Cdcr
February 3, 2012
Inmate pleads guilty to murdering killer of Novato girl
A San Quentin inmate who stabbed a Novato girl's killer to death on a prison yard pleaded guilty Thursday in a deal to avoid the death penalty.
Frank Souza, 33, admitted to first-degree murder with special circumstances in the death of Edward Schaefer in 2010. The attack occurred shortly after Schaefer started his prison sentence for killing 9-year-old Melody Osheroff in a Novato crosswalk during a drunken motorcycle ride...
LINK - MarinIJ.com
February 2, 2012
Refusal to fund California prison construction could delay end of federal oversight
For six years, a federal receiver has been in charge of fixing California’s broken-down prison medical system.
The receiver says he can finish the job soon, but he needs state lawmakers to pay the full $2 billion they promised for medical facilities. The state has already spent a billion dollars on improvements. Lawmakers now say they don’t need to spend any more. The receiver worries that the improvements in prison medical care could slip away...
LINK - SCPR.org
February 1, 2012
California’s youth prisons nearing an end
In January 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown announced his plan to shut down all state youth prisons by 2014. If backed by the Legislature, the governor's proposal would have counties share $10 million to develop prudent local alternatives to state custodial facilities. By January 2013, the Division of Juvenile Justice will no longer accept any new admissions, and the entire system will gradually phase out in 2014.
There is significant opposition to this proposal from many youth advocates, probation chiefs, judges and district attorneys. Some are concerned that the counties do not have the programs and resources to manage the current DJJ population, that the youth facility closure will lead to more youth being sentenced to adult prisons and jails, and that there will be wide disparities in treatment and confinement conditions across the diverse counties of the Golden State...
LINK - SFGate.com
February 1, 2012
Editorial: State must grapple with aging prisoners
California finally is making headway in reducing numbers in overcrowded prisons – enough to get the federal courts to say that the end of federal receivership "appears to be in sight."
But to get California prisons back under state control, the state will have to provide a credible plan by the end of April for tackling the other major problem in the prison system: An aging inmate population....
LINK - SacBee.com
February 1, 2012
Event celebrates Calipatria’s State Prison’s 20th anniversary
While the surrounding community has changed a lot in the past 20 years, so has Calipatria State Prison, said Robert Silvas.
Silvas, a 17-year prison employee who serves as a sergeant, said Tuesday that in addition to being one of the first California correctional facilities to feature an electrical fence, Calipatria State Prison was also the place in 2005 where one of the worst-ever prison riots occurred....
LINK - IVPressOnline.com
January 31, 2012
California cuts prison staffing
With about 14,000 fewer inmates in its prisons because most of them have been transferred to county jails, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is sending notices to 548 workers that they will lose their jobs.
The first wave of firings is set for Feb. 29. A second round is expected in the fall.
Those losing their jobs include about 140 guards...
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
January 31, 2012
CMC facing limited layoffs
Of the 545 layoff warning notices the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sent out last week, only seven went to employees of the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.
As part of a state prison realignment that is slated to reduce the prison population by 33,000 within two years by moving some offenders to county jails, staff numbers are also slated to decline. Throughout the state prison system, there are now 14,000 fewer inmates than there were six months ago...
LINK - CalCoastNews.com
January 30, 2012
State wavers on future of closed Paso Robles correctional facility
The governor’s decision to withhold more than $100 million to revamp the closed El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility into a re-entry facility for state prisoners is not necessarily permanent, a state spokesman said Monday, but local officials want more clarity about what the state intends to do with the place long-term.
“I’m a little confused” about the state’s intentions, said Frank Mecham, county supervisor and former Paso Robles mayor. He said he hopes the governor doesn’t plan to “leave it as a big white elephant, gathering weeds and dust.”
Meanwhile Paso Robles City Councilman Fred Strong has disinterred an old idea: asking the state to sell the land to Paso Robles for $1, so that “we could repurpose it in any number of possible ways....”
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
January 30, 2012
Hundreds Of Calif. Prison Employees Get Layoff Notices
California prison officials sent layoff notices to 545 employees, including 140 guards, as the inmate population declines to comply with a federal court order.
Corrections officials told KSBW on Friday that all 33 of California's prison institutions, including Salinas Valley State Prison and the correctional training facility near Soledad, will be impacted by the layoffs.
Layoffs will take effect Feb. 29, although some of those affected can transfer to other prisons that have vacancies...
LINK - KSBW.com
January 27, 2012
End of prison oversight not certain
The court-appointed receiver overseeing California's prison health care system said Friday the state must keep its promise to spend more than $2 billion for new medical facilities before the federal courts can end an oversight role that has lasted six years.
California has committed to spending $750 million to upgrade existing medical facilities, building a new medical center and converting juvenile lockups. So far, only the new medical center in Stockton is being built.
Receiver J. Clark Kelso told The Associated Press that the state must begin all the upgrades before it should be allowed to retake control of a prison medical system once deemed so poor that it was found to have violated inmates' constitutional rights. They are his first public comments since a federal judge last week told officials to begin preparing for an end to the receivership...
LINK - FoxNews.com
January 27, 2012
Meet & Confer Notice: Chuckwalla Valley State Prison
Access to Care Unit Operational Assessment - Corrective Action Plan - Chuckwalla Valley State Prison (Supervisory)...
January 27, 2012
Statewide Agreement: COMPSTAT
Statewide Agreement Between CCPOA and the State of California, CDCR Regarding the COMPSTAT Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) Tracking Log...
January 27, 2012
Statewide Agreement: AB 109 Conversion CSP-LAC
Statewide Agreement Between CCPOA and the State of California, CDCR Regarding the AB 109 Conversion for Facility "B" and "D" from Receiption Center to General Population (GP)...
January 27, 2012
Public Officials Talk About Public Safety Realignment
"If California took the resources made available for prison expansion or realignment, and invested them in re-entry services, affordable housing and jobs and all of the programs that are being cut ... that's going to have much more impact on public safety than building law enforcement.” Emily Harris, Statewide Coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget Daily Breeze, Christina Villacorte, January 25, 2012
“We’re going to make some adjustments, and sometimes they will be some fairly large adjustments. With sufficient resources, I do believe counties can and do already perform some of these services.” Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli Elk Grove Citizen, Brian M. Gold, January 25, 2012...
