Budget
September 4, 2010
Tax increases for AB 900 beds, J. Woodford discusses CDCR
One option to address the jail overcrowding issue will be before the voters in the November election.
Santa Barbara County officials have proposed a half-percent sales tax increase to construct and operate a new North County jail and enhance local public safety agencies.
The ballot proposal, known as Measure S, would dedicate half of the annual tax revenue — estimated at $30 million — to constructing and operating a new 304-bed jail in Santa Maria...
LINK - LompocRecord.com
September 2, 2010
State prison officials considering layoffs
California prison officials are reviewing recommended staff eliminations sent to them last week by prison wardens.
State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials in August asked for a 3 percent employee reduction - about 1,100 positions - to save between $80 million and $100 million.
An analysis of the potential cuts is expected to be completed in about 30 days, state prison officials said...
LINK - DailyBulletin.com
September 1, 2010
Re-entry prison facility on hold due to site issue
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation may have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to finding a site for the proposed prison re-entry facility.
The proposed facility would house Solano County prisoners who are serving the final year to 18 months of their sentence and would help to acclimate them to the community once again.
After talks of building the facility in Fairfield had fallen through, the CDCR had hoped to build the facility near the intersection of Cordelia and Chadbourne roads, adjacent to the sewage treatment plant in an unincorporated area of Solano County...
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
August 29, 2010
Escape slows prison privatization
The recent escape at a for-profit prison in Kingman has slowed Arizona's rush toward privatizing corrections.
Even one of the Legislature's top supporters of private prisons, Rep. John Kavanagh, says the existing state-run complexes should remain public, not be turned private, as the state has tried to do.
But the fallout from the escape, during which two prisoners are accused of killing an Oklahoma couple, is so far limited enough that supporters imagine continued expansion by prison companies in Arizona...
LINK - AZStarNet.com
August 26, 2010
Visiting On Labor Day To Be Cancelled In State Prisons and Camps
In response to the State of California’s continued budget impasse, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) will not have visiting on Labor Day, Monday, September 6, 2010 in all institutions and camps. The visiting closure will save approximately $325,000.
Normal visiting will still be held on Saturday and Sunday, September 4, and 5.
“Because of the state’s serious fiscal condition without a budget in place, we must take this measure to preserve funds and ensure our corrections system continues to run safely and efficiently,” said Terri McDonald, CDCR Chief Deputy Secretary of Adult Operations...
LINK - CDCRToday.BlogSpot.com
August 25, 2010
State’s plans to send prisoners to county jails worry officials
The state’s plans to ship low-risk prisoners to local jails could cost counties revenue and are raising fears that inmates may be released early.
Transferring non-sex offender prisoners to county jails are centerpieces of dueling plans put forward by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Senate Democrats as they scramble to close a $19 billion budget gap.
The foundation of both proposals is to save the state money by offering counties incentives — including cash and greater alternative sentencing authority — to accept more prisoners....
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
August 24, 2010
CDCR’s plans to reduce prison staffing in the news
A state proposal to lay off 3 percent of guards and employees at adult prisons has drawn the ire of union officials concerned about employee safety and staffing levels.
The plan, which has yet to be approved by state prison officials, was outlined in an Aug.10 memo to state prison wardens from George Giurbino, director of the Division of Adult Institutions for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
About 1,100 positions - most of which would be correction officers - would be cut, said Joe Baumann, chapter president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco...
LINK - DailyBulletin.com
August 18, 2010
Court Orders “Stay” of the Furlough TRO
Today, CCPOA was back in Alameda Superior Court regarding the new round of furloughs. The presiding Judge has taken the matter under consideration pending a possible ruling by the California Supreme Court.
As this was being written, the California Supreme Court issued a "stay" of the TRO issued last week, and granted the Governor's request for review. The case is set for oral argument on September 8, 2010...
August 12, 2010
Furlough Case Update 8/12/2010
Today at 11:00 CCPOA was in Alameda Superior Court for our TRO hearing regarding the newround of furloughs. As we were assigned to be heard in Judge Roesch's Court, the State exercised an objection and our case was assigned to another judge...
August 10, 2010
Furlough Case Information
Late yesterday, the Alameda Superior Court issued an injunction against the State relative to the imposition of the latest furlough order. This injunction DOES NOTapply to Unit 6, however we also plan to be in court this week or early next week, seeking the same injunctive relief...
August 2, 2010
Life on furlough: Working 12 months for 11 months pay
...While some places ask workers to give up just a few days, elsewhere it can be much worse. California, for example, requires employees to take off three unpaid days a month, while Hawaii is mandates 18 days a year through mid-2011.
For the states, this effort is racking up big savings. That's helping to close the enormous budget gaps many states face. In California, the 14% pay cut has saved the state $2.8 billion in its first 17 months and $147.2 million per month now.
But for workers, the furloughs can be equivalent to losing as much as a month's pay each year. For Dwight Weatherford, it has meant filing for bankruptcy...
LINK - Money.CNN.com
July 29, 2010
The State Worker: Schwarzenegger’s latest furloughs pick winners and losers
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Wednesday furlough order did something different: It picked winners and losers.True, his earlier furloughs and this one exempt the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the California Highway Patrol. Schwarzenegger considers them key public safety organizations and didn't want to dilute their resources.But his new order exempts six other departments. That's significant because the governor has always said that, to be fair, furloughs should be applied across the board...
LINK - SacBee.com
July 28, 2010
Furlough Alert - July 28, 2010
WEST SACRAMENTO — Along with the other bargaining units in the state, CCPOA was notified a short while ago that Governor Schwarzenegger will render an Executive Order imposing 3 furlough days per month beginning with the August pay period that will impact employees’ September 1 pay check. This Executive Order is in effect until a new budget is in place.
DPA made note of all groups that will be exempt from the furloughs, including special funded agencies and public safety employees. However, CDCR employees were NOT INCLUDED in this exemption as public safety employees. DPA stated the furlough impositions are a direct result of a worsening budget situation and a state that is running out of cash.
We will post the declaration on the CCPOA website as soon as we receive it. Please stay tuned to CCPOA website for updates.
For more information please contact JeVaughn Baker at (916) 372-6060 or jevaughn.baker@ccpoa.org
OFFICIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER: S-12-10 @ www.gov.ca.gov
OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION: #15693 @ www.gov.ca.gov
Note: Proclamation title says "State of Emergency - Kern County Wildfires" but the subject is the budget/furloughs.
July 26, 2010
Court adds more time to minimum wage clock
A Sacramento Superior Court hearing today wound up pushing back the date for when attorneys will again debate whether Controller John Chiang must issue minimum wage paychecks to state workers. The upshot: No minimum wage for state workers now at least through September, and quite possibly well beyond that.
Instead, "other issues" will be discussed and "the infeasibility argument will take place some time in the future," said Ryan Endean, spokesman for PECG and CAPS, two of the unions that have supported Chiang's position...
