Prisons
February 2, 2012
Refusal to fund California prison construction could delay end of federal oversight
For six years, a federal receiver has been in charge of fixing California’s broken-down prison medical system.
The receiver says he can finish the job soon, but he needs state lawmakers to pay the full $2 billion they promised for medical facilities. The state has already spent a billion dollars on improvements. Lawmakers now say they don’t need to spend any more. The receiver worries that the improvements in prison medical care could slip away...
LINK - SCPR.org
February 1, 2012
Event celebrates Calipatria’s State Prison’s 20th anniversary
While the surrounding community has changed a lot in the past 20 years, so has Calipatria State Prison, said Robert Silvas.
Silvas, a 17-year prison employee who serves as a sergeant, said Tuesday that in addition to being one of the first California correctional facilities to feature an electrical fence, Calipatria State Prison was also the place in 2005 where one of the worst-ever prison riots occurred....
LINK - IVPressOnline.com
January 30, 2012
State wavers on future of closed Paso Robles correctional facility
The governor’s decision to withhold more than $100 million to revamp the closed El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility into a re-entry facility for state prisoners is not necessarily permanent, a state spokesman said Monday, but local officials want more clarity about what the state intends to do with the place long-term.
“I’m a little confused” about the state’s intentions, said Frank Mecham, county supervisor and former Paso Robles mayor. He said he hopes the governor doesn’t plan to “leave it as a big white elephant, gathering weeds and dust.”
Meanwhile Paso Robles City Councilman Fred Strong has disinterred an old idea: asking the state to sell the land to Paso Robles for $1, so that “we could repurpose it in any number of possible ways....”
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
January 30, 2012
Hundreds Of Calif. Prison Employees Get Layoff Notices
California prison officials sent layoff notices to 545 employees, including 140 guards, as the inmate population declines to comply with a federal court order.
Corrections officials told KSBW on Friday that all 33 of California's prison institutions, including Salinas Valley State Prison and the correctional training facility near Soledad, will be impacted by the layoffs.
Layoffs will take effect Feb. 29, although some of those affected can transfer to other prisons that have vacancies...
LINK - KSBW.com
January 27, 2012
End of prison oversight not certain
The court-appointed receiver overseeing California's prison health care system said Friday the state must keep its promise to spend more than $2 billion for new medical facilities before the federal courts can end an oversight role that has lasted six years.
California has committed to spending $750 million to upgrade existing medical facilities, building a new medical center and converting juvenile lockups. So far, only the new medical center in Stockton is being built.
Receiver J. Clark Kelso told The Associated Press that the state must begin all the upgrades before it should be allowed to retake control of a prison medical system once deemed so poor that it was found to have violated inmates' constitutional rights. They are his first public comments since a federal judge last week told officials to begin preparing for an end to the receivership...
LINK - FoxNews.com
January 26, 2012
New acting Warden at CCI
Kim Holland is the new Acting Warden at the California Correctional Institution. Mike Stainer, the former Acting Warden who was formally appointed to the Warden’s position by Gov. Jerry Brown on Jan. 17, is on assignment as Acting Associate Director of the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Sacramento. Holland was introduced at a recent meeting of the CCI Citizens Advisory Committee.
Newly appointed Acting Warden Kim Holland was introduced at the Jan. 17 meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee at the California Correctional Institution.
Holland replaces Michael Stainer who has temporarily been stationed in Sacramento as Acting Associate Director. Stainer had been Acting Warden since December 2010 and was formally appointed as Warden at CCI by Gov. Jerry Brown on Jan. 17...
LINK - TehachapiNews.com
January 26, 2012
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 25, 2012
Calif. Prisons Chief: Despite “Bumps,” There’s “Hope” in Realignment
Nearly four months into California’s shift of responsibility for low-level criminals from the state to counties, the state prisons chief says he’s “gratified” with how realignment is going so far.
Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate says realignment isn't perfect. He acknowledges hearing "anecdotes" about crimes that might not have happened without it. But he says realignment might prevent a lot of crimes too...
LINK - CapRadio.org
January 25, 2012
Solano’s First Sweep of Felons Under Gov’s New Prison Realignment Program
Three arrests off the top, during Solano County law enforcement officers' very first sweep of felons under the Governor's new prison realignment program.
"They are dangerous people that are coming out of prison, that are left with probation and law enforcement to deal with," said Lt. Brad Dewall, during one of the first arrests of the day.
"What we're doing is compliance checks to make sure that they are with terms and conditions of their release," Solano County Sheriff Gary Stanton said...
LINK - Fox40.com
January 25, 2012
Four months in, some California judges want more say over state’s new sentencing rules
Some California Superior Court judges are calling for a major shift in Gov. Jerry Brown's 4-month-old realignment policy -- the power to keep track of certain nonviolent felons for a lot longer than the policy now calls for.
The judges say the change is necessary because it's nearly impossible to rehabilitate some offenders and discourage them from committing new crimes in the limited time the new realignment system allows...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
January 25, 2012
CDCR’s Matt Cate talks to Sacramento Press Club
California's enormous budget problem is making it difficult for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to comply with the court-ordered reduction in its prison population, Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told 80 Sacramento Press Club luncheon guests Tuesday.
But, said Cate, "It's getting done."
Cate said the inmate population is 200 percent over capacity, and the goal is to reduce that to 137.5 percent. The major effort now --called Realignment-- is aimed at moving less violent inmates into county facilities. But the state budget problem is getting in the way. Cate said some counties want remuneration from the state for their added costs, and the state doesn't have the money...
LINK - CapitolMR.com (Subscription Only)
January 23, 2012
Our View: Signs of progress in state prisons
Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment already is having a positive impact on the statewide prison system.
The population in these overcrowded prisons has dropped by 11,000 inmates -- to 133,000 -- in just six months. And the state is on track to get to 110,000 by June 2013.
That's a big change from 2006, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. Overcrowding in the prisons, Schwarzenegger said, "causes harm to people and property, leads to inmate unrest and misconduct, reduces or eliminates programs, and increases recidivism as shown within this state and in others."
