without jeopardizing public safety or increasing the dangers for prison officers and parole agents.

California State Prison Sacramento Medical Inspection

Enclosed is the Office of the Inspector General's final report on its inspection of medical care delivery at California State Prison Sacramento (CSP-SAC). Consistent with our agreement with the receiver, the purpose of our inspection was to evaluate and monitor the progress of medical care delivery to inmates at the institution. The report finds that based on our weighted scoring system encompassing 18 components, California State Prison Sacramento (CSP-SAC) received 65.2 percent of the total weighted points possible. The report contains a detailed breakdown of the institution's score in each of the 20 relevant categories, including the results of all 145 questions...

The Aging Inmate Population

Introduction:

In recent years, the largest and fastest growing number of incarcerated inmates over the age of 50 in United States’ prisons has continued to shape the demographic of prison systems throughout the country. The perpetual explosion of elderly persons in the general American population, and the repercussions of the “tough-on-crime” laws during the 1980s and 1990s, have led to a current increase of approximately 675,000 arrests of elderly persons every year in the United States.1 Experts assert that this is not attributable to an elderly crime wave, but rather to several factors that will continue to put more elderly people behind bars and continue to keep these persons behind bars longer.

Race and the Decision to Seek the Death Penalty in Federal Cases

Introduction

In federal capital cases, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) in the district where the case is prosecuted makes an initial recommendation to seek or not to seek the death penalty for defendants who are charged with crimes that carry this penalty. The USAO sends its recommendation to the Attorney General’s Review Committee on Capital Cases (AGRC). The AGRC reviews the USAO’s recommendation and the case file, occasionally gathers additional information about the case, and makes a recommendation to the U.S. Attorney General (AG) about whether to seek the death penalty. The AG then makes the final decision.

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No More Cell Phones

Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted from the Winter 2005 edition of TechBeat, the quarterly news magazine of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center, an NIJ program. Analyses of test results do not represent product approval or endorsement by the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice; the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce; or Aspen Systems Corp. Points of view or opinions contained in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Offender Supervision With Electronic Technology: A User’s Guide

In May 1999, the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to assist manufacturers, service providers, and product and service users in the field of electronic technology to enhance their use of technology for effective community-based supervision of offenders through research, education, and training.

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Stress among correctional officers is widespread, according to research studies and evidence

At the time that Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court applied for the Corrections and Law Enforcement Family Support (CLEFS) grant (June 1999), the Court was experiencing a period of wide-scale administrative changes that began in January 1998 and continued through 2000.

The Court had also seen increases in both the volume of the complaints and the severity of the offenses committed by the youth coming to its attention. These changes were expected to increase the level of stress among the workers. In addition to these circumstantial stressors, it became

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