March 2010 News
March 31, 2010
First Watch: March 31, 2010
A new CCPOA First Watch video has been posted at CCPOA.TV for March 31, 2010. Please CLICK HERE to view today's video update and for our archive of past video updates.
March 29, 2010
Adelanto sells city-prison to GEO Group, hoping for Calif, other contract
City officials said they have secured the sale of the city-owned prison to a private operator for $28 million — a move that will replenish the city’s depleted reserves but could put about 100 workers out of a job.
“This is great,” City Manager Jim Hart said Friday. “What it does is it helps temporarily relieve some of the financial pressure on the city and gives us time to now look at all the options that are available to us so that we can stabilize the city’s revenue sources.”
The sale of the city’s Adelanto Community Correctional Facility, a 650-bed prison on Rancho Road west of Highway 395, to Florida-based The Geo Group, Inc. is set to finalize on June 4, Hart said. The sale was crucial for reviving the city’s reserve funds, which had dwindled to less than $100,000...
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
March 27, 2010
Amid budget crisis, state makes parole easier
California's budget crisis and overcrowded prisons have led to a new reality for thousands of convicted felons: Parole is getting a lot easier - no more random drug tests, travel rules or requirements to check in with an officer.
Restrictions have been relaxed for nonviolent criminals like burglars, drug offenders and swindlers under a new law that aims to shrink the prison population by reducing the number of minor parole violations that send ex-cons back to prison.
In response to the changes, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office on Friday released a new office-wide policy regarding new offenses committed by parolees...
LINK - DailyBulletin.com
March 25, 2010
CDCR’s Kernan defends destruction of parole records in Gardner case from San Diego
State prison authorities said Wednesday that destroying parole agent field notes on convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III from a 2000 molestation case had no bearing on preventing the murder of Poway teenager Chelsea King.
Scott Kernan, an undersecretary with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, also told an Assembly committee that Gardner remained on parole -- rather than being sent back to prison on a 2007 violation -- based on the recommendation of the field agent supervising him.
But a critic of state parole policy, former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, later said Kernan’s testimony is not credible because he did not have the field files to know.
For example, Spitzer believes it was a supervisor -- and not the field agent -- who allowed Gardner to continue living close to a school in violation of his parole conditions, said Spitzer, now an Orange County prosecutor...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
March 25, 2010
More on Whitman support for private prisons
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has accused GOP challenger Meg Whitman of offering "snake oil" to voters, saying her promises to fully fund education, build prisons and protect law enforcement pensions - while cutting taxes - is a "gross misrepresentation" of California's fiscal crisis.
In his toughest attack yet on the former eBay CEO, the state attorney general and former two-term governor told a gathering of law enforcement officials on Wednesday that with the state confronting its most critical budget problems in decades, "this is not time for glib, scripted, consultant-driven, empty programs."
"Now more than ever, we need to collaborate," he said of the need for all parties in the state to work together on its most-pressing problems. "It's time for straight talk..."
LINK - SFGate.com
March 25, 2010
Whitman supports private prisons, Poizner, Brown oppose
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman called Wednesday for building new prisons to house some of the state's 150,000 inmates as she sparred with her rivals over the best way to fix the state's costly and overcrowded corrections system.
"(Overcrowding) is a sign that we have not invested in the infrastructure in California," Whitman said in remarks to a gathering of public safety officials in Sacramento. "We are going to have to create some capacity to invest to make sure that we have the infrastructure that we need in the next 50 years."
Whitman, who opposes raising taxes and wants to reduce the state work force, declined to identify a specific funding source for the costly new facilities, saying instead that cash could be freed up by cutting other areas of government...
LINK - SacBee.com
March 24, 2010
California finds that prison costs aren’t so easy to cut
The billions of dollars that California pours into its troubled prisons — a number fattened by court-ordered medical spending and sky-high personnel costs — have become an increasingly attractive target for leaders desperate to trim the state's $20 billion deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in January called for a constitutional amendment that would cap prison spending and put the savings toward public universities. And since last summer, lawmakers have tried to wring more than $2 billion from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, once budgeted for $10 billion.
But despite officials' attempts to clamp down after watching costs double over the past decade, some corrections spending is proving impervious to the budget ax...