California's prison medical care system was so broken that a federal judge took the drastic step of taking it away from the state and placing it in federal receivership. The goal, declared the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was to "reverse the entrenched paralysis and dysfunction and bring the delivery of health care in California prisons up to constitutional standards."
Well, California finally has turned a corner on that front, too...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 23, 2012
UPD officers ‘maxed-out’ with each handling 1,200 calls a year
Chief Dewey exploring ways to ease burden on his staff
The Ukiah Police Department "has maxed-out its officers' time" and is looking for ways to reduce their workload by enlisting interns, volunteers and expanding its Community Services Officer (CSO) program.
"I think we're doing a fantastic job handling the calls we have," said Public Safety Director Chris Dewey, addressing the Ukiah City Council Saturday during a special meeting to discuss ways to streamline city operations...
LINK - UkiahDailyJournal.com
January 18, 2012
Florida again seeks to privatize 29 state prisons
Florida lawmakers are reviving the largest prison privatization plan in the country, with a Senate committee Wednesday voting to file two bills that would turn over 29 correctional facilities in an 18-county region — including Southwest Florida — to private companies.
The vote by the Senate Rules Committee — which was opposed by two Democratic members — is aimed at reversing a court ruling last year that negated the Legislature's effort to carry out the massive privatization plan through the state budget.
Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, said the new legislation would "remedy" the objections raised by the courts, including the argument that lawmakers should have used separate legislation — not the budget bill — to authorize the private prisons...
LINK - TheLedger.com
January 17, 2012
Judge to end Calif. prison receiver
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered California officials to prepare for the end of a six-year, court-ordered oversight of the prison system that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and helped force a shift of lower-level criminals from state prisons to county jails.
U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson cited improving conditions in the prison system in a three-page order that says "the end of the Receivership appears to be in sight."
The ruling marks an important milestone in a process that began nearly six years ago when the judge appointed a receiver to run California's prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. He cited inmate overcrowding as the leading cause, but said in Tuesday's order that conditions have improved...
LINK - SacBee.com
January 16, 2012
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 16, 2012
Behind the Badge: Rise in burglaries a sign of prison realignment failing
My wife went to her exercise class last Monday but found the gym was closed for the day as they repaired the damage from a burglary during the night. An hour later she tried to take our van to the mechanic, but found he was not going to open for business because someone tunneled through a wall and burglarized his shop. A few days later a neighbor came up to my door and wanted to know what he could do about the guy who broke into four cars on the street near his house.
People want to know what's happening and who is responsible for the increase in theft-related crime. A couple of incidents over the past few weeks might help answer those questions...
LINK - LodiNews.com
January 16, 2012
Calif. inmate should get kosher meals, appeals court rules
The California prison system is violating a Messianic Jewish prisoner's constitutional rights by denying him kosher food, a state appeals court ruled.
A three-justice panel of the California 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 11 that Margarito Jesus Garcia, who is serving 15 years to life for a conviction on second degree murder, should receive kosher meals from the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, reversing a lower court ruling...
LINK - JewishinStLouis.org
January 16, 2012
Behind the Badge: Rise in burglaries a sign of prison realignment failing
My wife went to her exercise class last Monday but found the gym was closed for the day as they repaired the damage from a burglary during the night. An hour later she tried to take our van to the mechanic, but found he was not going to open for business because someone tunneled through a wall and burglarized his shop. A few days later a neighbor came up to my door and wanted to know what he could do about the guy who broke into four cars on the street near his house.
People want to know what's happening and who is responsible for the increase in theft-related crime. A couple of incidents over the past few weeks might help answer those questions....
LINK - LodiNews.com
January 15, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown plans $1 billion in prison cuts
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to cut state prison spending next fiscal year for the first time in nearly a decade, a departure from the goals of recent administrations, which consistently increased corrections spending and pushed for prison expansion.
Brown's budget would save California $1.1 billion on housing inmates and hundreds of millions more by allowing the state to halt some prison construction - savings largely due to his administration's recent overhaul of the state's criminal justice system.
General fund spending on prisons nearly doubled under Brown's Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, from $5.2 billion in 2004 to $9.5 billion in 2011, when Brown, a Democrat, took office. The increase in spending was largely caused by an exploding inmate population and a court order to improve medical care in prisons...
LINK - SFGate.com
January 14, 2012
Washington: Lawmakers likely to reject prisoners’ early release as money-saver
With lawmakers showing little interest in letting hundreds of prisoners out early to save money, Washington State Reformatory's future as a medium security prison appears less in doubt.
Gov. Chris Gregoire put forth the idea of releasing inmates early, and, as those beds emptied, the state could close one unit at the reformatory and convert three others into less costly minimum security facilities. Roughly $12 million could be saved in this budget.
Lawmakers are giving her proposal a cold shoulder so far in a session that runs through early March...
LINK - HeraldNet.com
January 14, 2012
Disabled inmates denied crucial access, judge says
California prison officials have failed to monitor and protect hundreds of disabled parolees in county jails, some of whom have been denied such basic aids as canes and wheelchairs and aren't allowed to file grievances, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland said she first pointed out the state's failure to meet the needs of parolees with disabilities in a ruling more than a decade ago. But officials have done little to comply and are now trying to duck responsibility, she said.
There is "overwhelming and disturbing evidence" that disabled inmates are being "denied access to housing, programs and services" because of the state's violations of disability laws, Wilken said...
LINK - SFGate.com
January 14, 2012
Prison realignment is the best way - says CDCR
The recent opinion piece by a psychologist at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi about California's program for reducing prison overcrowding was full of inaccuracies ("What has realignment of prisons wrought? More than state warned," Jan. 9). As a corrections professional, Brik McDill should know better. Some of his claims were unsubstantiated, and some describe problems not attributable to public safety realignment. The bottom line is that California is legally required to reduce prison overcrowding, and realignment is preferable by far to a large-scale release of inmates.
Here's how realignment works. Starting Oct. 1, many low-level offenders who would previously have gone to state prisons were sent to the counties. The prison inmate population has now fallen 11,000 and should fall an additional 23,000 over the next 18 months...
LINK - Bakersfield.com
January 11, 2012
Stopping Prison Construction Important First Step (?)
