CDCR Star

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Incarcerated students beat the odds, get diplomas
Stephanie Snyder, Ventura County Star

At 22 years old, Jakkia Ross does not represent the typical high school graduate, and his time leading up to receiving his diploma wasn’t quite normal, either.

Inmates injured in crash on Highway 99
The Bakersfield Californian

The California Highway Patrol is reporting that two inmates were injured in a crash involving California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation vehicles on Highway 99 just north of Stockdale Highway.

Killer of Danville teen gets life without parole; two families grieve for lost sons
Malaika Fraley, Contra Costa Times

MARTINEZ -- At the sentencing for her son's killer Friday, Karen Williams-Harmon showed off the senior portrait that 17-year-old Rylan Fuchs took for a high school graduation that he did not live to see.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

California officials fight 10,000 inmates' release, ready backup plans
John Woolfolk, Mercury News

SACRAMENTO -- A federal court order for California to shed some 10,000 inmates from its bulging prisons has set up an epic confrontation with state officials who argue it will usher a surge in crime.

Sheriff's React to Prison Inmate Release
Leah Masuda, Central Coast News

(Note: The reporter has been informed that the court has not ordered the state to reduce the prison population by 137.5 percent. Instead, the order is to reduce the population to 137.5 percent of design capacity. The reporter indicated that she would correct the online version of the story.)

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif- A panel of three federal judges said realignment, or AB 109 is moving too slowly. They have ordered the state prison system population to be reduced by 137 and a half percent by the end of the year. Governor Brown is asking for an immediate stop to the judge's orders to release those ten thousand inmates by the end of the year.

Could job training, rehab help released inmates and society?
Jose Gaspar, Bakersfieldnow.com

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — The latest battle over prison overcrowding has state and law enforcement officials in a quandary. A court ruling says California has failed to comply with reducing prison overcrowding and the state must immediately release close to 10,000 inmates.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Man in surreal Stockton murder case up for parole
Kevin Parrish, The Stockton Record

The freedom of James Mackey, after spending almost half his life in state prison for the crossbow murder of a Stockton real estate agent, could be in the hands of Gov. Jerry Brown by next month.

Baby killer convict granted parole; Gov's decision overturned
Nanette Miranda, ABC 7

SACRAMENTO (KABC) -- A convicted baby-killer is soon to be set free after a decision by Governor Jerry Brown is overturned. The 30-year-old case is back in the spotlight, as the man convicted of killing a 1-year-old child has been granted parole.

Police: Ceres Man Shot Dead by Man on Parole
Cecilio Padilla, Fox 40 News

CERES—A 43-year-old man is dead after a shooting that looks to be the result of a love triangle, police say.

1 nabbed in parole sweep
Corey Pride, Los Banos Enterprise

A routine parole compliance search led to drugs being taken off the street and recovery of a stolen credit card, police said.

CDCR RELATED

County residents among those in major pot bust
State says major operation taken down
The Recorder

SACRAMENTO – Two Tulare County residents were among four men arrested this week in connections with a major marijuana growing operation in Sacramento County.

John Lee Hooker Junior: I’m leaving the Blues behind
Chorley Guardian

John Lee Hooker Junior speaks to Tony Dewhurst

John Lee Hooker Junior was crouched on his knees, the barrel of a gun pressedhard against his temple, and shaking with fear he pleads for his life.

Matthew T. Mangino: Criminalizing mental illness
Matthew T. Mangino, MPNNow.com

This month President Barack Obama addressed the National Conference on Mental Health. The president made it clear, “The overwhelming majority of people who suffer from mental illnesses are not violent. They will never pose a threat to themselves or others. And there are a whole lot of violent people with no diagnosable mental health issues.”

Gosal convicted of murder in Sikh festival shooting death
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

A Sacramento jury convicted Gurpreet Singh Gosal of second-degree murder Friday in the shooting death of a 26-year-old man at a Sikh sports festival five years ago.

OPINION

Editorial: Brown should help settle prison lawsuits
Editorial Board, Sacramento Bee

The current prison standoff between Gov. Jerry Brown and a federal three-judge panel reflects basic contradictions. Californians want tough sentencing laws, but they don't want to pay for more prisons or even for basic constitutional health care for the prisoners it houses.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Prison hospital in Stockton to be dedicated
Central Valley Business Times

California’s newest hospital for felons is to be dedicated Tuesday in Stockton.

