Inmates
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 1, 2012
Inmate Fire Crews Focus Of New Bill From Lake Elsinore Lawmaker
Lake Elsinore Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries introduced legislation Monday that would put in place one option for keeping inmate fire crews up and running.
The bill, AB 1562, was drafted to address anticipated cuts in the number of inmate fire crews available to Cal Fire as a result of a new law that shifts prisoners from state-run fire conservation camps into county jails, according to Jeff Greene, spokesman for the Assemblyman’s office.
The legislation gives counties an option over the current alternatives of hiring added fire personnel or losing the inmate firefighters altogether, Greene said....
LINK - LakeElsinore-Wildomar.Patch.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
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
Number of Older Inmates Grows, Stressing Prisons
The number of Americans in prison older than 55 is growing at a faster rate than the group’s share of the population at large, and many prisons are unprepared to provide them with health care, which can cost as much as nine times more than for younger inmates, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday.
The complications in handling the swelling number of aging prisoners range from making allowances for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia and finding sufficient ground-floor cells for inmates in wheelchairs to ensuring that older prisoners are not exploited or robbed by younger inmates...
LINK - NYTimes.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
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
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 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 16, 2012
Legal Scholar: Jim Crow Still Exists In America
Under Jim Crow laws, black Americans were relegated to a subordinate status for decades. Things like literacy tests for voters and laws designed to prevent blacks from serving on juries were commonplace in nearly a dozen Southern states.
In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, legal scholar Michelle Alexander writes that many of the gains of the civil rights movement have been undermined by the mass incarceration of black Americans in the war on drugs. She says that although Jim Crow laws are now off the books, millions of blacks arrested for minor crimes remain marginalized and disfranchised, trapped by a criminal justice system that has forever branded them as felons and denied them basic rights and opportunities that would allow them to become productive, law-abiding citizens...
LINK - NPR.org
January 14, 2012
Prison officials remain quiet on details of October riot in Sayre facility (by Calif. inmates)
A lack of charges filed against inmates involved in an Oct. 11 riot at the North Fork Correctional Facility highlights an ongoing issue between private prisons and authorities, a local prosecutor said.
More than three months after the riot, private prison officials have yet to release details about what exactly caused the melee.
The nature of the injuries suffered by dozens of inmates also remains a mystery...
LINK - NewsOK.com
January 11, 2012
Savings from ‘3 strikes’ reform may be smaller than claimed
Prisoners serving long sentences under California’s “three strikes” law are so expensive that legislative analysts say releasing some of them early could eventually save the state $100 million.
A proposed ballot measure, called the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 [PDF], would amend the landmark sentencing law that brought jail terms of 25 years to life to criminals convicted of three offenses.
Major savings to California taxpayers are central to proponents’ pitch for the measure. But if it passes, the big reduction in state prison spending is not guaranteed...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
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 11, 2012
Crime renews lawmaker’s concerns about shifting felons to counties
A Republican lawmaker who opposes shifting supervision of many felons from the state to counties voiced concern Wednesday over the arrest of a Sacramento man this week on sexual assault charges a month after he was released from state prison.
Aaron Suggs had been designated a non-serious, nonviolent felon when he was released from state prison Dec. 8 after serving a sentence for drug possession. That designation resulted in his supervision, upon release, being assigned to the Sacramento County Probation Department rather than state parole agents under a program adopted by the state last year to cut its costs...
LINK - LATimes.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 9, 2012
Town Hall Meeting Set to Discuss Inmates Coming to the County
The plan to move inmates from overcrowded state prisons into county correctional situations is still a work in progress.
This Tuesday night, a countywide town hall meeting in Redwood City will address what's been done so far in San Mateo County, and request public input on where we should be going.
"Yes, it will be two-way discussion," says San Mateo County Chief Probation Officer Stuart Forrest. "Now that we have more specifics of expectations and assumptions surrounding this population, we've begun working on the local plan."
AB 109, signed by Governor Jerry Brown last year, pushed so-called "low-level" inmates out of state prisons, and into the hands of counties throughout California...
LINK - HalfMoonBay.Patch.com
January 9, 2012
Report: Jail expansion needed in Santa Clara County despite 1,000 empty beds
Even though more than 1,000 jail beds sit empty in Santa Clara County, a new report is calling for a $104 million jail expansion and overhaul that would require millions of dollars more each year to staff.
