CDCR Star

CDCR NEWS

Feds Bust Alleged 'United Nations' of Gangs

Matt Reynolds, Courthouse News

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Fifteen people were arrested Thursday in a roundup of three L.A.-area street gangs federal prosecutors say joined forces after a Mexican Mafia-ordered truce.

Arnold Gonzales assumed control of the Frogtown, Toonerville and Rascals gangs in the fall of 2010, from Pelican Bay State Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for murder, according to prosecutors.

Illicit drugs 'rampant' in California prisons

Don Thompson, The Associated Press

VACAVILLE -- California inmates are dying of drug overdoses at nearly triple the national rate, and it's unclear whether the tough steps state officials took this year to stop illicit drugs from getting into prisons are having any effect, though they are prompting criticism from civil rights advocates.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is spending $8 million this year on drug-detecting scanners and a new breed of drug-sniffing dogs, while also employing strip searches on visitors suspected of carrying drugs.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Children reunite with incarcerated dads for Father's Day

Lexie Houghtaling, KBAK‑TV

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) - It was a special Father’s Day at California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo as hundreds of kids stepped off the bus to visit their dads in prison.

Get on the Bus, a program that partners with the Center for Restorative Justice Works, provides children and their caregivers with free transportation to the prisons.

Father's Day Prison Visits

KION

Note: “Reporter Erica Mahoney was at Correctional Training Facility in Soledad for the annual Father’s Day Get on the Bus special visiting event. Click the headline to see her video report.”

Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Imperial Valley News

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments.

David Bunn, 55, of Davis, has been appointed director of the California Department of Conservation. Bunn has been associate director at the University of California, Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Office of International Programs since 2011 and a project director and researcher at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine since 2003. He served as deputy director at the California Department of Fish and Game from 1999 to 2003, principal consultant and legislative director in the Office of California State Assemblymember Fred Keeley from 1997 to 1999 and was co-founder and field manager at American Trash Management from 1991 to 1996. Bunn was environmental program director at the California Public Interest Research Group from 1987 to 1990, executive director at the California Agrarian Action Project from 1985 to 1987 and an associate consultant for the California State Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee from 1984 to 1985. Bunn earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in ecology and a Master of Science degree in international agricultural development from the University of California, Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $151,020. Bunn is a Democrat.

Ronald Davis, 45, of Visalia, has been appointed warden at San Quentin State Prison, where he has served as acting warden since 2014. Davis served as warden at Valley State Prison, Chowchilla from 2012 to 2014 and was chief deputy warden at Avenal State Prison from 2010 to 2012. He served in served in several positions at California State Prison, Corcoran from 2006 to 2010, including correctional administrator, facility captain and correctional captain. Davis was a business manager and correctional lieutenant at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran from 2002 to 2006, served in several positions at Salinas Valley State Prison from 1996 to 2002, including lieutenant, sergeant and correctional officer and was a correctional officer at the California Correctional Training Facility, Soledad from 1994 to 1996. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $141,204. Davis is a Republican.

Gabe Becker, music instructor for prisoners

Jonathan Mendick, News & Review

Gabe Becker grew up in Carmichael, and got into playing guitar after listening to punk rock in high school. He earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music from Sacramento State before starting his own school, the Becker Guitar Studio (http://beckerguitarstudio.com), which utilizes the Suzuki Guitar Program to teach classical music. For the past five years, he’s also been performing at and teaching inmates how to play guitar at California State Prison, Sacramento, and teaching a hip-hop class as part of the state’s Arts-In-Corrections Program. Becker took some time to talk with us about old-school hip-hop and the healing power of music.

How do you break the ice in the hip-hop class?

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Inmate Captured after Walking Away from Minimum Support Facility

On June 22, 2015, a minimum-security inmate walked away from the Minimum Support Facility of Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP), which is located in south Monterey County, near Soledad.

Inmate Tevis M. Stephens was unaccounted for at approximately 9:15 p.m. He was captured by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department at approximately 11:10 p.m. in Soledad, and taken into custody by the SVSP Investigative Services Unit approximately 15 minutes later.

CDCR NEWS

California Prisoners Die of Drug Overdoses at Three Times National Rate

KQED

More than 150 inmates in California prisons have died of drug overdoses since 2006. That's three times the national average. The secretary of the state's corrections department Jeffrey Beard recently told lawmakers that illegal drugs are "rampant in the prisons." We discuss how illicit drugs are getting into the prisons despite the state's ramped-up efforts to stop smuggling, which include drug-detecting scanners, dogs and strip searches of visitors.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Firefighters have Chiles Valley fire under control

Napa Valley Register

Cal Fire reported that the fast-moving wildfire in Chiles Valley on Tuesday afternoon was 80 percent contained by day's end.

Officials estimated that the blaze, which was reported shortly before 2:30 p.m. at 3040 Chiles Pope Valley Road, had burned 38 acres.

Pushed by gusty winds, the fire initially threatened a residence, but was beaten back by air and ground firefighting forces, said Cal Fire Capt. Joe Fletcher.

CDCR NEWS

Shorter California prison officer academy to start next month

Jon Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee

California’s state prison-officer academy will shorten from 16 weeks to 12 weeks starting late next month, four years after Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration and California’s correctional officer union began talking about abbreviated cadet training.

Not that long ago, such a change would have been unthinkable for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, but the agreement was made more palatable through negotiations that also re-established a commission to oversee training standards for correctional officers.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

UPDATE: Escaped prison inmate found outside McDonald’s in Soledad

Ana Ceballos, Monterey Herald

Soledad- Two hours after authorities noticed an inmate had escaped from a minimum-security prison in Soledad, he was found at a McDonald’s parking lot and taken back into custody.

Tevis Michael Stephens, 37, who was convicted of being in possession of a controlled substance last year, was housed at the Minimum Support Facility at the Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad. Authorities at the facility did not notify the public that Stephens had left, and said he was unaccounted for about 9:15 p.m. Monday.

San Quentin Prison Report: Back to prison

Greg Eskridge, KALW

Local prison San Quentin combats recidivism with programs to help people adapt back into society. One of those projects is San Quentin Prison Report, a program training those who are incarcerated to produce stories from the inside.

After spending 25 years in prison for a first degree murder, Jessy Reed was finally preparing to be released. He vowed to never return to prison and looked forward to starting over with a new life on the outside. Once Reed was free, life on the outside became a series of challenges, piling up like one after the other.

Court overturns 11-year prison sentence for young mother

Times Union

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A state appeals court has reversed the 11-year prison sentence given to a young mother who didn't get medical attention for her injured baby because she worried doctors would discover that she was smoking pot while breastfeeding.

Lyndsay Colula, now 23, was given the punishment in 2013 when she didn't get treatment her infant. The baby suffered broken leg, fractured ribs and injuries to the head and toes, reports the Press Democrat (http://bit.ly/1IdRHrG).

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Man found shot in Greenfield

Rachel Zentz, The Salinas Californian

A man in his 30s was shot multiple times Monday afternoon in Greenfield, according to the Greenfield Police Department.

At approximately 4:15 p.m. officers responded to the 1000 block of Oak Avenue after receiving calls about a man in his 30s who had been shot. The victim was shot multiple times and was taken to a local hospital.

DMV cranks ignition on production of black California license plates

Brenna Lyles, The Sacramento Bee

California license plates are finally back in black.

The Department of Motor Vehicles announced Monday that it had started production on new California plates with black backgrounds and yellow lettering. The model, originally used from 1963-69, is available through the California Legacy License Plate Program – a result of Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s Assembly Bill 1658.

For the black plates to be issued, a total of 7,500 applications had to be turned in to the state agency. The DMV reached that number in June 2014.

OPINION

Corrections in crisis

Christopher Moraff, Al Jazeera America‎

Note: The following piece notes that the population of the California Institution for Men was operating at 197 percent of design capacity at the time of a riot in 2005. The piece does not also note, by way of context, that CIM is currently populated at 128 percent of design capacity. The author has been informed.