LINK - MercuryNews.comMarch 24, 2010
California, in Financial Crisis, Opens Prison Doors
The California budget crisis has forced the state to address a problem that expert panels and judges have wrangled over for decades: how to reduce prison overcrowding.
The state has begun in recent weeks the most significant changes since the 1970s to reduce overcrowding — and chip away at an astonishing 70 percent recidivism rate, the highest in the country — as the prison population becomes a major drag on the state’s crippled finances.
Many in the state still advocate a tough approach, with long sentences served in full, and some early problems with released inmates have given critics reason to complain. But fiscal reality, coupled with a court-ordered reduction in the prison population, is pouring cold water on old solutions like building more prisons...
LINK - NYTimes.com
March 24, 2010
Parolee arrested for assault and battery, under influence of drugs, parole violation
James Allen Norton, 29, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of assault and battery, being under the influence of a controlled substance, and violating parole. Norton is being held in jail without bail pending his parole hearing.
Norton's sister called Mendocino County sheriff's deputies telling them he had punched and kicked her while she was sleeping on a couch in a shared residence when she refused to give him tobacco.
When deputies found Norton, after interviewing the victim and confirming she had injuries consistent with her story, he seemed to be under the influence of a controlled substance. Norton was on parole after serving a fraction of a two-year sentence with the California Department of Corrections...
LINK - WillitsNews.com
March 23, 2010
CCPOA Town Hall Meetings
March 23, 2010
Salinas police: Wanted Gilroy parolee arrested with help of K-9
A wanted Gilroy parolee was arrested early this morning following a high-speed chase through south Salinas, police said.
Officer Lalo Villegas said the man was taken into custody after a Marina police K-9 found him hiding in the back of a home.
Officers chased the man down Alisal Street and through residential neighborhoods near Hartnell College and University Park, as well as Davis and Blanco roads...
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
March 23, 2010
Arizona inmates out of Walsenburg CCA prison
All Arizona inmates formerly held at the Huerfano County Correctional Center have been transferred out of the facility, clearing the way for the closure of the prison early next month, corrections officials said Monday.
Corrections Corporation of America, which owns and operates the facility, announced in January that it will close the prison in April.
Officials at the private prison company said Monday the prison officially will close April 2.
Steve Owen, director of communications for Nashville-headquartered CCA, said by 2 p.m. the inmates were in custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections...
LINK - Chieftain.com
March 23, 2010
CCA jail officer accused of doctor shopping for drugs
A Hernando County Jail corrections officer faces charges of "doctor shopping" to obtain prescriptions for 2,100 tablets of the pain medication oxycodone.
Hernando sheriff's deputies arrested Chris Abare, 46, of Hudson on Tuesday for withholding information from physicians in Hernando and Pasco counties from whom he was receiving the prescriptions.
A report said that between July and January, Abare got prescriptions for more than 2,100 oxycodone tablets from nine doctors. Authorities said the doctors signed sworn statements saying that Abare failed to tell them he was receiving prescriptions from other physicians...
LINK - TampaBay.com
March 23, 2010
County seeks CCA records
County officials know all about public records requests. They get them all the time from citizens and the media.
This time, however, it is Hernando County making a rare public records request of its own.
Hernando officials want Corrections Corporation of America to release inventory and budgetary information to help the county analyze whether CCA or Sheriff Richard Nugent could offer the best deal of running the Hernando County Jail...
LINK - TampaBay.com
March 22, 2010
Assm. Nielsen blasts CDCR as corrupt, self-serving!
A north state lawmaker Monday blasted the state prison system he said he spent years trying to reform.
In a scathing interview, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen called the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) one of the most corrupt, self-serving bureaucracies in state government, one that routinely destroys documents to hide its mistakes and cares more for its own interests than public safety.
The Gerber Republican also blamed the agency's failure to follow one of its own policies for giving a convicted sex offender the opportunity to kill at least one Southern California teen...
LINK - Redding.com
March 17, 2010
CDCR investigating itself over Gardner parole issues?
Two San Diego County lawmakers are questioning whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has picked the right vehicle for reform in asking for an investigation into how parole agents handled the 2000 molestation case of John Albert Gardner III, now charged in the death of Chelsea King.
