Federal Judge
January 20, 2010
High Court rejects state’s prisons edict appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Schwarzenegger administration's attempt Tuesday to dismantle a judicial panel that wants California to improve inmate health care by making its prisons less crowded, but set the stage for a possible ruling on the panel's authority to lower the prison population.
The high court's brief order agreed with inmates' lawyers that the state had acted prematurely in appealing an August 2008 ruling by a three-judge panel. That ruling found that overcrowding in the state's 33 prisons, which hold nearly twice their designed capacity of 80,000, was the chief cause of a medical care system that violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The panel ordered the administration to submit a plan that would reduce the inmate population by 40,000 in two years. State lawyers appealed, arguing that the panel was illegally established, had exaggerated the health care problems and misidentified their cause, and lacked authority to order prisoner releases…
LINK - SFGate.com (San Francisco Gate)
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 19, 2010
Governor claims victory over 3-judge panel with stay from US Supreme Court
01/19/2010 GAAS:43:10 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement by Gov. Schwarzenegger's Legal Affairs Secretary Andrea Lynn Hoch on U.S. Supreme Court Decision
Governor Schwarzenegger's Legal Affairs Secretary Andrea Lynn Hoch today issued the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision:
"The U.S. Supreme Court's decision today is a win for the state because it guarantees there will be no early release of prisoners while the Three-Judge Panel's latest order is appealed. Given the more recent January 12 order by the Three-Judge Panel, it is no surprise that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to wait and consider the entire case upon our appeal, which we will file today. We fully expect the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Three-Judge Panel's prisoner release order."
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
December 7, 2009
Governor’s prison plan draws mixed reviews
Lawyers for California's prison inmates on Monday supported Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's overall plan to reduce overcrowding in the state's 33 prisons, but asked a federal court to order state prison officials to meet strict deadlines to ensure they shed nearly 40,000 inmates from the system over the next two years.
Meanwhile, the plan drew fire from Republican lawmakers and some counties, including Santa Clara County, which is worried about the impact of releasing state prison inmates into local jails…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
November 13, 2009
State offers new prison plan
California Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate announced late Thursday that the state has a plan to reduce the prison population that will satisfy a judicial panel of judges, but the three federal judges have to be willing to issue orders the state sees as illegal.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can reach the population goal the judges are seeking only with changes in state laws or federal court orders waiving laws now on the books, Cate said at an evening press briefing.
The Legislature already has turned thumbs down on some of the changes, such as increasing the monetary threshold for grand theft, offering alternative custody options for low-level offenders, and limiting sentencing options to county jail for certain offenses…
LINK - SacBee.com
ALSO SEE: CDCR.CA.GOV - Stamped Filing of New Prison Reduction Plan (130 pages)
November 12, 2009
Governor to submit plan to reduce prison crowding
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tonight will give federal judges a road map to reducing state prison overcrowding that involves waiving some state laws so sentencing regulations can be changed and new private prisons built.
But the governor also will disavow those solutions as illegal, said Oscar Hidalgo, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
An initial plan that Schwarzenegger submitted was rejected three weeks ago by the three judges, who threatened him with contempt of court for failing to meet their demand for a proposal to reduce the inmate population by 40,000 prisoners over two years…
LINK - LATimes.com Blogs
November 11, 2009
Editorial: “Keep public’s safety uppermost”
Officials from Chino and Chino Hills have protested state plans to house mentally ill prisoners at the California Institution for Men since 2005, when a proposal surfaced to build a facility for 1,500 such inmates at the Chino prison complex.
Three months ago, Mayors Dennis Yates of Chino and Peter Rogers of Chino Hills expressed public safety concerns about the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's plan to convert the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino to a prison for 1,200 adult inmates.