LINK - Turnto23.com
January 26, 2012
WHAT TO DO IF YOU RECEIVE A LAYOFF NOTICE
Bargaining Unit 6 employees subject to layoff should anticipate receiving a layoff notice soon, perhaps as early as Friday, January 27, 2012. If you receive a layoff notice and you believe you have reasons to contest your layoff due to errors in your seniority score, the form of the notice, or the layoff procedure itself, contact our CCPOA field representative, Corey Davis, immediately so that your case can be evaluated in a timely manner. Corey Davis can be reached by calling our Sacramento Office at (800) 821-6443 or (916) 372-6060...
January 26, 2012
Bill on media access to prisoners advances
The Assembly voted 47-22 today to pass a Bay Area lawmaker’s bill that would lift the ban on media interviews with specific inmates in California’s prisons.
Since the ban on pre-arranged inmate interviews went into effect in 1996, bill author Tom Ammiano noted, eight versions of this bill have been vetoed by three governors.
“Independent media access to prison inmates is a critical part of keeping our prisons transparent and accountable while providing information to the public,” Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said in a news release...
LINK - iBaBuzz.com
January 26, 2012
New acting Warden at CCI
Kim Holland is the new Acting Warden at the California Correctional Institution. Mike Stainer, the former Acting Warden who was formally appointed to the Warden’s position by Gov. Jerry Brown on Jan. 17, is on assignment as Acting Associate Director of the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Sacramento. Holland was introduced at a recent meeting of the CCI Citizens Advisory Committee.
Newly appointed Acting Warden Kim Holland was introduced at the Jan. 17 meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee at the California Correctional Institution.
Holland replaces Michael Stainer who has temporarily been stationed in Sacramento as Acting Associate Director. Stainer had been Acting Warden since December 2010 and was formally appointed as Warden at CCI by Gov. Jerry Brown on Jan. 17...
LINK - TehachapiNews.com
January 26, 2012
Sentence overturned for Chino prison guard
A federal appeals court panel has overturned the sentence of a former guard convicted of abusing two shackled inmates at a Chino prison.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that 42-year-old Robert McGowan was deprived of due process when a judge relied on an inmate's allegations as the basis for the four-year sentence imposed.
McGowan has served 19 months....
LINK - SFGate.com
January 26, 2012
Appeals Panel Tosses Prison Sentence Given To Chino Guard Convicted Of Abusing Inmates
A federal appellate panel Thursday threw out a four-year sentence given to a former Chino prison guard convicted of abusing inmates.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a district judge in Los Angeles should re-sentence Robert McGowan. He was convicted by a federal jury in 2007 after being accused of assault in a case in which shackled inmates were thrown to the ground.
In his appeal, McGowan, 42, of Apple Valley successfully argued that he was deprived of due process when the trial judge relied on a state prison inmate’s “unreliable allegations” as a basis for the 51-month sentence imposed in 2010...
LINK - LosAngeles.CBSLocal.com
January 25, 2012
Parolee convicted of murder for killing his wife in front of children
A paroled rapist who shot his wife to death in front of her two young children in Oceanside as the family prepared to go to church was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder.
After a day of deliberations, a jury found Dontaye Henderson guilty in the Jan. 1, 2011, death of his wife.
Henderson, 29, was also convicted of being a felon in possession of a gun. He faces up to 82 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 23 by Superior Court Judge Robert Kearney....
LINK - 760kfmb.com
January 25, 2012
Calif. Prisons Chief: Despite “Bumps,” There’s “Hope” in Realignment
Nearly four months into California’s shift of responsibility for low-level criminals from the state to counties, the state prisons chief says he’s “gratified” with how realignment is going so far.
Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate says realignment isn't perfect. He acknowledges hearing "anecdotes" about crimes that might not have happened without it. But he says realignment might prevent a lot of crimes too...
LINK - CapRadio.org
January 25, 2012
Solano’s First Sweep of Felons Under Gov’s New Prison Realignment Program
Three arrests off the top, during Solano County law enforcement officers' very first sweep of felons under the Governor's new prison realignment program.
"They are dangerous people that are coming out of prison, that are left with probation and law enforcement to deal with," said Lt. Brad Dewall, during one of the first arrests of the day.
"What we're doing is compliance checks to make sure that they are with terms and conditions of their release," Solano County Sheriff Gary Stanton said...
LINK - Fox40.com
January 25, 2012
More state prisoners may be moved to Rio Cosumnes jail
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors chair said last week the county will continue to feel Gov. Jerry Brown’s ongoing push to help slash California’s deficit by shifting some of the state’s responsibilities to local governments.
In his State of the State speech, Brown said that last year California was facing “a structural deficit” of more than $20 billion.
“It was a real mess,” he said. “But you rose to the occasion and together we shrunk state government, reduced our borrowing costs, and transferred key functions to local government, closer to the people..."
LINK - EGCitizen.com
January 25, 2012
CDCR’s Matt Cate talks to Sacramento Press Club
California's enormous budget problem is making it difficult for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to comply with the court-ordered reduction in its prison population, Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told 80 Sacramento Press Club luncheon guests Tuesday.
But, said Cate, "It's getting done."
Cate said the inmate population is 200 percent over capacity, and the goal is to reduce that to 137.5 percent. The major effort now --called Realignment-- is aimed at moving less violent inmates into county facilities. But the state budget problem is getting in the way. Cate said some counties want remuneration from the state for their added costs, and the state doesn't have the money...
LINK - CapitolMR.com (Subscription Only)
January 25, 2012
Fight brewing over historic California plan to close last three youth prisons
California, often a trendsetter, could make history if it approves Gov. Jerry Brown’s bid to close all state-run youth prisons and eliminate its state Division of Juvenile Justice.
Much depends, though, on whether the state’s politically influential prison guards, probation officers and district attorneys can be convinced — or forced by legislators — to agree to Brown’s proposal. That won’t be an easy sell, due to both public-safety arguments and sure-to-surface haggling over just who pays to house juvenile offenders...
LINK - iWatchNews.com
January 25, 2012
VSPW inmates opposed to prison conversion?
Inmates at Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) have flooded the office of Madera County District 2 Supervisor David Rogers with letters expressing their concerns and fears over the state's plan to convert the prison to a men's facility.
"These concerns," Rogers said, "range from losing valuable rehabilitative programs and the potential of being housed near women who have threatened their safety."
Recent numbers show about 3,000 women are housed in VSPW, Rogers said, which is 150 percent of design capacity. At Central California Women's Facility (CCWF), the second women's prison located in Chowchilla, there are about 3,400 inmates, 180 percent of design capacity, Rogers said. The only other women's facility, California Institute for Women (CIW), houses almost 2,000 inmates and was designed for 1,200...
