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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Wayne Freedman, ABC 7 News

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- So you heard that the North Bay fire fight was over? Not even close. Not in this chorus of chainsaws.

"What are the rules?" I asked CalFire Captain Robin Bloom. "Do what I say," said Bloom. Take one look at the man, and you will.

We went high in the hills of upper Fountaingrove, where if the soggy ashes of these homes could talk, they would tell similar, frightening stories of death, destruction, and fast moving flames.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Porterville Recorder

A Dinuba man, who is currently serving 31 years to life in prison at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran for a murder he committed in 1989, was denied parole last Thursday by a California parole board, and will not be eligible for another hearing until 2020, the office of the District Attorney of Tulare County reported.

In the late evening of July 14, 1989, Eddie Gallardo, 59, of Dinuba, traveled to his cousin’s residence in New London after believing that his cousin wanted him dead because he, Gallardo, was allegedly ripping off a drug dealer. Gallardo fatally stabbed his cousin once in the chest and ran away.

OPINION

Sal Rodriguez, LA Daily News

On Sept. 6, for the second year in a row, parole commissioners recommended parole for 68-year-old Leslie Van Houten, who participated in the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in the summer of 1969.

Van Houten, who was 19 at the time, stabbed Rosemary more than a dozen times after fellow Charles Manson-follower Charles “Tex” Watson killed Leno and stabbed Rosemary.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Joseph Serna and Alene Tchekmedyian, The Los Angeles Times

Mass killer Charles Manson died of natural causes Sunday evening at a Kern County hospital, authorities said.

The 83-year-old cult leader died at 8:13 p.m., according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Michele Hanisee, president of the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys, issued a statement Sunday saying that Vincent Bugliosi, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted Manson, “provided the most accurate summation: ‘Manson was an evil, sophisticated con man with twisted and warped moral values.’

John Rogers, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader who became the hypnotic-eyed face of evil across America after masterminding the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, died Sunday night after nearly a half-century in prison. He was 83.

Manson died of natural causes at a California hospital while serving a life sentence, his name synonymous to this day with unspeakable violence and depravity.

Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County, reacted to the death by quoting the late Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor who put Manson behind bars. Bugliosi said: “Manson was an evil, sophisticated con man with twisted and warped moral values.”

Paul Valentine, The Washington Post

Charles Manson, a fiery-eyed cult master whose lemming-like followers staged a bloody two-night murder rampage in Los Angeles in 1969 that gripped the city with fear and shocked the nation, died Nov. 19 at a hospital in Kern County, Calif. He was 83.

Spokeswoman Krissi Khokhobashvili of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed the death but did not provide a specific cause. Mr. Manson, who was serving a life sentence at California State Prison in Corcoran, had had health problems in recent years and was hospitalized in January for gastrointestinal bleeding, according to news reports.

His answer: “What you see is what you get.”

Bay City News

Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are seeking the public's help in locating an inmate who walked away from a corrections camp in Solano County on Saturday.

According to CDCR officials, 27-year-old Rashad Vaca was last seen during the 9 p.m. inmate count at the Delta Conservation Camp, which houses about 120 minimum-security inmates.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Carlos Lozano, The Los Angeles Times

Officials are investigating the death of an inmate at Mule Creek State Prison in Northern California as a homicide, authorities said.

Inmate Wayne Bradley, 50, was found unresponsive in his cell about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Everett McCoy, 35, Bradley’s cellmate, was named as a suspect in his death, officials said. McCoy, who entered prison in 1999, was serving a sentence of 28 years to life for first-degree murder and second-degree robbery.

Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times

A correctional officer was injured during an attack by an inmate at the California State Prison in Lancaster, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The attack occurred about 10 p.m. Saturday when two officers approached George Hudson, 30, and told him he was being placed on “restricted status” for violating prison rules and regulations after he was caught possessing a cellphone.

At one point, Hudson turned toward one of the officers and punched him in the nose, prison officials said in a statement. The second officer tried to put Hudson in handcuffs but he resisted and elbowed that officer in the chest, officials said.

Hamilton Nolan, Splinter

San Quentin is beautiful from the outside. It sits on a sun-drenched point jutting out into San Francisco Bay, a short drive north from the Golden Gate Bridge, at the end of a small road overlooking the water. Right up to its front gate sit quaint houses with spectacular views, which go for around a million dollars each. The prison itself, built in the 1850s by a gang of prisoners who lived on a boat during its construction, could pass for a sturdy old college, its thick stone walls just elegant enough to give the impression that rarefied things are going on within.

True, in a sense. Despite its status as a byword for “tough prison,” San Quentin today is a place that many prisoners in California want to get into. By the appalling standards of California prisons, San Quentin is well above average, boasting an array of educational and vocational programs, many types of health counseling, and even arts and media programs that are the jewel of the state prison system. For men who have spent years working their way down from crowded, violent, scary max security facilities, San Quentin can be a destination to strive for.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Alene Tchekmedyian, The Los Angeles Times

The Kern County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday that the agency took custody of convicted murderer Charles Manson’s body after he died of natural causes at a local hospital.

What will happen to it now?

According to state law, Manson’s next of kin has 10 days — or until Nov. 29 — either to claim or decline to take possession of the body. If his relatives decline, prison officials must make arrangements for cremation or burial.

Becky Little, History

In 1971, cult leader Charles Manson was sentenced to death for murdering two people and orchestrating the killings of seven others in August of 1969. But why, if he received the death penalty all those years ago, did he spend his life in jail, dying of natural causes in 2017?

It all has to do with a couple of court cases that suspended the death penalty the year after Manson was sentenced. These cases effectively struck down all methods of state execution in the U.S. for four years, leaving Manson and his followers with the next harshest sentence at the time in California—life with parole.