LINK - SacBee.com (The State Worker)
July 16, 2010
PRESS RELEASE: CCPOA Responds to minimum-wage ruling
WEST SACRAMENTO - Today in Sacramento County Superior Court, Judge Patrick Marlette rejected Gov. Schwarzenegger’s demand for a temporary restraining order seeking to force State Controller John Chiang to immediately pay state employees minimum wage until a state budget is adopted. As a result, state workers – including the 33,000 members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) - will continue to receive their regular pay for their hours worked...
July 16, 2010
BREAKING NEWS: Judge denies Schwarzenegger’s minimum wage order
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette today denied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request to immediately compel State Controller John Chiang to pay state employees minimum wage.
The denial means there will be a full hearing on the issues on July 26, but Marlette's ruling is a boost for about 200,000 state workers, who were facing paychecks for $7.25 an hour for the July pay period. Chiang has said he would issue full pay unless the legal process went against him before July 22, the cutoff to send payroll to the check printer...
LINK - SacBee.com
July 14, 2010
Minimum Wage Case in Court on Friday
This Friday, the Sacramento Superior Court will hear a request by DPA to compel the State Controller to pay minimum wage to state employees. CCPOA has petitioned to intervene, as well have several other groups. The Controller has filed extensive documentation in defense of his position to NOT pay minimum wage...
Here are the documents referred to in the CCPOA memo from State Controller John Chiang's website:
Alternative Solutions Assessment Report - 7/10/2010
Independent Feasibility Assessment Report - 7/10/2010
Controller's Opposition Brief - 7/13/2010
Other Supporting Documents - 7/13/2010
For all the recent news on minimum wage, the California State Budget and other related information, CLICK HERE.
Please read the FULL memo from Chuck Alexander below...
July 14, 2010
Nevada prison chief seeks furlough exemption
CARSON CITY – The director of the state Department of Corrections is taking steps to hire more officers in the aftermath of a decision by the state Prison Board on Tuesday to delay closure of the aging Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
Director Howard Skolnik said he will ask the state Board of Examiners next month to exempt correctional officers at prisons from an unpaid one-day-a-month furlough.
On Wednesday, he set in motion efforts to hire 50 more officers at the Carson City prison and the prison in Lovelock...
LINK - LasVegasSun.com
July 13, 2010
Minimum Wage Case Update
CCPOA's Ex Parte Application for Leave to Intervene in Endsley v. Chiang, Sacramento County Superior Court, No. 34-2010-80000591
In plain English, here are the PDF’s of our request to the court to intervene in the case in which DPA is suing the Controller to enforce the latest pay letter:
- Ex Parte Application By California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association For Leave To Intervene Pursuant To Code Of Civil Procedure Section 387(B); Memorandum Of Points And Authorities In Support Of Ex Parte Application;
- Declaration Of Charles L. Alexander, Jr. In Support Of Ex Parte Application For Leave To Intervene Pursuant To CCP § 387;
- Declaration Of James P. Harrison In Support Of Ex Parte Application For Leave To Intervene Pursuant To Code Of Civil Procedure Section 387(B);
- Declaration Of Richard Warg In Support Of Ex Parte Application For Leave To Intervene Pursuant To Code Of Civil Procedure Section 387(B);
- Declaration Of Jonathan Yank In Support Of Ex Parte Application For Leave To Intervene Pursuant To CCP § 387
- [Proposed] Order Granting CCPOA’s Ex Parte Application For Leave To Intervene; and
- Proof of Service
July 9, 2010
Update: Gov. vs. Chiang Battle Over Minimum Wage
Chiang takes fight with Schwarzenegger to cable news airwaves
State Controller John Chiang and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have spent the week trading legal filings and pointed barbs in the media. At issue is Schwarzenegger's order to reduce state worker salaries to $7.25 per hour until the state has a budget in place. It is a plan that Chiang says he cannot, and will not, implement.
Friday morning, Chiang appeared on Fox Business to talk about the wage rollbacks and his battle with Schwarzenegger...
LINK - LATimes.com (click the link to continue reading AND view the video)
Chiang on Fox Business: 'I am not defying the governor'
State Controller John Chiang said in a television interview today that he will do "anything a court asks me to do if I physically can" to comply with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to reduce pay for roughly 200.000 state workers to minimum wage because of the budget impasse.
"I am not defying the governor... I'm saying we cannot do it physically," he told Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney. Chiang likened using the state's negative payroll system to issue minimum-wage checks to trying to ride a bicycle designed to pedal forward backwards...
LINK - SacBee.com (click the link to continue reading AND view the video)
June 30, 2010
DJJ’s Right-Sizing Rollercoaster
Fasten your seatbelts, you're in for a bumpy ride!
By Don Benegas, Supervising Field Rep, CCPOA Southern Office
As any Bargaining Unit Six employee in CDCR's Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) will tell you, the experience of enduring DJJ's down-sizing -- an action that management insists on calling “right-sizing” to describe the structural, operational, and economic overhaul of the entire Department -- truly has been a test of patience for most of the past year, and especially in the face of other uncertainties. The following is provided as an update to CCPOA's negotiations with the state on the status of right-sizing in DJJ...
June 30, 2010
How The Recession Hurts Private Prisons
Baldwin, Mich., (population 1,107), will soon have more prison beds than full-time residents. On the outskirts of town, one of the country’s largest private prison companies recently spent $60 million to expand a former juvenile prison into a 1,755-bed facility meant to house illegal immigrants before deportation. This is the same town where every summer locals gather for a carnival nicknamed Troutarama at which teenage girls vie for the crown of Ms. Lake County. Thirty-two percent of Baldwin’s families live below the poverty line, in a state with a 13.6 percent unemployment rate, compared to the national unemployment rate of 9.7 percent. Baldwin residents were counting on the private prison to create jobs, but this past March, the federal government pulled back its funding on the bid. This left the Geo Group, Inc., with an empty fortress in the middle of rural Michigan, 85 miles north of Grand Rapids.
A similar scenario is playing out across the country, in states such as California, Oklahoma, and Colorado, where entire private prisons now sit vacant...
LINK - Newsweek.com
June 29, 2010
CDCR Closes parole program
An East Palo Alto program that has helped hundreds of state prison parolees transition back to life in the community will shut its doors on Wednesday - but only temporarily, if administrators have their way.
Funding for the pilot program, which was created in 2007 through a bill by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, is set to expire this week but negotiations are under way to expand the program and revive it in the fall.
One of the people who helped shape the program was David Lewis, a former state prison inmate-turned-community leader whose shooting murder outside the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo earlier this month has rocked the community...
LINK - BayCitizen.org
June 29, 2010
Rolling Back Pension Costs: How Far Will It Go?
The Highway Patrol union that negotiated the most generous pension formula a decade ago, a trendsetter for police and firefighters statewide, has tentatively agreed to reduce pensions for new hires.