The $839 million, 54 building complex east of the Stockton Metropolitan Airport on a 400-acre state-owned campus of the Northern California Youth Correctional Center, will offer medical treatment and mental health care for 1,722 inmates.

California Corrections: How a State Picks Thousands of Inmate to Take Out of Prison
Josh Sanburn, Time

Last week, a three-judge panel ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by almost 10,000 inmates before the end of the year.

The order is the latest in a decades-long struggle over the state’s overcrowded prisons, which the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional in 2011 for violating the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The state, however, argues that the condition of its prisons has significantly improved since the first lawsuit was filed in 1990, especially its prison healthcare system. California is the only state to have triggered federal involvement over prison conditions.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Federal judge says health risk posed by fungus is enough to move inmates in 2 Calif. Prisons
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — A federal judge on Monday ordered the state to move several thousand inmates out of two California prisons because they are at a high risk of contracting a potentially deadly airborne fungus.

Gang Diversion Unit places rival gang members together in jail
Nick Monacelli, Channel 10 News

ELK GROVE, CA - There has been a spike in gang-related shootings in Sacramento County, according to law enforcement.

This past weekend, 19-year-old Alvin Valentine was shot and killed during a house party. Three others were injured in the shooting in south Sacramento and police believe it was gang related.

REALIGNMENT

Grand jury to focus on prisoners, water agency
Todd Guild, Register-Pajaronian

SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz County Grand Jury today will release its 2012-2013 report, which largely focuses on how a two-year-old state law that shifted thousands of low-risk inmates from prisons to county jails has affected the county.

CDCR RELATED

Medicaid for prisoners: States missing out on millions
USA Today

Only a dozen states have taken advantage of a long-standing option to stick the federal government with at least half the cost of hospitalizations and nursing home stays of state prison inmates.

State hospital email contradicts prison mental health claim
Note contradicts sworn statements
Julia Reynolds, Monterey County Herald

SACRAMENTO — A Department of State Hospitals email says staff were directed to discharge mental health patients at a Soledad prison in order to reduce wait lists — contradicting numerous claims by the department denying the practice.

Medical Marijuana Website Used for Robbery
Tony Botti, CBS 47

Monday, Fresno Police arrested 23-year old Carlos Castanos at his home on Delbert Ave. near Polk and Bullard in northwest Fresno.

CDCR NEWS

A Day in the Life of a Correctional Case Records Analyst at an institution
“Inmate release: Not one day early, not one day late”
Dana Simas, Public Information Officer

Calculating the amount of time an inmate serves in prison is one of the most important jobs in CDCR.

If an inmate is released before serving his or her full sentence under California law, not only does it give a black-eye to CDCR, but it potentially threatens public safety. If an inmate is kept too long, taxpayers could be on the hook as a result of an expensive lawsuit.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

$839M inmate medical complex dedicated in Calif.
Don Thompson, Associated Press

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — California prison officials dedicated an $839 million inmate medical complex Tuesday even as they face a new round of court-imposed mandates that are complicating efforts to run one of the nation's largest penal systems.

Stockton complex answers mandate for inmate medical, mental care
The Modesto Bee

Some Californians think that state prison inmates are pampered. A federal judge didn't see it that way at all, and in 2006 ordered California to substantially improve the medical treatment provided to inmates and to reduce prison overcrowding.

To read more on this topic follow these links:

http://www.modbee.com/2013/06/25/2779752/2500-lock-up-jobs-at-stockon-prison.html

http://www.capradio.org/articles/2013/06/25/inmate-health-care-facility-to-add-jobs-in-stockton/

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2013/06/25/ca--california-prisons-glance.html

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130626/A_NEWS/306260320/-1/A_NEWS02

http://fox40.com/2013/06/25/new-medical-facility-for-inmates-dedicated-in-stockton/

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/06/25/stockton-medical-facility-wont-put-dent-in-prison-population/

REALIGNMENT

Santa Cruz County Grand Jury takes first look at public safety spending
Jason Hoppin, The Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ -- A Santa Cruz County Grand Jury report released Tuesday lauded the county's handling of a controversial prison realignment, praising efforts to spend money on community release alternatives rather than new jail beds.