Kimberly K. Fu, The Reporter

An inmate firefighter who had assisted in the recent Napa County disaster recovery efforts disappeared Saturday from a prison camp in Suisun City only to surrender Sunday to Vacaville police.

Rashad Taylor Vaca, 27, of Vacaville, was subsequently placed back into the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and transported to a correctional facility in Susanville.

Vaca was incarcerated in August 2010, serving a 12-year sentence for second-degree robbery with a firearm. An inmate firefighter at Sugar Pine Conservation Camp in Bella Vista, he was at the minimum security Delta Conservation Camp in Suisun as part of a strike team aiding in fire relief efforts in Napa County.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Lonnie Wong, Fox 40 News

FOLSOM -- Johnny Cash is still highly regarded by inmates at Folsom Prison nearly 50 years after the concert that revived his career.

None of the prisoners behind the granite walls of the prison were there in January of 1968, when Cash recorded his hit album "Folsom Prison Blues" and the single that reached number one on the country music charts.

Angela Greenwood, CBS 13 News

FOLSOM (CBS13) — It was a prison concert for the books. It has been 50 years since Johnny Cash performed his legendary concert for inmates inside Folsom State Prison.

To mark that anniversary, the prison gave a tour of the facility, including in the exact room where cash performed all those years ago and a look at how things have progressed since then.

Cash was a musician who connected to people also going through hardships and struggles and even now, he’s still bringing hope and inspiration to those serving time.


Thomas D. Elias, LA Daily News

Charles Manson is dead and the timing is definitely appropriate. The most notorious inmate in the California prison system died this week at 83 of natural causes in a Bakersfield hospital where he had been taken from Corcoran State Prison. Death came not long after an abdominal condition from which he suffered had been found inoperable this fall.

The timing of Manson’s death was right if only because Jerry Brown, the last California governor with any chance of remembering the terror Manson and his murderous gang spread around Southern California, has barely a year left in his term.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Giuseppe Ricapito, The Union Democrat

Sierra Conservation Center prison inmate Adam Gray knelt on one knee in the freshly painted red walls of the new City of Sonora-commissioned Santa’s Workshop Tuesday morning, installing the final interior design paneling with an electric drill.

Santa’s elves were finally set in place, and Gray, 34, serving a two-year sentence for grand theft auto, swiped his densely tattooed hands across his California Department of Corrections dungarees.

Keith Rains last seen Nov. 16
KCRA 3 News

PLACERVILLER, Calif. (KCRA) — Corrections officials are looking for a convict who walked away from a home in the Alternative Custody Program.

Keith Rains, 46, was last seen Thursday evening at the home on Newton Road, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. Rains is part of the Jesus Our Boss program in Placerville.

CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Authorities were on the hunt Wednesday for a 24-year-old convict who walked away from a re-entry program in Los Angeles.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials were looking for Jessie Barraza after they were alerted about 8:10 p.m. Tuesday that his GPS device had been removed while out on an approved pass, authorities said.

Tracey Petersen, My Mother Lode

Sonora, CA — State corrections officials have updated photos that include tattoos on the escaped inmate from North Kern State Prison who could be hiding in the Mother Lode.

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants the public to take a close look at the photos in the image box in hopes that someone may have seen or could recognize 31-year-old Daniel Salazar, who is considered armed and dangerous. As reported here earlier this month, Salazar, who was behind bars for second degree robbery and using a fake ID to obtain personal information, was possibly heading to Tuolumne County as sheriff’s officials reported he had ties to the region.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Wes Woods, LA Daily News

A correctional officer was punched and stomped on the face, which resulted in a fractured orbital bone during an inmate attack Monday at the state prison in Lancaster, authorities said.

Sharvon Fredrick, 32, was arrested on suspicion of rushing a control booth officer and punching him in the face, which knocked him unconscious, and then stomping on the guard’s face, authorities explained.

The crime was reported at 2:07 p.m. Monday during the afternoon yard and shift change at California State Prison, Los Angeles County, on 60th Street West in Lancaster, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

Stephen Magagnini, The Sacramento Bee

When Johnny Cash sang one of the most famous lyrics in American history –“I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” – at Folsom State Prison nearly 50 years ago, both the singer and the penitentiary became etched in popular culture.

Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” song, first released in 1956, anchored a live album recorded in front of hundreds of inmates in the cafeteria on Jan. 13, 1968. It went triple platinum, rose to No. 1 on both the pop and country western charts and revitalized Cash’s career.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Lauren Keene, Davis Enterprise

WOODLAND — A prison inmate’s bid for compassionate release was rejected Tuesday after the Yolo Superior Court judge who presided over the Woodland man’s homicide trial deemed him a continued threat to public safety.

Jeffrey Lemus, 57, is about a year into a seven-year sentence for the Dec. 5, 2015, fatal stabbing of Kelly Mason Choate, with whom Lemus had a long-standing rivalry.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Miguel Diaz, a Salinas resident, has turned his life around after 40 months in prison.
Cristian Ponce, The Californian

Salinas native Miguel Diaz Jr., 36, has a lot to be grateful for in recent years, going from spending his days in the streets and prison to becoming a youth mentor and boxing champion.

Diaz grew up in a neighborhood near Soledad Street, attending Lincoln Elementary, Washington Middle School and Salinas High School.

Diaz said he began getting himself into trouble as a result of being entrenched in gang culture as he grew up.


Amika Sergejev, The Mercury News

For two and a half years, I worked as a firefighter and lead engineer at Cal Fire Station 5 in Madera. Because we were a rural department, our firehouse was not only responsible for responding to fires in the area, we were also first responders rushing to the scenes of traffic accidents and all kinds of local emergencies.