Police and federal agents were, at the time of publication, still hunting for two convicted murderers who escaped June 7 from the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in rural upstate New York.

On June 14, a county prosecutor said that while the pair received some inside help from a female prison worker, they stole the power tools they needed to cut through their steel cell walls from contractors who were doing repairs at the deteriorating 170-year old institution.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Gov. Brown appoints warden at San Quentin State Prison

Gary Klien, Marin Independent Journal

Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed a 20-year corrections veteran as the new warden of San Quentin State Prison, the oldest and most famous of California’s penitentiaries.

Ronald Davis, 45, has been acting warden since December while his appointment was being vetted. The prison has had about three dozen wardens since it opened in 1852, along with numerous acting wardens.

Law enforcement torch run continues today

Jessica Rogness, The Reporter

Vacaville police, California State Prison personnel, California Highway Patrol and Dixon police will continue to run the Special Olympics torch through Solano County today.

At 12 p.m. today, employees of the Vacaville Police Department will be participating in the 2015 Law Enforcement Torch Run which benefits Northern California Special Olympics.

Benicia, Vallejo police help carry the torch for Special Olympics

Dianne de Guzman, Vallejo Times-Herald

For Special Olympics athlete Erick Silva, the torch run is an event he’s been excited about for weeks.

Silva and fellow athlete Joey Capp were escorted by members of the Benicia and Vallejo Police departments as they started the first leg of the Special Olympics torch run in Solano County on Wednesday. The torch will make its way through Solano County and continue to the Opening Ceremonies held at the University of California, Davis on Friday.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

What Inmates Really Wear in Prison

Jessica Pishko, racked

On Orange is the New Black, the prison uniform is a source of immediate discussion in episode one, when the main character, Piper (Taylor Schilling), is informed that she must wear orange until her new get-up arrives. Orange is for newbies; regulation khaki for regulars. It is a sign of Piper’s middleclass attitude that she balks at the boxy, ugly uniform in the brightest orange imaginable. Another inmate tells the new meat, "Don’t be so quick to want to lose the orange, because you’d just blend in with the beige."

The creators of the show acknowledged that, while based on real uniforms, their costumes were specifically tailored for the interior world of the show. Jenn Rogien, who was also responsible for the clothing on HBO’s Girls, said in an interview that, while the color-cast system on Orange is invented, the clothing was sourced from places that make real prison fashion, in an attempt to be authentic—mixed with some "contraband" items.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Special Olympics torch makes its way through Solano County

Jessica Rogness, The Reporter

Triple digits couldn’t stop law enforcement officers and Special Olympics athletes from running to deliver the games’ torch through Northern Solano County and into Dixon on Thursday.

By Thursday afternoon, the torch, known as the “Flame of Hope,” had taken the scenic route through the county, via every law enforcement agency in the area.

The Solano County Law Enforcement Torch Run is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics Northern California.

Officers run for Special Olympics

Bob Brownne, Tracy Press

The Special Olympics Northern California torch made its way through the city of Tracy on Friday with the help of more than 100 volunteers from the Tracy Police Department and Deuel Vocational Institution.

This is the 10th year both law enforcement agencies have participated in the Northern California Law Enforcement Torch Run, and it keeps getting bigger and better, according to DVI Sgt. Sabrina Harris, who has taken part every year.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Parole eyed for killer of California man buried alive

Statesville Record & Landmark

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown is deciding whether to block parole for the killer of a developmentally disabled California man who was buried alive.

Brown has until midnight Friday to decide whether to release 52-year-old David Weidert or block the parole granted by a state panel.

REALIGNMENT

Sonoma County car thefts on the rise

Julie Johnson, The Press Democrat

Note: The reporter has been informed that, contrary to the impression given by the Public Policy Institute of California, auto thefts did not rise in California in 2013 – the number of auto thefts actually declined. However, the PPIC believes that the auto theft would have declined by even more if not for Realignment – and chose to characterize that as a “rise” in auto thefts.

At least five vehicles were stolen each day in Sonoma County during the first five months of the year, a sharp spike in what has already been a rise in such thefts since 2013.

The rise of auto theft in the county bucks a statewide trend that shows vehicle theft reports on a two-year decline in California, according to recent statistics from the CHP and the Sonoma County Auto Theft Task Force.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Prisoners could be an untapped resource for startups

James Perla, Marketplace

As part of our series about technology in prison called “Jailbreak,” we're taking a look at how former inmates could be an untapped resource for the tech community.

Take Tulio Cardozo, for example. He was an inmate for nearly seven years in San Quentin prison in Northern San Francisco. Because of restrictions on technology in prisons, he had to learn how to code by reading programming books. He says, “for the most part prisons want to keep you far, far away from technology.”

New lead in New York prison break: Pair may be headed to Canada

Jethro Mullen, Lorenzo Ferrigno, David Shortell and Shimon Prokupecz, CNN

Plattsburgh, New York (CNN)Escaped murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat may be headed to Canada, a New York State Police spokesman said Friday.

Investigators are conducting DNA tests on potential evidence, a source close to the investigation said.

Two prison employees have been charged in connection with the men's elaborate June 6 breakout, and the accusations against them highlight a series of apparent security lapses.

CDCR NEWS

Note: CDCR played a large role in this year’s Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics. Representatives joined the run, Secretary Jeff Beard spoke on the steps of the Capitol about CDCR’s commitment to Special Olympics, and Dr. Diana Toche, Undersecretary of Health Care Services, and Undersecretary (A), Administration and Offender Services, lit the Special Olympics Cauldron at the Summer Games opening ceremony. CDCR was recognized as the top fundraising agency in 2014, raising $133,000 for Special Olympics.

Northern California Special Olympics kicks off at UC Davis

KCRA 3 News

The opening ceremony of the Northern California Special Olympics was held at UC Davis Friday evening, and welcoming the athletes to the games were a line of law enforcement officers.

Special Olympics torch carried from Folsom Lake to state Capitol

KCRA 3 News

Dozens of law enforcement officers ran with the Special Olympics torch from Folsom Lake to the state Capitol.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Federal appeals court returns to question of sex-reassignment surgery in prison

Sudhin Thanawala, The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO – State prison officials may be violating a transgender California inmate’s rights by denying her sex reassignment surgery, a federal appeals court ruled Friday as it revived the prisoner’s lawsuit against the state.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not rule on the merits of Philip Rosati’s case, but it said her allegations were plausible and sufficient to warrant further review by a court. The 9th Circuit overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss Rosati’s lawsuit.

Taft man recaptured after walking away from prison

Tevis Stephens found at McDonald's near Salinas Valley State Prison

Daily Midway Driller

A Taft man serving a prison sentence for a drug conviction walked away from a minimum security prison facility in Monterey County last week but was was recaptured about less than two hours later.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported Tevis Stephens, who was serving his sentence in the minimum support facility of Salinas Valley State Prison in south Monterey County, near Soledad, was discovered missing at 9:15 p.m. on June 22

Man gets 50 years for running meth ring from prison

The San Francisco Chronicle

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A man serving 25 years to life for a drug-related killing has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for running an eastern Montana drug ring from a California prison using smuggled cellphones.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters sentenced Jason Neel of Taft, California, on Wednesday. Neel, 32, earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Parole blocked for killer of California man buried alive

Don Thompson, The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. » Gov. Jerry Brown decided Friday to block parole for the killer of a developmentally disabled California man who was buried alive.

Brown decided Friday that 52-year-old David Weidert still is too dangerous to be released, despite the recommendation by a state panel that parole should be granted.

Parole of convicted murderer who buried Clovis man alive reversed by Gov. Brown

John Ellis and Troy Pope, The Fresno Bee

The parole of David Weidert, who was convicted of torturing Mike Morganti and burying him alive in 1980, has been reversed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the governor’s office announced Friday.