Governor Brown’s surprised Californians by unveiling his 2012-13 budget five days early on January 5th. The Budget has Californians calling for additional cuts to the corrections budget to prevent even further slashing of welfare, childcare, health care, education, and job opportunities. The 2012-2013 proposal, which includes $8.887 billion in General Fund spending for Corrections, comes the same week as severe trigger cuts from last year’s budget and just days before 25 Counties are due to submit funding requests to build $602 million worth of jails across the state.
Until this year, when many of the state’s corrections needs were outsourced to the county level with Brown’s Public Safety Realignment, General Fund spending for prisons had climbed steadily from $604.2 million in 1980-81 to $9.6 billion in 2010-11, or from 2.9 percent to 10.5 percent of the state’s General Fund. This year’s Budget projects $8.9 billion of General Fund expenditure on corrections, down from $9.6 billion last year...
LINK - CaliforniaProgressReport.com
January 11, 2012
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 10, 2012
Guards quash inmate riot at Corcoran State Prison
Guards at Corcoran State Prison used pepper spray and other less-than-lethal weapons Tuesday afternoon to break up a riot by inmates, authorities said.
The riot broke about noon on a maximum-security yard and involved about 60 inmates, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said...
LINK - LATimes.com
January 10, 2012
Juvenile Justice Realignment in 2012
By Brian Heller de Leon
Policy and Government Outreach Coordinator, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Selena Teji, J.D. Communications Specialist, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
“The purpose of this publication is to recommend a full juvenile justice realignment plan in the 2012-13 budget cycle. The Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) budget triggers implemented on January 1, 2012, highlight the unsustainable costs of maintaining a dual juvenile justice system in California.
DJF’s current recidivism rate of 80% and continued scrutiny under the Farrell lawsuit both demonstrate the limited success the state has at rehabilitating youthful offenders (CDCR, 2010, p.10).”
January 6, 2012
Gov. Jerry Brown calls for a historic shuttering of the state’s notorious youth prison system
Following years of failed attempts to better serve juvenile offenders and the public's safety, California's once-sprawling youth corrections system may soon bow to a final, unprecedented strategy: shutting its locked gates for good.
Budget pressure in a system with annual costs of $200,000 per ward drove Gov. Jerry Brown this week to propose halting all new intakes at the Division Of Juvenile Justice. If approved by state legislators, beginning next year the state's three remaining prisons would then shrink themselves to oblivion, as current inmates complete their terms. Under the plan, county probation departments would assume the custody and treatment of all juvenile offenders -- an expansion from current practice where only the most serious and violent are housed by the state...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
January 6, 2012
City of Chowchilla to take legal action over VSPW conversion
The city of Chowchilla said Thursday it plans to file a legal challenge against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation about the state prison system's attempt to convert the Valley State Prison for Women into a men's prison.
"The Chowchilla City Council feels it is imperative to take necessary steps to protect our community and our rural way of life from the state's planned prison conversion," Mayor Janan Hebert said in a news release. "It's unfortunate that we have to file papers in court in order to keep our neighborhoods secure, but CDCR has left us with no other options."
At the heart of the controversy are fears that families of male inmates will relocate to the area at a higher rate than families of female inmates and overwhelm the city's limited public resources. Also, Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz has voiced concerns that male prisoners would be more violent and thus require his office to prosecute more assault cases and the county to hire more sheriff's deputies...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 6, 2012
Stockton prison hospital set to open end of 2013
Construction is well under way on the California Health Care Facility, a nearly $1 billion prison medical project in southeast Stockton, and the action is expected to only get hotter.
Clark/McCarthy, the general contractor assembling the facility's 31 main buildings, currently has about 120 employees and subcontractors on site.
"We'll be almost 1,200 by the Fourth of July," predicted Mike Ricker, Clark/McCarthy vice president...
LINK - RecordNet.com
January 5, 2012
Editorial: Prison progress, at last
A decade after the state of California agreed to improve inmate health care in the state prison system, it is finally on track to fulfill that agreement.
This week, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that it has met the first target set by federal courts to reduce the overall number of inmates.
At the end of 2011, the number of inmates in the state's 33 prisons -- including the two in Vacaville, the California Medical Facility and California State Prison, Solano -- was slightly under the 133,000 goal set by the court...
LINK - TheReporter.com
January 5, 2012
Donnelly Vows New Try at Prison Reform
Frustrated by what he sees as a partisan rejection of his plan to cut prison costs and overcrowding, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly is pledging to take up the fight again when the legislature reconvenes this month.
"I'm going to push a bill to deal with some of the unintended impacts of AB 109," Donnelly said in a phone interview Friday.
His comments refer to side effects of a bill passed last year in Sacramento in response to a federal court's 2009 ruling that, because of prison overcrowding, more than 40,000 convicted felons would have to be released within two years...
LINK - Mountain-News.com
January 4, 2012
County seeks input on realignment
After months of wrestling with public safety realignment, the county’s Probation Department is asking the public for its thoughts on how best to implement the state’s budget-balancing plan that shifted low-level state prisoners to local jails and parolees to local supervision.
Probation Chief Stuart Forrest and a mix of other stakeholders like judges and those in law enforcement, health and education have been meeting for months even before realignment officially began in October. They hoped to meet the switch head on with a smooth transition. Now, with the process a reality, the collective known as the Community Corrections Partnership is holding a town hall meeting prior to the final draft of the county’s own plan coming together in February...
LINK - SMDailyJournal.com
January 4, 2012
Will Chowchilla fight prison conversion?
Yesterday, officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation travelled to Chowchilla in the Central Valley to talk to locals about the pending conversion of Valley State Prison for Women into a men’s facility. Chowchilla, the closest town to two of the state’s three women’s prisons, has resisted the conversion, worried about the impact of bringing in thousands of male prisoners. CDCR, meanwhile, says that under realignment, the female prison population will drop so much that they won’t need all three women’s prisons. Joshua Emerson Smith covers Chowchilla as part of his job as a McClatchy Reporter with Merced Sun Star and Chowchilla News. Emerson Smith was at yesterday’s meeting and we checked in with him to find out what went down...