While any expansion defies logic at first glance, counties across California are lining up to revamp their jails as thousands of nonviolent inmates who would have been sent to state prison are locked up in jails under the state's massive new realignment plan to relieve prison overcrowding. And the competition for limited state funds is fierce, leading Santa Clara County to worry it might lose out to others whose lockups are jam-packed...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
January 8, 2012
Tehachapi prison psychologist on realignment problems
Well, golly, gee whiz -- AB 109 is still a newborn and here's what we have already found:
* That California counties north to south have received two to three times the number of realigned triple-nons -- nonserious, nonviolent, nonsexual felons -- and parolees estimated by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This at a time when city and county law enforcement and court budgets are being shrunk.
* That counties are suddenly recognizing that the health and mental health needs (and costs) of the CDCR transferees far exceed needs and costs estimated and funded for by the state...
LINK - Bakersfield.com
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 8, 2012
State convicts arrive in L.A. County with costly mental illnesses
As California begins shifting supervision of thousands of newly released state prisoners to local probation agencies, ex-convicts are arriving with incomplete medical records and more serious mental illnesses than anticipated. And mental health officials are scrambling to provide appropriate — and often costly — treatment.
"At the start, every day ... there was a crisis," said Dr. Marvin Southard, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. "There was somebody we didn't know what to do with."
In some cases, he said, released inmates have had to be immediately transferred to hospitals or residential centers for psychiatric care...
LINK - LATimes.com
January 7, 2012
Early Release Possible For Inmates As Local Jails Fill
The state’s prison inmate population is shrinking, but the number of convicted criminals housed inside Riverside County jails is growing, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
“As of January 5, 2012, the Sheriff's Department's jails are housing 735 inmates who would have been sent to state prison for felony court convictions or violations of their state parole,” according to a Friday news release from the Sheriff’s Department.
Federal courts have forced California to reduce its inmate population as a way to better care for those incarcerated in what is the nation’s largest prison system. The state has been blasted by the courts for overcrowding and lack of inmate health care in its prison system...
LINK - LakeElsinore-Wildomar.Patch.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
Jails get a bit of relief as inmate influx slows after realignment
The wave of inmates arriving in Orange County jails as part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the state correctional system slowed in December, as local law-enforcement officials continued to adjust to increased responsibility for confining and monitoring convicts.
After two months of inmates arriving faster than expected in Orange County jails, the number of newly sentenced prisoners and those sent away for parole violations began to taper off last month, said Cmdr. Steve Kea of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
In an effort to ease crowding in the California prison system, state officials in October began requiring county law-enforcement agencies to house more nonviolent, non-sex-offender inmates in local jails...
LINK - OCRegister.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 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
Calif. prison realignment may mean 1,500 less inmate firefighters
Areas at risk of wildfires and mudslides could have fewer crews to help out in 2013. The pool of inmate firefighters who pitch in during disasters is shrinking.
For thousands of state prisoners, fighting wildfires offers a chance to earn credit toward their sentence and the opportunity to do more than sit behind bars.
But next year, the program run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Cal Fire will have to rely on fewer inmates due to prison realignment efforts...
LINK - ABCLocal.go.com
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 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
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
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 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 21, 2011
County already feeling impact of inmate transfer
Plumas County’s public safety system is already feeling the effects of the state’s Assembly Bill 109 inmate realignment.
The number of prisoners and parolees in the county’s corrections system has been steadily rising since AB 109 went into effect Oct. 1.
Inmates considered to be “non-violent,” who were formerly sent to state prisons, are now the responsibility of the counties...
LINK - PlumasNews.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
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
CCA private prisoner transport van crashes, killing two
A prisoner and a corrections officer were killed on Monday when a prison van crashed in Lincoln County.
Officials said the van rolled into the median on Interstate 70 between Limon and Genoa.
There were 11 people in the van when the crash occurred -- nine prisoners and two guards...
LINK - TheDenverChannel.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 16, 2011
Inmate numbers up slightly in SLO, SB counties
Two months into a “realignment” program that diverts some state prisoners to local custody, San Luis Obispo County is seeing slightly more than the expected number of inmates.