Now the Corrections Department's plans are in writing in the form of a detailed long-range plan filed with a federal district court to provide new medical and mental health treatment beds under a court order…
LINK - SBSun.com
October 22, 2009
Court rejects governor’s plan to solve prison overcrowding
A federal court on Wednesday rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to solve California's prison overcrowding crisis, giving the state three weeks to devise an alternative or risk an order that seizes control of how more than 40,000 inmates are released from the prison system over the next two years.
In a seven-page ruling, a three-judge panel found the governor's plan for reducing prison overcrowding inadequate. The judges said it failed to comply with their August order requiring the state to come up with a proposal to remove about one quarter of the more than 150,000 inmates now crammed into California's prisons.
Schwarzenegger and chief prison officials in September responded to the August order with a plan that would only reduce the inmate population by about 20,000 inmates over the next three years, less than half of what was sought by the judges. State officials maintain their plan balanced the need to reduce prison overcrowding with public safety concerns…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
September 17, 2009
State won’t make federal prison-reduction goals
California will fail to meet federal demands to reduce its prison population by 40,000 inmates over two years despite plans by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute the sentences of illegal immigrant prisoners and build three new prison facilities to relieve overcrowding, sources said.
About 160,000 of the state's inmates are being kept in 33 prisons that have a combined capacity of about 80,000. The federal judges have found that because of overcrowding, the state has failed to meet its constitutional obligation to provide prisoners with adequate medical and mental health treatment.
But the plan California officials will submit by midnight Friday will fall short of meeting the 40,000-inmate reduction ordered last month by the federal panel, state prison officials said in a briefing Wednesday to various parties, including legislative staffers who work on prison issues…
LINK - SFGate.com
September 16, 2009
Editorial: California takes a small step on prisons
AS CALIFORNIA lawmakers careened toward adjournment of their latest session on Friday, they finally took a step — albeit a small one — toward reforming the mess that is the state's prison system.
They sent a bill to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that cuts prison spending by an estimated $1 billion and lower the inmate population by 16,000. It includes a needed shift in the parole system with huge caseloads for parole agents being cut so they can focus more on potentially violent offenders. Assuming Schwarzenegger decides to sign it, the bill is not nearly enough, but it is a start.
Lawmakers caved into pressure from law enforcement advocates and sent a watered-down version that should have gone much further…
LINK - InsideBayArea.com
September 16, 2009
State prison plan will fall short of judges’ order
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday will submit to a panel of three federal judges a plan that would reduce the inmate population at California's overcrowded prisons by substantially less than what the court has ordered, a move that a top prison administrator acknowledged will place state officials at risk of being held in contempt.
Although the final plan will not be submitted until late Friday, administration officials have briefed other parties involved in the court proceedings on its major elements. They said exact projections of how much the prison population will be reduced have not yet been calculated, but the reduction would not lower the population to the court's standard of 137.5 percent of the prison system's design capacity…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
September 4, 2009
California takes prison-overcrowding fight to U.S. Supreme Court
California officials today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a lower court order that forces the state to quickly devise a plan to shed more than 40,000 inmates from its overcrowded prisons.
In a 46-page petition to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who handles emergency appeals from the Western states, California Attorney General Jerry Brown asked for an immediate stay of a three-judge panel's Aug. 4 order requiring the state to submit its prisoner release plan within 45 days.
Judges on the federal court panel Thursday rejected the state's bid for a stay, saying they've been "more than patient with the state and its officials" in the years-long legal battle over conditions inside California's prison system…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
September 4, 2009
Editorial: Get it straight, Schwarzenegger
We wonder if we're the only ones confused by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's strange behavior on prison overcrowding.
With our support, the governor has been pressing the Legislature to pass measures to reduce the prison population with actions that would help slice $1.2 billion from the budget and improve public safety. Then on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger announced that the state would appeal a federal court order that placed a cap on California's prison population.