The "three at 50" formula, providing 3 percent of final pay for each year served at age 50, became the best-known part of a sweeping state worker pension increase, SB 400 in 1999, often cited by critics who say public pension costs are "unsustainable."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, applauding the Highway Patrol agreement last week, said once again in a news release that rolling back the benefit increase in SB 400 is one of the demands that must be met before he signs a new state budget...
LINK - PublicCEO.com
June 4, 2010
June state payroll won’t be withheld, administration says
State workers don't have to worry that their paychecks for June will be reduced to federal minimum wage, a Department of Finance spokesman said this week, ending speculation that an arcane state budget fix last year gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the authority to order wages withheld for this month.
July payroll, however, could be reduced if budget talks drag on much past the June 30 end of the fiscal year, said Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.
State workers have been wondering if their June pay would be withheld to the least allowed by federal law, $7.25 per hour for most employees. Legislation passed last year to plug a $20 billion hole in the 2009-10 general fund budget included pushing this month's payroll expenses to the July 1 start of the 2010-11 fiscal year...
LINK - SacBee.com "The State Worker" Blog
May 21, 2010
BSA Audit: Effect of CDCR Operations on the State Budget
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation:
Inmates Sentenced Under the Three Strikes Law and a Small Number of Inmates Receiving Specialty Health Care Represent Significant Costs
HIGHLIGHTS
Our review of California's increasing prison cost as a proportion of the state budget and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (Corrections) operations revealed the following:
-
Inmates incarcerated under the three strikes law (striker inmates):
- Make up 25 percent of the inmate population as of April 2009.
- Receive sentences that are, on average, nine years longer-resulting in about $19.2 billion in additional costs over the duration of their incarceration.
- Include many individuals currently convicted for an offense that is not a strike, were convicted of committing multiple serious or violent offenses on the same day, and some that committed strikeable offenses as a juvenile.
May 21, 2010
Audit: Effect of CDCR Operations on the State Budget
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation:
Inmates Sentenced Under the Three Strikes Law and a Small Number of Inmates Receiving Specialty Health Care Represent Significant Costs
HIGHLIGHTS
Our review of California's increasing prison cost as a proportion of the state budget and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (Corrections) operations revealed the following:
-
Inmates incarcerated under the three strikes law (striker inmates):
- Make up 25 percent of the inmate population as of April 2009.
- Receive sentences that are, on average, nine years longer-resulting in about $19.2 billion in additional costs over the duration of their incarceration.
- Include many individuals currently convicted for an offense that is not a strike, were convicted of committing multiple serious or violent offenses on the same day, and some that committed strikeable offenses as a juvenile.
-
Inmate health care costs are significant to the cost of housing inmates. In fiscal year 2007-08, $529 million was incurred for contracted services by specialty health care providers. Additionally:
- 30 percent of the inmates receiving such care cost more than $427 million.
- The costs for the remaining 70 percent averaged just over $1,000 per inmate.
- The costs for those inmates who died during the last quarter ranged from $150 for one inmate to more than $1 million for another
- A significant portion of the increased workload due to medical guarding and transportation is covered through overtime.
- The large leave balances of custody staff, to which the furlough program has contributed a significant amount, will eventually cost the State from $546 million to more than $1 billion.
May 18, 2010
Legislative Analyst’s Office: May Budget Revision Report
In the May Revision, the administration estimates that California must address a $17.9 billion gap between current-law resources and expenditures in the 2010‑11 General Fund budget. In our view, the administration’s estimate is reasonable...
May 18, 2010
Supervisory Update: May 18, 2010
As you are probably aware the Governors Office released the May Revise on Friday, May 14, 2010. It contained no real surprises, more bad news for state employees. In addition to the cuts in the January proposed budget release the May Revise contains a PLP day. This is nothing more than a furlough day with a PLP ribbon around it, and shouldn’t be confused with the PLP days we received in the early nineties. This PLP has no cash value and is in fact nothing more than a self-directed furlough as noted in the analysis from the Legislative Analyst’s Office below...
May 14, 2010
The Governor’s May Budget Revision
As you know, the Governor released his May Revision to the budget this afternoon. As in January, the proposal needs to solve an approximately $20 billion deficit. As expected the Governor proposes to solve most of the problem through cuts.
The major action in the corrections budget is to transfer certain “non-serious, nonviolent and non-sex offenders” to local government. Under his proposal, approximately 15,000 inmates would be kept in the counties (forcing a line number of jail inmates to the streets). He would provide the counties with half of the state savings resulting from the transfers. This proposal is a new version of his January proposal to make certain crimes misdemeanors only. The major difference is that under the new plan he is providing locals with money—an element that was not included in the January proposal. Nevertheless, the impact on public safety will be similar—15,000 jail inmates will be forced to be released to make room in the jails for the state inmates...
May 13, 2010
Land sale proposed; bill would redevelop property at CIM
A bill making its way through Sacramento would allow unused state land around California Institution for Men to be used for commercial and industrial development.
Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, is sponsoring the bill that could also provide for upgrades to the state prison.
The Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee approved the bill this month. The full Assembly is expected to consider the bill later this month...
LINK - DailyBulletin.com
May 1, 2010
California can’t ditch prison medical receiver, court says
A federal appellate court on Friday rejected the Schwarzenegger administration's attempt to rid itself of the court-appointed receiver charged with bringing prison medical care up to a constitutional standard.
The record of the protracted class action lawsuit supports the trial judge's ruling that, contrary to the administration's argument, appointment of a receiver goes "no further than necessary to correct the constitutional violations, and was the least intrusive means," a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared.
"The state to this day has not pointed to any evidence that it could remedy its constitutional violations in the absence of the receivership," the judges said...
LINK - SacBee.com
April 12, 2010
Report: Are Florida’s Private Prisons Keeping Their Promise?
Lack of Evidence to Show They Cost Less and Have Better Outcomes than Public Prisons
April 10, 2010
Tentative prison deal in Stockton
Local leaders reached a tentative agreement Friday with state corrections officials and prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso to build an inmate medical facility southeast of Stockton.
The settlement ends nearly six months of tense negotiations and resolves a lawsuit over the 1,722-bed prison for physically and mentally ill prisoners. Once built it will be called the California Medical Facility, Stockton.
"There's been lots of animosity and hard feelings, but in the end I think everybody wins," San Joaquin County Supervisor Leroy Ornellas said. "That's good news..."
LINK - Recordnet.com
April 5, 2010
East Bay braces for influx of released prisoners
Bracing for an influx of newly released prisoners, East Bay leaders are working with social services groups to prevent the former inmates from returning to lives of crime.
The concern has reached a critical point because state legislation has relaxed restrictions on parolees and led to the early release of prisoners considered low risk. The state sought the changes to save money and to ease prison overcrowding and health care problems.