Stung by revelations that the state missed chances to put Gardner back in prison long before the Poway teenager was killed, Schwarzenegger last week ordered the Sex Offender Management Board to investigate the case, from prosecution to parole.
Lawmakers questioned whether the agency - part of the state corrections system - was the right pick. Supporters say the board has shown a willingness to be critical...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
March 17, 2010
Another suit from Hawaiian inmate alleging rape by CCA guard in Kentucky
A Hawai'i prison inmate who alleges she was sexually assaulted by two guards at a Mainland prison has sued the state and the private operator of the prison.
The suit, filed Monday, alleges that the plaintiff was attacked June 16, 2008, by male corrections officers at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Kentucky.
The woman is serving a life prison sentence for murder and kidnapping convictions...
LINK - HonoluluAdvertiser.com
March 17, 2010
State issues report on 2009 Calif prison riot
A state report issued Tuesday on a gang and racially motivated riot at a California prison last year recommends changes in managing inmate gang members as well as improvements in communication and use of technology to identify inmates during disturbances.
The report by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation analyzed a two-hour rampage that erupted at the California Institution for Men in Chino on Aug. 8 as a result of Hispanic and white inmates attacking black inmates at a portion of the facility where inmates are received into the prison.
Nearly 1,200 inmates were involved, including 249 who required medical treatment for injuries. Six dormitories at CIM's Reception Center West were heavily damaged...
LINK - Google News (AP)
March 17, 2010
Court orders parole releases in Oakland and South City murder cases
A state appeals court in San Francisco today ordered the parole release of two men who each served close to three decades in prison for separate second-degree murders committed in Oakland in 1979 and South San Francisco in 1982.
Bennie Moses, 61, was convicted in Alameda County Superior Court of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Willie Rhodes, whose brother had killed Moses’s father five years earlier, in Oakland on 1979. He was sentenced to 17 years to life in prison.
Ernesto Juarez, 50, was found guilty in San Mateo County Superior Court of second-degree murder in killing Bruce Farley in a vehicle collision in South San Francisco in 1982...
LINK - SFExaminer.com
March 17, 2010
Parolee surrenders, arrested following pursuit through Fairfield and Suisun City
A parolee-at-large was arrested Tuesday morning after leading Fairfield police and an CHP aircraft on a chase through Fairfield and Suisun City.
According to police, Lane Henry Bryant, 37, was first seen in a blue Honda on Kidder Avenue. The car had been reported as stolen in Stockton. Police pursued the car until it stopped in the 1400 block of Phoenix Drive. The suspect then ran away, discarding a loaded shotgun as he fled...
LINK - TheReporter.com
March 17, 2010
Prison policy weighed: Size, gangs may cause fits for cell integration
In preparation for a statewide plan to integrate individual prison cells, much was said about Texas and its largely successful attempts to do the same in the early 1990s.
Now that Folsom State Prison has become the fourth California institution to implement a prison cell integration policy, the promise and challenge of the Lone Star example are drawing more scrutiny.
James Hernandez is a professor of criminal justice at California State University, Sacramento, and a skeptic of the integration policy. An expert on various street gangs, he cautions against holding Texas prisons up as the model for California’s overcrowded institutions.
“With California, a lot of the problem is sheer numbers,” he said...
LINK - FolsomTelegraph.com
March 16, 2010
Redding council may contest early prison releases
Redding City Council members tonight will consider sending a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him not to release 19,000 unsupervised prison inmates.
"It's really wrong and bad business," said Redding police Chief Peter Hansen of the proposed early releases.
In September, the state Legislature passed an emergency measure calling for the early release of more than 19,000 nonserious, nonviolent inmates as a way to help balance the state's budget and comply with a court-mandated order to stave off overcrowding...
LINK - Redding.com
March 16, 2010
Calif prison receiver seeks release of ill inmates
The federal receiver who runs California's prison health care system said Tuesday he will ask state lawmakers to approve four bills to control spiraling costs - including proposals to restrict prisons' use of prescription drugs and outside medical specialists and to parole the sickest and costliest inmates.
J. Clark Kelso is set to announce the plan Wednesday amid calls from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers for him to cut $811 million from his budget next year to bring California's spending on inmates closer to what it costs in other states.