Many prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes began serving their sentences in county jails Oct. 1 as a result of the state’s ongoing multibillion dollar deficits and a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring the state to lower its prison population by 30,000...
LINK - TimesPressRecorder.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 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
December 7, 2011
Riot at New Folsom prison leaves multiple injured
A riot involving about 50 inmates that broke out at about 12:45 p.m. at California State Prison, Sacramento, has left inmates with gunshot and stab wounds but has been quelled by authorities, state prison officials said today.
Authorities still did not know the extent or number of injuries after officers used Mini 14 rifles to quell the riot, according corrections spokespeople Oscar Hidalgo and Terry Thornton...
LINK - SacBee.com
December 5, 2011
Calif. inmate shift could hurt firefighting crews
Moving California's lower-level criminals to counties could deprive the state of a third of its inmate firefighters unless agreements are reached with counties, officials said Monday.
During the next two to three years, the state could lose 1,500 of the nearly 4,500 inmates who work on firefighting crews, as less serious offenders serve their time in county lockups instead of state prisons, said Richard Subia, a deputy director with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
It's the first time officials have said how many inmate firefighters might be lost to the realignment....
LINK - ModBee.com
December 4, 2011
‘Depopulation’ Prison realignment bringing welcome changes to S.J.‘s DVI
Not long ago, Dorm X buzzed with the chatter of dozens of state prisoners who were in protective custody.
The large hall at Deuel Vocational Institution is now dotted with empty beds and rolled up mattresses.
The warehouse-like room - used for years to ease overcrowding - is no longer needed. It has become a quiet place, and its transformation marks the beginning of more changes to come...
LINK - Recordnet.com
December 3, 2011
Meeting to focus on inmate firefighters
Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, Chair of the Rural Fire Protection Working Group, has called a meeting for Monday at the State Capitol to discuss the potential loss of inmate fire crews under the state's prison realignment program.
The state runs one such camp in Solano County near Suisun City.
"While much of the discussion surrounding the realignment program has dealt with the early release of criminals and new cost burdens to local governments, a less publicized problem is the impact that these early releases may have on our state's ability to fight wildfires," said Jeffries in a press release announcing Monday's meeting...
LINK - TheReporter.com
November 30, 2011
Inmate shift quickly filling some California jails
Two months into California's most far-reaching public safety realignment in decades, some counties are seeing a higher-than-expected influx of inmates who could crowd jails to the breaking point much earlier than expected.
State corrections officials say it is too soon to panic and expect the numbers to even out after an initial surge.
But reality is settling in as local law enforcement agencies struggle to contain criminals with a history of violence, substance abuse and mental illness who previously would have been tucked away in state prisons...
LINK - SFGate.com
November 30, 2011
Salinas Valley State Prison escapees captured
Two minimum-security inmates who escaped nearly two weeks ago from the Salinas Valley State Prison near Soledad have been captured, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced today.
Omar Ramirez, 32, was taken into custody Tuesday night in Compton, the department said, and transported to the California Institution for Men in Chino. They said the second inmate, Yovanni Peralta Diaz, 22, was apprehended following a brief chase this morning in Madera. Diaz was transported back to Salinas Valley State Prison, the department said. The two were captured by the department’s Office of Correctional Safety and Special Service Unit, they said....
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
November 30, 2011
Realignment sentences give long jail terms to inmates
Inland officials are facing lengthy consequences from the state’s new law to house nonviolent convicts in county jail instead of state prison.
The realignment law, AB109, which took effect Oct. 1, was presented as capping county jail sentences at three years. That isn’t happening.
As an example, on Tuesday a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced Dr. Conrad Murray to four years in county jail on his involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Michael Jackson...
LINK - PE.com
November 29, 2011
First Adult Pre-Trial Facility pods opened
AB 109 is presenting a unique set of challenges in 58 different ways, as officials in each of the state's 58 counties are quickly finding out.
In Tulare County, the transition spurred by AB 109 appears to be going fairly smoothly. According to Tulare County sheriff's Capt. Robin Skiles, who heads the jails division, a 37-bed pod at the Adult Pre-Trial Facility was recently opened to accommodate the county's growing male inmate population, while a 48-bed pod has been activated to handle the expanding number of female inmates.