The state aims to decrease the prison population by tens of thousands over the next two to three years...
LINK - InsideBayArea.com
April 2, 2010
Billions wasted in CA government?
A report from the California Taxpayers Association says that California state employees have wasted $19 billion over the last 10 years.
Here are a few examples:
Example number one: The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation gave free apartments and free hotel rooms with cable TV and free breakfast to paroled sex offenders. Cost to taxpayers: $22 million.
Example number two: Prison officials rented empty offices for four years. The cost to taxpayers? $580,000...
LINK - CBS13.com On the Money
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 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 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 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 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
February 25, 2010
Gov says he “vastly overstated” criminal alien commutations from 8,500 to just 850?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration said Tuesday that the governor will not commute the sentences of thousands of illegal immigrant inmates even though majority Democrats sent him a budget bill this week that assumes he will do so.
As part of a special session on the state budget, the Legislature on Monday sent Schwarzenegger bills that Democrats said would solve roughly $2.3 billion of the state's $19.9 billion budget deficit.
One proposed reduction was $182 million in the next fiscal year based on Schwarzenegger commuting the sentences of illegal immigrant inmates and handing them to federal officials for deportation...
LINK - SacBee.com
February 25, 2010
California prison health care cuts—a closer look
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats are backing an $811 million cut to prison medical costs in 2010-11, contained in a bill the Legislature sent the governor Monday. Democrats have included that cut as part of their $5 billion budget solution.
The $811 million cut wasn't based on California's needs or sophisticated analysis. It comes from applying New York's per-inmate cost of $5,757 to California's prison population, which the governor considers more appropriate than California's current cost of about $11,000 per inmate.
But the cut is not as severe as it might first seem. Schwarzenegger in his budget also proposed increasing the prison medical budget by $519.1 million this fiscal year and adding $532.2 million in 2010-11, a total of $1.05 billion from now until June 2011...
LINK - SacBee.com
February 25, 2010
Schwarzenegger, Whitman back away from ballot measure to cut pension costs
Despite their full-throated support for cutting public employee pension costs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the leading GOP candidate to replace him, Meg Whitman, have backed away from supporting a ballot measure that would do just that.
Their decisions, part of the complex calculus of California politics, are the death knell for the initiative drafted the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility. The Citrus Heights-based group had courted both the governor and the former eBay CEO.
"The governor felt he'd be a hindrance to us," said Marcia Fritz, president of the Citrus Heights-based foundation. "Meg is not supporting us. That's pretty much it."
The foundation qualified the measure for signature collection late last year, thinking Schwarzenegger or Whitman would lend a hand, maybe even write a few checks...
LINK - SacBee.com
February 15, 2010
Calif. early release program draws fire
A debate about public safety is raging as cash-strapped California plans early releases for more than 6,000 prison inmates in 2010 to save money, observers say.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration says legislation creating the early releases will make the state safer, while law enforcement and victims' rights groups claim the upcoming offender population shift from inside to out is a high-risk move, the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee reported Monday.
Changes in parole practices will safeguard the public, state officials said….
LINK - UPI.com
February 6, 2010
Former CDCR head Jeanne Woodford speaks about early release, inmate population reduction
SHERIFFS AROUND California, including in Contra Costa County, are raising legitimate concerns about efforts to reduce the state prison and jail populations. Any significant population reduction, they worry, will push counties to the brink financially and threaten public safety. I share their apprehension.
There can be no doubt that the prison population must be reduced. California simply cannot afford, nor does public safety require, locking up 170,000 people in state prisons on any given day (500 percent more than in 1980).
A federal three-judge panel has come to that conclusion. And several states, including New York, have experienced even greater falls in their crime rates than has California, while simultaneously reducing their prison populations…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
February 5, 2010
NOT eliminated, but SCAAP funding for prisons reduced by $70 million
The $90 million California is expected to receive from the federal government this year for jailing illegal immigrants convicted of crimes is far short of the state's roughly $1 billion annual cost, officials said.
"The federal government has sole control over the nation's borders. The states do not," said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state's finance department. "The incarceration costs associated are borne disproportionally by states like California."
Los Angeles County officials have not projected how much in reimbursement funds they could receive this year.
But in 2009, the county received $15.4 million in federal money, officials said. That is a fraction of the $100 million it spends on average to jail illegal immigrants…
LINK - LATimes.com
February 5, 2010
Our View: Feeling safe about prisoners’ early release
It's not just Californians - or even Californians with a weather eye on our state's budget mess - who are bothered by the fact that we spend too much to lock up too many in our prisons.
And it's not just progressives who worry about the side-effects of locking up hundreds of thousands with very little effort made to "rehabilitate" them.
It's no less a personage than Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. While he's sometimes seen as aligned with a moderate wing on the high court, it was Kennedy, after all, who wrote the recent ruling allowing big business to go back to contributing cash in big ways to political campaigns. So he's no Tom Hayden…
LINK - PasadenaNews.com
February 4, 2010
Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso on prisons, privatization
J. Clark Kelso has a long history as a "fix-it" man in state government. In his latest assignment, as the federal receiver in charge of prison health care, he's been tasked with fixing a system so dysfunctional it's become a national symbol of what's wrong with corrections.
But the McGeorge Law School professor also has a long academic career under his belt. And it is in his role as a legal expert that we can find clues to his performance as a powerful prison overseer.
In his many years of writings for academic journals and also opining on legislation, a portrait emerges of a man with clear ideas about how we got into our current mess — and how we might get out of it. He has also shown a willingness to offer opinions that put him at odds with some of the most powerful institutions in the state, including judges, the Department of Corrections and the powerful state prison guards' union…
LINK - Capitolweekly.net
February 4, 2010
US Supreme Court Justice Kennedy on Calif prisons and CCPOA
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy criticized California sentencing policies and crowded prisons Wednesday night, calling the influence that unionized prison guards had in passing the three-strikes law "sick."
In an otherwise courtly and humorous address to the Los Angeles legal community, Kennedy expressed obvious dismay over the state of corrections and rehabilitation in the country. He said U.S. sentences are eight times longer than those issued by European courts.
"California now has 185,000 people in prison at $32,500 a year" each, he said. He then urged voters and officials to compare that expense to what taxpayers spend per pupil in elementary schools….
LINK - LATimes.com
February 3, 2010
CDCR promises better inmate rehab services but cuts $250 million from programs?
CDCR stands for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, but after $250 million in cuts to the rehabilitation programs, some believe it should just be called CDC.
Douglas Jockinsen, a correctional facility teacher who could be laid off March 1 said, "There is no 'R' in CDCR. And the programs that are left are a shadow of their former selves. They are the only programs that have shown to cut recidivism, people coming back to prison."
CDCR's Web site says "Inmates who learn to read and write and those who gain a skill are far more likely to succeed upon release. Those who do not are more likely to re-offend and end up back in prison."