To read the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury final report 2012-2013 follow this link:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/159592341/Santa%20Cruz%20County%20Grand%20Jury%20final%20report%202012-2013

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Federal Judge: Move Inmates At Risk Of Valley Fever
Rebecca Plevin, Valley Public Radio

All inmates at risk of developing a serious form of valley fever must be removed from two Central California state prisons within the next 90 days. That’s what a U.S. District Court judge ruled Monday, upholding a directive from the federal official in charge of prison health care. The ruling comes over the objections of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which balked at the complexity of the policy. Valley Public Radio’s Rebecca Plevin takes us behind the prison gates to explain how the state and inmates are coping with the problem.

Inside the SHU Part 1: isolation
A look inside California's highest-security lockup
Anthony Skeens, The Triplicate

Eyes open to the sight of the bunk above. The glow of moving images on a small flat-screen television illuminates the cell — wall posters, a stainless steel sink attached to a toilet, and a whole lot of concrete painted white.

DNA clears man convicted of rape
Kristina Davis, U-T San Diego

SAN DIEGO — Even though he spent the past eight years in prison, wrongly convicted of kidnapping and raping a teenager in Lemon Grove, Uriah Courtney is considered among the lucky ones.

Carmichael man sentenced to prison for distributing child porn
Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee

A Carmichael man was sentenced today to 11 years and three months in prison for distributing child pornography.

Ray Laurence Howes, 34, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez and will be subject to 20 years of supervised release following his time in prison, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. He also will be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex offender Registration and Notification Act.

CDCR RELATED

Assembly approves state worker pay raise
Amy Gebert, The Sacramento Bee

The Assembly voted today to ratify a two-year contract for the California's largest state workers' union, voting 63-8 to approve the pact, which includes a 4.5 percent pay raise by 2015.

Hollywood murder suspect arrested multiple times before stabbing
ABC 7

HOLLYWOOD (KABC) -- County officials say the transient charged with a fatal stabbing in Hollywood had multiple prior arrests.

Los Angeles County Probation Department's Reaver Bingham says Dustin Kinnear was picked up by police four times since his April 6 release from prison, including on May 28, when he was convicted of battery and sentenced to three days in county jail.

Suspect in Hollywood stabbing an AB 109 inmate
Tami Abdollah, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — With a string of arrests dating back six years, the homeless man charged with killing a woman at a popular Hollywood tourist attraction had been in and out of California jails and prisons, officials said Tuesday.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky asked for a chronology of events between the release of Dustin Kinnear from state prison April 6 and the killing of Christine Calderon last week.

California Prisons
2,500 lock up jobs at Stockton prison hospital
J.N. Sbranti, Modesto Bee

STOCKTON — Dignitaries and media members got their first look at California's massive new prison hospital Tuesday, but many of its well-paid staff members have been working there for months.

California Inmates
Long Beach man sent back to death row for 1998 murder
Kevin Darnell Pearson to return to San Quentin for vicious 1998 murder, rape
Greg Mellen, Press Telegram

A Long Beach man was sent to death row for a second time Wednesday for his involvement in a gruesome 1998 rape, robbery, torture and murder of a woman, whose nude body was found near a freeway in Long Beach.

Inmate Returned Here In ’06 Murder
(LAS VEGAS, KXNT)–A man currently serving time in a California prison has been returned to Nevada to face charges in the 2006 murder of a woman in Las Vegas.

Shaun Leflore is accused in the shooting death of Chantell Hollowell, his then-girlfriend, who was found in her apartment in December 2006 in a case police believed was an apparent suicide, partly based on what Leflore had told them at the time.

California Prisons
Inside the SHU Part 2: Prison gangs
Anthony Skeens, The Triplicate
Even behind bars, they can leave their mark on streets

Sitting at his desk tucked in the Institutional Gang Investigations office, Capt. Dave Barneburg’s brown eyes widen as he explains the history of prison gangs and their tactics to circumvent Pelican Bay State Prison’s communications safeguards.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

County Police and Fire introduce new inmate hand crew
Anne L. Viricel, Highland Community News

A new partnership between San Bernardino County Fire and Sheriff's departments - the first County Inmate Hand Crew Program - was announced at a press conference at Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center June 26.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

A mixed blessing beats a curse
Michael Fitzgerald, The Stockton Record

Dignitaries cut the ribbon on San Joaquin County's fourth prison facility on Tuesday, a rare occasion to hit the applause sign and hurl a rotten tomato.