New staffing hires for each of the reopened pods came from AB 109 funds provided by the state, said Skiles...
LINK - ValleyVoiceNewspaper.com
November 28, 2011
Judge says prosecuting and penalizing Pelican Bay inmates financially, “just isn’t worth it.”
District Attorney Jon Alexander hit a snag last week in his campaign to seek fines to deter criminal activity by inmates serving long sentences at Pelican Bay State Prison.
During the sentencing hearing of inmate Oscar Corona on Nov. 17, Judge Robert Weir denied the prosecution’s attempt to seek a high amount of restitution for his conviction of possessing a weapon.
Alexander wants to emphasize fines in the prosecution of inmates in the hopes of limiting their ability to purchase from the canteen...
LINK - Triplicate.com
November 26, 2011
Juveniles face dangers when they do time in adult jails
For thousands of teens accused of crimes, punishment precedes any conviction in court.
While awaiting trial and ostensibly presumed innocent, they can be held for months or even years in county jails for — and sometimes with — adult suspects.
Federal law aims to shield youths from extended detention and from physical or psychological abuse by adult inmates...
LINK - ReporterNews.com
November 23, 2011
PB inmates charged in Jan. attack
Two Pelican Bay State Prison inmates face attempted murder charges in connection with a January assault on three correctional officers who were sent to the hospital.
Inmates Omar Cardenas and Moses Osuna were appointed attorneys during their arraignment Thursday at the Del Norte County Superior Courthouse. They will enter their pleas at a subsequent hearing after they have the chance to speak with their attorneys.
Both are charged with attempted murder and several other felony charges...
LINK - Triplicate.com
November 21, 2011
Inmates “Like” Using Facebook to Intimidate Victims
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says more inmates are using social networking sites like Facebook to harass their victims and accusers.
CDCR officials say inmates are doing this by using smartphones smuggled into prisons and jails...
LINK - KMPH.com
November 21, 2011
Search still on for Salinas Valley State Prison escapees
Two minimum security inmates escaped Saturday night from the Salinas Valley State Prison just north of Soledad, spokesman Lt. Michael Nilsson said.
Nilsson said Omar Ramirez, 32, and Yovanni Peralta Diaz, 22, were discovered missing at 9:44 p.m. by staff during a count at the Minimum Support Facility.
Shortly after the discovery, he said, the facility’s escape pursuit plan was launched, and administrative staff and local law enforcement agencies were consequently notified...
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
November 20, 2011
Shifting prisoners to counties could strain local services
California needs to pay attention to potential strains on county services as it implements Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to shift nonviolent criminals and parolees to counties, a RAND Corp. study says.
The study [PDF], “Understanding the Public Health Implications of Prisoner Reentry in California,” released last week, said the plan to shift low-level offenders to county custody could strain local health care and social services programs that already have been ravaged by budget cuts.
California began sending low-level felony offenders and parole violators to county jails on Oct. 1...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
November 18, 2011
63 Pelican Bay inmates riot last Sunday
A riot involving 63 inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison broke out on Sunday morning.
Inmates began attacking each other at about 9:15 a.m. in general population yard A, said Lt. Christopher Acosta, prison public information officer.
Numerous correctional officers responded to quell the outbreak using pepper spray, pepper spray grenades, and guns that shoot 40mm rubber balls, Acosta said...
LINK - Triplicate.com
November 18, 2011
CCA charging inmates $5.00 per minute for phone calls!
For inmates at one Georgia prison, a one minute phone call could cost them five times more than they earn for a day of work.
The Correction Corporation Of America's Stewart facility, a private prison in Lumpkin, Georgia, is forcing prisoners to pay five dollars per minute to use the phone, Alternet reports. The exorbitant rate would break most people's budget, but it's especially costly for inmates that the prison who make just one dollar per day to work at the facility...
LINK - HuffingtonPost.com
November 17, 2011
Convicted rapist, murderer attacked in GEO Group private prison
A man convicted of raping and murdering one UNM student and raping another back in the early 1980's is at UNM Hospital on life support after being attacked by fellow inmates in prison.
The Corrections Department said Michael Guzman was attacked by more than a dozen inmates just two days after he was moved to a private prison in Clayton.