With the hundreds of teacher cuts, CDCR will also have a new model when it comes to education — model they admit is not ideal….
LINK - Turnto23.com
February 3, 2010
Ventura County forced to released over 100 inmates so far under Gov’s early release legislation
Ventura County jail officials have begun releasing many inmates earlier than previously expected, to comply with a new state law that gives nonviolent offenders more time credits for good behavior.
Since the law took effect Jan. 25, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department has released 188 inmates early under its provisions, sheriff's officials said Wednesday. That figure represents almost 13 percent of the average total inmate population in county jails. Of the 188, 113 were released on the first day the law took effect.
The law also led to the early release of 22 people in the Ventura County Probation Agency's Work Furlough program, said Chief Probation Officer Karen Staples. The program allows certain inmates to work during the day and return to custody at night…
LINK - VCStar.com
February 3, 2010
May Revision Overview: Judicial & Criminal Justice
Major State Programs. The major state judicial and criminal justice programs include the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the Department of Justice, as well as the state court system. 2009-10 Budget. The 2009-10 Budget Act includes a total of $12.5 billion from the General Fund for judicial and criminal justice programs, which is about 14 percent of all General Fund spending. This amount—which includes support for operations, capital outlay, and debt service for related facilities—represents a decrease of about $727 million, or 6 percent, below the revised level of current-year spending for these programs....
February 1, 2010
Editorial: Gov’s Mexican prison idea a joke?
Governor, tell us you're joking about building state prisons in Mexico.
More absurd ideas may have arisen out of the Capitol in recent history, but none quite so impossibly impractical has made it out the mouth of a governor not nicknamed Moonbeam.
First, the context. This wasn't something Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger muttered in the gym locker room, though for all we know that's where the idea originated. (The governor's office remains coy about exactly who came up with this notion of sending thousands of undocumented inmates to specially built prisons south of the border.)
This was a straight-faced statement at the Sacramento Press Club, where the governor knew he was on the record…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
January 30, 2010
CHP union exec: lower pensions for new hires?
The chief executive of the trendsetting California Highway Patrol union told a CalPERS forum last week that he is thinking about negotiating lower pension benefits for new hires, a move to protect them from a greater rollback by a future initiative.
Jon Hamm, the CEO of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, said he is concerned about "pension envy" among private-sector workers with dwindling retirement security as corporations switch to 401(k) individual investment plans.
Hamm said "public employee unions are becoming villains" because some are playing on public fears. He also said assuming that economic growth will return to "normal" and generate the big pension investment earnings of the past could backfire…
LINK - CalPensions.com
January 30, 2010
More local, state lawmakers critical of Gov’s early inmate releases
In the growing furor over the early release of thousands of inmates by the cash-strapped corrections system, Assemblyman Ted Lieu on Friday accused officials of trying to deceive the public by defending the plan.
Lieu sent a letter to Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, "demanding that CDCR stop misleading the public."
"In my over 15 years of public service, including serving on active duty to defend our country, I have never before seen this scale of deception and misleading statements being made by a California governmental agency to the media," said Lieu, D-Torrance…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
January 28, 2010
Parolee release siphons into county
About 200 unsupervised parolees are anticipated to be returned to Butte County gradually this year under a state plan to save money and reduce prison overcrowding.
That was the assessment Chico police chief Mike Maloney said he received during a meeting with other law enforcement and parole officials prior to the new prison reduction measures going into effect Monday.
"We haven't been given a lot of detail about what is happening and it's implication, but the release of that many unsupervised parolees causes us significant concern," Maloney said…
LINK - ChicoER.com
January 28, 2010
LA County Sheriff Lee Baca critical of Gov’s early release law, Gov’s proposed budget
OUR economic problems and California's budget crisis have impacted every level of government: state, county and city. Painful cuts have been and will continue to be made in all areas. Inevitably up and down the state, counties and local governments are looking at another year of reduced budgets and additional cuts. I write this to share with you what impacts these cuts will have on public safety and on our communities.
Legislators wrote and passed Senate Bill 18 (SBX3 18), which took effect Monday. This measure was written as a way for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to decrease its budget by cutting the amount of time sentenced inmates serve in prison by increasing sentencing credits for jail and prison inmates. It also removes certain prisoners who would normally be released on a supervised parole, meaning the parolee would have a parole agent and a detailed program of re-entry, and places them on unsupervised parole, better known as summary parole…
LINK - DailyNews.com
January 26, 2010
Schwarzenegger, Mexico and private prisons?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that the state could save $1 billion by building and operating prisons in Mexico to house undocumented felons who are currently imprisoned in California.
The governor floated the idea during an appearance at the Sacramento Press Club in response to a question about controlling state spending. His speech came on the same day that changes in prisoner parole and credits for time served took effect.
"We pay them to build the prisons down in Mexico and then we have those undocumented immigrants be down there in a prison. … And all this, it would be half the cost to build the prisons and half the cost to run the prisons," Schwarzenegger said, predicting it would save the state $1 billion that could be spent on higher education…
LINK - SFGate.com
January 26, 2010
REGION: Hundreds of jail inmates freed
A few hundred convicted criminals walked out of county jails Monday, their time behind bars cut short as part of a new law that aims to save money and thin California prisons.
In San Diego County, about 260 inmates left jail with their sentences shaved by as much as two months under the new law, which went into effect across the state on Monday. About 30 had been held at the Vista jail.
In Riverside County, about 127 jail inmates were released, officials said…
LINK - NCTimes.com
January 26, 2010
Cate calls inmate early release plan “a win-win” and “a landmark achievement”
A new law aimed at reducing the state's inmate population took effect yesterday and had an immediate effect in San Diego County, where about 260 nonviolent offenders were released.
The convicts here — all doing time for offenses such as drug possession or petty theft — were let go under a provision that forces local officials to retroactively recalculate how they shorten sentences for good behavior and other credits.
Local law enforcement and court officials reviewed the files of 1,600 inmates, including those in county jails, to determine who should get out early, said Lisa Rodriguez, a deputy district attorney. Those convicted of serious, violent or sex crimes aren't eligible for the accelerated credits, Rodriguez said…
LINK - SignOnSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
January 26, 2010
Costs for CCA’s out-of-state private prisoner contract soars
The price tag for California's out-of-state prisoners has jumped in three years from $20 million in late 2006, to $630 million in 2009-10.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as well as the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) addressed rising out-of-state prisoner costs in a recent hearing by the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review.
California was ordered in 2006 by the federal government to relieve the overcrowding in California prisons, which at the time, was nearly 200 percent of planned prison capacity, according to Scott Kernan with the CDCR. The recent final federal order was issued Jan. 13, 2010 by a three-judge District Court panel requiring a cut in prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two years — a reduction of approximately 40,000 inmates…
LINK - CalWatchDog.com
January 25, 2010
Schwarzenegger coming after unions - again
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put organized labor squarely in his cross-hairs in 2010, opening a fight that will largely determine the shape of his final year in office.