Kelso told The Associated Press he needs all four bills to cut about $350 million. He is looking for other ways to make up the rest of the roughly 40 percent cut to his budget...
LINK - SacBee.com
March 15, 2010
Correctional Officer attacked at North Kern
A 43-year old female correctional officer is recovering today after being attacked and beaten by a violent inmate.
The incident happened Saturday morning at the North Kern State Prison near Delano.
Prison officials say the attack was unprovoked and the inmate - 37-year old Rus Loc from Los Angeles - had only been there for a few days...
LINK - KMJNow.com
This morning, March 13, 2010, at approximately 8:14 a.m., a 43-year-old female correctional officer at North Kern State Prison (NKSP) sustained moderate injuries in an unprovoked attack by a 37-year-old inmate in the reception center part of the prison. The correctional officer was transported to Delano Regional Medical Center where she remains in stable condition. The inmate was identified as inmate Russ Loc, who has been housed at the prison since March 8, 2010, after being convicted in Los Angeles County for forced oral copulation resulting in great bodily injury...
LINK - KGET.com
March 11, 2010
State Supreme Court to review body armor ban
The California Supreme Court decided Wednesday to review a state law that prohibits convicted felons from owning body armor.
An appeals court overturned the ban last year on the grounds the law was too vague.
State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, whose office appealed the ruling, called the state high court’s decision to examine the law “a clear victory for police officers everywhere.”
A ruling by the court, which did not comment on its reasons for taking the case, is probably a year away...
LINK - LATimes.com
March 10, 2010
Manager of Sober Living Facility Convicted of Selling Drugs
District Attorney Bob Lee announced that Donald Carl Peter of Santa Cruz, age 48, was sentenced to one year in county jail following his guilty pleas last month to all counts charged: one felony count of possessing methamphetamine for sale, one felony count of maintaining a place for the sale and use of controlled substances, and one felony count of possession of a deadly weapon. Mr. Peter also admitted special allegations for serving a prison sentence in 1993 for possession of methamphetamine and having a prior transportation of methamphetamine conviction in 1998.
Mr. Peter was arrested in August 2009 after the Sheriff's Office Narcotics Enforcement Team received tips that Mr. Peter, the manager of an SLE (Sober Living Environment) located at 114 Park Avenue was selling methamphetamine to residents of his SLE as well as members of the community...
LINK - KCBA.com
March 10, 2010
Parolee with 19 arrests underscores dangers of new parole law, L.A. police union says
The union representing Los Angeles police officers said Wednesday that a parolee with 19 arrests and four convictions underscores how laws meant to ease prison overcrowding could pose a serious -- and ongoing -- threat to public safety. Ezra Hooker Sr. was arrested Jan. 5 after allegedly pointing a rifle at a prostitute and leading LAPD officers on a high-speed chase on South Los Angeles freeways.
During the pursuit, which LAPD investigators said hit 100 mph, Hooker threw a brick at officers and discarded a rifle before crashing his car. Hooker was found to be wearing body armor at the time of his arrest, police said.
Sources familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about Hooker's criminal record, said the 43-year-old South L.A. resident had 19 prior arrests dating back to the 1970s, including murder and manslaughter. He served time in state prison for narcotics and gun possession.
LINK - LATimes.com
March 10, 2010
Schwarzenegger orders change in parole file policy
State prison officials, drawing fire for destroying the parole file of a man under scrutiny in the disappearances of two teenage girls, reversed their recordkeeping policy Tuesday on orders from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John Albert Gardner III was charged last week in the suspected killing of Chelsea King, 17, of Poway and is a person of interest, police say, in the slaying of Amber Dubois, 14, who disappeared on her way to school more than a year ago. Her skeletal remains were found Saturday in northern San Diego County.
A convicted sex offender, Gardner, 30, was discharged from parole in 2008, and his file was purged after a year under departmental policy...
LINK - LATimes.com
March 10, 2010
New at L.A. County Jail: inmates serve half sentences
“I already didn’t feel safe in my own neighborhood,” says lifetime Sherman Oaks resident Ron Sorrentino. “Now this … it’s not good.”