His family wants answers about the attack...
LINK - KOB.com
November 15, 2011
State fines private prison company $1.1 Million for contract violations
The Department of Corrections will collect $1.1 million from a private prison operator for contract violations related to understaffing, Secretary-designate Gregg Marcantel said Monday.
The GEO Group also has agreed to pump an additional $200,000 over the next year into recruiting staff for its Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, Marcantel said.
The violations occurred since the beginning of this year, after Gov. Susana Martinez took office...
LINK - ABQJournal.com
November 15, 2011
Inmates Escape Delta Conservation Camp
Two inmates are on the run after escaping from Delta Conservation Camp, just outside Suisun City, according to the California Correctional Center.
Both are described as minimum security inmates, officials said Tuesday morning. They were last seen about 4:30 a.m.
Eduardo Hernandez is about 5 feet 4 inches tall, 125 pounds and has brown eyes, black hair and a medium complexion, a news release states...
LINK - KCRA.com
November 15, 2011
State plan to revamp correctional system nets more inmates at local facilities than orig thought
Twice as many inmates as projected arrived at Orange County jails during the first month of an ambitious overhaul of the state's correctional system that has county governments taking on new responsibilities for confining and monitoring convicts.
The boost raises concerns that empty bed space could be quickly filled and valuable contracts with federal officials placed in jeopardy.
Faced with a court mandate to ease crowding in the California prison system, state officials instituted a plan — "inmate realignment" — calling for county law-enforcement agencies to house more nonviolent, non-sex-offender inmates in local jails...
LINK - CorrectionsOne.com
November 14, 2011
First month of prison realignment program has been problematic
The first month of Gov. Jerry Brown's prison realignment plan has been problematic in Los Angeles County, where understaffing forced probation officers to double their caseloads and sheriff's deputies were not given authority to arrest no-show parolees until just a few days ago.
The county also had to scramble for information about incoming parolees because the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was slow releasing inmate details...
LINK - DailyBreeze.com
November 7, 2011
3 strikes ballot measure faces public safety politics
A pair of Stanford University law professors spent months this year writing ballot language to narrow, ever so slightly, California's three strikes sentencing law.
The result is the "Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012" [PDF], which is now under legal review by the state attorney general's office. It aims to remove courts' authority to sentence convicts to 25 years to life in prison when their crimes have been neither violent nor serious.
At the same time, the initiative's backers argue this measure will ensure dangerous criminals remain incarcerated...
LINK - News10.net
November 4, 2011
Girl’s killer slain in cell (at Mule Creek)
A man convicted of raping and murdering a Manteca High School student in 2000 has been killed in his cell, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Ty Lopes, 44, was pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m. Monday after officials at Mule Creek State Prison found him unresponsive in his cell.
His cellmate, James Booker, 44, has been named the main suspect in the killing, according to CDCR...
LINK - Recordnet.com
November 4, 2011
Riot at Salinas Valley State Prison spurs inquiry into use of deadly force
A use-of-deadly-force investigation is under way following a riot Thursday afternoon at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad in which correctional officers fired live rounds to quell the fighting. No inmates were hit.
"CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] has sent a deadly force investigation team," said department spokeswoman Terry Thornton. She said this is done anytime deadly force is used to see if that force was within department policies and state law...
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
November 3, 2011
As many as 120 inmates involved in Soledad prison fighting
Four inmates were hurt in a huge fight involving as many as 120 inmates at the Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad this afternoon, according to preliminary information, said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton.
Two inmates were stabbed and two others received multiple head injuries but no staff was injured, said Thornton.
“They (guards) used chemical agents, pepper spray and less lethal munitions and finally resorted to using lethal rounds from mini-14 rifles,” said Thornton. No inmates were hit by the lethal rounds, she said. “It does sound serious,” she said...
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
October 19, 2011
Inmate accused of killing cellmate at High Desert State Prison
An inmate is accused of killing his cellmate at High Desert State Prison on Tuesday, authorities say.
Ivan Mejia, 26, was found dead in his cell Tuesday evening, said prison spokesman Lt. Charlie Hahn. Prison authorities say they suspect Mejia's cellmate, 27-year-old Angel Gomez, in the killing and have placed him in the Administrative Segregation Unit pending further investigation, Hahn said.