LINK - SacBee.com
January 25, 2012
Chowchilla gets temporary restraining order on state’s plan to convert female prison to male
The city of Chowchilla said it was granted a Stipulation and Order temporarily prohibiting the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) from proceeding with the conversion of a women’s prison to a men’s prison as a part of the state’s prison realignment plan.
On Jan. 6, a petition for a Writ of Mandate was filed for CDCR’s failure to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Later, the city said it learned that CDCR was moving forward with the conversion. On Jan. 24, the city filed a Temporary Restraining Order against CDCR...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 23, 2012
Our View: Signs of progress in state prisons
Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment already is having a positive impact on the statewide prison system.
The population in these overcrowded prisons has dropped by 11,000 inmates -- to 133,000 -- in just six months. And the state is on track to get to 110,000 by June 2013.
That's a big change from 2006, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. Overcrowding in the prisons, Schwarzenegger said, "causes harm to people and property, leads to inmate unrest and misconduct, reduces or eliminates programs, and increases recidivism as shown within this state and in others."
California's prison medical care system was so broken that a federal judge took the drastic step of taking it away from the state and placing it in federal receivership. The goal, declared the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was to "reverse the entrenched paralysis and dysfunction and bring the delivery of health care in California prisons up to constitutional standards."
Well, California finally has turned a corner on that front, too...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 23, 2012
Prisoners ride shift; inmates return to Shasta County under new state law
Randy Cates, a 38-year-old homeless man staying at the Good News Rescue Mission in Redding, has been in and out of prison before. But this time it's different.
Cates was among the first of Shasta County's recently released state prison inmates to return this fall under a contentious new law that transferred responsibility of some of those who once were called parolees to the county's probation department.
Cates, who has a lengthy history of drug-related crimes, is now assigned to probation's "post release community supervision" program. The state classifies him as a "nonserious" offender...
LINK - Redding.com
January 23, 2012
Inmate Death at SATF in Corcoran Being Investigated As A Homicide
Officials at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (SATF) are investigating an inmate death as a homicide.
Jeffrey Lynn Goodwin, 43, was found on the institution’s recreation yard with an apparent head injury Thursday, January 19. Goodwin succumbed to his injuries at approximately 12:40 p.m. Sunday, January 22.
Officials from the prison and the Kings County District Attorney’s Office have named inmates Cedric Jerome Mills, 47, and Charles Morris, 41, as suspects in the case. Both inmates have been placed in administrative segregation while the investigation continues...
LINK - CDCRToday.Blogspot.com
January 23, 2012
UPD officers ‘maxed-out’ with each handling 1,200 calls a year
Chief Dewey exploring ways to ease burden on his staff
The Ukiah Police Department "has maxed-out its officers' time" and is looking for ways to reduce their workload by enlisting interns, volunteers and expanding its Community Services Officer (CSO) program.
"I think we're doing a fantastic job handling the calls we have," said Public Safety Director Chris Dewey, addressing the Ukiah City Council Saturday during a special meeting to discuss ways to streamline city operations...
LINK - UkiahDailyJournal.com
January 20, 2012
CCPOA Weekly Update: January 20, 2012
January 20, 2012
Meet & Confer Notices: Week of January 20, 2012
Meet and Confer notices for the week of January 20th including: Emergency Revision of January 2012 Institution Activation Schedule and Issuance of February 2012 Institution Activation Schedule; Implementation of EO B-11-11 and Senate Bill 26 Supervisory; Access to Care Unit Post Redirections at Chuckwalla Valley State Prison; and AB 109 Position Elimination at CCC...
January 17, 2012
Michael Stainer appointed warden at Tehachapi
SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments.
Michael Stainer, 48, of Tehachapi, has been appointed warden at the California Correctional Institution. Stainer has been chief deputy warden at the California Correctional Institution since 2008. He has worked with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in multiple positions since 1987. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $129,108. Stainer is a Republican.
January 17, 2012
Murderer paroled to Susanville area found dead from hanging
Convicted killer, Loren Herzog was found dead around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to corrections officer Terry Thornton.
Thornton said the parole agency supervising Herzog was alerted when his GPS device had a low battery. When officials checked on Herzog at his trailer just outside of the High Dessert State prison property, they found him hanging.
No suicide note was found at the location said Thornton...
LINK - RGJ.com
January 17, 2012
Judge to end Calif. prison receiver
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered California officials to prepare for the end of a six-year, court-ordered oversight of the prison system that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and helped force a shift of lower-level criminals from state prisons to county jails.
U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson cited improving conditions in the prison system in a three-page order that says "the end of the Receivership appears to be in sight."
The ruling marks an important milestone in a process that began nearly six years ago when the judge appointed a receiver to run California's prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. He cited inmate overcrowding as the leading cause, but said in Tuesday's order that conditions have improved...
LINK - SacBee.com
January 16, 2012
Behind the Badge: Rise in burglaries a sign of prison realignment failing
My wife went to her exercise class last Monday but found the gym was closed for the day as they repaired the damage from a burglary during the night. An hour later she tried to take our van to the mechanic, but found he was not going to open for business because someone tunneled through a wall and burglarized his shop. A few days later a neighbor came up to my door and wanted to know what he could do about the guy who broke into four cars on the street near his house.
People want to know what's happening and who is responsible for the increase in theft-related crime. A couple of incidents over the past few weeks might help answer those questions...
LINK - LodiNews.com
January 16, 2012
Calif. inmate should get kosher meals, appeals court rules
The California prison system is violating a Messianic Jewish prisoner's constitutional rights by denying him kosher food, a state appeals court ruled.
A three-justice panel of the California 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 11 that Margarito Jesus Garcia, who is serving 15 years to life for a conviction on second degree murder, should receive kosher meals from the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, reversing a lower court ruling...
LINK - JewishinStLouis.org
January 15, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown plans $1 billion in prison cuts
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to cut state prison spending next fiscal year for the first time in nearly a decade, a departure from the goals of recent administrations, which consistently increased corrections spending and pushed for prison expansion.
Brown's budget would save California $1.1 billion on housing inmates and hundreds of millions more by allowing the state to halt some prison construction - savings largely due to his administration's recent overhaul of the state's criminal justice system.