Schwarzenegger's proposals would cut the size of the union workforce, reduce pay, shrink future pensions and roll back job protections won through collective bargaining.
Labor and the unions' Democratic allies are already girding for battle.
"It's a continuing jihad against organized labor," said Steve Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist. "The governor thinks public employee unions are Enemy No. 1."…
LINK - LATimes.com
January 22, 2010
Police union concerned about releasing felons early from state prisons
The union representing Los Angeles police is concerned that releasing thousands of felons early from state prisons Jan. 25, including some 5,000 who are expected to return to the Los Angeles area, will jeopardize public safety.
The court-ordered plan to reduce the prison population will result in convicted felons being released into communities "without any supervision," according to the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
"The county of Los Angeles will be dramatically impacted, with over 5,000 felons to be released to our city," LAPPL President Paul M. Weber said in a statement. "What concerns law enforcement is that unlike the current program, where released inmates have been placed on parole, restricted from certain types of activities, or provided various community-based rehabilitative resources, these inmates will be completely unsupervised…"
LINK - DailyNews.com
January 20, 2010
Prisoner release plan halted pending review
A federal court order to release 40,000 inmates to relieve prison crowding in California was delayed for up to a year on Tuesday, pending a final review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Justices turned down a challenge by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration to the court order that forces the state to reduce its prison population. The action opens the door for another appeal by the state.
A three-judge federal panel last summer ordered the state Department of Corrections to reduce the prison population by about 40,000 inmates over two years in order to provide inmates with a constitutional level of health care. At issue for the Schwarzenegger administration is whether the judicial panel exceeded its authority in ordering the release of inmates…
LINK - SBSun.com (San Bernadino Sun)
January 18, 2010
Assembly committee to reveiew out-of-state private prison contract
WEDNESDAY: California spends a far higher percentage of its state budget on corrections than any other state, and Schwarzenegger is proposing that lower-cost private prisons take a bigger share of the load. The Assembly Accountability Committee will be looking at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's use of out-of-state prisons at a hearing Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. in Room 444. And next week, the Senate Budget Committee is set to look at prison spending as well.
LINK - FresnoBee.com
January 17, 2010
ACLU blasts Gov’s private prison plan too!
In a move nearly as audacious as his fleet of Hummers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger elated many public educators and criminal justice reformers in his State of the State speech by publicly embracing the "books not bars" motto that had been a rallying cry of grass-roots organizations for a decade.
Schwarzenegger declared that California should no longer spend more money on prisons than education and proposed a state constitutional amendment that would reverse the current spending ratio. "The priorities have become out of whack over the years," he said. "What does it say about any state that focuses more on prison uniforms than on caps and gowns?"
Good question, Governor…
LINK - SacBee.com
January 17, 2010
Opinion: “Privatizing prisons a bad idea”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a big splash Jan. 6 by proposing a constitutional amendment to guarantee a bigger budget for higher public education in California each year than for the state's scandal-ridden prisons. Celebration in University Hall, gnashing of teeth by the prison guards union. What's wrong with that?
It's hard to disagree with a policy of beefing up public universities as an investment in California's future, the way we did in the good old days — rather than starving them into privatization as at present. Never mind how that promise can be carried out in the face of another $20 billion this year in cuts to essential public services statewide.
But the little-remarked, yet outlandish, truly scary part of the governor's plan was what came next: in order to make the prisons more cost-effective, he asserted, we should create a system of competition between public and privately operated prisons, because "competition and choice are always good."…
LINK - SantaCruzSentinel.com
January 16, 2010
Ruling halts California prison pay tied to furloughs
An appeals court handed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a furlough lawsuit win Friday over Controller John Chiang and the union representing the state's correctional officers – at least for now.
The ruling by San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal temporarily keeps Chiang from restoring the state's 30,000 prison officers and their immediate supervisors to full pay for the time that they work.
The controller had said he would eliminate a pay reduction imposed on the guards in keeping with an Alameda judge's decision in December that so-called "self-directed" furloughs at prisons violate labor law. Such furloughs allow the state to cut workers' pay but defer the time off…
LINK - SacBee.com
January 16, 2010
$40 million tab for undocumented prisoners in Monterey County
It costs California taxpayers $40 million annually to house inmates in Monterey County prisons who are in the country illegally or whose immigration status is in question.
Getting more federal money to pay the cost of incarcerating such prisoners has been on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda since he raised the issue with the Bush administration several years ago. Now he's turned up the volume a notch, asking this month for $880 million in federal money for undocumented inmates, part of his effort to bridge a $20 billion California budget deficit.
At the Salinas Valley State Prison and the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, 757 inmates are subject to existing or potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds, according to data from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation…
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
January 16, 2010
Governor looks to privatization of prisons, some wary
In his final State of the State speech last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger raised the possibility of privatizing state prisons as a way of saving money for increased university spending.
The state spends about $52,000 on each of its roughly 165,000 prisoners annually, in comparison to $32,000 in other states, officials said. Now the governor and state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are looking into bringing the private sector in as a means of driving costs down…
LINK - PasadenaStarNews.com
January 15, 2010
Editorial: “Trained correctional officers necessary”
The article "State considers private prisons," Jan. 12, provided comments from various stakeholders - the governor, the Legislature, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Each argued for or against the privatization of California prisons. Regretfully, none of the individuals quoted spoke for or about the consequences to taxpayers, the families of inmates, or even the inmates.
Prisons are supposed to provide two distinct and important functions: providing for the incarceration of those individuals who are a threat to public safety; and rehabilitating those individuals who want to and can be, which is even more important financially to every taxpayer. The prison system has abjectly failed to provide either as is demonstrated by the 70 percent rate of recidivism and the number of inmates who become repeat offenders. If any business had a product failure rate of 70 percent, it would be closed. Unfortunately, we cannot close our prisons.
The high cost of prisons is falsely attributed to the people that work in them, the correctional officers and medical staff, to name a few. The governor, in order to find a "quick fix" and to "retaliate against the union," suggests that the best way to reduce costs will be to open private prisons which pay their staffs less. As with all simplistic solutions, it sounds good in a sound bite, but it is doomed to failure…
LINK - SBSun.com (San Bernadino Sun)
January 15, 2010
Alleged Coachella Valley killing shows the risk of early release plan
California's early prisoner release program amid Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Draconian" $1.2 billion cuts to prisons jeopardizes public safety.
These cuts are part of Sacramento's cost-saving strategies — but at what cost? Sunday's Valley section of The Desert Sun covered the recent murder of a Coachella Valley resident — the murder suspect is a convicted burglar who was supposed to be serving an eight-month sentence but was released in July after serving only 50 percent of his time.