Our training was first rate. We learned everything from CPR to how to use the Jaws of Life. We learned to run hoses off a fire truck, fight vehicle fires and structure fires, and how to cut a car open and pull out a trapped victim. I did things I never could have imagined I could do.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

The Bakersfield Californian

An inmate at minimum security North Kern State Prison who had escaped on Nov. 3 was found in Sonora on Friday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said that at around 4:10 p.m. on Friday, the department arrested 31-year-old Daniel Lucas Salazar at a homeless encampment in Sonora and booked into the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown.

Pat Clark, Modesto Bee

Officials believe a man who escaped from a conservation camp is in Modesto and are seeking community help finding him.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are looking for Andrew Holaday, 39, who walked away from the Alternative Custody Program (ACP) earlier this month. Holaday had recently been approved to participate in the program, according to a press release from the corrections department.

DEATH PENALTY

Maura Dolan, The Los Angeles Times

When the California Supreme Court upheld a voter initiative in August to speed up executions, some death penalty advocates assumed lethal injections would resume before the end of the year.

Three months after the court’s action, both backers and opponents of the death penalty concede that executions might be more than a year away.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has yet to finalize an execution protocol, which is necessary to resolve a federal court case that has blocked lethal injection in California for nearly 12 years. An injunction stopping executions also is pending in state court.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Kristina Davis, The San Diego Union Tribune

The FBI is investigating a suspected contraband smuggling ring inside an Imperial Valley state prison involving supervisor cooks and inmates, according to search warrants filed this month in San Diego federal court.

The warrants are for two cellphones found recently in the cells of inmates at Calipatria State Prison, a male facility north of Brawley.

The same prison was at the center of a smuggling ring last year. A supervising drug counselor there was accused of smuggling heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cellphones into the prison on multiple occasions in 2015.

Polly Stryker and Peter Arcuni, KQED

It’s a sobering experience to walk into fortress-like San Quentin State Prison. ID’s get checked and double-checked. Phones and purses get left behind. You sign a visitor’s log. A guard stamps your wrist to identify you as a guest.

All of this happens under the watchful eyes of Lt. Sam Robinson, the public information officer at the prison. Heavy metal gates clank solidly behind you. And you walk out into a courtyard with carefully-tended rose bushes, the health services building, cell blocks, even California’s death row.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Gabriel Vasquez, 43, of Anaheim, was found at an elementary school.
Hoa Quách, Patch

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA -- A sex offender from Orange County wanted for cutting off his GPS ankle bracelet was found Friday at a Riverside County elementary school. Gabriel Vasquez, 43, of Anaheim, was found at Fremont Elementary School around 4:30 p.m. in Riverside, police said.

Riverside officers responded to the 1700 block of Main Street and found Vasquez at a home. Vasquez reportedly fled to the elementary school where he was caught with the help of a K-9, police said.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Andrea Castillo, The Los Angeles Times

On his first day free in nearly four decades, Craig Coley sat at the head of a dining room table and dug into a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

There was a lot to be thankful for. Coley, who was wrongly convicted of murder and spent 39 years in prison, celebrated the holiday at the Carlsbad home of the retired police detective who was convinced of his innocence and tirelessly advocated for his release.

Coley, a former restaurant night manager, had fought unsuccessfully for years to overturn his conviction for a grisly double murder that stunned suburban Simi Valley in November of 1978. When police reopened the case, new tests found that a key piece of evidence used to convict him did not carry any of his DNA.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee

A man who walked away from a Placerville-area home in the state’s Alternative Custody Program earlier this month is back in custody.

Keith Rains was taken into custody by Placerville police without incident Friday, eight days after walking away from the residence, according to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation news release. He was transported to Folsom State Prison.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Paul Hurth to be released after 17 years in prison for killing Ralph Gowar
Patrick Nelson, Your Central Valley

Fresno, Calif. - Paul Hurth has been in prison for about 17-years. He's set to be released sometime next month, but for security reasons no exact date has been announced. It was a case that captivated the Valley back in the year 2000. Hurth, a Fresno police officer and minister, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 21 years in prison. Now, he's on the verge of freedom. 

The last time we saw Paul Hurth he was shackled inside a federal courtroom in 2009. Hurth was convicted nine years earlier of shooting and killing Ralph Gowar, the husband of his lover. Sentenced to 21 years in prison Hurth's legal team was trying to have the case thrown out.

Kelly Puente, OC Register

A woman dubbed by police as “the evil twin” for plotting to kill her identical twin sister in Irvine in 1996 has been granted parole after serving nearly two decades in prison.

In a case that made international headlines and shook the Korean-American community, Jeen “Gina” Han was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison in May 1998 for conspiring to kill her sister, Sunny Han, with whom she shared a love-hate relationship, police said.

The Associated Press

ANGELS CAMP — Authorities have identified the Northern California man found with methamphetamine and a human skull during a Northern California traffic stop.

Angels camp police say 41-year-old Joshua Davis of Murphys was arrested on charges of possessing methamphetamine, disturbing or removing human remains and driving with a suspended license. He was also cited for a parole violation.

Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror

Yucaipa MET team deputies attempted to contact Gabriel Medina, 36, who is on active California Department of Corrections parole for assault with a deadly weapon. The contact was attempted near the intersection of Yucaipa Boulevard and Fourth Street.  Medina fled on foot and deputies pursued him and took him into custody. Medina was found to be in possession of a container with a false bottom. It contained approximately one ounce of pre-packaged plastic baggies, containing suspected methamphetamines and other items commonly associated with the sales of illegal narcotics.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Dom Pruett, The Mercury News

One week ago, Edward George received a phone call at his Vacaville home from one of his six children.

The reason for his daughter’s phone call — to tell her father that Charles Manson had died.