Mejia's exact cause of death has not been released by the coroner's office, Hahn said...
LINK - SacBee.com
October 18, 2011
Private prison industry grows despite critics
The biggest prison in the state of Idaho is also the toughest.
The Idaho Correctional Center—the ICC — was so violent that employees and inmates had a name for the place: Gladiator School.
“That was because of the assaults,” said Todd Goertzen, a former corrections counselor at the prison. “That's why they called it Gladiator School, because of that reason. If you're going to ICC, it's going to be fight or die, basically.”
This is the story of a dangerous business: the billions of dollars that flow into the American prison industry and the companies that profit from it...
LINK - Today.MSNBC.com
October 18, 2011
Oklahoma: 4 Cal CCA inmates still in hospital
Four inmates who were injured in a prison riot at the North Fork Correctional Facility last week remain hospitalized.
Corrections Corporation of America spokesman Mike Machak (MAY'-chak) said Tuesday the prisoners were still being treated at area hospitals. Machak said he couldn't elaborate on the inmates' medical conditions.
A total of 46 inmates were hurt during the riot between prisoners from California. Thirty were treated by prison medical staff and 16 initially were hospitalized...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
October 17, 2011
Two private prison documentaries to air tomorrow night
PBS-Frontline will air an investigative report titled, “Lost in Detention” October 18 at 6pm Pacific Time.
CNBC will premiere the documentary, “Billions Behind Bars: Inside the American Prison Industry.” at 9 pm Pacific time.
Please check local listings for any changes.
A brief summary of both documentaries is pasted below...
October 15, 2011
Fire camp escapee sentenced to 16 months
An inmate who walked away from the low-security Washington Ridge Conservation Camp and led law enforcement officers on a chase across four counties before being recaptured a month later was sentenced to 16 months in state prison Friday.
Lincoln resident Jeffrey Lynn Shook, 37, fled from the conservation camp, located along Highway 20 between Nevada City and Washington, on July 7, 2010. Investigators learned that Shook was associated with the Aryan Brotherhood and might be hiding with a prison associate in the Happy Camp area about 40 miles west of Yreka...
LINK - TheUnion.com
October 15, 2011
CA inmates learning to make shoes. Nike and Adidas hiring?
Perhaps the most coveted job among prisoners at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa is a spot working in the state prison's shoe factory.
The factory provides more than casual shoes for the correctional system's inmates, officials say.
It's the highest-paying job at Donovan, and factory workers can earn up to 95 cents per hour, as well as a certificate for a trade that may help them find work when they rejoin society...
LINK - NCTimes.com
October 12, 2011
For-Profit Prisons: A Barrier to Serious Criminal Justice Reform
The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one — especially at a time when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises caused largely by bloated and unnecessary prison spending. But mass incarceration provides a gigantic windfall for one special interest group: the private prison industry. As current incarceration levels harm the nation as a whole, for-profit prisons obtain taxpayer dollars in ever greater amounts. Private prison executives, meanwhile, bring in multi-million dollar compensation packages.
Today, the United States incarcerates 2.3 million individuals — more people, both per capita and in absolute terms, than any other nation in the world including Russia, China and Iran. The current incarceration rate deprives record numbers of individuals of their liberty, disproportionately affects people of color and has at best a minimal effect on public safety. The crippling cost of imprisoning more and more Americans — non-violent offenders in the majority of cases — saddles governments with escalating debt...
LINK - CNBC.com
October 11, 2011
Authorities responding to disturbance at private prison in Sayre
Law enforcement agencies responded Tuesday to a disturbance at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, officials said. The private prison is run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America and houses offenders from California.
At 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, prison staff responded to multiple inmate fights in various areas of the facility, according to Steve Owen, CCA senior director of public affairs.
By 3:30 p.m., the fighting had ceased, Owen said...
LINK - TulsaWorld.com
October 11, 2011
Calif. inmates brawl at Okla. prison; 21 injured
Widespread fighting broke out at an Oklahoma prison Tuesday between black and Hispanic California inmates, sending at least 21 inmates to the infirmary or hospitals before police and prison guards were able to restore order, authorities said.