Weidert lured Morganti from his Clovis apartment and drove him to a remote foothill location. There, he forced Morganti to dig his own grave, and then Weidert beat him with an aluminum bat and stabbed him with a knife before burying him in the shallow grave.

DEATH PENALTY

Supreme Court's lethal injection approval opens door for new California execution process

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has upheld the use of a controversial drug that has been implicated in several botched executions.

The justices on Monday voted 5-4 in a case from Oklahoma that the sedative midazolam can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Family of slain LAPD officer in limbo as killer languishes on death row 30 years

Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Daily News

For three decades, Sandy Verna Jackson has longed for the day her husband’s killers would be executed.

Raynard Cummings and Kenneth Gay were convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Los Angeles police motorcycle Officer Paul Verna six times during a traffic stop in Lake View Terrace in June 1983. The parolees, who authorities said were trying to avoid arrest for a series of violent robberies in the San Fernando Valley, were sentenced to death in 1985. Gay’s death verdict was overturned for a second time in 2008.

Santiago Martinez Jr.: Death row inmate murdered 2 Long Beach women

Josh Dulaney, Long Beach Press Telegram

Santiago Martinez Jr. has been sitting on death row at San Quentin State Prison since Dec. 7, 2009.

With the state’s slow-churning appeals process, he may outlive the 67-year-old mother of one of his victims, who says the sooner Martinez dies, the better.

“I think it’s a real shame for families that have to go through years of waiting for something to happen,” said Loraine Wilkerson, the mother of one of the two women Martinez murdered last decade. “Whether it’s an appeal or an execution, I think it’s really hard on the family.”

Azusa father tells of struggle since daughter’s killing

Stephanie K. Baer, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

For Claude Chenet, the lasting effects of his daughter’s murder have been immeasurable.

But as the man who killed his 23-year-old daughter more than 10 years ago sits on death row in San Quentin State Prison, Chenet is trying to regain his spirit.

“It was tough for me to get through,” said Chenet, 56, who fell into a spiral of crack cocaine and alcohol after the notorious Azusa 13 gang enforcer Ralph “Swifty” Flores fatally shot his only daughter and mother of his three grandchildren.

Convicted killers of women in L.A. County more likely to get death penalty

Sarah Favot, Los Angeles Daily News

Chivalry and traditional roles between men and women influence jurors when deciding whether to issue a death sentence, according to a researcherwho studies capital murder.

Steven Shatz, a University of San Francisco law professor, studied 1,000 California murder cases where the defendant was eligible for the death penalty and found that killers of women were seven times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed men. The data rang true when Shatz examined 404 similar cases in Los Angeles County between 2003 and 2005.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Fresno mother who left kids home alone before apartment fire heading to prison prior to sentencing

Stephanie Stone, abc 30 News

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- An already unusual case takes another unusual turn. The teen mom who left her young kids to fend for themselves in a Southwest Fresno apartment fire pled guilty to three counts of child abuse.

Jamela Brown, 19, was arrested in January after firefighters rescued her children from their burning home.

OPINION

Drummond: Kids of incarcerated parents serve parallel prison sentence

Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland Tribune Columnist

Xitlally Lupian took her very first steps in the visiting area at Corcoran State Prison. When she was little, her mother explained her father's absence as a "big people timeout" for breaking the rules.

She is 16 now, and her father is still serving a 38-year, nine-month sentence for gun-related felonies. He has been in prison since she was 8 months old. Yet the soft-spoken teen from Oakland is determined to maintain her relationship with her father despite all the obstacles. He's now in Pelican Bay State Prison, in Crescent City, a seven-hour haul by car. She says he's in solitary and can't make phone calls. Visits are rare because it costs a lot of money for gas and to stay in a motel near the prison. Lupian saw her father three weeks ago through a thick plate glass window, when she talked to him on a static-filled prison phone. Before that, she hadn't seen him in three years.

DEATH PENALTY

California now under pressure to propose lethal injection method

Maura Dolan, The Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court's decision Monday giving a green light to an execution drug triggered a renewed attempt in California to create a single-drug method of lethal injection for inmates on America's largest death row.

Under a legal settlement reached earlier this month, Gov. Jerry Brown's administration agreed to propose a new lethal injection method 120 days after the Supreme Court decided a challenge to a lethal injection drug used in Oklahoma.

U.S. ruling could clear path to more executions at San Quentin

Howard Mintz, Bay Area News Group

California’s death penalty is back on the clock.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinforced the ability of states to rely on lethal injection to carry out executions, handing down a ruling out of Oklahoma that unlocks California’s long dormant effort to revive the death penalty in this state.

The Supreme Court’s decision triggers what promises to be a tangled, prolonged legal process that could ultimately lead to a resumption of executions in the Golden State — although it could still be years before the doors reopen in San Quentin’s death chamber.

Supreme Court Concludes Term With Death Penalty Ruling, Looks Ahead

Nina Totenberg, NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued the last of its opinions for this term — on the death penalty, anti-pollution regulations and the power of independent commissions to draw congressional and state legislative districts. In addition, the court issued a set of orders that set up cases to be heard next term on affirmative action and abortion.

By a 5-4 vote, the court upheld the use of the controversial drug midazolam as part of a three-drug cocktail used in carrying out the death penalty.

DEATH PENALTY: Will Supreme Court ruling reopen death chamber at San Quentin?

Sarah Burge, The Press‑Enterprise

Death penalty supporters say a U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday upholding the use of a controversial drug in lethal injections may be the catalyst to resume executions in California as early as next year.

“It’s a great day for justice,” said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. “I think it’s an important step forward.”

Death Row inmate Raynard Cummings from Pacoima has one regret

Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Daily News

San Quentin >> Raynard Cummings says he has been “fighting to live” on California’s death row for nearly three decades.

It’s not just in the courtroom, where the convicted killer of LAPD motor officer Paul Verna hopes to have his death sentence overturned. Cummings, who was raised in Pacoima, says he is also waging a battle of survival within the walls of the notorious San Quentin State Prison.

Uncle of murdered San Fernando Valley girl sees no solution in death penalty

Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Daily News

NORTH HOLLYWOOD >> Desarie Saravia was a tough little girl who could carry a gallon of milk at the age of 2 and fall out of a bunk bed with hardly a whimper.

But at 5, she died after being sexually assaulted and brutally beaten in 2004 by her mother’s boyfriend in a women’s restroom at Hasley Canyon Park in Castaic. Antonio Rodriguez, who was convicted of numerous charges, including murder, torture and assault on a child causing death, was sentenced to death in 2010 in what a judge called the worst case of torture he had seen in his 37-year career.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Appellate Win for Calif. Transgender Inmate

Katherine Proctor, Courthouse News

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The Ninth Circuit on Friday revived a transgender California inmate's legal action for sexual-reassignment surgery.

The reversal for Mia Rosati, whom California records call her Philip, comes a short three weeks after the federal appeals court held oral arguments in the case.

Rosati filed a 60-page handwritten pro se complaint from San Diego's R.J. Donovan State Prison, where she is serving 80 years to life for murder.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Discoveries: Ione’s Preston Castle opens up about its harsh, haunting past

Sam McManis, The Sacramento Bee

IONE- Dad always told me if I didn’t behave – “clean up my act” were his exact words, actually – that I would end up in a place like this. Meaning, reform school. Meaning, I’d get pummeled by some kid whose crimes far exceeded my rap sheet of sassing back and chronic failure to clean my room. Meaning, I would regret how good I once had it at home.

Until recently, I had managed to avoid such a fate.

But when I finally set foot into the Preston Castle, the crumbling yet still regal brick building on a hill looking over this Amador County burg, and heard stories, absolutely hair-curling tales, of life and times of “youthful offenders” in the euphemistically dubbed Preston School of Industry from 1894 to 1960, it certainly made me appreciate that I did, indeed, clean up my act enough to be spared the indignities of forced confinement.