LINK - KALWNews.org
January 3, 2012
Impact of shift at Chowchilla prison debated
Corrections officials tried to appease Chowchilla and Madera County leaders Tuesday during a special meeting to discuss the possible impact from the conversion of Valley State Prison for Women to a men's facility.
The meeting came less than a week before the filing deadline for legal challenges to a self-granted California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation exemption allowing the department to bypass an impact study of the conversion.
Local officials repeatedly have demanded that the state prison system do an impact analysis, accusing state prison officials of violating the California Environmental Quality Act...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
January 3, 2012
Financial concerns with Chowchilla prison changes
State officials are moving ahead with their plan to convert the Valley State Prison for Women into a male prison to reduce overcrowding. There have been many concerns about the switch since the announcement was made last month and county leaders raised some of the financial issues at a meeting Tuesday morning.
State correction officials presented their conversion plan at a public meeting in the Madera County government center. "We won't be seeing the same number of female inmates coming into our institutions," said Dana Toyama, spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
LINK - ABCLocal.go.com
January 2, 2012
Adelanto seeks 6,100-bed prisons from CDCR
Negotiating with the state to build a new prison, attracting industrial development and promoting recreation options at the city's first high school are among Adelanto's top priorities for 2012.
The city is now working up the drawings for a new prison that would be operated by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and could pour up to $5 million annually into city coffers.
The proposal is for the city to use bond or private financing to build two side-by-side facilities that house up to 6,100 inmates and staff roughly 2,000 employees. The proposed 226-acre site is in industrial area west of Highway 395 off Cassia Road, near the current San Bernardino County Adelanto Detention Center...
LINK - VVDailyPress.com
December 29, 2011
Op-Ed: Four ways to relieve overcrowded prisons
Necessity can spur novelty. Even political novelty. As the need for fiscal austerity grows, an unlikely alliance has emerged between policymakers and public advocates who have long sought criminal justice reform. These policymakers are realizing what advocates have reiterated for years: The nation’s addiction to incarceration as a curb on crime must end. The evidence is staggering.
In California, 54 prisoners may share a single toilet and 200 prisoners may live in a gymnasium supervised by two or three officers. Suicidal inmates may be held for protracted periods in cages without toilets and the wait times for mental health care sometimes reach 12 months...
LINK - CSMonitor.com
December 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
State Prisons Appear to Fall Short on Overcrowding Reduction Order
Today is the first benchmark date for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce prison overcrowding as per a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. CDCR has until January 10 to prepare and provide a report on the progress of inmate population reduction for review by a three-judge court which initially issued the order.
Inmate populations in California’s 33 state-detention facilities should be reduced to 167 percent of the capacity they were designed to hold by December 27. The number should drop to 155 percent by June 27, 2012, to 147 percent one year from now, and to 137.5 percent of capacity by June 2013...
LINK - SanDiegoReader.com
December 26, 2011
Matthew Cate directs prison downsizing
The usual measures of bureaucratic success for a state government agency are bigger budgets, expanding influence and a higher profile for the person at the very top.
Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, lacks all but the last.
As 2012 begins, the 45-year-old former deputy attorney general finds himself steering the department's historic downsizing with a flat budget and a federal court looking over his shoulder...
LINK - SacBee.com
December 21, 2011
Prison Realignment Sparks Lively Debate
It’s no surprise that AB109, California’s new inmate transfer bill — or “realignment” — is a contentious issue. Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise when tempers remained relatively calm at a recent conference in Sacramento on this very topic, allowing for a constructive debate to take place between invited panelists and those in attendance.
Sponsored by Capitol Weekly, a California newspaper that focuses exclusively on state government and politics, the all-day event, dubbed “California Prisons: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” was all that and more. Held at Sacramento’s famed Crest Theater, the well-known challenges of California’s penal system was the topic du jour. Discussions circulated around realignment and its impact on overcrowding, services, prison reform, parole deficiencies and recidivism in four panels comprised of individuals with differing views. The well-attended conference also featured Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, Senator Loni Hancock, and Matt Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as guest speakers....
LINK - CorrectionalNews.com
December 21, 2011
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 19, 2011
Can county still lock up jail money?
Even without a formal invitation to apply for up to $100 million in state money, county officials still hope the plan for a new 576-bed jail in Redwood City can still quality for the construction funds if other counties drop out.
Circumstances haven’t changed since San Mateo County learned in late October it ranked low compared to other competing counties but could be different after next month’s deadline for complete applications, said Assistant Sheriff Trisha Sanchez.
If higher ranking counties don’t submit applications or further down the road aren’t ready with matching local funds or a site, San Mateo County might move closer to qualifying...
LINK - SMDailyJournal.com
December 19, 2011
California trigger cuts pose young inmate problem in Stanislaus County
The "worst of the worse" young criminals could return from state lockups to Stanislaus County under California's projected "trigger cuts," local authorities fear.
Jill Silva, the county's acting chief probation officer, said, "We're not equipped to take them back."
Keeping young inmates in the state's Division of Juvenile Justice could cost the county an extra $2.9 million per year, she said...
LINK - ModBee.com
December 17, 2011
Prisoner shifts leave murderers better off than nonviolent criminals
California's violent criminals and sex offenders might have much more comfortable stays behind bars than those convicted of less-serious crimes, though they are serving similarly long sentences ---- because of a new law aimed to relieve prison overcrowding and save the state money.
The disparity is a consequence of Gov. Jerry Brown's massive prison realignment, which sends nonviolent offenders to county jails instead of state prisons to serve their sentences. The law is an attempt to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce the number of inmates at California prisons during a state budget crisis...
LINK - NCTimes.com
December 13, 2011
Statewide Agreement: VYCF DIGITAL CAMERA POLICY
December 9, 2011
more on VSPW conversion to men’s prison
Chowchilla's Valley State Prison for Women will be converted to a men's prison in July 2013, even though local officials have voiced strong opposition to the change.
The change is being made because of fewer female inmates and overcrowding in men's prisons, said Dana Toyama, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The prison will hold low- to medium-security adult male inmates, Toyama said Friday...
LINK - FresnoBee.com
November 28, 2011
Prison doctors, barred from seeing patients, collect full pay
California prisons have paid doctors and mental health professionals accused of malpractice an estimated $8.7 million since 2006 to do no work at all or to perform menial chores like sorting mail, tossing out old medical supplies and reviewing inmate charts for clerical errors.