The fighting began shortly before noon at the North Fork Corrections Facility, a privately run medium-security prison in Sayre that houses 2,381 inmates from California. Greg Williams, an official with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, told The Associated Press that the fighting appeared to have been between black and Hispanic inmates, but he didn't know if it was gang-related...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
October 11, 2011
California Inmates Rioting NOW in Oklahoma Private Prison!
Law enforcement agencies are responding to a disturbance at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, officials said.
The private prison is run by Corrections Corporation of America, which was not immediately available for comment.
"I have little information," said Joyce Jackson, Oklahoma Department of Corrections communications director. "Basically, there is supposed to be a disturbance with approximately 80 to 90 Hispanic offenders and they have barricaded themselves in the dining area..."
LINK - TulsaWorld.com
October 7, 2011
Cost of cornfield manhunt near Tower City roughly $55,000
Local law enforcement agencies spent roughly $55,000 on the 22-hour manhunt earlier this week for the sex offender who escaped from a private prison transport van near Tower City.
And after speaking this morning with the owner of Extradition Transport of America LLC, Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said the public safety agencies that were involved in the search believe they’ll get paid for those costs...
LINK - InForum.com
October 3, 2011
Inmates give high marks to San Quentin programs
San Quentin houses some of the most notorious criminals in the State of California, including those on death row.
Many other inmates regard San Quentin as one of the best facilities in the California Department of Corrections system. Some inmates say they were transferred to San Quentin from other institutions as a reward for their continued good behavior...
LINK - LarksuprCorteMadera.Patch.com
October 3, 2011
CDCR investigating hunger-striking inmate advocates
Just days after thousands of California inmates renewed a hunger strike, two Bay Area attorneys closely involved in mediation efforts got a surprise: They were under investigation by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for allegations of misconduct and unspecified security threats.
The attorneys – Marilyn McMahon, executive director of California Prison Focus, and Carol Strickman of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children – have been banned from state institutions until the investigation is resolved, according to temporary exclusion orders signed by Corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan on Sept. 29.
The investigation will determine whether the attorneys “violated the laws and policies governing the safe operations of institutions within the CDCR,” the order states...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
October 3, 2011
Sex offender, drug dealer to be released from prison, sent to Glenn County
A registered sex offender and a man convicted of selling drugs will be the first two parolees to come back to Glenn County under California's prisoner realignment program.
The inmates will be released from state prison today, and will have 48 hours to report to probation officials, said Glenn County Chief Probation Officer Brandon Thompson.
Under a program established by Assembly Bill 109, and formally known as "post-release community supervision," low-level inmates from 30 state prisons will be released to county probation, where they'll complete their parolee time...
LINK - ChicoER.com
September 30, 2011
CA inmates begin another hunger strike
Prison officials in California Thursday confirmed that more than 4,000 inmates have been on a hunger strike since Monday.
It’s the second time this year that inmates have refused food to protest the prison system’s use Security Housing Units — known as “the SHU” — to control prison gangs.
Each day, inmates in the SHU at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border get 15 minutes to shower, and a little over an hour to exercise in a concrete yard...
LINK - SCPR.org
September 30, 2011
Statewide Agreement – California Identification Card Pilot
Please see attached agreement which represent the full and complete understanding reached by and between the parties at the conclusion of Meet and Confer negotiations on September 15, 2011 regarding the California Identification Card Pilot...
September 26, 2011
Private prison giant CCA seeking CA inmates for empty prisons in Minnesota, Colorado
It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California.
In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants...
LINK - MinnesotaIndependent.com
September 26, 2011
California prisoners resume hunger strike today
This sign posted outside the San Quentin gate alerted visiting friends and family on July 2 that the hunger strike had begun at Pelican Bay. Within two weeks, more than 6,600 prisoners in at least 13 California prisons, including those in San Quentin Ad-Seg, were participating – the word spread primarily by visitors.
Today, prisoners at Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) and Calipatria’s Administrative Segregation Unit (Ad-Seg or ASU) resume their hunger strike.
Community members and prisoners’ families are holding a press conference outside UC Hastings School of Law in San Francisco at 2 p.m. A panel discussion featuring legal experts, activists, advocates and prisoners’ family members will follow at UC Hastings, highlighting the prisoners’ conditions and reasons for their renewed strike...