To the vast majority of the world, the 83-year-old former cult leader, whose followers were found guilty of committing nine murders in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, personified evil.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Judy Woodruff, PBS News Hour

Prisoners inside one of California’s prisons are getting the opportunity to be heard -- behind bars and beyond. “Ear Hustle” is a podcast that offers listeners a rare look at inmate experiences, from race relations to sharing a tiny cell. Jeffrey Brown reports.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Anthony Victoria, The Inland Empire Community

IECN Photo/Anthony Victoria: Cops4Kids Boxing Trainer Carlos Palomino Sr. consulting with young boxer Matthew Sotelo during a training session. Palomino Sr. works with public safety officers to mentor at-risk youth and develop them into boxers.

The Cops4Kids gym on the north end of Colton has become a safe haven of sorts for several law enforcement officers over the years.

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CALIFORNIA PAROLE

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and a suspect were both shot and wounded in a gun battle late Tuesday.
The Associated Press

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) — A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and a suspect were both shot and wounded in a gun battle late Tuesday, authorities said.

Deputies were called to an apartment complex in Santa Clarita — about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Los Angeles — after a woman reported that two men walked up to her car as she was parking the vehicle. One of them pointed a gun at her, sheriff's officials said in a news release Wednesday.

When the deputies began searching the apartment complex shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, one of the suspects fired a handgun toward them and the deputies returned fire, officials said.

Beatriz E. Valenzuela, The Press Enterprise

Deputies early Wednesday morning arrested a Redlands gang member wanted for violating his parole, officials said.

Scott Conner, 38, was arrested just after midnight in the 4200 block of Highland Avenue after San Bernardino County sheriff’s Deputy Luis Sandoval learned Conner was near Highland and Boulder avenues in the Highland area, officials said.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

CBS Los Angeles

VENTURA, Calif. (CBSLA/AP) — A California man recently pardoned by Gov. Jerry Brown has had his double-murder conviction vacated by a judge.

Craig Coley walked out of prison last week after nearly four decades.

“I always had hope,” Coley told CBS2 in an interview on Nov. 24, two days after walking free. “Sometimes it was stronger than others.”


Eldra Jackson III, The Los Angeles Times

There have been an overwhelming number of news stories of late focused on the behavior of men, from boorish and crass to criminal. Not coincidentally, the wave of sexual-harassment and assault charges has crested a year after we elected president an individual who, in his own words, takes pleasure in grabbing women without their permission. Together the accounts are validating long-held assumptions about the real cost of doing business in a male-dominated society.

I have contributed to this problem, and I have also searched for a remedy. For 24 years, I was a resident of various prisons run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, most recently New Folsom Prison. I was serving a life sentence for a laundry list of offenses, committed as part of my once-chosen vocation of gangster.

John Phillips, Orange County Register

A couple of Sundays ago, right around bed time, my phone blew up with the news that Charlie Manson had finally rolled a seven.

Three things immediately popped into my mind: first, I can finally open up that bottle of Dom Perignon that’s sitting in my refrigerator door, second, I’m not going to bed any time soon, and finally, the sad assumption that the remaining incarcerated Manson family killers will use this news to try and get themselves released from prison.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

C.J. Ciaramella, Reason

There's a glut of true-crime podcasts right now, but only one delivers on its promise to take listeners behind bars. Ear Hustle—prison slang for eavesdropping—is co-produced by inmates in California's San Quentin prison.

California is one of the most carceral states in the nation, but the world inside places like San Quentin is often hidden from those fortunate enough to exist outside the system. The podcast lets prisoners explain everything from the mundane to the harrowing: the fraught process of finding a new cellmate, how conjugal visits work, the unwritten rules of race, and how the inmates arrived in their current confines.

Giuseppe Ricapito, The Union Democrat

Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Kevin M. Seibert sentenced a Sonora woman convicted on multiple counts of sexual intercourse with a minor to six years and 180 days in prison Wednesday afternoon following the completion of a diagnostic and psychological evaluation conducted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Kimberly Ramirez, 39, bound at the wrists and ankles, her hair tied into a bun, glasses over her eyes, and dressed in a Tuolumne County Jail black and white striped jumpsuit, kept her head bowed for the duration of the hearing and offered no comment on the sentencing beyond a sullen expression.
When reading from the diagnostic report, Seibert identified an aspect of the psychologist’s conclusion as “particularly troubling” — Ramirez’s inconsistent statements on her relationship to the teenage victim and what they revealed about her lack of remorse.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Tehachapi News

David passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, at the age of 79. Born on June 27, 1938, to Manuel and Cheri Villanueva, he grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., and attended Mt. La Salle High School in Napa, Calif. David enlisted in the Marines right after high school and was honorably discharged in January 1964.

He married Frances Diane Marquez on June 17, 1961, and together they had five children. He was employed by the California Department of Corrections in Tehachapi, Calif., for 30 years, before retiring in 1998. He was known to many there as Lt. “V.” David enjoyed playing softball as an adult and coaching his sons’ Little League baseball teams. He always attended his grandchildren’s sports events and was one of their biggest fans.

OPINION

Sara Kruzan, OC Register

When I was 16, I was incarcerated in juvenile hall.  Whenever I was moved within the facility, I was shackled. They would chain my ankles and handcuff my wrists to a belly-chain. I was bound like this anytime I went to see the nurse, the psychiatrist and whenever I went outside. Twenty years later, I still have scars where the cuffs carved into my ankles.

Policies in California’s youth prisons, including the use of shackles, cause serious harm to our children. The vast majority of incarcerated young people have already experienced significant trauma and violence, we should not be adding to the abuse.  While much more needs to be done to restore what has been stripped away from these children, California state officials recently took important steps towards returning some dignity to incarcerated youth.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Karen Kucher, The San Diego Union Tribune

Every morning when she wakes up, Rosalyn Simpson is reminded that she’s not in prison anymore.

“I wake up in a bed and I'm not looking at the bricks," said Simpson. "I'm not in a cell."

After spending two years behind bars, the 38-year-old now shares a dorm room with other women, with a door they can close for privacy. She lives in a re-entry facility in Kearny Mesa where she and others can finish their prison terms while getting ready for life on the outside.