At least 30 medical professionals have collected their six-figure salaries for a cumulative 37 years in a kind of employment limbo after fellow doctors decided they were too dangerous to treat inmates but before the state's lengthy discipline appeals process made a final decision on whether they should be fired, state records show...
LINK - LATimes.com
November 18, 2011
RAND: new report on CA prisoner re-entry
When prisoners are released and return to communities, an often overlooked concern is the health care needs that former prisoners have and the role that health care plays in how successfully they reintegrate. To a large extent, the reentry population will eventually become part of the uninsured and medically indigent populations in communities.
This volume examines the health care needs of newly released prisoners in California, including the need for mental health and substance abuse treatment; which communities are most affected by prisoner reentry; the health care system capacity of those communities; and the experiences of released prisoners, service providers, and families of incarcerated individuals. The authors conducted a geographic analysis to identify where parolees are concentrated in California and the capacity of the safety net in four of these communities — Alameda, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Kern counties — to meet the health care needs of the reentry population. They then conducted focus groups in Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties with former prisoners and their family members and interviews with relevant service providers and community groups to better understand how health affects reentry; the critical roles that health care providers, other social services, and family members play in successful reentry; and how the children and families of ex-prisoners are affected by reentry. The authors discuss all this in the context of budget cuts that have substantially shrunk California's safety net and the May 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering California to reduce its prison population by 33,000. The volume concludes with recommendations for improving access to care for this population in the current fiscal environment.
View an overview of the report here: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1165.html
View the full 252 page report here: RAND_MG1165.pdf
Read a shorter 23-page summary of the report here: RAND_MG1165.sum.pdf
* Note: All links open in a new window via www.rand.org.
November 15, 2011
L.A. County jails may be out of room next month
Los Angeles County's jails could run out of space as early as next month because of an influx of state prisoners, prompting officials to consider releasing potentially thousands of inmates awaiting trial.
The state's new prison law, which establishes a practice known as realignment, is expected to send as many as 8,000 offenders who would normally go to state prisons into the L.A. County Jail system in the next year.
Currently, defendants awaiting trial account for 70% of the jail population, but Sheriff Lee Baca said that might need to drop to 50%. The department is studying a major expansion of its electronic monitoring and home detention programs to keep track of inmates who are released...
LINK - LATimes.com
November 15, 2011
CDCR to spend $852,000 for EOP treatment, office space at CCWF
RENEWAL REQUEST
PMIB Department
Loan No. & Bond Act Amount a.1120017
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
$ 852,000.00
SPWB Lease Revenue Bonds, AB 900
Central California Women’s Facility: Facility A General Population/Enhanced Outpatient Program Treatment and Office Space
View the Full Document: http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/pmia-laif/pmib-agenda/2011/20111116.pdf
November 8, 2011
CDCR’s Matt Cate: Interview with CorrectionsOne on re-alignment, cell phones, hunger strikes, etc
This month CorrectionsOne interviewed a corrections administrator whose feet are always to the fire. In just the last six months, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matt Cate has dealt with two hunger strikes, a walloping cellphone epidemic, and a court-ordered realignment of more than 30,000 prisoners.
Cate has been Secretary of the country's largest correctional system for almost four years. He was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008 and retained by Governor Jerry Brown last year.
Cate knows both sides of the law, as he has been a prosecutor in Sacramento County and was formerly with the Department of Justice as a state prosecutor...
LINK - CorrectionsOne.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 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 7, 2011
Inmate stabbed to death at California State Prison-Sacramento
An inmate was stabbed to death this morning at California State Prison-Sacramento.
The inmate was attacked at the Folsom area prison during regularly scheduled recreation time. The prisoner, who was incarcerated in the Secure Housing Unit, was assaulted about 7:45 a.m. today.
Medical personnel pronounced him dead 15 minutes later from multiple stab wounds...
LINK - SacBee.com
October 7, 2011
Uninformed former (sloppy) journalist opines on cell phones, CCPOA - and gets it wrong - again
Gov. Jerry Brown today signed an executive order and legislation intended to deal with the problem of cell phones being smuggled into the state’s prisons, but he artfully ignores the main source of those contraband phones, the employees who guard the prisons, and the main political obstruction to reform — the union that represents most of the state’s prison guards, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.
Executive orders are toothless by nature, but this one carefully avoids tackling the problem head on, even as it calls for some reasonable reforms:
IT IS HEREBY ORDEREDthat the CDCR use existing budget resources and pursue all available grants to conduct more thorough searches of people who enter prisons; to increase the number of random searches of inmates’ cells, prison property, and employees; to increase penalties for inmates in possession of contraband devices and anyone who illegally provides contraband devices to inmates; and to increase the use of canines and state-of-the-art technology to find and confiscate contraband cellular devices...
LINK - UnionWatch.org
October 6, 2011
Governor Brown Acts To Protect California Against Criminals and Prison Gangs
SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed SB 26 and Executive Order B-11-11, to help deprive criminals and gang leaders in California’s prisons of one of their favorite means of organizing criminal activity: the contraband cellular phone. Brown said these measures would help “break up an expanding criminal network” that uses cellular phones to plan crimes both inside and outside of prison walls.
“Prisons exist to remove individuals from our communities who would otherwise do harm to their fellow citizens,” said Governor Brown. “When criminals in prison get possession of a cell phone, it subverts the very purpose of incarceration. They use these phones to organize gang activity, intimidate witnesses and commit crimes. Today's action will help to break up an expanding criminal network and protect law-abiding Californians.”
Existing law prohibits all unauthorized communication with inmates in state prison and provides for accumulation, loss, or denial of time credits based on inmate behavior. SB 26 by Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) strengthens this by making it a misdemeanor to deliver or attempt to deliver a cell phone to an inmate, punishable by six months in jail and up to $5,000 in fines per device. Furthermore, the bill specifies a loss of time credit for inmates found in possession of phones, and facilitates deployment of technologies to block or disrupt unauthorized cellular transmissions from prisons...