LINK - SFBayView.com
September 20, 2011
Texas hopes to contract for California inmates?
The termination of a contract awarded by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice derailed plans to fill the beds of a detention facility that was completed in May 2010 for a price of $35 million.
On Friday Jones County Judge Dale Spurgin said the 1,112-bed prison remains vacant. "I think people are disappointed, but we're just going to continue to work on it," Spurgin said. "It's a brand new facility, someone is eventually going to use it."
The county did not input any money into the project, he said. Instead, revenue bonds were sold by the state to finance the project...
LINK - CorrectionsOne.com
September 19, 2011
CNBC - “Billions Behind Bars: Inside America’s Prison Industry” to air in October
“Billions Behind Bars: Inside America’s Prison Industry,” a CNBC original documentary, goes behind the razor wires to investigate the profits and inner-workings of the multi-billion dollar corrections industry.
With more than 2.3 million people locked up, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. One out of 100 American adults is behind bars – while a stunning one out of 32 is on probation, parole or in prison. This reliance on mass incarceration has created a thriving prison economy. The states and the federal government together spend roughly $74 billion a year on corrections, and nearly 800,000 people work in the industry...
LINK - CNBC.com
September 17, 2011
Caps and gowns behind locked gates
Friday was graduation day for Brian Steven Hernandez, a goal that was never a sure thing growing up in his tough North Hollywood neighborhood.
At Jack B. Clarke High School, within the locked gates of a state youth correctional facility in Norwalk, Hernandez realized he could turn his life around.
But Hernandez and his 22 classmates, proudly wearing maroon caps and gowns, are the last graduates to receive diplomas at Clarke, which is closing at year's end due to state budget cuts...
LINK - LATimes.com
September 15, 2011
Prison Gangs and Photos
Prison gangs are criminal organizations that originated within the penal system and they have continued to operate within correctional facilities throughout the United States. Prison gangs are also self-perpetuating criminal entities that can continue their operations outside the confines of the penal system.
Typically, a prison gang consists of a select group on inmates who have an organized hierarchy and who are governed by an established code of conduct. Prison gangs vary in both organization and composition, from highly structured gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood and Nuestra Familia to gangs with a less formalized structure such as the Mexican Mafia (La Eme).
Prison gangs generally have fewer members than street gangs and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs(OMGs) and are structured along racial or ethnic lines. Nationally, prison gangs pose a threat because of their role in the transportation and distribution of narcotics.
Prison gangs are also an important link between drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs), street gangs and OMGs, often brokering the transfer of drugs from DTOs to gangs in many regions. Prison gangs typically are more powerful within state correctional facilities rather than within the federal penal system.
September 9, 2011
Former inmate caught smuggling cell phones, chargers, heroin, meth, SD cards, etc into New Folsom
Two men, including a former inmate, were arrested earlier this week for attempting to introduce contraband into California State Prison, Sacramento in Folsom.
On Sunday, Aug. 28, the Investigative Services Unit at the prison arrested two men suspected of delivering contraband to inmates inside the facility, said Sgt. Tony Quinn, public information officer at California State Prison, Sacramento.
Harley Schroeder, 29, a former inmate, was allegedly attempting to deliver contraband inside the prison when he was arrested by prison officials at 12:10 a.m...
LINK - EDHTelegraph.com
September 9, 2011
Private prisons profitting from 9/11
On a conference call with investors less than two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wall Street executive Steve Logan predicted a new era of unbridled growth for his industry: the for-profit prison business.
"It is clear that since Sept. 11, there's a heightened focus on detention, both on the borders and in the U.S.," Logan, the chief executive of publicly-traded prison corporation Cornell Companies, told analysts on a quarterly earnings call. "More people are gonna get caught. ... So I would say that's positive."
Logan's upbeat assessment of the post-9/11 world would prove true, as the federal government has embarked on an unprecedented campaign to round up, detain and eventually deport illegal immigrants under the guise of bolstering national security. Since Congress brought immigration enforcement under the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, the number of immigrants locked up each year has nearly doubled to more than 390,000, creating a lucrative opportunity for private corporations hired to build and supervise detention centers across the country...
LINK - HuffingtonPost.com