Fatherly honors California inmate K98517 for being there for his children and helping other convicts reach out to their families.
David Browne, Fatherly

In 2000, John McDaniel held up a Southern California McDonald’s. Caught, found guilty of robbery and kidnapping, and struck with an incredibly harsh 35-year sentence, McDaniel became inmate K98517. Today, McDaniel is 37 years old, still inmate K98517, and still in jail. He’s one of approximately 750,000 dads behind bars and he is the father to two of the 2.7 million children with imprisoned parents. Like a disturbing portion of those fathers and children, he’s black. He’s also determined to be more than a number.

With his wife Karen, a social worker he met on the inside, McDaniel is the founder of ThePlace4Grace, a non-profit organization that helps teach jailed fathers how to be more involved in the lives of their children and families, preparing them for their eventual release. 

Lauren Keene, Davis Enterprise

A Sacramento man serving prison time for a 2007 Yolo County murder pleaded to a lesser charge last week after a federal court judge vacated his original conviction.

Luis Amparan Rodriguez, 34, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the July 8, 2007, death of Alexandra Marie Cerda of Sacramento, who was stabbed about 120 times by Rodriguez’s co-defendant, Jose Madrigal, in the back of a van while Rodriguez drove.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Julissa Zavala, Hanford Sentinel

Every day, 82-year-old Lawrence Harrison would show up at the McDonald's drive-thru to buy a hamburger and Coke that he'd share with his dog, E.T. Then they'd sit in the parking lot together, the dog drinking soda from a bowl while his master ate and hand fed him half the hamburger.

E.T. was Harrison’s trusted companion, and it was E.T. who survived with a bloody eye and broken ribs while his master was stabbed 63 times and left for dead on the living room floor of his southwest Hanford home in 1992.

Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee

A man with a history of domestic violence and sex offenses has been sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for stabbing his girlfriend.

A Sacramento County jury in September convicted Clarence Wesley, 40, of felony domestic violence and criminal threats. Jurors also found that he had used a knife in committing the crime, that he had caused great bodily injury and that he had a prior 2014 conviction for domestic violence, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office news release. In addition, the jury found that he had a 1999 strike conviction, under California’s “three-strikes” law, for sex offenses and robbery.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

The Last Mile is a non-profit that helps ex-convicts land jobs as programmers.
Michael Newberg, CNBC

Seven months ago, Chris Schuhmacher was inmate number T31014, serving out the tail-end of a 17-year murder sentence at California's infamous San Quentin prison overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Today, just months after his release, Schuhmacher blends in with the Silicon Valley crowd as a software engineering intern at a bustling tech firm, ditching his blue prison uniform for a sweater and khakis, and his cell for a cubicle.

Wrongly accused man spent four decades in prison
Melissa Simon, Moorpark Acorn

Craig Coley watched the waves break at a beach near San Diego and breathed in the fresh saltwater air, sent texts and made calls on an iPhone, and sat at a dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by family— all in the week following his release from prison.

After spending the past 40 years incarcerated for a 1978 double murder in Simi Valley, a crime he did not commit, Coley, 70, knows it will take a long while to get used to his newfound freedom.

OPINION

VC Star

The hard-to-fathom stories these past two weeks about a Simi Valley man released from prison after serving nearly four decades for two murders he did not commit have left us outraged, confused but ultimately grateful that justice has finally been achieved.

We cannot begin to imagine the depth of this ordeal for Craig Coley, and our judicial system can never repair the damage it has done to his life. But as a community, we can draw at least two conclusions from his story that merit recognition and further dialogue:

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Non-profit group, The Last Mile teaches computer coding to inmates in California prisons in bid to increase their chances on the Silicon Valley job market.
Patricia Kellogg, News Guards

A non-profit group called The Last Mile has made great strides in educating convicts in California prisons in coding. As such, many ex-convicts have now found employment in California’s tech hub- Silicon Valley.

The Last Mile was founded by venture capitalist Chris Redlitz and his wife Beverly Parenti. The foundation is privately funded with the sale of prison products such as license plates.

The program is currently active in five facilities, and takes up the challenge of teaching inmates how to code on computers. The task has certainly proved to be difficult since a number of convicts have been incarcerated for a fair number of years.

Kristin Price, Kern Golden Empire

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Kern County Superior Court denied a petition by a reported Charles Manson pen pal to have power of attorney over Manson's estate. Michael Channels filed Manson's will last week in Kern County Court. Documents cite a denial due to pending paperwork, including a death certificate.

Public health officials said Manson's death certificate was certified Friday, but is being redacted by the state. It is expected to be available to the public within two weeks.
      
 Manson died two weeks ago in a Bakersfield hospital.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

'Forced false imprisonment and witness dissuasion'
Marissa Papanek, KRCR TV

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. - A Livermore man who committed offenses in Garberville has been sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison according to the Humboldt County District Attorney (DA).

The DA said 34-year-old Joshua Brandon Marcum, originally from Livermore, entered no contest pleas to felony counts of forcible false imprisonment and witness dissuasion in court last week.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

KITV Honolulu

Members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force located and arrested 26-year-old Samson W. Harong of Lihue, Kauai on Monday.

Harong was wanted by the Kauai Police Department on a bench warrant for Sexual Assault in the First Degree and Burglary in the First Degree.

On or about May 1, 2017, Harong was investigated by police for the alleged sexual assault of a child who was less than 14 years old. He is also alleged to have unlawfully entered a Lihue residence to commit this crime.

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CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Malay Mail Online

LOS ANGELES, Dec 6 — With an acclaimed starring role in The Shawshank Redemption and an Oscar nomination for directing Dead Man Walking, Tim Robbins owes many of his career highlights to the prison system.