October 6, 2011
Gov. Brown signs cell-phone bill and executive order to reduce prison contraband
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning toughening restrictions on illicit cellphones in prisons, and he ordered prison officials to step up efforts to confiscate smuggled phones.
Senate Bill 26, by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, makes it a misdemeanor to deliver a cellphone to a prison inmate, among other things. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation last year, saying it was too soft on inmates who carry phones and on guards and others who smuggle them.
Brown also issued an executive order instructing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to increase physical searches of people who enter prisons and to develop a system to interrupt unauthorized cellphone calls...
LINK - SacBee.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
September 29, 2011
Sloppy “investigative journalist” (who doesn’t contact CCPOA) writes what others say
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) staunchly defends California’s tough-on-crime policies, including strict sentencing laws and pro-incarceration policies. But CCPOA also defends its special interest: it protects the collective bargaining power, pay and benefits of prison guards. A small union with 30,000 members, it is also one of the state’s most powerful lobby organizations. CCPOA argues for a simple equation: stricter sentencing means more prisoners—and more prison guards. In California the results have been disastrous...
LINK - CapitalResearch.org
September 28, 2011
News account of Matt Cate’s teleconference from yesterday on realignment
State and local corrections officials are trying to calm any fears before California’s controversial “realignment” program starts on Saturday. That’s when oversight of non-violent criminals will shift from the state to the counties. Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said he wants to make it clear how the program will start.
“Nobody gets transferred from a prison to a jail on October first," explained Cate. "Instead people who are newly convicted after that date or who have parole violations after that date will go to a county jail, if they’re a lower level offender instead of a state prison.”...
LINK - KPBS.org
September 20, 2011
Chowchilla fears prison changes
The city of Chowchilla has an unusual demographic. According to the Census Bureau 40% of the population is in prison. But that's apparently not a problem.
Madera County Supervisor David Rogers puts it this way, "Chowchilla is much like, if I can compare it, like Mayberry, used to be on the Andy Griffith show many years ago."
Like Mayberry, if Aunt B is in behind bars.
Seven thousand women are locked up in the Central California Women's Facility and its neighbor the Valley State Prison for Women. But those numbers are likely to drop...
LINK - ABCLocal.go.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 15, 2011
CA Budget Project releases report: “State Corrections Spending in California”
California Budget Project
September, 2011
California’s correctional system is on the verge of profound change. Beginning October 1, 2011, counties will assume responsibility for incarcerating, supervising, and rehabilitating “low-level” offenders – a change that is intended to divert, over the next few years, tens of thousands of men and women from the state’s correctional system to county custody and supervision.
This historic “realignment” of responsibility from the state to the counties was prompted by a number of factors, including rising state corrections expenditures, the costly cycling of low-level offenders through the state’s prison system, and a recent federal court order requiring the state to significantly reduce prison overcrowding over the next two years. Shifting low-level offenders to county supervision has the potential to substantially reduce state spending on corrections, thereby reversing the trend of recent decades, in which an increasing share of the state budget has gone toward state prisons and parole.
This Budget Backgrounder provides a snapshot of the state’s correctional system, highlights the increase in state corrections spending over the past generation, examines some of the factors that have driven the growth in corrections spending, and describes the major components of the criminal justice realignment that will take effect beginning in October...
For more, please click on link below to read entire report.
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
Attica Prison Riot: Painful memories linger 40 years later
The village of Attica was hardly a spot on the map in 1971, until what all the locals simply call “the riot.”
The community nestled in the hills of rural Wyoming County became a household name across the country because of intense media coverage of the September 1971 uprising at Attica Correctional Facility.
The village was a company town and the company was the prison. Everybody worked there or knew someone who did...
LINK - TheDailyNewsOnline.com
September 9, 2011
Jerry Brown gets bill targeting cell phones in prisons
Legislation aimed at cracking down on contraband cell phones in prisons is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.
Under Senate Bill 26, by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, any person caught smuggling a cell phone or wireless device into a prison could face six months in jail and fines of up to $5,000 per device. The bill also increases penalties for inmates caught with the devices and includes provisions to support the implementation of new technology to block unauthorized calls, texts and emails sent and received within prison confines...
LINK - SacBee.com
September 8, 2011
Assembly passes bill to ban cell phones in prison
A bill that would make it a misdemeanor to smuggle cell phones to California inmates is one step closer to the governor after it unanimously passed the Assembly.
The Assembly approved amendments to SB26 by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of Los Angeles on Wednesday. The bill now heads back to the Senate.
Democratic Assemblyman Henry Perea of Fresno, who carried the bill in the Assembly, says inmates with access to cell phones can order murders, organize drug deals and terrorize victims from prison...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
September 7, 2011
Audit: Effectiveness of COMPAS
As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report concerning the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations’ (Corrections) use of the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS), which is a software tool that helps to identify the characteristics that cause offenders to commit crimes so they can participate in rehabilitative programs and thereby lessen their likelihood of reoffending. Our report concludes that the benefits from Corrections’ use of COMPAS are, at best, uncertain.
Specifically, Corrections’ use of COMPAS in its reception centers—facilities where inmates entering the correctional system are evaluated and assigned to a prison—does not meaningfully affect its decision‑making concerning prison assignments, and by extension, the rehabilitative programs inmates might access at those facilities. Our discussions with staff from eight of Corrections’ 12 reception centers revealed that other non-COMPAS factors, such as an inmate’s security level and limited bed space at receiving prisons, play more prominent roles in determining where inmates can be housed...
September 7, 2011
State Auditor calls for end to prisoner rehabilitation test (COMPAS)
The state auditor is recommending that California’s corrections system shut down tests that determine what rehabilitation prisoners need, calling the tools unproven and little used.
Since 2006, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has developed and repeatedly revised the assessments, called Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS for short). It is composed of two tests. The first is given to incoming inmates, gauging levels of criminal thinking, violence, substance abuse and educational needs. The other assessment is for prisoners about to go on parole and is different from the first in that it measures housing and employment prospects on the outside.
In a report released yesterday, auditors found numerous shortcomings [PDF] in how prisons have used assessment score...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
September 6, 2011
Revenge killing at CSP Sacramento in the news
A prosecutor said today that a prison inmate was able to "trick" his victim into becoming his cellmate so he could avenge the murder of his brother.