L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca released 343 nonviolent offenders from the county jail system this week, well before they had served their full sentences. The Sheriff’s Department says that budget cuts have forced changes to a longtime policy requiring inmates to serve at least 80 percent of their time before release. Now, those jailed for crimes such as check kiting, petty theft, and drunk driving will serve just 50 percent of their sentences.
Law enforcement is crying out louder than citizens like Sorrentino, analysts say...
LINK - CSMonitor.com
March 9, 2010
Privatization Update - March 1-7, 2010
March 1 – The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a public records case involving CCA, the nation’s largest for-profit private prison firm. The case was originally filed in May 2008 by Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice issues. CCA had denied Freidmann’s request for documents related to lawsuits filed against the company and for reports or audits that found contract violations by CCA, among other records. The Chancery Court of Davidson County ruled in Friedmann’s favor on July 29, 2008 and CCA was ordered to produce the requested documents...
March 9, 2010
State’s policy on parole notes being reviewed
Three years of field notes from parole agents supervising John Albert Gardner III after his release from prison on a 2000 molestation conviction were destroyed under a state policy that is being reviewed as he faces charges of raping and murdering Chelsea King.
California prison officials said pertinent information on parolees is transferred to a central file and retained before agents’ notes are burned or shredded.
But Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who represents the Poway area where Chelsea lived and went missing, wrote to state prisons Secretary Matthew Cate Monday, expressing alarm that the department destroys any records after one year...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
March 8, 2010
Inmates begin hunger strike at CTF opposing three-strikes law
Hundreds of inmates at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad are fasting in protest to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the signing of the California Three Strikes law.
The fast began Sunday and involves more than 480 prisoners, said Barbara Brooks, founder of Sentencing and Justice Reform Advocacy, which sends the monthly newsletter "Advocate" to inmates and their families.
Brooks said she learned of the hunger fast from CTF inmates who came up with the idea. She joined another dozen people who gathered about 2:45 p.m. outside of CTF in support of the hunger strike, she said...
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
March 8, 2010
Redlands girl, 7, molested by parolee
Phillip Michael Berryhill, 22, an acquaintance of the victim's family, fled the home before police arrived about 4:30 a.m. Paramedics took the girl to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life threatening, police said.
Police found Berryhill hiding in the bathroom of a relative's home in the 12400 block of 14th Street in Yucaipa about 6:30 p.m.
Officers held him on suspicion of violating parole and several sex crimes including molestation...
LINK - SBSun.com (San Bernadino Sun)
March 8, 2010
Budget cuts slash California rehabilitation program for prisoners
California prison officials began touting a new public safety reform in January that would encourage inmates to complete a rehabilitation course and earn six weeks per year off a sentence.
Inside Folsom State Prison, though, inmates and instructors leading such courses are skeptical it will work.
In reality, they say, budget cuts approved by legislators last year, needed to cope with an unprecedented fiscal crisis, are devastating programs that are the basis for the new credit and for helping inmates stay straight once free...
LINK - SacBee.com
March 8, 2010
Chad assault lawsuit heads to court
A fight that started six years ago at a Stockton-area youth prison, igniting statewide calls to reform California's juvenile-justice system, is about to flare up again - this time in a downtown courtroom.
Rather than exchanging physical blows, Narciso Morales, a former ward at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, and Delwin Brown, a youth correctional counselor, will let their attorneys exchange verbal jabs.
But on Jan. 20, 2004, they physically brawled in earnest.
Grainy images of a fray among two wards and two staffers splashed across national media outlets. The case turned the Stockton complex into a lightning rod.
LINK - Recordnet.net
March 6, 2010
City of Colton Imposes Restrictions on Parolee Homes
Fearing a flood of state prisoners could soon be released, the Colton City Council enacted new restrictions this week on parolee homes in the city.
The city ordinance changes, which take affect immediately, require the owners of boarding homes to obtain conditional use permits, prohibit more than one parolee from living in a home and mandate that landlords inform all of their tenants when a parolee moves in.
The measure was approved unanimously Tuesday...
LINK - PE.com (The Press-Enterprise)
March 6, 2010
Aramark sues private prison firm over payments
Saying it is owed $7.3 million, Aramark Corp., the Philadelphia food-services provider, has sued a New Jersey operator of correctional facilities.