But the 59-year-old Hollywood star’s interest in criminal justice and the incarcerated extends far beyond his efforts to win critical approval or awards.

Over a decade, Robbins has made a dramatic dent in reoffending rates among Californian prisoners taking part in a drama programme that encourages hardened criminals to put on make-up and get in touch with their emotions.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

They’ve helped combat the flames since World War II. But with more—and more intense—fire seasons still ahead, a series of prison reforms have cut their ranks.
Annika Neklason, The Atlantic

For a dollar an hour and credit toward early parole, more than 1,700 convicted felons fought on the front lines of the destructive wildfires that raged across Northern California this October. While communities from Sonoma to Mendocino evacuated in the firestorm’s path, these inmates worked shifts of up to 72 straight hours to contain the blaze and protect the property residents left behind, clearing brush and other potential fuel and digging containment lines often just feet away from the flames. Hundreds more are on the fire line now, combatting the inferno spreading across Southern California.

Inmates have been fighting California’s wildfires since the 1940s, when the state first called up prisoners to replace men assisting the war effort. More than 3,700 men and women—and even some juvenile offenders—now voluntarily serve on the force. Collectively, they make up roughly a third of the state’s wildfire-fighting personnel, and work an average of 10 million hours each year responding to fires and other emergencies and handling community-service projects like park maintenance, reforestation, and fire and flood protection.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Gifts from the Heart program makes Christmas special
Rachel Zirin, Folsom Telegraph

‘Tis the season to give to those less fortunate, and two local prisons joined in the spirit.

Folsom State Prison (FSP) and California State Prison-Sacramento (SAC), both located in Represa, joined in the spirit of giving for another year to help the Gifts from the Heart program. Gifts from the Heart is a program put on by the Department of Health and Human Services where staff, along with volunteers, manages the pick-up, distribution and delivery of gifts from Sacramento community partners and private sponsors to gift recipients during the months of November and December each year. Tonja Edelman, volunteer program coordinator for the Department of Health and Human Services, said social workers recommend recipients from their caseloads and the recipients create a list of items they want and need.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Don Thompson, The  Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The body of murder mastermind Charles Manson was barely cold when competing bids began for his remains and belongings among relatives and longtime associates.

Their plans have not been divulged, but some fear they might create a shrine for those who are still fascinated by the man behind the bizarre celebrity slayings that terrorized Los Angeles nearly a half-century ago.

Jack Phillips, The Epoch Times

A photo that purports to show Charles Manson on his deathbed while in a hospital was published by two outlets in a possible violation of California state laws related to prisoner’s privacy rights.

The image, according to the Daily Mail, shows Manson, 83, before his death in mid-November. He died of natural causes on Nov. 19.

The picture shows him surrounded by tubes while chained to a hospital bed. He was treated inside a secure room at the Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California.

OPINION

Lloyd Billingsley, The Daily Caller

Notorious criminal Charles Manson, who passed away last month in a California hospital, has certainly made the list of celebrities who died in 2017. For observers of any age, particularly millennials, Manson’s departure is worthy of reflection on a couple of points.

For those who might have any doubts, Manson provides evidence that evil does, in fact, exist. See Vincent Bugliosi’s “Helter Skelter” for details about the murder spree he masterminded. Victims included actress Sharon Tate (“Valley of the Dolls”) and her unborn child.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Kate Yoder, Grist

As wildfires tear through the greater Los Angeles area, destroying hundreds of homes, officials have warned nearly 200,000 people to evacuate.

Thousands of firefighters have arrived on the scene — many of them inmates, who make up about a third of the state’s wildfire-fighting force. Since the 1940s, California has relied on inmates to combat the flames by digging containment lines and clearing away brush. In return for this difficult and dangerous work — which has been compared to slave-era labor conditions — inmates get credit toward early parole and $2 per day in camp plus $1 per hour for their time on the fire line.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Brianna Calix, The Fresno Bee

Paul Hurth, a former Fresno police officer and chaplain who was jailed for the 2000 shooting death of his ex-lover’s husband, is free on parole after completing his sentence.

Hurth was released on Tuesday in Calaveras County and will be on parole for three years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed.

Hurth, now 61, served 17 years of the 21-year sentence ordered by Fresno County Superior Court Judge Edward Sarkisian. He was convicted for voluntary manslaughter in the death of Ralph Gawor, then 43. Hurth was having an affair with Gawor’s wife, Nancy.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

The Bakersfield Californian

Rumors of Charles Manson's departure have been greatly exaggerated.

Rumors of his death are spot-on accurate, of course, but the cult leader's remains remain right where they've been for the past two weeks — in the possession and legal custody of the Kern County Sheriff's Coroner Division.

Whether Manson's body is still being refrigerated somewhere specifically on the coroner's campus in east Bakersfield is not clear, however.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Ryan Fonseca, LA Daily News

Roughly 8,700 firefighters were hard at work Friday battling six major wildfires ravaging Southern California, from Santa Barbara County south to San Diego County.

They’ve traveled from all over to knock down the blazes, which have burned some 245 square miles and displaced more than 200,000 people.

Some residents and news viewers may notice some firefighters working in orange uniforms — a noticeable difference from the yellow suits sported by most fire crew members.

CDCR NEWS

Imperial Valley News

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

Bryan Beyer, 44, of Rancho Murieta, has been appointed chief deputy inspector general at the Office of the Inspector General, where he was senior deputy inspector general from 2010 to 2012 and a deputy inspector general from 2007 to 2010. Beyer has been director of the Division of Internal Oversight and Research at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation since 2013. He was deputy director of the Office of Audits and Court Compliance at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from 2012 to 2013 and served in several positions at the California State Auditor’s Office from 1999 to 2007, including senior auditor, executive staff analyst and auditor. Beyer was a consultant at Brickerhaven Consulting Group from 1996 to 1998. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $175,908. Beyer is a Republican.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Stacey Leasca, Mic

There are very few things that Tina Brown finds surprising in her day anymore.