General fund spending on prisons nearly doubled under Brown's Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, from $5.2 billion in 2004 to $9.5 billion in 2011, when Brown, a Democrat, took office. The increase in spending was largely caused by an exploding inmate population and a court order to improve medical care in prisons...
LINK - SFGate.com
January 14, 2012
Disabled inmates denied crucial access, judge says
California prison officials have failed to monitor and protect hundreds of disabled parolees in county jails, some of whom have been denied such basic aids as canes and wheelchairs and aren't allowed to file grievances, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland said she first pointed out the state's failure to meet the needs of parolees with disabilities in a ruling more than a decade ago. But officials have done little to comply and are now trying to duck responsibility, she said.
There is "overwhelming and disturbing evidence" that disabled inmates are being "denied access to housing, programs and services" because of the state's violations of disability laws, Wilken said...
LINK - SFGate.com
January 14, 2012
Prison realignment is the best way - says CDCR
The recent opinion piece by a psychologist at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi about California's program for reducing prison overcrowding was full of inaccuracies ("What has realignment of prisons wrought? More than state warned," Jan. 9). As a corrections professional, Brik McDill should know better. Some of his claims were unsubstantiated, and some describe problems not attributable to public safety realignment. The bottom line is that California is legally required to reduce prison overcrowding, and realignment is preferable by far to a large-scale release of inmates.
Here's how realignment works. Starting Oct. 1, many low-level offenders who would previously have gone to state prisons were sent to the counties. The prison inmate population has now fallen 11,000 and should fall an additional 23,000 over the next 18 months...
LINK - Bakersfield.com
January 13, 2012
Tulare County taking state to court over suspended payments for juvenile offender programs
Tulare County is taking the California State Controller to court to stop plans for the state to suspend payments totaling more than $890,000 to support juvenile offender programs here.
If the county loses the lawsuit, it may have to eliminate the jobs of up to 16 full-time probation correctional officers at the Tulare County Juvenile Detention Facility, north of Visalia.
In addition, the Tulare County Probation Department, which runs the facility, could lose the use of nearly a third its 150 beds to house youths charged with crimes or serving sentences for convictions...
LINK - VisaliaTimesDelta.com
January 13, 2012
Meet and Confer Notices: January 13, 2012
Meet and Confer Notices for the week of January 13, 2012 including Ad-Seg Overflow at VSPW and Operational Procedure Number 418 - Medication Management at CIW...
January 11, 2012
Behind Governor’s Plan to Close State’s Juvenile Justice System
For the second time in one year, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed permanently closing the Division of Juvenile Justice, a move that would make California the first state in the nation to eliminate its youth prison system and shift responsibility for the most dangerous young offenders to counties.
When Brown first proposed the plan, county prosecutors and probation officers protested, arguing that counties were unprepared to handle murderers and violent sex offenders. But last Thursday, Brown offered to give $10 million to help counties prepare for the new inmates. At the same time, he blocked $70 million in cuts to the DJJ...
LINK - BayCitizen.org
January 11, 2012
Stopping Prison Construction Important First Step (?)
Governor Brown’s surprised Californians by unveiling his 2012-13 budget five days early on January 5th. The Budget has Californians calling for additional cuts to the corrections budget to prevent even further slashing of welfare, childcare, health care, education, and job opportunities. The 2012-2013 proposal, which includes $8.887 billion in General Fund spending for Corrections, comes the same week as severe trigger cuts from last year’s budget and just days before 25 Counties are due to submit funding requests to build $602 million worth of jails across the state.
Until this year, when many of the state’s corrections needs were outsourced to the county level with Brown’s Public Safety Realignment, General Fund spending for prisons had climbed steadily from $604.2 million in 1980-81 to $9.6 billion in 2010-11, or from 2.9 percent to 10.5 percent of the state’s General Fund. This year’s Budget projects $8.9 billion of General Fund expenditure on corrections, down from $9.6 billion last year...
LINK - CaliforniaProgressReport.com
January 11, 2012
Inmates riot at Kern Valley
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced today that approximately 300 inmates began rioting at Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP). The inmates started the riot at approximately 1:45 p.m. on the Facility A recreation yard, a level IV general population facility. Correctional officers responded and utilized less lethal rounds, chemical agents, and two warning shots fired from rifles to quell the disturbance. Several inmates received stab, puncture, and slashing type wounds, none of which were life threatening and no staff members were injured...
LINK - CDCRToday.com
January 10, 2012
Prisoner realignment and mental illness
A deeper look into prison realignment. County mental health and substance abuse programs now have to deal with a new breed of parolee released into our area.
More aggressive, and less predictable, and now the county is trying to meet the challenge.
Thanks to prison realignment our county mental health office is getting a lot of new patient...
LINK - KGET.com
January 10, 2012
Guards quash inmate riot at Corcoran State Prison
Guards at Corcoran State Prison used pepper spray and other less-than-lethal weapons Tuesday afternoon to break up a riot by inmates, authorities said.
The riot broke about noon on a maximum-security yard and involved about 60 inmates, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said...
LINK - LATimes.com
January 10, 2012
Juvenile Justice Realignment in 2012
By Brian Heller de Leon
Policy and Government Outreach Coordinator, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Selena Teji, J.D. Communications Specialist, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
“The purpose of this publication is to recommend a full juvenile justice realignment plan in the 2012-13 budget cycle. The Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) budget triggers implemented on January 1, 2012, highlight the unsustainable costs of maintaining a dual juvenile justice system in California.
DJF’s current recidivism rate of 80% and continued scrutiny under the Farrell lawsuit both demonstrate the limited success the state has at rehabilitating youthful offenders (CDCR, 2010, p.10).”
January 8, 2012
A risky shift in criminal justice
Not that many years ago, California legislators worked themselves into a law-and-order frenzy, and with voters' help, infused the justice system with steroids by approving the nation's toughest "three-strikes" sentencing measure.
How the pendulum has swung.
After unrelenting prison growth dating back decades, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a budget last week that would slash $1.1 billion from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, paring its annual budget to $8.7 billion...
LINK - SacBee.com
January 6, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown calls for a historic shuttering of the state’s notorious youth prison system
Following years of failed attempts to better serve juvenile offenders and the public's safety, California's once-sprawling youth corrections system may soon bow to a final, unprecedented strategy: shutting its locked gates for good.