How Prison Tattoos Can Save Former Inmates

Thor Benson, ATTN

Freddy Negrete is a 58-year-old tattoo artist in Los Angeles, California. He's been involved in tattoo culture for over 40 years. Unlike most tattoo artists, who developed a passion for drawing over the years and eventually decided to apprentice under an artist, Negrete received his initial education in a less traditional manner.

Negrete grew up a troubled youth in a bad neighborhood, and he was a gang member as a kid. When Negrete was 11 or 12-years-old, he ended up in juvenile hall for running away from home. While he was in a cell waiting to be taken to court, the guards brought in a 17-year-old "cholo kid," as he puts it, who had prison tattoos. "I'm sure normally an older kid like that wouldn't have even given me the time of day, but he had all these tattoos--writing and crosses--and I was so impressed with his tattoos," Negrete told ATTN:. Negrete asked how the tattoos were done, and the 17-year-old explained they were done by dipping a needle in ink and poking it into the skin. Negrete was intrigued. The kid also told him he could poke mascara into his skin to do a simple tattoo. That night, Negrete got his sister's mascara and did his first tattoo on himself. It was the first of many tattoos he would produce.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Soledad incarcerated veterans group donates to local organizations

Mariana Hicks, KION

NOTE: The reporter has been informed that Salinas Valley State Prison and Correctional Training Facility are two separate institutions.

SOLEDAD, Calif. - Incarcerated veterans at Soledad Correctional Training Facility are helping other vets in the community. On Monday, a group inside the prison gave more than a $1,000 to local veteran groups on the Central Coast.

"These men have good hearts, yes they've made mistakes," warden Marion Spearman said.

But the men that make up the Incarcerated Vietnam Veterans group are trying to pay back their debt to society.

DEATH PENALTY

CA Can Restore Death Penalty

William Bigelow, Breitbart

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld Oklahoma’s three-drug lethal injection method, California can resume carrying out the death penalty, although mandatory administrative procedures and hearings could slow the process.

California prison officials recently consulted with families of murder victims and said they would propose a new single-drug execution method within 120 days of the Supreme Court’s ruling if Oklahoma won in the Supreme Court.

OPINION

EDITORIAL: Alternatives to prison

The Press Enterprise

While state prison realignment has been blamed for much of Riverside County’s jail population problems, the reality is the county long has failed to maintain adequate jail space.

On Tuesday, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with Imperial County to confine Riverside County inmates at the Imperial County jail for up to four years. The county will spend as much as $1 million a year to house up to 35 inmates, using Proposition 172 public safety revenues.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Teens at Ventura youth correctional facility graduate from high school

Stephanie Sumell, Thousand Oaks Acorn

Patrick Jefferson assured teens at the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility that it was OK to smile during a milestone some may have thought they would never experience: their high school graduation.

The speaker said men, especially those of color, too often hide their emotions in an attempt to look tough in front of their peers.

Where's the story? PointsMentioned Map 2 Points Mentioned

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Salinas Valley State Prison lifer pleads guilty to murdering fellow inmate.

Nic Coury, Monterey County Weekly

A 35-year-old convicted murderer already serving a life sentence pleaded guilty today to killing another inmate with a homemade weapon at Salinas Valley State Prison in 2012.

Just after 11am on September 15, 2012, Gregory Hoenshell and Barry Storey, 37, stabbed 42-year-old Edgar Sultan to death in a maximum security yard. According to a press release from the California Department Corrections and Rehabilitation, the attack on Sultan set off a riot after thirty other inmates started attacking each other.

Barney Creator's Son Sentenced to Prison for Shooting Malibu Neighbor

Patrick Kearns Leach, 29, showed up to his sentencing a day early and got 15 years for rage-filled shooting of a neighbor.

Paige Austin, Patch

A son of the creator of the children’s character “Barney” was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for shooting and wounding his neighbor after an argument in January 2013.

Patrick Kearns Leach, 29, of Malibu, pleaded no contest May 28 to one count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and shooting from a motor vehicle.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Violent crime drops again in California

Vivian Ho, SF Gate

Homicides, robberies and overall violent crimes fell statewide in 2014 to levels not seen in decades, according to a Department of Justice report released Wednesday.

The 1,697 killings last year were the fewest in California since 1971. At its bloody peak, in 1993, the state recorded 4,095 homicides.

Mass Incarceration of CA Teens Inspires Legislative Reform

Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil, San Jose Inside‎

Michael Mendoza made the worst decision of his life when was just 15 years old. He had recently joined a new family—a gang—to replace the troubled relationship with his father. Eager for approval, he went out for a ride with some of his new family members. The drive ended with a passenger in the front aiming a gun out the window and killing a rival gang member.

“At that moment, I was totally ignorant,” Mendoza says. “I didn’t consider the impact that this decision would have, not just on this man, but on his family, on my family and on the community. All I cared about was me—all I could think about was me.”

California’s Jail-building Boom

What comes after mass incarceration? Local incarceration.

Anat Rubin, The Marshall Project

Indio, California – In this desert city halfway between Los Angeles and the Arizona border, a small monument to the state’s prison downsizing experiment is materializing in a shopping center storefront, where former felons will soon have access to health screenings, substance-abuse treatment, job training, therapy, and probation officers who look and sound more like social workers than law enforcement officials.

Less than a mile away, a far more ambitious project is taking shape. Across from the local courthouse, workers will soon break ground on a massive expansion of a county jail, a renovation that will ultimately more than quadruple its size from 353 to 1,626 beds. It’s the first of several jail expansions planned in Riverside County, where the local Sheriff has called for 10,000 new jail beds in the next thirteen years.

CDCR NEWS

Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Imperial Valley News

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments.

Eric Arnold, 54, of Dixon, has been appointed warden at California State Prison, Solano, where he has served as acting warden since 2014 and was chief deputy warden from 2013 to 2014. Arnold was an associate warden at California Medical Facility, Vacaville from 2009 to 2013 and served as chief of the Classification Services Unit at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Adult Institutions headquarters from 2007 to 2009. Arnold served in several positions at the California Medical Facility from 1990 to 2007, including facility captain, lieutenant, sergeant and correctional officer. Arnold was a correctional officer at Deuel Vocational Institution, Tracy from 1989 to 1990. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $141,204. Arnold is a Republican.

California State Prison, Solano warden appointed

Jessica Rogness, The Reporter

The acting warden at California State Prison, Solano has been officially appointed to the post by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Eric Arnold, 54, of Dixon, has been appointed warden at the prison, where he has served as acting warden since 2014 and was chief deputy warden from 2013-2014, a statement from the governor’s office announced on Thursday.

Arnold was an associate warden at the California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville from 2009-2013.

California State Prison, Solano warden appointed

Jessica Rogness, The Reporter

The acting warden at California State Prison, Solano has been officially appointed to the post by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Arnold was an associate warden at the California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville from 2009-2013.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Murder charges in 2011 Lake Mendocino case reversed by Court of Appeal

Ukiah Daily Journal staff

A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal reversed one of several convictions entered in 2012 by the Mendocino County Superior Court against Marvin Douglas Johnson Jr., 36, and Simon Thornton, 26, who both were convicted of killing 40-year-old Joe Litteral, of Willits, in 2011, according to a statement by the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.

The appellate court’s decision was filed Tuesday in San Francisco.

It was previously reported that Johnson and Thornton were known transients who frequented Ukiah and Willits, and were convicted of the crime, also referred to as the BuShay Campground murder case in July 2011 at Lake Mendocino.

Inmate pleads no contest to role in 1988 Petaluma rape and murder

Paul Payne, The Press Democrat

A state prison inmate admitted his role Thursday in a quarter-century-old Petaluma homicide that baffled detectives for years until he and an accomplice were identified through DNA evidence.