That court order, contrary to false claims by some politicians, does not call for mass early release or a ban on the admission of new offenders to prison. The court left it to the state to choose what alternatives would most easily and economically reduce the prison population to 137.5 percent of the capacity for which the prisons were designed…
LINK - SacBee.com
September 4, 2009
Sen. Bob Dutton: CA’S PHANTOM 80-YEAR-OLD PARAPLEGIC PRISONERS
If you've been listening to liberal rhetoric lately, I wouldn't blame you for thinking that California's prisons are overflowing with 80-year-old paraplegics who couldn't harm a fly. "If only we just let these folks out," the liberals claim, "we'd lower our prison population by 20,000 or even 40,000 prisoners—at no risk to public safety—saving the taxpayers millions of dollars."
But as the old adage goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And, as is the case with the recently passed legislative measures to release up to 27,000 dangerous felons, the liberal rhetoric on prisons just doesn't match reality.
California's prison healthcare system is currently in federal receivership. So when California's leaders want to learn something about our prison healthcare system, we have to ask an unelected federally-appointed official for that information…
LINK - Flashreport.org
September 4, 2009
California at Risk of New Stalemate Over Prisons
California lawmakers' clash over reducing the state's prison population threatens to become another Sacramento stalemate.
To fulfill part of its July budget deal, the state Assembly passed a bill Monday that would reduce California's prison population of 160,000 by a total of 17,000 in the next 10 months. Democrats passed the bill with a bare majority of 41 votes in the 80-member Assembly, without any Republican support.
The bill would allow certain inmates to be released early by completing rehabilitation programs, eliminate parole supervision for some nonviolent convicts and allow probation violators to be housed in local jails. The legislation faces an uncertain fate in the state Senate over the next days — and possibly weeks…
LINK - Online.WSJ.com
September 3, 2009
Court refuses Schwarzenegger’s delay request for inmate release plan
A three-judge federal court panel has refused California's bid to hold off on coming up with a plan to release more than 40,000 inmates from the state's prison system, forcing the state to keep working on clearing its prisons while pressing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This court has been more than patient with the state and its officials," the judges wrote in an order Thursday. "Further delays and obstruction will not well serve the people of the state and will not be tolerated by this court."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration earlier this week asked the three-judge panel to stay its Aug. 4 order requiring state officials to devise a plan to shed more than 40,000 inmates from the prison population to bring the prison system into compliance with constitutional standards…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
August 13, 2009
Republicans prefer additional cuts over early release
Girding for a showdown next week over cuts in the state prison system, Republican lawmakers said Wednesday that there is enough fat in the corrections budget to avert any early release of prisoners from state lockups.
The Legislature agreed recently to cut prison spending by $1.2 billion but deferred a decision on how to do it until this month. Lawmakers will return to work Monday following their summer break.
Republicans said a plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Democratic support, to reduce the prison population by 37,000 inmates is unnecessary and would send thousands of offenders into neighborhoods before their sentences were completed…
LINK - LATimes.com
August 12, 2009
Matt Cate - Prisons: it’s time to reform and reduce population
Federal courts are telling California that we are out of time when it comes to reducing inmate overcrowding. The Legislature and the Governor agree that we are out of money, and have cut $1.2 billion from the Corrections budget. Now is the time for elected officials and law enforcement to come together and pass criminal justice reforms that will safely reduce our inmate population.
Inmate "early release" is a radioactive term, and something that everyone wants to avoid. Yet, a three judge court ruling issued last week seeks to impose a cap that could force the release of upwards of 40,000 inmates over the next two years. While the state will likely appeal the ruling, lawmakers should not sit idly by and leave it up to the courts. The recent riot in Chino demonstrates the perils of severe overcrowding. California needs a package of sensible prison, parole and sentencing reforms that will allow our prisons to reduce population over time without swinging open the gates for serious and violent criminals and jeopardizing the safety of our communities…
LINK - CapitolWeekly.net (Opinion)
August 12, 2009
Prisons Debate: A Numbers Game?
Quick, jot down the following numbers: 167,000… $1.2 billion… $3 million… 4%… 37%… 2.4. They're going to come in handy when lawmakers soon wrap themselves in a one of the most complicated and controversial areas of public policy: prisons.
