CCPOA.org News Blog

OAKLAND – Notable elected officials, unions, and civil rights organizations have joined forces in opposition to a proposed California ballot initiative that would pump billions of dollars into prisons and failed “anti-gang” laws and policies. The Coalition to Defeat George Runner’s Initiative will hold a press conference May 7th, 2008 in Sacramento, CA announcing the formation of the new coalition, which includes the California Federation of Teachers, California Church IMPACT, The California NAACP, and The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. The Press Conference coincides with other coordinated events taking place throughout the state (Sacramento, Los Angeles, Fresno) in a coordinated Coalition Day of Action.

The Criminal Penalties and Laws State Spending Statute, a potential November ballot initiative introduced by State Senator George Runner, would bankrupt the state by directing billions of dollars to fund prisons, probation, and police in the midst of a budget crisis that has caused drastic cuts to education and health care. This potential statewide ballot proposal, also known as the “Runner Initiative” or “Safe Neighborhoods Act,” is a far reaching-measure that stiffens criminal penalties and introduces laws reminiscent of failed polices of the past that did not increase public safety, but instead substantially increased California’s prison population and wasted California tax dollars…

LINK - IndyBay.org

Canada has banned all smoking in federal prisons because a partial ban was largely ignored, the government said on Tuesday.

As a result of the ban, which took effect in all maximum-security prisons on Monday, inmates will be barred from smoking anywhere inside or outside prison property, including private visiting rooms and yards, reported Reuters.

“Since the partial ban was not working in order to ensure a safe, healthy, smoke-free environment, we decided to move towards the total ban,” said Lynn Brunette, a spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)…

LINK - Trend.AZ (Trend News)

THE SILENT KILLER (from the May 2008 issue of the PEACEKeeper)

Calipatria State Prison Correctional Officer Alma Zavala never saw her killer coming.

Like all correctional peace officers working the toughest beat in California, Officer Zavala knew that at any minute she could be brutally and fatally assaulted by an inmate. And, as a 12-year veteran of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Officer Zavala was aware that both Correctional Officer Manuel Gonzalez and Youth Correctional Counselor Ineasie Baker had been murdered by inmates.

But unlike those brutal and violent assaults, Officer Zavala’s killer was more insidious. Her killer was inside her own body - a staph bacteria most likely contracted while she worked as a dorm officer at the Level I facility at Calipatria. On March 15, 2008, at the young age of 45, Correctional Officer Alma Zavala died from pneumonic complications associated with clinically-diagnosed Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus-more commonly referred to as MRSA.

Read more…

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A dozen homemade knives were found Tuesday during a prison search by 180 corrections officers.

Belmont Correctional Institution spokeswoman Kathy Cole said the search, known as a clearout, was a routine operation — something that is done at state prison facilities on a rotating basis. The officers are part of specially trained tactical teams.

She noted what initially was thought by union representatives to be a diagram of the jail and surrounding area was actually a sketch of an inmate’s neighborhood…

LINK - TimesLeaderOnline.com (The Times Leader - Ohio)

A female guard at the Liberty County Jail resigned Tuesday, April 29, following accusations she had sex with an inmate, Sheriff Greg Arthur said.

The guard, an employee of CiviGenics, offered her resignation when Liberty County Sheriff’s Office investigators questioned her about the alleged affair.

CiviGenics is the private company the county hires to run operations of the jail.

The guard could now face criminal charges stemming from the investigation…

LINK - The Vindicator.com (The Liberty Vindicator - Liberty, Texas)

Over the past few months much has been said regarding the officers and supervisors of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations. Most comments are that they are overpaid and underworked; one judge even said that assault is part of the job. As a correctional sergeant for 22 years, I can say it’s not an easy profession and not for everybody…

LINK - ModBee.com (The Modesto Bee)

- Opinion piece written by D.D. KINCHELOE of Modesto

SAGINAW, MICHIGAN - Neighbors filled Saginaw City Council chambers to capacity and queued up to express their anger Monday, but opponents have few remedies to ward off an under-construction halfway house on the Northeast Side.

Leaders didn’t break any rules last fall when they OK’d a the home where 38 former federal prisoners could transition into society.