As a person incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, a general population prison in Corona, California, Brown’s days and nights are fairly regimented. But once in a while Brown, along with the rest of the women housed at CIW, get to experience something special: the sounds of being free.

“Some people have never been exposed to jazz,” she told Mic as she sat in the prison’s gymnasium after an hourlong performance by a jazz quartet. “I felt like I was at the park. I don’t normally listen to it, but I love it.”

CORRECTIONS RELATED

The Californian

A man who killed a teen mother after he waited inside her home and then tried to hide in Mexico has been sentenced to life without parole, prosecutors said today.

Ernesto Hernandez, of Soledad, was convicted in October of first-degree murder and burglary for breaking into the home Abigail Gasca-Chavez, 19, the mother of his child, according to a press release from the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Claude J. Easy, Kulture Hub

California state is using inmates to fight the raging wildfires. In fact, one-third of Cali’s wildfire fighting personnel are prisoners.

That’s a lot to think about as collectively they work an average of around 10 million hours a year saving taxpayers $100 million a year. All those tax dollars saved, otherwise, would’ve been spent on “actual firefighters.”

Jason Pohl, USA Today

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — Roses, not fire alarms, were on Bill Hahn's mind a week ago when winds howled across his 15-acre garden an hour's walk from the California coast.

The Thomas Fire, as it had been dubbed, had started burning in Santa Paula, about 30 miles from the famed family-owned rose garden that Hahn operates here with his wife Danielle. Yet at the time, it was so far away.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Denelle Confair, KYMA

YUMA, Ariz. - A woman visiting a prisoner at Calipatria State Prison is now in custody herself. Officials say 30-year-old Andrea Powns attempted to smuggle six latex bindles of marijuana on Sunday.  Powns was exiting the visitors restroom when officials say she seemed nervous. After a search officials found the marijuana worth an estimated value of $3,825.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Chelcey Adami, The Salinas Californian

Authorities are searching for a parolee who walked away from an alternative custody program at the Salinas parole office Monday afternoon.

Around 12:30 p.m., Jesus Perez, 24, met with a parole agent at the Salinas Parole Unit on Victor Street and was told to wait in the lobby. Perez instead left the building.

B.J. Hansen, My Mother Lode

Sonora, CA — A La Grange man who killed his girlfriend, and then fled to Illinois, was denied parole following a five-hour hearing.

It was the first parole suitability hearing for 60-year-old Michael Allen Cook who killed Mary Bisbing in August of 2003. He stabbed Bisbing in their kitchen, and then chased her into the living room, where she was stabbed three additional times. Cook moved Bisbing to their bedroom and covered her with clothing, carpet and an ironing board. He then stole her credit cards and vehicle and drove to Fresno.

PROPOSITION 57

Brianna Calix, The Fresno Bee

A Fresno man who stole two classic cars from an Air Force veteran on Veterans Day in 2015 has been released early from prison under Proposition 57.

Thomas Leo Cummings Jr. and Jennifer Carlton stole the two cars, a 1956 Chevy Bel Air and 1966 El Camino, from a barn near Kerman. Don and Faith Klein were storing the cars there for their grandsons after Don, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, restored them.

The Kleins learned of the theft on Veterans Day that year. Cummings and Carlton were arrested soon after, and a law enforcement auto theft task force recovered the cars, in good condition, and returned them to the Kleins.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Chelcey Adami, The Californian

Authorities are searching for a parolee who walked away from an alternative custody program at the Salinas parole office Monday afternoon. 

Around 12:30 p.m., Jesus Perez, 24, met with a parole agent at the Salinas Parole Unit on Victor Street and was told to wait in the lobby. Perez instead left the building.

Parole agents learned that Perez had removed his electronic monitoring device, which was found in the area, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Micahel Zwiebach, San Francisco Classical Voice

Two weeks ago, the San Francisco Opera gave its first visit to an institution not generally known for presenting cultural events — San Quentin Penitentiary. Yet, from the reaction of participants and audience, it seems like a program worth repeating.

The recital was planned by S.F. Opera’s Community Programs Director, Alyssa Stone, who enlisted the enthusiastic aid of several understudies for John Adams and Peter Sellars’ Girls of the Golden West. San Quentin’s Public Information Officer, Samuel Robinson was on board immediately and smoothed the way for the performance.

DEATH PENALTY

Ben Bradford, Capital Public Radio

The California Supreme Court has largely upheld the new, expedited death penalty procedure voters approved last November through Proposition 66, but the chief justice expects more challenges. 

In a roundtable discussion with reporters, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye suggested two areas she thinks the court will likely have to rule: She says Proposition 66 puts competing pressures on the state’s pool of attorneys who represent death row inmates in a certain type of appeal, called habeas corpus petitions. 

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CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Imperial Valley News

El Centro, California - Imperial Irrigation District employees, on Saturday, participated in the annual Shop with a Cop holiday shopping event in El Centro.

About a dozen IID employees representing several sections of the district (Emergency Management, Underwater Recovery Team, Security, Claims & Investigations, Energy Line Construction, Communications and the General Manager’s Office) joined more than 100 law enforcement personnel who volunteered their time to assist less fortunate children in a Christmas shopping spree at the El Centro Target Store.

Maureen Cavanaugh, Michael Lipkin, KPBS

The firefighters clearing brush during a raging wildfire or digging containment lines are not always professional firefighters. In California, about 3,700 of them are prison inmates.