The return of the Legislature next week will feature an intense debate on not just how to reduce prison overcrowding in response to the recent ruling by federal judges, but also on how to save cut prison spending as part of the state's budget crisis. A lot. And fast.
There was a smattering of tidbits today on the subject of prisons - not quite actual news, but also not just chatter. It began with a background briefing for reporters by Senate GOP staffers, laying out data they believe proves false the belief that California's prisons are full of non-violent offenders that can easily be released…
LINK - KQED.com Blog
August 5, 2009
Law Enforcement Responds To Potential Early Prisoner Release
The proposed early release of 44,000 prisoners from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would be " … very, very devastating to law enforcement on both the state and local level."
That's a quote from Sonora Police Chief Mark Stinson who adds, "This will have a major impact on the local level because we are already struggling to provide the basic services without the influx of convicted criminals coming back into our community early. We're going to be really stuck supervising these individuals. Of course, the individuals who reoffend is astounding (70 percent). We're looking at these individuals returning to our community and then continuing to commit crimes in our community which we're left to have to deal once again and pick up the pieces of the state's broken system."
Stinson adds that given the current economic downturn it will be difficult for ex-convicts to secure employment. Many of them, he says, will simply return to what they know best, a life of crime…
LINK - MyMotherLode.com
August 5, 2009
Prison overcrowding crisis: Media Blames the Voters?
The dominant cultural trait of the state Capitol is procrastination, a chronic tendency to deny reality as long as possible and thus avoid the political consequences of facing it.
That's why we have a perpetual state budget crisis, why we're on the brink of a calamitous water supply shortage, why public education is in turmoil, why our highways are congested and potholed, and, lastly, why we have a prison system with twice as many inmates as it was designed to handle.
These aren't sudden, unavoidable accidents. They are conditions that voters and officeholders allowed to fester despite multiple warnings, proof of a broken political system…
LINK - SacBee.com
August 5, 2009
U.S. ruling: State must cut prison population
A federal court panel ordered California on Tuesday to reduce the population of its bulging prisons by 40,000 over the next two years to meet constitutional standards for inmate health care and said it could be done without releasing dangerous prisoners to the streets.
"The convergence of tough-on-crime policies and an unwillingness to expend the necessary funds to support the population growth has brought California's prisons to the breaking point," the three-judge panel said. Unless the courts intervene, the panel said, inmates will continue to suffer and die needlessly because prisons lack the space and the staff to treat them.
By changing parole practices and releasing some low-risk inmates to local custody, treatment programs or electronic monitoring, the prison population can be reduced "without a meaningful adverse impact on public safety," the judges said…
LINK - SFGate.com
August 4, 2009
CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate Statement on Three Judge Panel Ruling on Inmate Overcrowding
A three judge federal court ruled today that California must develop a plan to reduce its prison population to approximately 110,000 inmates, or 137.5% of design capacity, over the next two years. This would require a population reduction of approximately 40,000 prisoners. Following is a statement from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Matthew Cate on the three judge panel's ruling:
"We believe the federal courts are exceeding their authority under the Prison Litigation Reform Act and will continue to fight against a population cap or court-ordered early release. We will appeal to the United States Supreme Court any final ruling that would order the release of 40,000 inmates. The governor has proposed common sense reforms in collaboration with public safety groups to address overcrowding without early release…"
LINK - CDCR.ca.gov
August 4, 2009
Fed judges order Calif. to cut inmate population
A federal judicial panel on Tuesday ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 to improve treatment of ailing and mentally ill inmates.
The three-judge panel ruled that cutting the number of inmates is the only way to bring the system's medical care up to adequate standards. "California's prisons are bursting at the seams and are impossible to manage," the judges wrote.