When questioned, parole authorities could not account as to why the murder suspect was released back into the community…
LINK - MyDesert.com (The Desert Sun)
January 14, 2010
Gov’s prison & education plan called “True Lies” by law professor
Most of what Governor Schwarzenegger has said during his six years in office about California's bloated carceral state is true. Most of his proposals to move us beyond this obvious disaster for our polity amount to lies.
I have nothing against rhetoric, in fact I make my living producing and analyzing it (with apologies to the professionals in the rhetoric department). Indeed, I had great hopes that this action hero Governor might really use his clear rhetorical skills to tell Californians that we have too much fear embodied in our penal code and prison policies.
• He called the parole system "broken."
• He described our prisons as involved in "warehousing people" (a phrase used by Marxist criminologists in my days in graduate school).
• He renamed our prison agency the "Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation" (a bit repetitive, but the right direction).
• And just the other day he spoke about the shame of a state that spends more on prisons than higher education (as if he was just arriving in the state).Sadly, beyond renaming the boxes, Governor Schwarzenegger's policy moves have mostly been non-serious, including this proposal to use our constitution to favor higher education spending over prisons…
LINK - CaliforniaProgressReport.com
January 13, 2010
Tuolumne County Sheriff calls Gov’s prison plan a “lose-lose”
Tuolumne County Sheriff Jim Mele expressed an outspoken reaction to several entities regarding two California prisoner release proposals.
Tuesday that three judge panel selected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco handed down a ruling calling for the release of 40,000 prisoners within a two year period. At the same time the judges did postpone the effective date of that order pending U.S. Supreme Court consideration and another order scheduled for August on how to implement a release plan.
Meanwhile Governor Schwarzenegger has called for the transfer of state prisoners to serve out their time in county jails to easy the state budget crisis. The Governor is hopeful of reducing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget by $1.2 billion…
LINK - MyMotherLode.com
January 12, 2010
New furlough dispute brews between controller and Schwarzenegger administration
State Controller John Chiang told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration today that he intends to end forced furloughs for state correctional officers this month, prompting a threat from the governor's office to dock other pay from state prison workers and resort to layoffs.
If Chiang follows through on his decision and it is not overturned, the prison guards would be the largest group of state workers to have succeeded in overturning the forced furloughs that have been in effect for a year and amount to a 15% reduction in pay…
LINK - LATimesblogs.LATimes.com
January 12, 2010
Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) says Gov’s budget full of holes
The Governor proposes $19.9 billion of budget solutions in 2009-10 and 2010-11 to address the budget shortfall and create a $1 billion reserve. While it is reasonable to assume the state will secure some new federal funding and flexibility, the chances that the state will receive all of what the Governor seeks from Washington are almost non-existent. The Legislature should assume that federal relief will be billions of dollars less than the Governor wants—necessitating that it make more very difficult decisions affecting both state revenues and spending. Many of this year's budget solutions will require significant time for departments to implement. Therefore, the Legislature and the Governor need to agree to a framework to solve much of the budget problem by the end of March…
LINK - LAO.ca.gov
January 12, 2010
3-judge panel approves Gov’s prison population reduction plan
A panel of three federal judges has approved a court-ordered plan submitted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce overcrowding in California prisons, under a decision released today.
Schwarzenegger has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn last year's decision by the federal judges presiding over a pair of lawsuits by inmates who said overcrowding violates their rights to adequate medical and mental healthcare.
In the meantime, the governor was required to submit a plan showing how, if the state loses, he would reduce the inmate population by up to 40,000 over two years. His first plan was rejected by the judges in October because it did not meet the required population targets or timeline…
LINK - LATimes.com
January 11, 2010
BUDGET RESPONSE
In a press release titled, "CCPOA Responds to the Governor's Proposed Budget," and dated January 8, 2010, CCPOA says: "Today the governor released his proposed state budget for fiscal year 2010-11, which fails to include any comprehensive and desperately needed prison reform ideas. Instead, what he has proposed is simply 'business as usual.' Among the many flaws in his new budget is his plan to place out-of-state, for-profit corporations in charge of California's prisons..."
January 11, 2010
An officer’s wife speaks out on furloughs
Prison guards have been living with furlough days since last February.
During the past 11 months, dozens of lawsuits have been filed and are pending against furlough days. Some of the verdicts that are pending would order the state to pay back the money that was taken from state employees who took furlough days.
Although these workers would be receiving big checks, some say it's too late. Eyewitness News talked with one woman who is married to a prison guard. For the sake of her husband's job, she wanted to remain anonymous…
LINK - BakersfieldNow.com
January 11, 2010
Adelanto trying to profit from selling prison to private prison company
The city is entering 2010 with depleted reserves, long-awaited commercial centers on hold and only a handful of recreational and road projects moving forward — but officials hope to gain financial footing by selling off city-owned properties.
The city is working to close two property deals they hope will replenish the city's dwindling coffer: selling the city-owned Adelanto Community Correctional Facility to private operator Geo Group, Inc. and selling or leasing the city-owned Stater Bros. Stadium baseball stadium.
"The sale of the prison becomes critical for us in 2010," City Manger Jim Hart said…
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
NOTE: The city should have sold the prison to CDCR since the department needs beds – the prison has 550-beds sitting empty right now, but the Gov, instead wants to pretend to privatize the system when economical answers are right in front of him. $29 million for 550 beds is dirt cheap for CDCR standards. You can lead a horse to water… or I guess a pony and a pig…
January 11, 2010
How much is a prison beating worth?
If you're Sherman Schuett, the answer to the question posed by the headline above, at least for lawsuit-filing purposes, is in excess of $100,000. The 61-year-old state inmate and his Evergreen attorney, Ron Beeks, are suing the operators of a controversial private prison in Colorado Springs that's supposed to help prepare prisoners for the difficult journey back to society.
The Cheyenne Mountain Re-Entry Center encourages its clients to take responsibility for their actions and confront misbehavior by others. That's what Schuett thought he was doing in 2008 when he reported another resident for punching holes in the wal l– an act that might be considered snitching in a more traditional correctional facility. An employee left Schuett's report where the other prisoner could see it, and Schuett was attacked in a unit that he claims lacked any supervision. He suffered various facial injuries, including a contact smashed in one eye, and spent three months in segregation after the attack for his own protection…
LINK - WestWord.com
January 11, 2010
More on Gov’s private prison plan, CCPOA response
Changes could be expected to California's prisons in 2010 as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger aims to reduce prison costs.
Schwarzenegger's proposal to allow private prisons to compete with public prisons could add billions of dollars to the general fund a year, he said. That money could then be funneled into the education system.
Although official plans have yet to be decided, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been looking into various models to adhere to the governor's goals…
LINK - SBSun.com
January 10, 2010
Governor’s budget would strip city, county cash
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has demanded more federal dollars to help balance the state's budget, but local officials say he also sent a clear message to cities and counties throughout California: The state is coming for your money, too.