In the suit, Aramark contends Community Education Centers Inc., of West Caldwell, N.J., has been in default on bills since at least June 2008. Locally, Aramark services Community Education Centers facilities in Philadelphia, Delaware County, Reading, and Trenton.
Aramark's lawsuit, filed Feb. 18 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, said Community Education Centers was overdue on $5.2 million of the total, and it requested that a judgment, including interest, costs, and attorney's fees, be entered in its favor...
LINK - Philly.com
March 6, 2010
Delaware: Good bye CMS
Twenty-four companies have submitted bids to provide health care services at Delaware's prisons
Four of them are from Delaware, and many critics of the current health care provider, St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services, say a local contractor is needed to help lift the Department of Correction from under the federal scrutiny it's been under for almost four years.
"The good news is that the deplorable tenure and administration of [Correctional Medical Services] will come to an end," said the Rev. Christopher Bullock, senior pastor of New Canaan Baptist Church and co-founder of the Delaware Coalition for Prison Reform and Justice. "Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a new day for Delaware corrections..."
LINK - DelawareOnline.com
March 5, 2010
Mississippi: Wexford under fire
On February 25, a small crowd gathered outside the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, to push for the release of sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who are serving two consecutive life sentences apiece for a 1993 armed robbery in which no one was injured and the take, by most accounts, was about $11. Supporters of the Scott sisters have long tried to draw attention to their case, as an extreme example of the distorted justice and Draconian sentencing policies that have overloaded prisons, crippled state budgets, and torn families apart across the United States. But in recent months, their cause has taken on a new urgency, because for Jamie Scott, an unwarranted life sentence may soon become a death sentence.
Jamie Scott, 38, is suffering from kidney failure. At the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Pearl, where Jamie and Gladys are incarcerated, medical services are provided by a private contractor called Wexford, which has been the subject of lawsuits and legislative investigations in several states over inadequate treatment of the inmates in its care. According to Jamie Scott's family, in the six weeks since her condition became life-threatening, she has endured faulty or missed dialysis sessions, infections, and other complications. She has received no indication that a kidney transplant is being considered as an option, though her sister is a willing donor...
LINK - IndyBay.org
March 4, 2010
State prison cuts could backfire, report says
Recent cuts to California prison programs could result in more former inmates returning to prison and an increase in prison crowding, according to a draft state report.
The report from the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board, charged with overseeing rehabilitation programs, appears to contradict contentions by state prison officials who have said the budget cuts would not affect recidivism rates and will make prison programs more effective.
The report warns that the $250 million cut from inmate programs this year "may well mean that the hoped for reduction in recidivism will not be achieved any time soon," and that without those reductions "it seems likely that California will be unable to get control of the inmate population crisis..."
LINK - SFGate.com
March 3, 2010
California: Parolee allegedly used pit bull in carjack attempt and on police
A parolee used his pit bull to attack a driver in an attempted carjacking and then turned the dog on a canine officer, say Elk Grove police.
Officers became involved when they responded to a disturbance at 6:17 p.m. Monday at an AM/PM service station at 10421 Grant Line Road, said spokesman Officer Chris Trim.
Responding officers learned a man, identified as Ronald Tomlinson, 46, had shut off the gas nozzle t o a car pumping gas and opened the driver's door....
LINK - RGJ.com
March 2, 2010
2010 Elections Forms Now Available at CCPOA.org
The forms are no longer available for the CCPOA Chapter Elections in 2010. The forms for the CCPOA EC Elections in 2010 is still available here.
Please check the 2010 Schedule for details on the current process.
(Updated 9/14/2010)
March 2, 2010
Geo Group says “disappointed” by prison cancellation
Prison operator Geo Group Inc said it is "disappointed" by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' decision to cancel a solicitation to build a facility to house illegal aliens convicted of crimes, sending its shares down as much as 8 percent.
Geo said it had undertaken a 1,225-bed expansion of its existing 530-bed correctional facility in Baldwin, Michigan under the solicitation. The expansion is expected to be completed in 2010.
"We are disappointed by the BOP's decision to cancel the (the prison solicitation) due to a funding shortfall," Chief Executive George Zoley said in a statement...