Budget pressure in a system with annual costs of $200,000 per ward drove Gov. Jerry Brown this week to propose halting all new intakes at the Division Of Juvenile Justice. If approved by state legislators, beginning next year the state's three remaining prisons would then shrink themselves to oblivion, as current inmates complete their terms. Under the plan, county probation departments would assume the custody and treatment of all juvenile offenders -- an expansion from current practice where only the most serious and violent are housed by the state...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
January 6, 2012
City of Chowchilla to take legal action over VSPW conversion
The city of Chowchilla said Thursday it plans to file a legal challenge against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation about the state prison system's attempt to convert the Valley State Prison for Women into a men's prison.
"The Chowchilla City Council feels it is imperative to take necessary steps to protect our community and our rural way of life from the state's planned prison conversion," Mayor Janan Hebert said in a news release. "It's unfortunate that we have to file papers in court in order to keep our neighborhoods secure, but CDCR has left us with no other options."
At the heart of the controversy are fears that families of male inmates will relocate to the area at a higher rate than families of female inmates and overwhelm the city's limited public resources. Also, Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz has voiced concerns that male prisoners would be more violent and thus require his office to prosecute more assault cases and the county to hire more sheriff's deputies...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 6, 2012
Stockton prison hospital set to open end of 2013
Construction is well under way on the California Health Care Facility, a nearly $1 billion prison medical project in southeast Stockton, and the action is expected to only get hotter.
Clark/McCarthy, the general contractor assembling the facility's 31 main buildings, currently has about 120 employees and subcontractors on site.
"We'll be almost 1,200 by the Fourth of July," predicted Mike Ricker, Clark/McCarthy vice president...
LINK - RecordNet.com
January 6, 2012
New Budget: Less Prison Time For Women, Juveniles
Under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations will be cut by about $1.1 billion.
The department plans to eliminate the Department of Juvenile Justice and reduce the number of women in prisons.
The CDCR also will lose more positions than any other department...
LINK - KCRA.com
January 5, 2012
Legislation targets CDCR Fire Camps / Inmates
State Sen. Doug LaMalfa has introduced a bill that would require state prison officials to notify local authorities 10 business days before an inmate is transferred into a state prison camp.
The Richvale Republican's bill, which goes before the Senate's Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, comes in response to a Record Searchlight investigation published this spring that found one in five inmates at the state's 41 fire camps have been convicted of violent crimes, including attacks on officers.
The investigation revealed escapes from the camp are common and have sometimes ended with violent consequences, including a fatal shooting of a San Francisco police officer in 2006 by an inmate who walked away from a camp in Humboldt County...
LINK - Redding.com
January 5, 2012
Editorial: Prison progress, at last
A decade after the state of California agreed to improve inmate health care in the state prison system, it is finally on track to fulfill that agreement.
This week, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that it has met the first target set by federal courts to reduce the overall number of inmates.
At the end of 2011, the number of inmates in the state's 33 prisons -- including the two in Vacaville, the California Medical Facility and California State Prison, Solano -- was slightly under the 133,000 goal set by the court...
LINK - TheReporter.com
January 4, 2012
Freeway shut down in manhunt for parolee who shot officer; Delphi Academy locked down
A freeway was shut down today as authorities sought a parolee who shot a law enforcement officer in Lake View Terrace today and may have been wounded by return fire.
The shooting near Foothill Boulevard and Brainerd Avenue occurred about 1:20 p.m. The wounded officer is believed to be a parole agent with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
LINK - SGVTribune.com
January 4, 2012
CCPOA Member Alert: Parole Agent Shot
January 4, 2012
Inmate firefighter dies on training hike at Camp San Luis Obispo
An inmate firefighter assigned to Cuesta Fire Camp, located at the California Men’s Colony, died while taking part in a County/Cal Fire training program at Camp San Luis Obispo.
Cal Fire Capt. Jane Schmitz said the inmate collapsed while hiking on the military base shortly after 3:30 Wednesday afternoon...
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
January 4, 2012
Will Chowchilla fight prison conversion?
Yesterday, officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation travelled to Chowchilla in the Central Valley to talk to locals about the pending conversion of Valley State Prison for Women into a men’s facility. Chowchilla, the closest town to two of the state’s three women’s prisons, has resisted the conversion, worried about the impact of bringing in thousands of male prisoners. CDCR, meanwhile, says that under realignment, the female prison population will drop so much that they won’t need all three women’s prisons. Joshua Emerson Smith covers Chowchilla as part of his job as a McClatchy Reporter with Merced Sun Star and Chowchilla News. Emerson Smith was at yesterday’s meeting and we checked in with him to find out what went down...
LINK - KALWNews.org
January 3, 2012
California Meets First Inmate Reduction Target
California has met the first target set by federal courts to reduce its inmate population as a way to improve health care in the nation's largest state prison system, prison officials said Tuesday.
Federal judges ordered the state to reduce the population by about 10,000 inmates by the end of 2011, to about 133,000 inmates, as a means to improve the care of mentally and physically ill inmates. The population in the 33 prisons for adults fell to 132,887 as of last week's court-imposed deadline.
"Based on that number, we have met the benchmark," said Jeffrey Callison, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "It's gratifying to see that we have in fact made it..."
LINK - FoxNews.com
January 3, 2012
Impact of shift at Chowchilla prison debated
Corrections officials tried to appease Chowchilla and Madera County leaders Tuesday during a special meeting to discuss the possible impact from the conversion of Valley State Prison for Women to a men's facility.
The meeting came less than a week before the filing deadline for legal challenges to a self-granted California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation exemption allowing the department to bypass an impact study of the conversion.
Local officials repeatedly have demanded that the state prison system do an impact analysis, accusing state prison officials of violating the California Environmental Quality Act...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 3, 2012
Financial concerns with Chowchilla prison changes
State officials are moving ahead with their plan to convert the Valley State Prison for Women into a male prison to reduce overcrowding. There have been many concerns about the switch since the announcement was made last month and county leaders raised some of the financial issues at a meeting Tuesday morning.
State correction officials presented their conversion plan at a public meeting in the Madera County government center. "We won't be seeing the same number of female inmates coming into our institutions," said Dana Toyama, spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
LINK - ABCLocal.go.com
January 2, 2012
Adelanto seeks 6,100-bed prisons from CDCR
Negotiating with the state to build a new prison, attracting industrial development and promoting recreation options at the city's first high school are among Adelanto's top priorities for 2012.
The city is now working up the drawings for a new prison that would be operated by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and could pour up to $5 million annually into city coffers.