They gave the state 45 days to develop a plan to reduce the number of inmates in the 33 adult prisons from about 150,000 to 110,000 over two years…
LINK - Google.com AP Newswire
June 17, 2009
Judge sets deadline for Calif. prison decision
A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Schwarzenegger administration 15 days to sign an agreement intended to reform the health care system for California inmates and end a long and costly legal dispute.
Failure to do so would prompt a potential raid on the state treasury, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton warned.
Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate negotiated the tentative agreement last month with J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver overseeing prison medical reform…
LINK - SacBee.com
June 17, 2009
Federal judge to hear Corrections plan on care for mentally ill inmates
The pressure's on California's Department of Corrections to ink a deal by tomorrow to provide mental health care to inmates. A federal judge in Sacramento has ordered the state to present a final plan on how to get the job done. KPCC's Julie Small reports the state's had more than a decade to comply.
Julie Small: Attorneys for inmates sued California in the 1990s for failing to provide adequate treatment for thousands of prisoners with mental illnesses. The state settled the suit with an agreement to build new psychiatric care facilities and hire qualified staff. But Michael Bien, the attorney for the inmates, says little has changed…
LINK - SCPR.org
April 17, 2009
Judge signs off on San Quentin improvements
A federal judge has ended nearly three decades of supervision over conditions on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison after authorities made court-ordered improvements ranging from giving inmates more legal help and exercise time to getting rid of rodents and bird droppings.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco filed an order Tuesday closing a case that began in 1979 when a group of condemned prisoners sued the state. Court monitoring started in October 1980 when state officials agreed to a settlement known as a consent decree…
LINK - SFGate.com
April 2, 2009
California prepares to expand 3 prisons
The head of California's prison system said Wednesday that he will soon ask state legislators to approve expanding three prisons to hold an additional 2,800 inmates, adding to what already is the nation's largest state prison system.
The construction projects would be the first to draw money from a nearly $8 billion bond measure approved by lawmakers two years ago. The money has been stalled ever since by drafting problems that were corrected in the budget legislation that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in February.
Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said he plans to seek approval within weeks to build cellblocks for about 900 inmates each at high-security Kern Valley and medium-security North Kern state prisons, both near Delano…
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
March 25, 2009
Judge threatens Calif. officials with contempt
A federal judge is threatening to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in contempt if they don't quickly come up with a plan to take care of thousands of mentally ill inmates.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento says he is appalled by evidence the state is not capable of doing its duty.
He called it "mind-boggling" that the state still doesn't have a mental health treatment plan 14 years after a class-action lawsuit was first filed on behalf of inmates…
LINK - SFGate.com
January 29, 2009
California Asks Removal of Prison Overseer
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state attorney general, Jerry Brown, filed a motion on Wednesday in Federal District Court here to remove the receiver charged with overhauling California's decrepit prison health care system.
The motion comes on the heels of a demand by the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, for $8 billion from the state to build seven new prison health care centers with 10,000 beds for inmates. The motion seeks to halt construction plans and begin moving control of prison health care back to the state.
"What the receiver has become is a parallel government, operating virtually in secret, not accountable, not subject to public scrutiny," Mr. Brown said at a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Kelso, he said, "feels he has unchecked authority to ride roughshod over the State of California and its officials…"
LINK - NYTimes.com
December 2, 2008
Judge leans toward early release of Calif. inmates
A federal judge on Tuesday said releasing inmates early may be the best remaining option for ensuring that California prisoners receive adequate medical care.
The comments came during a trial focused on overcrowding in the state's 33 adult prisons, which inmates' attorneys say is so severe that it leads to medical neglect and malfeasance.
A special three-judge panel meeting in San Francisco clearly signaled its willingness to restrict the number of inmates in California prisons. But the judges abruptly decided not to make a formal ruling this week that crowding is so severe that it leads to unconstitutional conditions…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
December 1, 2008
Federal judges to rule on Calif. prison crowding
California's day of reckoning has finally come for three decades of tough-on-crime policies that led to overcrowded prisons and unconstitutional conditions for inmates.