Inmate Robert Grajeda Canchola had befriended Julian Barajas on the yard at California State Prison, Sacramento, seven years ago to set him up for the Sept. 20, 2004, torture killing in the cell they shared, Deputy District Attorney Roxanne Ball said.
"The evidence will show this was a killing for revenge," Ball told the Sacramento Superior Court jury...
LINK - SacBee.com
September 6, 2011
More inmates, shorter terms in SHU
Corrections officials are studying changes in the classification system used to determine which inmates are locked in the state's controversial Security Housing Units.
The move could mean more inmates are assigned to the windowless, isolated units but for shorter time periods, provided they participate in special programming and remain "disciplinary free."
Conditions in the state's four Security Housing Units were the focus of a three-week hunger strike that ended July 20 after corrections officials conceded they had unfairly denied inmates personal items such as calendars, sweats and exercise equipment. Officials also promised a broad re-assessment of rules and procedures governing the units...
LINK - News10.net
September 1, 2011
Editorial: Prison spending is budget at its dumbest
We have all heard many times about how California's budget priorities are out of whack when it comes to corrections and education, so perhaps we can be forgiven for believing the problem somehow fixed itself.
Excuse yourself if you thought prison costs had gone down along with the crime rate. Don't feel all alone if you figured we were spending more on education, higher education especially, what with those big salaries for university presidents...
LINK - MontereyHerald.com
August 26, 2011
Senator Padilla’s cell phone bill passes Assembly Appropriations, headed for floor vote
Senate Bill 26, authored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), was approved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee Thursday with unanimous bipartisan support. SB 26 would crack down on the smuggling and possession of cell phones and other wireless communication devices in California prisons. The bill now goes to the full Assembly for consideration.
Padilla’s bill imposes tough penalties for both smugglers and inmates. It also facilitates the deployment of managed access technology to prevent illicit cell phones from sending or receiving communications within the secure perimeter of a prison...
LINK - CaliforniaNewsWire.com
August 26, 2011
Parolee returns to prison for robbing day care
A parolee with two felony convictions was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in state prison for robbing a woman while she was caring for six children in her home.
Hung Trong Do, 34, of Stanton, pleaded guilty in May to robbery, burglary, possession of a firearm by a felon, and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, and admitted to a sentencing enhancement for using a gun...
LINK - OCRegister.com
August 25, 2011
Re-alignment news - central Valley
More than 6,000 local felons are supervised by the Tulare County Probation Department and, in about a month, the department is going to get more.
With deep cuts to the state's public safety divisions, the county will soon see fuller jails, more probationers and the possibility that group homes will house ex-convicts from across the state.
On Oct. 1, when state bill AB 109 takes effect, thousands of inmates will move from California prisons to county jails...
LINK - VisaliaTimesDelta.com
August 24, 2011
CDCR promises review of high-security cells
Facing a barrage of criticism over how California inmates are treated inside high-security detention units, a top prison official said Tuesday that new policies will be reviewed and some changes may be made in coming months.
"I'm not talking about having another study," Scott Kernan, undersecretary at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said at a legislative hearing. "I'm talking about having some substantive changes."
The hearing, called by Assembly Public Safety Committee Chairman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, came in response to a hunger strike that began at Pelican Bay State Prison last month by inmates protesting their living conditions...
LINK - SacBee.com
August 23, 2011
Criminal justice re-alignment plan called ‘absurd’
With Los Angeles County set to start supervising thousands of nonviolent parolees by Oct. 1, local officials expressed anger Tuesday at flaws in the state program that could leave them short of funds and powerless to control the offenders.
Among the potential problems in the legislation that created Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment plan: County officers currently don't have the legal authority to chase after parolees who skip out on their duties.
Additionally, the state funding for the program is not guaranteed for next year, meaning the cash-strapped county could be stuck with a multimillion-dollar bill in 2012...
LINK - DailyNews.com
August 22, 2011
Academic urges speedy appeals process in death penalty cases
Justice is expensive.
Once a sentencing jury recommends death or life in prison in a capital murder conviction in California, the appeals begin. The first appeal is to the state Supreme Court, but the prolonged appellate process may continue for years with the filing of habeas corpus petitions and appeals to the federal courts...
LINK - VCStar.com
August 20, 2011
Prison re-alignment, paroles in the news
How will Tehama County deal with the influx of prisoners that will now fall under the responsibility of local authorities?
Law enforcement, county officials and representatives from the legal system met Thursday during the first meeting of the Community Corrections Partnership to develop a plan.
The goal of the partnership is to come up with a plan on how the county will implement the public safety realignment bill, AB 109...
LINK - RedBluffDailyNews.com
August 19, 2011
2011 Realignment Report (LAO)
As part of the 2011-12 budget plan, the Legislature enacted a major shift—or “realignment”—of state program responsibilities
and revenues to local governments. In total, the realignment plan provides $6.3 billion to local governments (primarily counties) to fund various criminal justice, mental health, and social services programs in 2011-12, and ongoing funds for these programs annually thereafter...
August 19, 2011
Prison privatization costs taxpayers more
There is a natural tendency among politicians new to Tallahassee to assume that when they encounter resistance to change it is because of inertia rather than informed experience. The latest debacle involves the bold and quick decision by the Republican-led Legislature to privatize 30 state prison facilities in 18 South Florida counties. A minor detail not discussed at the time: up to $25 million in public money to provide severance pay to more than 4,000 Department of Corrections workers.
Corrections staffers say they told the legislative staff about the expense, but it was never discussed openly nor addressed in this year's state budget. Now it appears the agency will need to find the money - a prospect the corrections secretary warned "may just cripple the agency" - or seek special dispensation from the Joint Legislative Budget Commission...
LINK - TampaBay.com
August 18, 2011
Inmate faces death penalty for killing fellow inmate
The San Jose man was already in San Quentin serving a life sentence for murdering a homeless man in Willow Glen. Now he faces a spot on death row for allegedly killing a fellow inmate who was himself a murderer.