The proposal is for the city to use bond or private financing to build two side-by-side facilities that house up to 6,100 inmates and staff roughly 2,000 employees. The proposed 226-acre site is in industrial area west of Highway 395 off Cassia Road, near the current San Bernardino County Adelanto Detention Center...
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
January 1, 2012
New warden at San Quentin State Prison
A Folsom Prison official has been named as the new warden at San Quentin State Prison.
Kevin Chappelle, the chief deputy warden at Folsom State Prison, will step into the top post at the Marin County prison on Jan. 3, state prison officials announced Thursday.
"He's a great leader, well-respected by his staff and by the inmates," said Folsom spokesman Lt. Paul Baker. "San Quentin is lucky to get him."
Chappelle will succeed acting Warden Mike Martel. Martel, who began his career 30 years ago as a correctional officer at San Quentin, was appointed to that position on Feb. 22...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
December 30, 2011
Meet and Confer Notices: December 30, 2011
Meet and Confer Notices for the Week of December 30, 2011 including:
- AB 109 Institution Conversion - CIW Supervisory
- AB 109 Institution Conversion - CCI
- AB 109 Institution Conversion - CCI Supervisory
December 29, 2011
More California women inmates serving time at home
California’s prison population has dropped by more than 8,000 inmates since October, when the state began shifting low-level criminals from state prisons to county jails. The state's prisons are under a federal court order to cut the inmate population by another 25,000 inmates by mid-2013. One way to do it is to assign more female inmates to do their time outside of prison.
Jessica Carrillo says she hopes to get out a month early from Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. The 19-year-old from Merced County got sent to state prison for 10 months after she violated parole on a juvenile offense of grand theft auto. Carrillo is confident that she meets the criteria for alternative custody. Her crime wasn’t a serious, violent or sexual offense and she’s the breadwinner for her family - or will be. Carrillo is eight months pregnant...
LINK - SCPR.org
December 29, 2011
Op-Ed: Four ways to relieve overcrowded prisons
Necessity can spur novelty. Even political novelty. As the need for fiscal austerity grows, an unlikely alliance has emerged between policymakers and public advocates who have long sought criminal justice reform. These policymakers are realizing what advocates have reiterated for years: The nation’s addiction to incarceration as a curb on crime must end. The evidence is staggering.
In California, 54 prisoners may share a single toilet and 200 prisoners may live in a gymnasium supervised by two or three officers. Suicidal inmates may be held for protracted periods in cages without toilets and the wait times for mental health care sometimes reach 12 months...
LINK - CSMonitor.com
December 29, 2011
CDCR defends realignment against critics
In Friday's editorial, "Realignment fails early test," a connection was made between the shooting death of a former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) inmate during the commission of a home invasion and the 2011 public safety realignment.
Before realignment, offenders who had served their full sentence were released by CDCR with more than 95 percent returning to the county of their last legal residence while being supervised by state parole. Under realignment all offenders continue to serve their full sentence, but if their current commitment was for a nonserious, nonviolent, nonsexual offense, the offender now reports to the county's probation department for post-release community supervision...
LINK - OrovilleMR.com
December 28, 2011
Motel Room Mini-Siege Yields Entirely Predictable Result, Plus Pot Poundage
On Sunday, December 25, 2011, at approximately 11:20 pm, Officers contacted and arrested 35 year old James Bauer of Arcata for a felony warrant for Parole Violation. That arrest led to a room at a Motel on Valley West Blvd. In their subsequent investigation, APD Officers contacted and detained an associate of Bauer’s; 21 year old Jarame Johnson of McKinleyville. Officers determined that Bauer and two associates were renting a room at the motel and were suspected of sales of controlled substances.
Agents from the California Department of Corrections, Eureka Parole Office were contacted and instructed the Officers to search the motel room. The room had been locked from the inside and the occupant did not cooperate when the Officers announced their presence and asked for them to open the door...
LINK - ArcataEye.com
December 28, 2011
First deadline arrives for CDCR to reduce prison inmate populations
The first deadline has arrived for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to begin reducing the inmate population at all of its thirty-three adult prisons in the state.
In May of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its prison population by 33,000 inmates. The prison realignment will be handled in six month intervals...
LINK - KSBY.com
December 27, 2011
ONTARIO: Police justified in killing parolee, prosecutors say
Ontario police were fully justified in killing a 37-year-old parolee who'd held a gun to his girlfriend's head, collided with a SWAT truck and pointed a gun at officers, San Bernardino County district attorney’s officials announced today.
Jason M. Martin died of gunshot wounds Sept. 1, 2010, in the emergency room at San Antonio Hospital. He was shot following a standoff at his girlfriend’s apartment along the 1000 block of East Sixth Street...
LINK - PE.com
December 27, 2011
California could lose 1,500 inmate firefighters
When Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature shifted responsibility for thousands of state prisoners to county jails, some authorities said it would mean more offenders on the streets breaking the law.
Few saw another possible peril: the loss of more than 1,500 inmate firefighters.
Since World War II, the state has relied on nonviolent offenders serving time for such crimes as burglary, drug possession and welfare fraud to help clear brush, cut fire lines and stop infernos from spreading...
LINK - LATimes.com
December 27, 2011
Marshals capture CDCR teen escapee in Sacramento
U.S. marshals arrested a juvenile offender who escaped custody when he was allegedly driven away by accomplices during a community service project Tuesday around 10:55 a.m in Sutter Creek.
Angel Iniquez, 19, fled from the scene in a white compact car when California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, CDCR, officers were distracted helping another crew member, who hurt himself with a chainsaw, CDCR spokesman Bill Sessa said.
Sessa said there were two accomplices in the car with Iniquez...
LINK - News10.net
December 27, 2011
Teen escapes CDCR custody in Sutter Creek
The authorities search for a juvenile offender who escaped custody when he was driven away by accomplices during a roadside community service project Tuesday around 10:55 am.
Angel Iniquez, 19, fled from the scene in a white compact car when California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, CDCR, officers were distracted helping another crew member, who hurt himself with a chainsaw, CDCR spokesperson Bill Sessa said.
Sessa said there were two accomplices in the car with Iniquez..
LINK - News10.net
December 27, 2011
State Prisons Appear to Fall Short on Overcrowding Reduction Order
Today is the first benchmark date for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce prison overcrowding as per a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. CDCR has until January 10 to prepare and provide a report on the progress of inmate population reduction for review by a three-judge court which initially issued the order.