But that number has fallen 13 percent since 2008. Prison realignment, which has decreased the overall number of state inmates, is also slowly shrinking the number of inmates qualified to volunteer for firefighting duty. The state estimates these inmates save California $100 million a year it would otherwise have to spend on firefighters.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

ABC 23 News

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bakersfield Police Department, the United States Attorney’s Office, the California Department of Justice, the California Highway Patrol, and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office announced the result of a multi-agency operation in Bakersfield that resulted in the arrest of more than 35 members and associates of the West Side Crips (WSC), a local criminal street gang on federal and state charges including burglary, illegal gun possession, drug sales, and murder. State and federal law enforcement teams also executed more than 30 residential search warrants.

The arrests are a result of a 10-month investigation that began in March 2017. Federal agents drafted a 200-page affidavit in support of federal complaints and search warrants that details several WSC members’ alleged crimes. The alleged crimes presented in the federal and state cases include weapons violations, unlawful possession of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, money laundering, methamphetamine sales, crack cocaine sales, opiate sales, attempted murder and murder.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

STL News

BAKERSFIELD, CA/December 12, 2017 (STL.News) – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced the arrest of 49 individuals, the seizure of 26 firearms, 1,928 grams of methamphetamine, and 32 grams of crack cocaine as a part of a multi-agency state and federal takedown of gang members in Bakersfield.

Today’s operation targeted criminal activities of the West Side Crips in Bakersfield. The arrests are a result of a 10-month investigation that began in March 2017. The alleged criminal activities included weapons violations, unlawful possession of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, carjacking, methamphetamine sales, crack cocaine sales, heroin sales, prostitution, and murder.

ABC 7 News

LOS ANGELES (KABC) - If a judge carries out a jury's recommendation and Isauro Aguirre is sentenced to death in the torture and murder of 8-year-old Palmdale boy Gabriel Fernandez, it will likely take years or decades before he would be executed, if ever.

At the moment, no executions are moving forward in California because of legal disputes over the death penalty.

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CALIFORNIA INMATES

Joseph Frankel, Newsweek

Wildfires continue to rage across Southern California. And many of the men and women fighting to contain them come from California’s prisons. What began as a program to replace male firefighters during World War II in 1946 has turned into a “volunteer” service of prisoners.

According to KPBS, approximately 3,700 of the firefighters fighting wildfires in the state of California are prisoners, both male and female. That numbers constitutes a third of the firefighting personnel. These prisoners work 24-hour shifts which are followed by 24 hours off, and are reportedly paid $2 per day for their work and $1 per hour when they are actively fighting fires. They clear brush and cut containment lines, a method used to contain the spread of wildfires.

Joseph Serna and Joe Mozingo, The Los Angeles Times

For well over a week, hundreds of inmates have chain-sawed through relentless thickets of chaparral, cutting lines through the backcountry to thwart the fire’s sudden rushes at homes.

On Thursday, they were deep in the Los Padres National Forest, covered in wood grit, soot and sweat, as the Thomas Fire continued to grow — becoming the fourth-largest in modern California history.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

More than 200 bikes refurbished, distributed for Christmas
Bill Sullivan, The Folsom Telegraph

Tuesday morning, more than 200 bicycles, refurbished by one Folsom State Prison (FSP) inmate, rolled out of the front gate en route to numerous area children in need through a partnership between the prison and Cameron Park Rotary Club.

The FSP bicycle donations are a Christmas season tradition that began in 1986. Bicycles are donated throughout the year and are refurbished by inmates who work full-time in the bicycle shop, which is stocked with supplies through the Rotary’s long-time program.

CORRECTIONS RELATED

Action News Now

Officers from the Redding Police Department Neighborhood Police Unit, assisted by officers from the Shasta Interagency Narcotics Task Force (SINTF) and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations, served a search warrant at 1221 E. Cypress Avenue, space 98.

On December 13th, 2017, Officers from the Redding Police Department Neighborhood Police Unit, assisted by officers from the Shasta Interagency Narcotics Task Force (SINTF) and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations, served a search warrant at 1221 E. Cypress Avenue, space 98.

Pet Age

Pura Naturals Pet announced that the California State Legislation has recognized its philanthropy program for pet wellness in conjunction for its work with Karma Rescue and the Paws for Life program.

With Paws for Life, canines are pulled from high kill shelters and placed in maximum state prisons. Inmates train and groom the dogs. When the dogs graduate, they are gifted to a U.S. veteran with PTSD as their service dog.

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CALIFORNIA PRISONS

David Middlecamp, The Tribune

The California Men’s Colony prison will graduate its first class of culinary arts students on Friday, December 15, 2017, from a program that partners with Cuesta College.

DEATH PENALTY

Corinne S Kennedy, The Desert Sun

For the second time in the last three years, Riverside County has produced more new death row inmates than any other county in the United States.

California accounted for 28 percent of all the new death penalty sentences across the country in 2017, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington D.C. nonprofit which researches capital punishment. Riverside County accounted for five of the state’s death row sentences, the most of any county in the U.S., despite a statewide moratorium on executions.

ABC 30

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -For the first time in Fresno County Superior Court history, a defense attorney has filed a rare motion, arguing a death penalty qualification on a jury panel for an African American defendant will deprive them of equal protection.

Attorney David Mugridge's client, Leroy Johnson spent almost nine years in jail on murder charges.

Marisa Gerber, The Los Angeles Times

From his small cell on California’s death row, Scott Pinholster swore he could prove his innocence. The proof, he said, was in the dried blood on a work boot and a pink towel recovered from his home years ago.

The condemned inmate insisted that modern DNA testing — nonexistent when he was convicted of a double murder in 1984 — would show the blood belonged to him, not the victims, as the prosecution argued at his trial.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

The Enterprise

Yolo County law enforcement conducted surprise compliance checks on more than 300 sex offenders last week, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced.

Operation Vigilance is a program that started nine years ago with the goal of protecting Yolo County residents by ensuring that sex offenders who live in the county are complying with all laws, probation and parole directives, Reisig said. The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office coordinated the operation with all other Yolo County law enforcement agencies.
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