Marin County prosecutors on Wednesday announced they will seek the death penalty against Frank Souza, 31, who has been charged with fatally stabbing fellow San Quentin inmate Edward Schaefer...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
August 15, 2011
CMC reduction possibilities in the news
The new law implemented by Gov. Jerry Brown that will send low-level, nonviolent offenders to county jails instead of prison will ultimately lead to layoffs at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. Exactly how many jobs will be cut is still unknown.
The law shifts the responsibility of incarcerating certain low-level offenders sentenced after Oct. 1 from the state prison system to county jails. The move — called realignment — will put an estimated 140 additional low-level inmates in San Luis Obispo County Jail at the end of the law’s implementation four years from now.
Concerns raised about women's jail and CMC by county grand jury...
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
August 11, 2011
VSPW update: CDCR says convert to mens or be closed
The message from representatives with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was loud and clear — convert it or close it.
The opposition from city and county officials was just as clear.
Representatives from CDCR met with strong opposition at the prospect of converting one of the state's two women's prisons in Chowchilla into a men's facility...
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
August 9, 2011
CDCR asks Facebook to remove inmate pages
"Access to social media allows inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and continue to engage in criminal activity," Corrections Department Secretary Matthew Cate said in a statement posted on the prison system's website.
It's not just inmates posting on their own social media pages that has prison administrators concerned. Some have used their contraband cellphones to troll their victims' pages and harass them from behind bars. A child molester who has been incarcerated for at least seven years recently sent up-to-date drawings of a victim to her house. He'd apparently sketched portraits of the now 17-year-old girl from photos he found on her MySpace and Facebook pages, according to Monday's statement.
In 2006, corrections officers found 261 contraband cellphones behind prison walls. They found more than 7,200 in the first six months of this year, according to the statement...
LINK - LATimes.com
August 5, 2011
Reductions in California prison population not enough, report says
Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to keep tens of thousands of low-level offenders in county jails instead of state prisons will help the state reduce the prison population, but it won't be enough on its own to meet a court mandate, according to a report released Friday by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.
The report said the state will likely fall several thousand inmates short of the 34,000-man reduction ordered by the court. It urges officials to ask a judge for more time, look at other ways to reduce crowding and consider sending more prisoners to private prisons in other states...
LINK - SFGate.com
August 5, 2011
LAO report on prison overcrowding in the news
Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment plan to shift thousands of inmates from state prisons to county jails will have a significant impact on prison overcrowding, a new report finds, but will still fall short of the court-imposed deadline requiring the state to reduce its inmate population by 34,000 over the next two years.
As a result, the state should heed the U.S. Supreme Court's suggestion that it ask for an extension of the deadlines to reduce prison populations, a report from the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office concludes.
The report comes as the state is working to begin the realignment plan on Oct. 1, with corrections officials still working to figure out how many inmates will be shifted from prisons to individual counties, and local authorities still in the dark over exactly how the plan will be implemented...
LINK - SacBee.com
August 5, 2011
LAO: Reducing Prison Overcrowding in California
August 4, 2011
Discussions about “plan” for possible layoffs result in misleading headline
Officials at the California Men’s Colony (CMC) met last week to discuss a plan to lay off about 200 employees.
Proposed layoffs at CMC include one chief deputy, two associate wardens, two captains, several lieutenants and sergeants as well as dozens of guards, sources at the prison said.
As part of the plan, last week, the California Department of Corrections sent letters to give prison employees a chance to dispute any discrepancies in their seniority standing, which is used in determining who is slated to be laid off,” according to the letters...
LINK - CalCoastNews.com
August 2, 2011
Chowchilla Prison May Make Big Change
One of the two prison facilities in Chowchilla could change from a women's prison to a men's facility.
Some folks in Madera County are worried about possible changes to a Chowchilla women's prison.
One of the two women's prisons could be turned into a men's prison as part of a statewide prison realignment...
LINK - CBS47.tv
August 1, 2011
More on plan to convert VSPW to men’s prison
Valley State Prison for Women could soon become a state prison for about 2,000 men. A prison realignment, effective in two months, will decrease the number of female prisoners and close one of the state's three facilities. Monday, representatives from California Department of Corrections met with Madera County and Chowchilla City leaders for the first time.
“The bottom line is we need factual data to look at to see what the impact of exchanging a men's facility for a women's facility will be,” said Jay Varney, Chowchilla Police Chief, who’s one of many opposed to the change. Their research shows families of male prisoners move into the communities where they're serving time. Varney is concerned the extra people could stretch the department too thin...
LINK - CBS47.tv
July 31, 2011
“Two-Strikers” filling up prisons?
California's "three strikes" law is best known for locking up career criminals for life, but the vast majority of offenders serving prison time under the sentencing mandate were actually charged under the less-noticed second-strike provision.
These 32,390 inmates are serving sentences that were doubled as a strike-two penalty, and they account for nearly 20 percent of the state's prison population. Yet most efforts to reform the law have focused exclusively on the third-strike provision, which carries with it a mandatory 25 years-to-life sentence...
LINK - SFGate.com
July 21, 2011
State Controller’s Office: CDCR Audit
July 21, 2011
Californians would rather ease penalties than pay more for prisons
Cash-strapped Californians would rather ease "third-strike" penalties for some criminals and accept felons as neighbors than dig deeper into their pockets to relieve prison overcrowding, a new poll shows.
In the wake of a court order that the state move more than 33,000 inmates out of its packed prisons, an overwhelming number of voters oppose higher taxes — as well as cuts in key state services — to pay for more lockup space.
The survey, by The Times and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, shows a clear shift in attitude by residents forced to confront the cost of tough sentencing laws passed in recent decades...
LINK - LATimes.com
July 20, 2011
Meth Addict with Flame Thrower to Be Spared Prison as States Cut Spending
Zackariah Lehnen, a 30-year-old transient, was paroled from a California prison in November after serving five months of a 16-month sentence for drug possession. He left under a program intended to reduce state costs by freeing nonviolent prisoners without supervision.
Six months later he was arrested and charged with murder in the torture and stabbing deaths of an 89-year-old man and a 27- year-old woman in a Los Angeles suburb, according to court documents. He’s in jail, with a plea hearing set for July 28...
LINK - Bloomberg.com