Inmate populations in California’s 33 state-detention facilities should be reduced to 167 percent of the capacity they were designed to hold by December 27. The number should drop to 155 percent by June 27, 2012, to 147 percent one year from now, and to 137.5 percent of capacity by June 2013...
LINK - SanDiegoReader.com
December 26, 2011
Matthew Cate directs prison downsizing
The usual measures of bureaucratic success for a state government agency are bigger budgets, expanding influence and a higher profile for the person at the very top.
Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, lacks all but the last.
As 2012 begins, the 45-year-old former deputy attorney general finds himself steering the department's historic downsizing with a flat budget and a federal court looking over his shoulder...
LINK - SacBee.com
December 26, 2011
California executions remain in everlasting limbo
As California nears its sixth year without an execution, state officials find themselves once again grappling with a judge's order that concludes they've botched crafting a new and legal method of putting condemned killers to death by lethal injection.
For the third time during the six-year moratorium on executions, a judge has ordered the state back to square one in creating new lethal injection procedures. The development all but ensures San Quentin's death chamber will remain dormant until at least well into 2013.
The timing could be important: The issue will draw heightened debate next year against the backdrop of a ballot measure designed to repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
December 22, 2011
CA State Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case on Corrections Furloughs
The state Supreme Court yesterday denied review of a First District Court of Appeal decision allowing the state to furlough unionized correctional officers.
The court voted 6-0 to allow the ruling in Brown v. Superior Court (California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association), A127292, to stand. The First District’s Div. Two ruled in October that the three-day-per-month furlough program initiated during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration is lawful as applied to facilities manned by employees represented by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association....
LINK - MetNews.com
December 21, 2011
Prison Realignment Sparks Lively Debate
It’s no surprise that AB109, California’s new inmate transfer bill — or “realignment” — is a contentious issue. Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise when tempers remained relatively calm at a recent conference in Sacramento on this very topic, allowing for a constructive debate to take place between invited panelists and those in attendance.
Sponsored by Capitol Weekly, a California newspaper that focuses exclusively on state government and politics, the all-day event, dubbed “California Prisons: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” was all that and more. Held at Sacramento’s famed Crest Theater, the well-known challenges of California’s penal system was the topic du jour. Discussions circulated around realignment and its impact on overcrowding, services, prison reform, parole deficiencies and recidivism in four panels comprised of individuals with differing views. The well-attended conference also featured Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, Senator Loni Hancock, and Matt Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as guest speakers....
LINK - CorrectionalNews.com
December 21, 2011
Pelican Bay inmate sentenced in guard attack
A Pelican Bay State Prison inmate already serving a life term got another 10 years tacked onto his sentence after he pleaded guilty in a prison guard attack.
Prosecutors say 20-year-old Omar Cardenas and another inmate, Moses Osuna, attacked two guards with handmade weapons in January. A third guard who tried to intervene was also injured....
LINK - SacBee.com
December 20, 2011
Fewer Inmates Returning to Prison After Release
California’s recidivism rate fell to 65 percent this year, according to the 2011 Adult Institutions Outcome Evaluation Report from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This significant reduction of 2.4 percentage points in one year equates to 2,766 fewer offenders returning to prison and an approximate saving to California taxpayers of $30 million.
“A major goal for CDCR and for other public safety officials is to prevent offenders from victimizing again after their release from incarceration,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate. “Even a slight drop in the overall percentage can equate to thousands of inmates who have not returned to prison and likely prevented the victimization of countless citizens. Reducing recidivism has been a primary goal for our agency, and this report shows that progress is being made....”
LINK - CDCRToday.blogspot.com
December 20, 2011
CDCR says inmate recidivism has dropped?
A state report says the number of released California inmates returning to prison has dropped this year by more than two-percent.
The report by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says the reduction of two-point-four percent in the recidivism rate means some 27-hundred fewer offenders returned to prison. That translates to a savings of 30-million dollars...
LINK - CapRadio.org
December 20, 2011
Meet and Confer Notices: December 20, 2011
Revisions to the DOM Regarding Seniority For Designated Supervisors and Managers
Public Safety Realignment Act Institution Conversion Valley State Prison for Women – log #11-171
Public Safety Realignment Act Institution Conversion Valley State Prison for Women – log #11-172
Implementation of Pilot Program for Alternative Treatment Option Models
CCI: Implementation of Operational Procedure 209
AB 109 Institution Conversion – CSP Corcoran
DJJ Ventura Behavior Treatment Program Closure Dispute
AB 109 Institution Conversion – CSP LAC
- Document - CCI: Implementation of Operational Procedure 209
- Document - AB 109 Institution Conversion - CSP Corcoran
- Document - AB 109 Institution Conversion - CSP-LAC
- Document - Revisions to the DOM Regarding Seniority For Designated Supervisors and Managers
- Document - DJJ Ventura Behavior Treatment Program Closure Dispute
- Document - Public Safety Realignment Act Institution Conversion Valley State Prison for Women (log #11-172)
- Document - Public Safety Realignment Act Institution Conversion Valley State Prison for Women (log #11-171)
- Document - Implementation of Pilot Program for Alternative Treatment Option Models
December 20, 2011
Republican Assm. Halderman advocates for private prisons, gets her numbers WRONG
Discounts are everywhere this holiday shopping season. For those willing to wait in line, there are sales on everything from dishwashers to iPods. Now, even convicted felons can join in on the savings. The California State Legislature has decided that criminals deserve a 20% credit for time served in prison.
California felons are already getting about a third of their sentences written off, but those discounts aren’t enough for Sacramento politicians. They recently decided that the best solution to crowded prisons was to open the floodgates and let convicted criminals walk free. It’s kind of like a clearance sale on crimes—two home invasion robberies for the price of one, or half off a grand theft auto...
LINK - FlashReport.org
[Note: CDCR’s population report dated December 7, 2011 states: 9,326 CA inmates housed in out-of-state private prisons]
December 19, 2011
California’s new lethal injection protocol tossed by judge
A judge on Friday threw out California's new lethal injection protocols, which have been five years in the making, because corrections officials failed to consider a one-drug execution method now in practice in other death penalty states.
In ruling that the new protocols were "invalid," Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal noted that one of the state's own experts recommended the single injection method as being superior to the three-drug sequence approved last year...
LINK - LATimes.com
December 19, 2011
California prison population drops by 8,000 since realignment
The number of inmates in California prisons has dropped by 8,000 since “realignment” took effect Oct. 1. Court papers state officials filed Thursday indicate the change. Officials reported the new numbers Thursday under a federal court order to reduce crowding in the prisons.