Josafat Presencion, 49, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, rape and other charges in the 1988 slaying of Wynetta Davis, 26, of Vallejo, whose body was discovered in a water trough off Pepper Road near Bodega Avenue.

Son of Barney Creator Gets 15 Years in Prison for Shooting Neighbor

Tara Fowler, people

Patrick Leach, the son of Barney & Friends creator Sheryl Leach, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in jail for shooting his neighbor in Malibu, California, in 2013 after they got into an argument.

Prosecutors said 29-year-old Leach shot his neighbor in the chest after he accused the man of trespassing on his property, the Associated Press reports. The man, who has not been identified, survived.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Wife killer recommended for parole

Harvey Barry Jacobs now admits he strangled his newlywed wife

J. Harry Jones, The San Diego Union Tribune

Fifteen years ago, Dr. Harvey Barry Jacobs — newly convicted of killing his wife — adamantly denied his guilt.

Now he’s changed his story and is poised to regain his freedom, having tentatively been granted parole last week.

The about-face — and Jacobs’ new assertion that he flew into a rage and strangled his wife after she said cruel things to him — has frustrated the prosecutor in the case who thinks Jacobs, now 72, should be serving more time behind bars.

OPINION

California is ripe for prison-reform ideas

Nationwide push for criminal-justice changes coming from right

Steven Greenhut, The San Diego Union Tribune

SACRAMENTO — In modern politics, the Republican Party has traditionally been the party of law and order — of the “three strikes” law and building more prisons — while the Democratic Party has been more inclined to tout criminal-justice reform. A recent trend is turning that notion on its head.

A burgeoning political movement calls for dramatic changes in the criminal-justice system — including shuttering prisons, putting limits on prosecutorial power, reducing the length of prison sentences and creating more humane conditions for prisoners.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Prison’s Medical Care Deemed OK Despite Pressure to Close It

AP Wire, Fox 40 News

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Medical care at a prison east of Los Angeles has been deemed adequate despite claims that the facility is unsafe and should be closed.

The state inspector general on Friday gave the California Rehabilitation Center at Norco a passing grade on health care, allowing federal officials to consider returning control to the state.

Varsity Girls basketball champs receive CIF rings and patches

Palo Verde Valley Times

Palo Verde High School Varsity Girls Basketball Team were honored at Tuesday's Palo Verde Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting. Superintendent Dr. David Davitt and PVHS Principal Brandy Cox introduced the ladies and presented them with their Official varsity patches.

Also, the team had the opportunity to show off their California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rings.

Vacaville Blaze Forces More Than 100 to Flee Homes

Dan Brekke, KQED

Note: California Medical Facility’s fire station sent two fire engines, a command vehicle, two fire captains and three inmate firefighters to help fight the Vacaville fire.

Update, 9:45 a.m.: Vacaville authorities say evacuation orders have been lifted as firefighters make progress in containing the 320-acre fire that threatened a neighborhood late Saturday and early Sunday. Police say no structures were lost in the blaze, which reportedly broke out about 9:30 p.m. as Fourth of July festivities were nearing their peak.

Firefighters are expected to remain on the scene throughout the day to monitor the area for flareups. The cause is still under investigation. (Will anyone be shocked if fireworks were involved?)

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Injured firefighter has surgery after tree falls on him

Rory Appleton, The Fresno Bee

A firefighter who was pinned under a massive oak tree for several minutes Friday while battling a small wildland fire in Tulare County underwent the first of two major surgeries Saturday, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported.

Cal Fire spokesman Ryan Michaels said that Damien Pereira, 25, of San Luis Obispo County was in good spirits and surrounded by family and fellow firefighters while recovering at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno. Doctors worked several hours Saturday morning to repair broken vertebrae, and a second surgery is planned for later in the week to address his broken ribs and bruised internal organs.

DEATH PENALTY

Supreme Court ruling puts spotlight back on California’s death row mess

Matt Fossen, Fox News

A recent Supreme Court ruling upholding a controversial lethal injection drug has shifted the spotlight in the capital punishment debate back to California's dysfunctional death row.

The state has the largest death row backlog in the nation, with 757 condemned prisoners awaiting their fate after executions were halted in 2006. The high court ruling -- in a case involving a different drug from what California once used -- has no immediate impact on those cases. But it does start the clock ticking for the state to come up with a new plan.

REALIGNMENT

Repeat offenses down in San Joaquin County

Jennie Rodriguez-Moore, Record

STOCKTON — The county Probation Department reported that offenders on probation supervision who were released from state prison or San Joaquin County Jail under “realignment” law AB109 are returning to jail at a decreasing rate.

When the state’s realignment of the criminal justice system went into effect in October 2011, California’s 58 counties became responsible for criminals convicted of felonies the state classifies as “non-violent,” “non-sexual” and “non-serious.” Prior to that, they were the responsibility of the state prison and parole department.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

CSUMB student overcomes adversity to help Mayans

Ryan Masters, Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ >> Guillermo Rodriguez is uniquely suited to educate others about the consequences of bad habits.

The 35-year-old Salinas man is a diabetic who also spent three years in prison as the result of drug and alcohol addiction.

Today Rodriguez is eight years clean, boasts a 3.8 GPA, works full time as a clinical manager at an opiate addiction treatment center in Watsonville, and has just embarked on a three-week trip to Mexico to educate the Mayan people about nutrition and exercise.

Salinas man sentenced to prison for hitting wife

Rachel Zentz, The Salinas Californian

Margarito Guzman Jr., 46, of Salinas, has been sentenced to seven years in state prison for inflicting corporal injury on his spouse resulting in great bodily injury, according to Monterey County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo.

On Dec. 19, Guzman and his wife got into an argument and he hit her in the face. She was knocked unconscious and suffered a ‘blow out fracture’ of the orbital bone, a fractured nasal bone and defensive bruising on her arms.

Threats of Violence Appearing on Social Media Prompt Community Meeting Hosted by Long Beach Ministers Alliance

Stephanie Rivera & Keeley Smith, Long Beach Post

Growing threats of violence over social media have prompted the Long Beach Ministers Alliance (LBMA) to schedule a community meeting with police officers Tuesday evening, according to alliance officials.

The meeting is scheduled to take place Tuesday, July 7, at 6:00PM at Temple Baptist Church, 2825 East 10th Street.

Though no one is exactly sure who has posted the threats—which have appeared on SnapChat, Facebook and Instagram—alliance officials alluded to rumors that the East Side Longos gang is behind the threats.

CDCR NEWS

State prisons hiring new officers

Mike Hazelwood, The Sentinel

Three state prisons in Kings County are each understaffed of officers — a snapshot of the need to hire throughout California.

California’s prison system plans to hire 7,000 officers over the next few years, said spokesman Bill Sessa.

“We’re looking to re-fill positions because of retirement and to ease the strain of overtime,” Sessa said.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

O.C. District Attorney's office to oppose parole for man who killed unarmed teen in 1991

Alma Fausto, OC Register

Orange County District Attorney’s office representatives will be at a hearing Tuesday to oppose the parole of an inmate who stabbed a 16-year-old boy to death at a house party in La Habra in 1991.

Robert Aguirre Jr., 42, is currently an inmate of Kern Valley State Prison in Delano. He is scheduled for a parole hearing at the prison Tuesday morning before a board with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

CDCR NEWS

Pilot Program Funds Arts Classes In California Prisons

Ed Joyce, Capital Public Radio News

The California Arts Council has awarded contracts to 10 organizations that provide arts programs for inmates. The money for the pilot program, $2.5 million, comes from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Craig Watson is the director of the California Arts Council. He says the programs help prisoners reintegrate into society "in a much better way."