Included in the governor's proposal to bridge a $20 billion budget gap are measures that could strip more than $1 billion in transit funds from local jurisdictions, put more inmates in already overcrowded county jails, and require counties to pay more for child welfare and care for blind, disabled and elderly people…
LINK - SFGate.com
January 10, 2010
Higher Education: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Does the State Spend More on Corrections or Higher Education?
About a fifth of the state General Fund budget goes to higher education and corrections combined. State spending in these two areas responds to very different cost pressures, so it is not surprise that funding trends could differ. Nonetheless, the question is commonly asked which sector receives more state support. There is no single answer to the question.
January 8, 2010
LAO’s Report: Does the State Spend More on Corrections or Higher Education?
A new report released by the California Legislative Analyst's Office looks at spending trends of Corrections and Higher Education, the two departments getting the most focus in the Governor's State of the State Address and 2010-2011 budget:
About a fifth of the state General Fund budget goes to higher education and corrections combined. State spending in these two areas responds to very different cost pressures, so it is not surprise that funding trends could differ. Nonetheless, the question is commonly asked which sector receives more state support. There is no single answer to the question…
VIEW the FULL REPORT
January 5, 2010
Editorial: “Prison guards working with no pay”
I love those tales that go around about correctional officers and how they are overpaid, underworked and sucking the system dry with their overtime. Quite good tales, huh? More like fairy tales!
I have never seen a harder working group of people in my life. Like the officer attacked at California State Prison-Sacramento, here is a group of people who go to work every day and put their lives in danger for the safety of the people of California.
They even come to work when they are "furloughed."
LINK - ModBee.com
January 3, 2010
Furlough Frustration?
Feeling frustrated regarding having to work for free? Want to let the Governor know how you feel? Well, here is the phone number to the Governors office (916) 445-2841. Please be sure to remain professional and whatever you do don't call from a state phone. Those who have called so far have not been treated with respect, so be prepared to be told that you are "lucky" to make the money that you do. If you feel like it, send an e-mail of your conversation with our loving Governors staff to nichol.gomez@ccpoa.org for possible publication. Also, you may want to take the time to contact your local legislators district office and let them know the hardships this decision by this Governor is causing you and your family. You can find your legislator by clicking on this link leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html and then entering your zip code.
Take Action! Call The Governors Office (916) 445-2841
January 2, 2010
Gov promises jobs while threatening lay-offs and furloughs?
Governor Schwarzenegger Highlights Priorities for 2010, Wishes Californians Happy New Year in Weekly Radio Address:
An English audio link of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's weekly radio address is below.
English:
The 2-minute, 4-second address is available at http://gov.ca.gov/mp3/press/20091211_address.mp3. The file is 489 KB.
…That is why my New Year's Resolution is to help speed up our economic recovery and create a job for every Californian who wants one.
My Number One priority is jobs, jobs, jobs.
And in my State of the State Address next week, I will announce a job creation package to help spur job growth and jumpstart our economy…
LINK - Read the FULL Message at gov.ca.gov
December 23, 2009
Breaking News: Schwarzenegger budget plan will include furlough, layoff options
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to save $1.6 billion in state employee costs by maintaining monthly furloughs past next June, instituting layoffs or shifting general fund workers into positions financed by other revenues, according to sources familiar with the governor's forthcoming budget proposal.
California faces a $20.7 billion general fund budget deficit through June 2011, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Schwarzenegger ordered an estimated 200,000 state workers to take two furlough days a month starting last February and then three per month starting in July to save an estimated $1.4 billion in general fund dollars. Under the governor's new budget proposal, furloughs could continue beyond the scheduled end date of June 2010…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 22, 2009
Union says overtime hours at PDC skyrocket
Hundreds of psychiatric technicians at the Porterville Developmental Center have accumulated massive amounts of overtime, according to new statistics that one union says cost taxpayers up to $180,000 in November alone.
The California Association of Psychiatric Technicians (CAPT) found that its 759 local members worked 5,900 hours of overtime in November—a 257 percent increase since September.
The state-run hospital for the severely mentally disabled is grappling with maintaining a staff-to-client ratio while implementing unpaid furloughs.
"This is a big concern for us," CAPT consultant Brady Oppenheim said. "Our concern is for the taxpayers who are having to foot the bill…"
LINK - RecorderOnline.com
December 16, 2009
Police chief op-ed: career criminals to be released under Schwarzenegger plan
…Many have forgotten the importance of the criminal justice system to include our prisons. California prisons are filled with Clemmons types. Many are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction and refuse to be rehabilitated. When they do get out, we rely on our police officers to stand between them and us.
When someone like Clemmons is willing to kill four police officers in broad daylight, how much easier is it to kill four innocent citizens?…
LINK - Times-Standard.com
December 15, 2009
Sac Bee opines on prisons, budget, Kelso and CDCR
Whom should the public hold responsible for runaway overtime costs for prison health care?
The governor and California's dysfunctional Legislature are largely to blame, followed by a prison health care bureaucracy overseen by a federal receiver who has failed to protect taxpayers.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers consistently approve budgets that understate the true cost of prison health care, and therefore understate the numbers of nurses, nurse assistants, clinicians, doctors and others who are needed to provide the minimum care required under the state and U.S. constitutions. That in turn leads to the eye-popping overtime costs The Bee's Charles Piller documented in his recent report…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 15, 2009
Kelso talks about budget, staffing problems in CDCR
Responding to a Bee investigation of severe problems in clinical staffing of state prisons, health care receiver J. Clark Kelso said at a news conference on Monday that budget shortfalls and management lapses underlie staffing pressures at some prisons.
The Bee reported that a costly 24-hour suicide-watch program often relies on highly paid nurses for the uncomplicated task, rather than using assistants who earn far less – and that many prisoners exploit the program by feigning suicidal thoughts. Suicide watch cost the prisons $750,000 in a single month last year.
"Is that a management failure, or a budgeting failure?" Kelso said of the cost. "Probably something in between…"
LINK - SacBee.com
December 14, 2009
Spending spree in CDCR/Fed Reciever - nurses paid $393 per hour?
Anna Marie Antonio, a nurse practitioner who has worked at the California Medical Facility prison in Vacaville, is golden.
Antonio may be a superb clinician. But her sparkle lies in payments for her services by the court-appointed receiver who manages health care in California's prisons. Antonio's temporary employment agency, or registry, collected $393 per hour for her work – more than six times the average paid to state employees for the same work.
When Antonio learned of the rate from a reporter, she gasped: "Wow!"…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 14, 2009
Rampant OT fuels prison health cost
California's prison health-care employees work hard — or so it would seem by their schedules. Many average 12 hours a day; others routinely log 16- to 18-hour shifts for months on end, creating a costly overtime free-for-all in this budget-strapped state.
An abundance of forced and voluntary overtime has driven some nurses beyond human endurance. In the process, the long hours have opened the door for deadly lapses in a health-care system just beginning to recover from decades of neglect…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