The federal courts have already found that the prison system's delivery of health and mental health care is so negligent that it's a direct cause of inmate deaths.
A special three-judge panel reconvenes Tuesday and is prepared to decide whether crowding has become so bad that inmates cannot receive proper care. If they do, the panel will decide if lowering the inmate population is the only way to fix the problems…
LINK - KansasCity.com
August 14, 2008
Ex-inmate helps make Bush nominee ‘controversial’
Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his office and heading for the courthouse by now.
But a determined opponent — a former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton, Tenn. — has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen.
And he may have succeeded.
More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate…
LINK - AP.Google.com (The Associated Press)
July 11, 2008
Prison Health Receiver Moves Ahead on Plans for Three New Facilities
On Thursday, the court-appointed receiver for California's prison health care system signed construction design documents to commit the state to spending $2.5 billion on three new health care facilities for inmates with chronic medical and mental health conditions, the Ventura County Star reports.
J. Clark Kelso was appointed by Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to bring the state's prison health care system up to constitutional standards after a class action lawsuit found that state officials failed to improve conditions at the facilities…
LINK - CaliforniaHealthLine.org
July 1, 2008
Inmates’ Threat: No Segregation, No Peace
When an inmate who is not black enters Will Williams' cell for the first time at San Quentin State Prison in Northern California, one of the last forms of legalized segregation will come to an end.
In a case that went as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, California's prisons must begin racially integrating their cells this month. Integration goes against an unwritten code of conduct among San Quentin inmates, which says they must never communicate with other races.
Inmates and guards admit they are nervous about the changes because so much of the violence inside the walls of the prison, which sits on the rocky shore of the San Francisco Bay, is caused by racial tensions…
LINK - ABCNews.GO.com
June 21, 2008
Judge limits secrecy bid in Calif. prison lawsuits
A federal magistrate has rejected an attempt by the state to keep certain documents secret as courts decide whether to cap California's overcrowded prison population.
A special panel of three federal judges had already set a June 27 hearing to decide whether to go ahead with a November trial on a set of lawsuits that have been consolidated.
In pretrial motions, the state sought to prohibit public disclosure of certain documents classified as sensitive communications or part of internal deliberations…
LINK - AP.Google.com
June 13, 2008
Update: Puryear’s judicial appointment in peril
A year ago today, Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV was nominated for a federal judgeship in Nashville and appeared headed to an easy confirmation.
Now Puryear's confirmation seems unlikely. In addition to questions raised about his qualifications and actions as general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America, Puryear's fate is now caught in intense election-year battles between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate over lifetime judicial appointments.
Senate Democrats are looking to approve as few of Republican President Bush's appointments as they can before his term expires, hoping Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency. Republicans did the same during the final months of the Democratic Clinton administration…
LINK - Tennessean.com
See related articles posted:
Puryear judicial nomination draws clash - 04.22.08
Corrections Corp. Defends Quality Program - 03.17.08
Ex-CCA Official: Puryear Misled Clients - 03.14.08
TIME Magazine's Expose on CCA, general counsel - 03.13.08
Senators Raise Doubt Over Testimony of Nominee - 03.07.08
Former Inmate Opposes Tennessee Judicial Nominee - 02.28.08
Judicial nominee's ties; qualifications criticized - 02.25.08
June 3, 2008
Editorial: State Legislature, governor created mess with prisons
Legislators and the Schwarzenegger administration are playing a double game of dare with federal judges over how to fix the state's prisons. It's dangerous and expensive, and they're destined to lose. Probably they should, since lawmakers and prison managers have proved incapable of doing right on their own.
Last week, Senate Republicans twice thwarted a federal court-appointed overseer's request, which Schwarzenegger backs, for $7 billion in bond money to repair and build medical facilities for sick and mentally ill inmates. Having been denied, court receiver J. Clark Kelso is now vowing to seize a chunk of the money - $70 million now and $3.43 billion next year - out of the state's operating budget. That's not an idle threat; if carried out, such a move would raise the already disastrous projected deficit for next year to more than $18 billion.