"The vast majority of prisoners will someday be our neighbors, in one or more communities of California, and so we need to be thinking about that and providing all the avenues to improve their potential for success," says Watson. "And the arts is a proven tactic for improving their state of mind, their self-esteem and the preparation for being a potentially productive member of society."

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Arnold Schwarzenegger's last act as governor still follows the Terminator

Kyung Lah and Jason Kravarik, CNN

(CNN)In Hollywood, there's no better magnet for stargazing than a movie premiere. So on a Sunday afternoon in late June, the summer sun couldn't keep thousands of fans from lining Hollywood Boulevard, hoping to spot a star.

This was the "Terminator Genisys" premiere, and only one star mattered: Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former governor of California shook hands, signed autographs and posed for selfies. It's the kind of personal attention Fred and Kathy Santos wish they could get from Schwarzenegger, who they say stole justice from their dead son.

"He plays a hero in the movies, yet in real life he's not a hero," Fred Santos said. "He's a dirty politician."

CDCR NEWS

Fewer ex-cons return to prison but crime rates stay steady

Don Thompson Associated Press

Ex-felons in California are committing new crimes at a relatively steady rate compared with previous years, but more of them are going to county jails instead of state prisons as a 2011 state law intended they should, according to a report released Wednesday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said 54 percent of felons were back behind prison walls within three years. That's down from 61 percent a year ago and down from a high of 67.5 percent for inmates released from prison a decade ago, when California had one of the nation's highest recidivism rates.

Recidivism Rate For California Offenders Drops Again

Ed Joyce, Capital Public Radio News‎

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports the recidivism rate during the fiscal year 2009-2010 was 54 percent.

The CDCR says the rate at which inmates released from state prison returned to state custody has trended downward since 2005 when it was 67 percent.

Supervisors OK New Agreement for Use of Inmate Labor to Fight Fires

Under the new deal, the reimbursement rate were slashed from $46 per day to $10 per day.

Alexander Nguyen, Patch

Under a revised agreement with the state that the Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday, the cost of deploying Riverside County jail inmates to fight wildfires will be a lot less.

In a 5-0 vote, the board signed off on an amended compact with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reimburse the agency at the rate of $10 per day for putting county prisoners to work on the fire lines, or for brush clearance operations.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Ironwood inmates donate to Harmony Kitchen to help with refrigerator

Palo Verde Valley Times

BLYTHE, Calif. - Ironwood State Prison (ISP) employees presented a check totaling $933.45 to Harmony Soup Kitchen in May.

Three Inmate Leisure Time Activity Groups - Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, Alternatives to Violence, and I-4-Sight - raised the money to help the kitchen purchase a new refrigerator.

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Recipients of Inaugural Smart on Crime Awards at Recidivism Reduction Roundtable

Imperial Valley News

Los Angeles, California - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced the recipients of the inaugural Smart on Crime Awards for their excellence in working to reduce recidivism in California. The five awards were presented at a roundtable discussion that brought together partners from across the state to discuss innovative solutions to lowering recidivism rates in the state.

“These organizations are doing innovative work to educate, employ and keep ex-offenders on track, which will reduce recidivism rates and increase public safety in California,” said Attorney General Harris. “Today’s awardees are keeping ex-offenders accountable by empowering them to rebuild their lives and re-enter their communities with a toolbox of new skills and opportunities. We want to recognize their great work, sharing their efforts as best practices for others to follow.”

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Ask Sacto 911 crime Q&A: What happened to suspects in 1997 slayings at Arden Arcade apartment?

Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee

Q: I am looking for the story regarding the murder of Thomas Alan Posehn and another person, a female, on April 17, 1997. I understand the killer had an accomplice and they appealed.

Allen, Rancho Cordova

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Former Susanville inmate sentenced in prison tax fraud scheme

Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee

A man accused of leading a tax fraud scheme while incarcerated at the California Correctional Center in Susanville has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Edwin Ludwig IV, 34, currently an inmate in an Oklahoma state prison, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Sacramento for conspiring to defraud the United States and for filing false claims for federal tax returns, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. Ludwig was ordered to pay more than $219,000 in restitution.

Crime in LA up, Chief Beck says it's too early to know why

89.3 KPCC‎

After declining for more than a decade, crime rates in Los Angeles were on the rise for the first half of the year, according to LAPD statistics released Wednesday.

Violent crimes including robberies and aggravated assaults jumped by 20.6 percent during the first six months of the year, compared with the first half of 2014. Property crimes, including burglaries and auto thefts, jumped by 10.9 percent.

CDCR NEWS

Fewer felons returning to prison in Monterey County

Chelcey Adami, The Salinas Californian

The number of ex-felons returning to prison in Monterey County has declined by about 10 percent, largely due the state's realignment that redirects some offenders to county jail as well as into rehabilitative programs.

Monterey County had a 59.8 percent three-year return-to-prison rate for parole of those offenders released during fiscal year 2009-2010, according to the newly released 2014 Outcome Evaluation Report by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Death row inmate resentenced in Kern County Court

Tim Calahan, KERO

BAKERSFIELD, CA - Constantino Carrera who was convicted of a double murder in 1983 was back in a Kern County courtroom Thursday afternoon. Carrera was on death row at San Quentin State Prison, serving time for the murder of a Mojave couple.

According to court records, Carrera and his then co-defendant Ramiro Ruiz participated in a robbery that turned deadly.

Carerra and Ruiz were convicted of stabbing Jack and Carol Hayes to death, the couple managed the hotel in Mojave.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Blame the drought: Inmates sweat out the ban on prison yard showers

Paige St. John, LA Times

To save water, California has turned off outside showers on its inmates. No longer can they wash down in the prison yard after a hard workout.

"Yes, all showers outside of those in the housing units have been shut down as part of the statewide mandate to reduce water use by 25% due to the drought," Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, confirmed Thursday.

REALIGNMENT

Realignment and California's Jail-Building Boom

KCRW

There's a construction boom in California. News stories show local officials posing with shovels as counties break ground for new jails. But those aren't the images that were expected. New money was supposed to be split between jails and cheaper alternatives to incarceration, like mental-health treatment and other forms of rehabilitation. But most of it's going to jails. We hear how that happened in the rush for prison reform.

San Bernardino County struggles with increased service demand in wake of prison realignment

Joe Nelson, San Bernardino Sun

SAN BERNARDINO — Millions of dollars in upgrades and more staff are needed in county jails to address issues related to state prison realignment, Sheriff John McMahon and county CEO Greg Devereaux said Thursday.

Five new sergeants have been assigned to the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, the busiest of the county’s four jails, and more mental health workers will also be hired to address a spike in requests for care, McMahon said.

“We’re going to contract with an outside firm to make up the difference in the staffing that we need in mental health care,” McMahon said.

OPINION

No cocktail is needed, outlaw death penalty

Contra Costa Times

With the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that the controversial drug midazolam is legal for executions, the responsibility to administer the death penalty falls back squarely on states, including California, that still embrace it.

But whether this particular drug is cruel or ethical to use is beside the point. The smartest, cheapest and fairest thing to do is abolish the death penalty.

CDCR NEWS

California's invasive 'contraband watch' often yields little

Don Thompson, Associated Press

California uses a controversial method to recover contraband from inmates believed to have swallowed it or concealed it in body cavities: "potty watches" where inmates are handcuffed and shackled for days or even weeks while guards watch around-the-clock until nature takes its course.

Prison officials say the watches are necessary to recover weapons, cellphones and notes passed among inmates to coordinate illegal gang activities. Some recovered items seem truly bizarre: a can opener, hearing aids, and an entire electric tattoo kit.

State prisons are relying less on solitary confinement as punishment

Paige St. John, LA Times

Even as it prepares for a courtroom showdown over the use of prolonged solitary confinement to keep order in its prisons, California has adopted emergency rules to dial down such isolation.

Inmates may no longer be put in isolation for refusing a cell assignment, for example, one of several prison infractions for which solitary confinement punishment has been reduced or dropped. And those being disciplined with segregation can cut that punishment in half with good behavior.