LINK - Reuters.com
March 2, 2010
Camarillo gets more offenders as CYA closes other centers
The number of offenders at the California Youth Authority’s Camarillo detention center has more than doubled in recent months as the state’s largest juvenile prison closed and the Division of Juvenile Justice was restructured, corrections officials said.
Nearly 380 wards were being held last week in Camarillo, compared with 176 when authorities announced in August that the Herman G. Stark facility in Chino would close, officials said. Chino officially closed last week, making Camarillo and Norwalk the only remaining juvenile prison sites in Southern California.
“We made a very conscious effort to keep the majority of the youth who were in Stark in Southern California so they would have access to their families,” said Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
LINK - VCStar.com
March 2, 2010
Pot, cell phones, chargers and tobacco packed into footballs, thrown onto CRC’s yard
Two footballs filled with pot, tobacco and cell phones sailed over a prison fence before dawn today in Norco prompting the arrest of two San Diego County residents, according to Riverside County sheriff's officials.
"The footballs were taped closed with packing tape and tossed over the perimeter fence line ... into a preselected area," Sgt. Adam Vallejo said in a written statement. "A correctional officer from the prison saw the footballs being thrown ... and summoned additional (officers) to collect the items and detain the suspects.
The incomplete passes were made at 3:10 a.m. at the California Rehabilitation Center at Fifth Street and Wilson Avenue. The footballs contained about an ounce of marijuana, about eight ounces of tobacco and 11 cellular phones complete with chargers and instruction booklets, according to the statement....
LINK - PE.com
March 2, 2010
CCA too expensive, may lose another contract
After researching the matter, Sheriff Richard Nugent believes he can take over operations of the Hernando County Jail and save the county money.
Due to the current economic condition of the county and the continually rising cost of the county's contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to operate the jail, Nugent said Tuesday he has conducted research into the possibility of his office assuming the task.
The sheriff will make a presentation to county commissioners at their meeting next Tuesday...
LINK - HernandoToday.com
March 2, 2010
Parolee Guilty In SF Bakery Stabbing Of Teen Girl
A San Francisco jury Tuesday convicted a man of attempted murder for stabbing two people, including a teenage girl, at a Twin Peaks bakery in 2007 after mistakenly being released from San Quentin State Prison.
Scott Thomas, 29, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the stabbing of 15-year-old Loren Schaller and a bystander who rushed to her aid inside Creighton's Bakery on May 19, 2007.
After a three-week trial, the San Francisco Superior Court jury Tuesday afternoon found Thomas guilty of two counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated mayhem...
LINK - KTVU.com
March 2, 2010
Sheriff Baca proposes Castaic jail shutdown in budget move
Asked to slash his department budget by $128 million, Sheriff Lee Baca has proposed a near shutdown of the 1,900-bed Castaic jail and ordering his command staff, including himself, to go back out on patrol, officials said Tuesday.
Baca said he would move nearly all the inmates and staff out of the North Facility at the Pitchess Detention Center, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. The proposal would save the department $26 million.
And in an effort to reduce overtime, Baca is ordering his sergeants, lieutenants, captains, commanders, chiefs and assistant sheriffs to go back out on patrol that would otherwise be done by deputies forced to work overtime...
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
March 1, 2010
Furlough Case Update/Memo
A memo was sent to the State Board today with regard to the furlough case: "On Friday, February 26, 2010 the Court of Appeal issued a decision relative to our pending furlough appeal. Contrary to the missive written by the Sac Bee on its State Worker Blog, CCPOA DID NOT lose. As you may recall, CCPOA asked for the Court to dismiss the appeal filed by the State. They did...
March 1, 2010
New legislation to prevent Governor’s early inmate release plan from impacting counties
A state Assemblyman has introduced legislation to ensure that a recently enacted law allowing the early release of nonviolent offenders would only apply to state prisons, not county jails.
The original law, a cost-saving measure that officials expect will allow about 6,500 state prisoners to be released early over the next year, has caused confusion at the local level and prompted several lawsuits. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, said his proposal will make it clear that the early release provision is only meant to alleviate overcrowding at state prisons.
"It's not meant to apply to local inmates, period," he said. "We are dealing with a state crisis."...
LINK - SFGate.com