Republican senators argue that it's premature to fork over the money while separate court-guided negotiations continue about reducing the prison population…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
May 23, 2008
Report praises prison facilities, programs
A Solano County Grand Jury report released this week regarding Vacaville's two prisons commended both facilities for their inmate programs and suggested that both expand their offerings.
At California State Prison, Solano, grand jurors found that the Prison Industry Authority program, which gives inmates career skills in various trades, benefits inmates during and after their incarceration. They recommended growing the program. Jurors also commended the facility for its local outreach programs and recommended expanding them throughout Solano County.
At California Medical Facility, the grand jury found that, despite being near inmate capacity, operations are being handled well. Still, they suggested that the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation work toward increasing the prison's size…
LINK - TheReporter.com
May 20, 2008
Corrections Corporation of America Announces Contract Award From the Office of Federal Detention Tru
NASHVILLE, TN, May 19, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) —-Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW: 25.55, -0.06, -0.23%), the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT) to design, build and operate a new correctional facility located in Pahrump, Nevada, approximately 65 miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. CCA's new 1,072-bed Nevada Southern Detention Center is expected to house approximately 1,000 federal inmates and detainees from the United States Marshals Service as well as potential populations from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Prisons…
Now we know why CCA is pulling out of it's State and County contracts… their Federal contracts seem to pay off better - and getting a "friend" on the inside [more: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] doesn't hurt either…
May 1, 2008
County must pay jail employees back pension costs
LISBON, OHIO - A decision by Columbiana County commissioners to settle a dispute over retirement benefits for five former county jail employees could prove costly. Just how much so has yet to be determined, but it could be substantial.
Commissioners voted at Wednesday's meeting to enter into a consent agreement with the former jail employees to resolve a lawsuit filed earlier this year with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals.
The lawsuit sought a court order requiring commissioners to comply with a decision by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), which ruled last November five former employees were entitled to retirement benefits dating back to 1998, when a private company took over operating the jail…
LINK - MorningJournalNews.com (The Morning Journal)
April 22, 2008
Puryear judicial nomination draws clash
The battle over the Bush White House's nomination of Corrections Corporation of America General Counsel Gus Puryear to a federal judgeship has turned to charges between supporters and opponents of conflicts of interest and hidden business agendas.
Activists opposing private prisons and Puryear's nomination sent a formal letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee questioning the business ties of law firms whose attorneys have offered their own formal support of Puryear to the committee, including quite a few Democrats.
Puryear's employer shot back, saying Private Corrections Institute (PCI) is simply an extension of the larger Florida Police Benevolent Association, a Florida police union that also represents correctional officers and openly opposes prison privatization…
LINK - NashvilleCityPaper.com
March 16, 2008
Judge ‘in it for long haul’ on prison reform
The federal judge at the center of the controversy over prison conditions in California said Saturday that judicial pressure is needed to persuade officials to respect inmates' constitutional rights.
"Correctional defendants are particularly resistant to courts ordering change," U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said at a conference on penal reform at the University of San Francisco. "Prison personnel can be experts at the waiting game. I'm not going away. I'm here for the long haul."
LINK - SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle)
March 14, 2008
Ex-CCA official: Puryear misled clients
A former Corrections Corporation of America manager is accusing the company's general counsel and federal judicial nominee Gus Puryear IV of overseeing a practice that produced misleading reports about safety incidents at its prisons.
Ronald T. Jones, who until last year worked as a senior manager in quality assurance at the Nashville-based prison operator, said that Puryear directed him and other staff to classify incidents such as escapes, unnatural deaths and disturbances as less serious to make its performance look better in reports to government agency clients. Reports prepared for internal use, meanwhile, included more details about the specific incidents, Jones said.
Time Magazine also reported Jones' allegations on its Web site on Thursday.