"This is part of an ongoing evolution in how we manage inmates in segregation," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the corrections department. "There will be more changes."

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Grisly Inmate Death at Solano Prison

Don Thompson, Associated Press

Nearly 15 hours after a riot at a Northern California prison, guards found a missing inmate sawed nearly in two, with his abdominal organs and most chest organs removed, his body folded and stuffed into a garbage can in a shower stall a few doors from his cell.

Details of the gruesome May killing at the medium-security California State Prison, Solano, are laid out in an autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request.

Autopsy report on state prison inmate's death reveals gruesome details

Thomas Curwen, LA Times

Not long after 24-year-old prison inmate Nicholas Rodriguez went missing, guards discovered his body nearly sawed in half, eviscerated and stuffed into a garbage can in a shower stall at the medium security California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville.

The discovery, which was made May 4, was disclosed Friday by the Associated Press, which obtained the autopsy report of the victim under a public records request. Officials for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation declined to comment on the details of Rodriguez’s death, which is under investigation.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Prisoners’ Art On Display At Oceanside Museum Of Art

Promise Yee, KPBS

Inmates of Donovan state prison in San Diego created the artwork for a new exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

At a reception for a series of new exhibits this weekend, visitors to the museum crowded into a small, cell-sized gallery to view the creative result of Project PAINT: The Prison Arts Initiative.

The exhibit is entitled “Art Transports Us Out of Bounds: Prison Arts in San Diego.” Most of the 100 detailed pencil drawings and sculptures in the exhibit are displayed in a 6 by 9 foot space, the size of a prison cell for two inmates.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Twice bitten: White-collar crime victims mostly unpaid despite restitution orders

Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee

At the rate approved by a federal judge, it will take convicted swindler Tony Daniloo more than 10,000 years to repay what he stole from his victims.

One of them, owed $74,000, is 85 years old and fading with Alzheimer’s disease. The woman’s daughter and full-time caregiver, Linda Malone, says they lost everything in Daniloo’s scam, are too poor to buy a car, are hounded by creditors and have no hope of returning to a normal life.

Beach showers shut off as California struggles with drought

Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

Starting next week, California parks will no longer offer showers for people to wash sand and salt from their bodies at the beach, part of a broader plan to conserve water as the state's years-long drought drags on.

The most populous U.S. state is in the fourth year of a catastrophic drought that has cost billions to its agricultural sector and prompted its first-ever mandatory cutbacks in urban water use.

California Prisons
California regains control over healthcare at Folsom prison
By Paige St. John
The state has regained full control of one of its prisons for the first time since 2006, when a federal court stripped California of control over its sprawling inmate healthcare system.
J. Clark Kelso, the overseer of prison medical care and spending, returned responsibility for the health of some 2,400 inmates at Folsom State Prison to California’s corrections department on Monday.

California Begins to Regain Control of Prison Health Care
By The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California on Monday began regaining responsibility for its prison health care system after nearly a decade of federal control and billions of dollars in improvements.
A court-appointed receiver returned medical care at Folsom State Prison to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the first of many steps toward ending a long-running lawsuit.

CDCR Parole
What’s life without parole really like?
My news LA
A documentary on prisoners serving life sentences without the possibility of parole at California State Prison, Los Angeles County will premiere on HBO Aug. 3, the premium pay cable channel.
“Toe Tag Parole: To Live and Die on Yard A,” focuses on the 600 men living at the Progressive Programming Facility, who seek self-improvement and spiritual growth through education, art and music therapy, religious services and participation in peer-group sessions.

Corrections related
Man convicted in Guardsman's shooting death gets life in prison
Reported by: Fatima Rahmatullah
Las Vegas (KSNV News3LV) – For the family of Dylan Salazar it was an emotional day in court, as the man responsible for his death, Julio Renteria, was sentenced this afternoon to life in prison.
“It has been 14 months, seven days and approximately seven hours since my world stopped turning,” says mother, Denise Alexander. “It seems like yesterday. The pain is indescribable.”

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation v. California State Personnel Board (McCauley)
The Recorder
The Fifth Appellate District reversed a judgment. The court held that the state's rejection of a prison guard's promotion that was effective after the promoted guard had completed his probationary period was fatally deficient under applicable law.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

'Muck' to teach art in prisons

Lou Ponsi, The Orange County Register

“The reporter has been informed that funding for Arts-in-Corrections is provided by CDCR and administered through the California Arts Council.”

The Muckenthaler Cultural Center will once again provide arts instruction to inmates in state correctional facilities.

The Muckenthaler is among 10 organizations that are conducting art programs in 18 prisons in the second of a two-year pilot program, Arts in Corrections.

The California Arts Council, a state agency, is providing $2.5 million to fund the program.

At California Men's Colony, grand jury objects to moldy bread, rundown chapels

Matt Fountain, The Tribune News

NOTE: The Grand Jury relied on incorrect information and a misunderstanding of state protocol, and ignored CMC’s response when issuing its final report.

The California Men’s Colony on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo serves inmates moldy bread and does not allow them Internet access to complete general equivalency diploma programs.

Those and several religious freedom concerns are among notable findings made by the San Luis Obispo County civil grand jury in a report on the prison released Tuesday.

In the Face of Drought, California Prisons Are Restricting Inmates' Shower and Toilet Use

Jessica Pishko, VICE

NOTE: “CDCR continues an aggressive program to mitigate exposure to Valley Fever in Avenal and Pleasant Valley state prisons which are not affected by water restrictions resulting from the drought”

Everyone's been asked to pitch in to help reduce California's water consumption in the face of the state's historic drought, but some are making bigger sacrifices than others.

As part of mandatory drought restrictions announced in April, Governor Jerry Brown ordered public agencies to reduce their water consumption by 25 percent. Officials at the 34 prisons operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR) have responded by restricting inmates' shower privileges, ability to flush their cells' toilets, and access to clean clothes, according to interviews with inmates.

Motorcycle hit and run victim's family speaks out

Van Tieu, KRNV

NOTE: Stephen Hobbs was a Correctional Officer at High Desert State Prison

COLD SPRINGS, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) – Steve Hobbs, 51, was just minutes away from home when tragedy struck. The father of three was killed by a hit and run driver on U.S. 395 near Cold Springs on Saturday afternoon. Authorities believe the driver could have had road rage.

"Why couldn't you just keep driving? Why did it have to come to this?," his eldest son, Brandon Hobbs, asks.

Hobbs grapples with the reality that his two much younger siblings will grow up without their father.

Reno motorcyclist dies after hit-and-run

Sarah Litz, RGJ

A 51-year-old Reno man died after his motorcycle crashed with a car Saturday north of Reno.

Around noon on Saturday, Nevada Highway Patrol troopers responded to a report of a motorcycle crash on U.S. 395 near Cold Springs.

Stephen L. Hobbs was driving a black 2007 KTM sport bike northbound on U.S. 395 next to a possible silver or blue 2000 or newer Subaru WRX hatchback style, a report from NHP said.

DEATH PENALTY

Lethal Rejection

California capital punishment fight enters M. C. Escher territory

Tom Gogola, North Bay Bohemian

Robyn Barbour was for the death penalty before she was against it. The Sacramento-area teacher used to support capital punishment in California, she says, "because my dad was in favor of it."

Barbour had a change of heart when her grandmother was murdered in 1994. Her killer is now incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. That facility houses death row for women—but her grandmother's murderer got a life sentence.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Private prisons are a terrible idea. But they didn't cause mass incarceration.

German Lopez, Vox

Whenever I write about the causes of mass incarceration in America, I can always expect one response from some readers: Aren't private prisons to blame, since they've created a for-profit incentive to lock up as many people as possible?