“This is a slap in the face,” said Mary C. Washington, president of the 100-member Northeast Saginaw Neighborhood Association. “Everybody left very sad tonight. We’ll fight this until we drop…”

LINK - MLive.com (The Saginaw News)

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has outdone his political colleagues in coming up with an innovative way to salute Israel on its 60th anniversary. Some 30 inmates in California prisons, who are Israeli nationals, will be sent home to serve the remainder of their sentences in their homeland. According to media reports there is a self-serving aspect to the gesture in removing so many prisoners from an already over-crowded state penal system. The governor’s beneficence will not extend to those charged with murder or those serving time in federal prisons…

LINK - TheMediaLine.org

And in other RELATED NEWS from the Governor’s trip to Tel Aviv…

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER ENCOURAGES ISRAELI COMPANIES TO INVEST IN CALIFORNIA

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - At a meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel today, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced five Israeli companies with plans to create more than 800 new jobs in California and urged dozens of other Israeli corporate executives to invest and expand their businesses in the state. “I promised I would travel the world to sell California and find employers to provide new jobs for Californians,” Schwarzenegger told a group of more than 200 Israeli and American business leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs at the Tel Aviv Hilton.

“Tonight, as part of my first trip abroad as California Governor, my message to Israel is that California is open for business. We have the best educated workforce, the perfect climate and now we have a government that is making it easier for you to do business in California.”…

LINK - Schwarzenegger.com

Privatization Update
April 28-May 4, 2008

CiviGenics

May 1 - Columbiana County Commissioners voted to enter into a consent agreement with former jail employees to resolve a lawsuit filed earlier this year with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals. The lawsuit sought a court order requiring commissioners to comply with a decision by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which ruled last November five former employees were entitled to retirement benefits dating back to 1998, when a private company took over operating the jail. CiviGenics, the company hired by commissioners were required to continue contributing into the OPERS on their behalf even though the county no longer operated the jail. The attorney cited a state law that requires contributions continue to be made into a public employee pension plan of a public employee whose job was abolished due to privatization. This applies if the employee went to work for the private operator and continued to perform the same or similar job duties. Commissioners fought the ruling for the next several years until the OPERS board issued it’s ruling six months ago. When commissioners failed to act quickly enough to suit the attorney, the lawsuit was filed with the appeals court. The agreement to resolve the lawsuit requires commissioners to pay both the employee and employer share of OPERS dating back to when the five employees were hired by CiviGenics and to continue contributing into their public employee pension plan as long as they remain employed by CiviGenics. The figure is to include penalties and interest. This would be the second largest settlement commissioners would have to pay out because of their decision to privatize the county jail. In 2002, commissioners agreed to pay $300,000 to former jail employees to resolve outstanding labor complaints arising over privatization.
Read more…

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice will hold a special memorial service Monday to honor its correctional staff and remember all those who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The formal, military-style memorial ceremony, which will bring TDCJ officials, employees, dignitaries, guests and the general public to the Texas Prison Museum on state Highway 75 North, will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Held in conjunction with National Correctional Officers Week, the service will include a special tribute to Wynne Unit Officer Susan Canfield, who was killed in the line of duty on Sept. 24, 2007…

LINK - ItemOnline.com (The Huntsville Item Online)

At the beginning of the decade, the private prison industry was in a tailspin. After several profitable years in the 1990s, companies contracting prison beds to public corrections agencies were losing revenue at an alarming rate.

Capital earned during the 1990s had been poured into a speculative prison-building boom that backfired. State corrections agencies, a mainstay of what was then a relatively new industry, had begun pulling inmates out. There were too many prison beds and too few prisoners.

[…]

Then, in early 2000, CCA announced a lucrative new contract. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was to house 1,000 detainees at the company’s San Diego Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa, built as part of the late-1990s construction boom. The agency agreed to pay a per diem fee of $89.50 for every person held…

LINK - SignOnSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

As immigration laws have become tougher, the federal government has found itself with a logistical challenge: where to house a population that has swollen to more than 30,000 detainees. The solution? Turn them over to the private sector.

Detention contracts have helped turn once-ailing private prison companies into a multibillion-dollar growth industry with record revenues, healthy stock prices and ambitious expansion plans.

One of them, Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, has applied to build a nearly 3,000-bed prison in Otay Mesa, where it now runs a facility holding up to 700 detainees awaiting deportation or decisions on their immigration cases. The company is the nation’s largest private prison operator…

LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)