LINK - Tennessean.com
March 7, 2008
Senators raise doubt over testimony of Nashville judicial nominee
The accuracy of testimony by Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV at his confirmation hearing to be a federal judge is being questioned by four Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Puryear is general counsel of Nashville-based private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America and was nominated by Republican President Bush.
After the February hearing, he provided written answers to additional questions about the company's handling of the death of an inmate at a company-run facility in Nashville, potential conflicts of interest he would face as a judge and his membership in the Belle Meade Country Club.
LINK - Tennessean.com
February 28, 2008
Former CCA inmate opposes Tennessee judicial nominee
A former inmate of a CCA run prison is protesting a former CCA executive's nomination to a federal judge post:
President Bush in June nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America, to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville.That led Alex Friedmann, who spent six years at the company's prison in Clifton, Tenn., to investigate Puryear's qualifications.
According to the article, Friedmann contends that Puryear isn't qualified, having handled only two federal cases in his career as a lawyer, which Friedmann says is only one more than he has tried himself. As a former CCA executive, Puryear also has a conflict of interest presiding over numerous outstanding federal lawsuits against the company according to Friedmann…
LINK - SouthernStudies.org
February 25, 2008
CCA in Politics: Judicial nominee’s ties, qualifications criticized
Gustavus "Gus" Puryear IV is the top attorney for Corrections Corporation of America, the Nashville-based private prison giant. He graduated with honors from law school, is a deacon in his church and serves on the boards of numerous community organizations. Now President Bush has nominated him to be a federal judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.
But Puryear has never been a judge, has little trial experience, and works for and holds stock in a company enmeshed with the federal government through campaign donations, lobbying and huge contracts. And the company he represents gets sued a lot, many times in federal court in Nashville…
LINK - Tennessean.com
January 25, 2008
State Prison Healthcare Czar is Fired
A federal judge Wednesday abruptly fired the man he had appointed to fix the multimillion-dollar problems of medical care in the state's prisons, after determining the effort was moving too slowly and in too confrontational a manner. […] In an interview Wednesday, Kelso said Sillen had created a set of plans "that were so voluminous that it was very difficult for people to get their arms around them." He said he would craft a "strategic business plan" in an effort to return prison medical care to state control within four years…
LINK - LATimes.com
January 24, 2008
Judge Ousts Sillen from State Prison Medical Oversight Post
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on Wednesday removed Robert Sillen as the federal receiver who oversees medical care for California's prison system. Sillen will be replaced by McGeorge School of Law professor J. Clark Kelso. In his seven-page order, Henderson said the receivership needs to move from what has been primarily "an investigative and evaluative phase" toward a system that "must ultimately be transitioned back to the state of California's control…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 26, 2007
2008 Looms as Year of Reckoning on California’s Prison Crowding
The crisis-fueled momentum that produced a nearly $8 billion prison-spending plan earlier this year has lost some of its steam, leaving the state vulnerable to federal judges ordering an early release of inmates. California has fallen behind in its race to relieve the overcrowded conditions in its state prisons by adding thousands of cells, and time is running out to produce results…
LINK - SFGate.com
December 6, 2007
Judge Orders State to Give Documents to Inmates’ Rights Lawyers
A federal judge today gave the state until noon Friday to turn over some 10,000 documents to inmates rights' lawyers who want to cap the state's overcrowded prisons. The plaintiffs' lawyers said they believe the materials will go a long way toward persuading a three-judge court to rule in favor of a population cap. Trial on that issue is set for Feb. 6…
LINK - SacBee.com
October 30, 2007
California Prison Healthcare Receivership: Bringing Light to the Darkness
Essentially, the courts have found that medical care in California's prisons is so bad, so inefficiently managed and results in so many unnecessary deaths, that the correctional bureaucracy itself can no longer be trusted to manage it. And so, they have created an office known as the California Prison Healthcare Receivership. Sillen is the receiver…
LINK - CommentisFree.Guardian.co.uk