I understand where the perspective comes from. Many prison companies are paid for each inmate they house, so there's a financial incentive for the company to try to incarcerate as many people as possible. This means it's in the company's financial interest to get a steady flow of prisoners, which in turn gives private prison companies an incentive to lobby for policies that continue mass incarceration.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Parole delayed for killer who led inmate hunger strike

The San Francisco Chronicle‎

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A reputed gang leader who helped lead a series of hunger strikes has agreed to delay his parole hearing for five years.

Parole board spokesman Luis Patino says 57-year-old Ronnie Dewberry agreed to the delay Wednesday as his parole hearing was set to begin.

Corrections officials say Dewberry is the "minister of education" for a gang known as the Black Guerrilla Family.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Ex-Cop's Cold-Case Murder Conviction Stands

William Dotinga, Courthouse News

LOS ANGELES (CN) - The 24 years it took solve a former LAPD officer's murder of her lover's wife did not violate the officer's due-process rights, a state appeals court ruled on Monday.

A jury convicted Stephanie Lazarus, a 25-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, of murdering the wife of her former lover in 1986.

Cold-case investigators solved the crime in 2009 when DNA from a bite mark on victim Sheri Rasmussen's arm was finally matched to Lazarus.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

You Just Got Out of Prison. Now What?

Carlos and Roby are two ex-convicts with a simple mission: picking up inmates on the day they’re released from prison and guiding them through a changed world.

Jon Mooallem, The New York Times

Two men were sitting in a parked car, waiting to pick someone up. Carlos Cervantes was in the driver’s seat. He was 30, with glassy green eyes — quiet by nature, but with a loaded, restrained intensity about him. He had picked up Roby So at home in Los Angeles around 3 o’clock that morning, and they’d made it here, to this empty parking lot in front of the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, on the outskirts of San Diego, just after 6. Now, the sun was rising over the bare, brown mountains in the windshield. A hummingbird zipped around an air-conditioning unit outside. Already, they’d been waiting close to an hour.

Roby was three years older than Carlos but carried himself like a large and joyful child. He was hungry. He wanted biscuits and gravy and was still laughing about how, earlier, he caught himself telling Carlos that, unfortunately, he’d have to wait until tomorrow for biscuits and gravy, because today was Monday, and Monday was pancakes day. Part of his brain still tracked his old prison breakfast menu. ‘‘Why do I still know these things, man?’’ Roby said. ‘‘It’s been four years. I was supposed to. … ’’ His voice trailed off, so Carlos finished his sentence: ‘‘Delete.’’

Is It Possible To Let More People Out Of Prison, And Keep Crime Down?

Martin Kaste, NPR‎

President Obama has made incarceration reform a White House theme this week. On Monday, he commuted the sentences of 46 mostly nonviolent drug offenders; and on Tuesday, he spoke about reducing the prison population in a speech to the NAACP.

"The United States is home to 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of the world's prisoners," Obama said. "Think about that. Our incarceration rate is four times higher than China's."

Lawrence Karlton dies at 80; federal judge who pushed for prison reforms

Elaine Woo, The Los Angeles Times

Lawrence K. Karlton, a U.S. district judge who played a key role in prodding the state of California to reduce its prison population and improve conditions for mentally ill inmates, died Saturday in Sacramento. He was 80.

His death was confirmed by a spokesman for the U.S. District Court’s Eastern District, where Karlton had served for 35 years until stepping down last October. The cause was not given, but a colleague said Karlton had heart problems.

The veteran jurist, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Carter, had often kindled controversy with his rulings.

OPINION

Crime, punishment – and justice

The San Diego Union-Tribune

The U.S. criminal-justice system needs close scrutiny, as President Obama said Tuesday in a speech to the NAACP convention in Philadelphia, to determine how much of how it operates actually creates injustice. Thankfully, a reform plan – one that starts with a retreat from flawed mandatory minimum sentences that warehouse prisoners who often are little threat to society – appears to have a solid chance of winning support in Congress and resulting in real change.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Rand Paul, R-Tenn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., have all questioned rigid “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” policies that have resulted in America locking up a much higher percentage of its people than any First World nation. So have two of the nation’s heavyweight campaign donors – the Koch brothers – as the president noted Tuesday.

Prison realignment putting counties in a bind

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin‎

There’s no question that prison realignment has put intense pressures on California’s county jails and the sheriffs who run them. San Bernardino County is no exception.

This editorial board got a much better feel for those pressures and what is being done to respond to them in a sit-down session with county Sheriff John McMahon and CEO Greg Devereaux. We appreciated Sheriff McMahon’s quick responsiveness — after an editorial here had called him out for being “too busy” to respond to our reporter’s questions about claims from a nonprofit law office that his jails harbor a “culture of violence” and provide inadequate housing and services for inmates.

CDCR NEWS

Fewer released felons returning to California prisons

Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee

Note: The data stating offenders released from prison are being arrested and convicted of new crimes at about the same rates before Realignment was not “buried” in the data, but rather stated up front in the report on the first page.

Fewer felons released from state prison are returning because of committing new crimes or having their paroles revoked, a new report from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says.

However, data buried in the voluminous report indicate that those released from prison are being arrested and convicted of new crimes at about the same rates as before the state began drawing down its prison population to comply with a federal court order aimed at reducing overcrowding.

Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Imperial Valley News

Kenneth Pogue, 47, of Shingle Springs, has been appointed undersecretary of administration and offender services at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where he has served as assistant secretary in the Office of Legislation since 2013.

Mr. Pogue served as a deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General from 1999 to 2013 and was an associate at the Law Offices of Porter, Scott, Weiberg and Delehant from 1997 to 1999.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California Bars Male Inmates From Program

Nick Cahill, Courthouse News

Note: CDCR did not amend the Alternative Custody Program to prohibit men from participating in the program. In 2013 the California Legislature amended the statute that created the program (SB 1266) and specifically identified the program for female inmates only.

SAN JOSE (CN) - A California prison program that lets inmates reunite with their families and complete their sentence in a transitional facility is unconstitutional because it excludes men, prisoners claim in court.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation allows women to apply for the Alternative Custody Program, to finish their sentence in a residential home or drug treatment facility.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Will Prop. 47 turn out to be a fire hazard?

Thomas D. Elias, Napa Valley Register

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men / Gang aft agley.” Robert Burns in his 1785 poem “To a Mouse.”

Bobby Burns couldn’t have known it, but as California approaches what many experts forecast to be the worst wildfire season on record, his description of how good intentions can go awry, not always turning out as planned, might come into play here soon.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Missing California girl found in sex offender's garage

Reuters, Curtis Skinner

A missing teenage girl was found inside the garage of a registered sex offender whom she accused of sexually assaulting her, Los Angeles County authorities have said.

Kaene Dean, 26, was arrested by sheriff's deputies in Santa Clarita on Wednesday and was being held on $100,000 bond, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

OPINION

Reforming prison sentencing can cut crime: Our view

If conservatives and liberals agree on this, it is probably worth paying attention.

USA Today

When President Obama, the liberal ACLU and the conservative Koch brothers all agree on something, it is probably worth paying attention. And they all agree that it is time to rethink America’s penchant for doling out harsh, mandatory sentences even for low-level, non-violent crimes.

These sentencing practices have helped make America the world's leader in locking up its citizens. The USA has 5% of the world’s population and about 25% of the world’s prisoners. The federal prison population has grown sixfold since 1983. Today, nearly 1.6 million inmates are in federal and state prisons — all at a cost of about $80 billion a year.

Obama tackles a worthy cause in criminal justice reform

The Sacramento Bee

In words and in deeds, Barack Obama is ramping up his crusade for criminal justice reform, a worthy undertaking for the final two years of his presidency.

In a rousing speech to the NAACP on Tuesday and in more measured tones at the White House on Wednesday, Obama made the case that we need a more just criminal justice system as an issue of civil rights and racial equality.

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