In its monthly status report to the court, officials said the state prison population dropped by 8,218 between Oct. 5 and Dec. 7.
California prison officials say the transfer of low-level felons to county officials that began in October will allow the state to meet a court-ordered reduction a month after a Dec. 27 deadline...
LINK - SCPR.org
December 19, 2011
California teen gets 21 years for killing gay student
A Southern California teen who pleaded guilty to killing a gay classmate was sentenced Monday to 21 years in prison.
Brandon McInerney, 17, will serve time in a juvenile detention center until he turns 18, at which point he will be transferred to the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He will get no credit for time already served, and was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
In September, a judge declared a mistrial in the case of McInerney after a nine week trial when jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on whether he should be found guilty of manslaughter or murder in the death of Lawrence King. He was set to be retried as an adult...
LINK - CNN.com
December 17, 2011
Prisoner shifts leave murderers better off than nonviolent criminals
California's violent criminals and sex offenders might have much more comfortable stays behind bars than those convicted of less-serious crimes, though they are serving similarly long sentences ---- because of a new law aimed to relieve prison overcrowding and save the state money.
The disparity is a consequence of Gov. Jerry Brown's massive prison realignment, which sends nonviolent offenders to county jails instead of state prisons to serve their sentences. The law is an attempt to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce the number of inmates at California prisons during a state budget crisis...
LINK - NCTimes.com
December 16, 2011
Million-dollar nurses at CDCR?
California has paid Lina Manglicmot $1.5 million since 2005, an average of $253,530 a year, to work as a prison nurse in the agricultural town of Soledad.
Manglicmot is one of 42 state nurses who each made more than $1 million in those six years, mostly by tapping overtime, according to payroll data compiled by Bloomberg News. Together, those nurses collected $47.5 million. In 2008, Manglicmot was paid $331,346, including $211,257 in overtime...
LINK - Bloomberg.com
December 15, 2011
Probation reports on realignment; concerns raised for public safety
County supervisors this week received an update on the state’s correctional realignment and what it means for Lake County, with the county’s acting chief probation officer warning of serious health and safety implications for community residents.
On Tuesday, acting Chief Probation Officer Steve Buchholz gave a report to the Board of Supervisors on realignment, which includes supervising new probationers and housing in the county jail prisoners who formerly would have served their time in state prison.
The state’s correctional realignment, which went into effect Oct. 1, is meant to reduce the state’s prison overcrowding, as well as to save the cash-strapped state money...
LINK - LakeconNews.com
December 15, 2011
Judge plans on tossing California’s lethal injection procedures
A Marin County judge will decide Friday whether to finalize her decision to toss out California's new lethal injection procedures after she ruled prison officials failed to properly adopt them.
In a tentative ruling Thursday, Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal found prison officials failed to properly consider a one-drug alternative to the three-drug lethal injection mixture used to execute inmates.
Attorneys representing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will get a chance to change the judge's mind during a hearing Friday morning...
LINK - SacBee.com
December 13, 2011
Statewide Agreement: VYCF DIGITAL CAMERA POLICY
December 12, 2011
Murder Suspect Spent 6+ Years in Prison
A man accused of killing a woman, and then living with her corpse for a few months, spent prior time in prison for assault.
Devon Epps was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in Solano County and sent to San Quentin Prison in August 2000. He was sentenced to six years according to documents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
During his time behind bars, he was also found guilty of battery on a person who was not an inmate, which is thought to be a prison guard. The incident earned him a two year sentence...
LINK - Fox40.com
December 12, 2011
Homicide Investigation Underway at CSP Sacramento
California State Prison officials from the Sacramento Investigative Services Unit are investigating the death of an inmate who was discovered in his cell Saturday, authorities said.
The inmate was identified as Anthony Steadham, 38, and he was taken to an outside hospital for medical care after he was found inside the prison's maximum security unit about 3:10 a.m. He was pronounced dead at 5:04 a.m., authorities said...
LINK - KCRA.com
December 9, 2011
CDCR Announces Plan to Convert Female Facility to House Low-Level Male Inmates
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) today announced the decision to convert Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) in Chowchilla to a facility that will house low- to medium-security adult male inmates. The conversion will help alleviate the adult male inmate overcrowding problem and avoid staff layoffs at the institution.
The conversion will happen in phases and is anticipated to be completed by July 2013. The facility currently houses 3,171 female inmates. The level of male inmates and staff is expected to be similar once the conversion is complete...
LINK - CDCRToday.blogspot.com
December 8, 2011
Several injured during riot at California State Prison in Folsom
A shooting at the California State Prison in Folsom has left several inmates and prison staff with injuries.
The riot began Wednesday around 12:30 p.m. and lasted about 10 minutes before guards were able to get it contained. Sgt. Tony Quinn of the California Department of Corrections says a riot lasting 10 minutes is a long time.
The riot started in the C Facility, which is the prison's recreational area for inmates...
LINK - News10.net
December 8, 2011
Former Correction Officer: Riot at New Folsom State Prison
Four of the nine inmates injured at California State Prison, Sacramento in Folsom --aka New Folsom State Prison--have been treated, released from the hospital, and sent back to prison.
The riot broke out around 12:30 Wednesday afternoon in the exercise yard of the Level 4 maximum security area. Many of the inmates are murderers and gang members and are serving a life term. At least 9 inmates were taken to area hospitals, some of them with stab wounds from inmate-on-inmate fights...
LINK - News10.net
December 7, 2011
Inmates Shot, Stabbed In New Folsom Prison Riot
Seven of 10 inmates injured during a riot at the California State Prison in Folsom have been released from hospitals and are back at the facility, a prison spokesman said Thursday morning.
Prisoners living in the facility where Wednesday's riot broke out are now on lockdown. There are about 1,000 inmates in the C facility at New Folsom Prison, prison Sgt. Tony Quinn said...
LINK - KCRA.com
December 7, 2011
Guards open fire during Calif. prison riot
Prison guards shot and injured some prisoners as they broke up a fight involving 50 inmates Wednesday at a prison east of Sacramento, corrections officials said.
Inmates stabbed each other during the fight, and some employees suffered minor injuries as they intervened. The outbreak was in a maximum security area of the California State Prison, Sacramento.
About 50 inmates were involved and an unknown number of staff was injured, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
LINK - SFGate.com