6 prison guards injured by inmate at California Men's Colony
Robert J. Lopez, Los Angeles Times

Six state correctional officers were recovering from injuries after they were attacked by an inmate Thursday at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo.

Prison guards ask to be included in solitary confinement lawsuit
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

The union that represents corrections officers at California prisons seeks to intervene in a federal lawsuit over how long the state may keep inmates locked up in solitary confinement.

CDCR RELATED

CDCR closing down 5,000 SF computer room
Amy Stewart, Techwire.net

In the next few days, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) will officially close down its 5,000 square foot computer room as part of the effort to comply with a statewide IT consolidation initiative mandated by AB 2408 (Chapter 404, 2010). CDCR started with 70 racks and 650 servers, now there are only 7 racks.

What California state workers earn: Prison and parole officers
Amy Gebert and Jon Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee

Perhaps no union worked harder to curry Gov. Jerry Brown's favor in 2010 than the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Marin men's book explores how the arts give inmates hope, heart
Vicki Larson, Marin Independent Journal

LARRY BREWSTER wasn't sure what to expect when he tracked down a few dozen former inmates after 30 years.

Twelve Steps To Danger: How Alcoholics Anonymous Can Be A Playground For Violence-Prone Members
Propublica

In the spring of 2011, Karla Brada Mendez finally seemed happy. She was 31 and in love, eager to move ahead on the path to maturity – marriage, a family, stability. She had a good job in the customer-service department of a large medical supply firm, and was settling into a condo she had recently bought near her childhood home in California’s San Fernando Valley.

OPINION

PD Editorial: A day of reckoning for state prisons
The Press Democrat

After almost a quarter-century, a legal battle over conditions in California prisons is nearing its end, and the state faces a choice: It can spend more on prisons, or it must incarcerate fewer people.

Prisoners of obsolete legal policy
Lompocrecord.com

The first time Jerry Brown was governor of California, he earned the nickname “Gov. Moonbeam.” It was, after all, the tail-end of the Hippie Age, and a young Brown fit the bill.

Mass incarceration’s tragic success
Michael Gerson, The Washington Post

At a time of earnest debate on the size and role of government, relatively little attention has been paid to the Hoover Dam of American social engineering: mass incarceration.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Bakersfield woman to head to Corcoran prison
Fresno Bee

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Friday that a Bakersfield woman is the first female warden of California State Prison-Corcoran, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
Kern Valley State Prison helps donate 1M cell phone minutes to troops
Minutes are gained by recycling smuggled phones
Christine Dinh, ABC23

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - 'Cell Phones for Soldiers' was started by a pair of 12 and 13-year-old siblings from Massachusetts who saw the need for soldiers to be able to call home without worrying about how much it cost.

Governor asks for delay in freeing 10K Calif. prison inmates; wants appeal to US Supreme Court
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Jerry Brown's administration on Friday asked a panel of federal judges to delay its order that California release nearly 10,000 additional inmates by year's end, granting him time to appeal the decision to the nation's high court.

Care of sick inmates at center of court battle
Don Thompson, Associate Press

STOCKTON, Calif. – California prison officials dedicated an $839 million inmate medical complex Tuesday, even as they face a new round of court-imposed mandates that are complicating efforts to run one of the nation’s largest penal systems.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

San Quentin inmates graduate from Baptist seminary program
Megan Hansen, Marin Independent Journal

Gospel music rang out Friday from the small chapel at San Quentin State Prison as seven inmates celebrated their graduation from the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's prison program by singing and praying -- and one even proposed to his girlfriend.

34 years to life for role in deadly robbery attempt
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

The lookout in an attempted Meadowview methamphetamine robbery that turned into a fatal, predawn backyard brawl was sentenced Friday to 34 years to life in prison.

Fresno man sentenced to prison for running over homeless panhandler
Pablo Lopez, The Fresno Bee

A 22-year-old Fresno man was sentenced Friday in Fresno County Superior Court to 16 years and four months in prison for running over a homeless man during a high-speed police pursuit two years ago.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

ATAA to oppose parole of Armenian terrorist Hampig 'Harry' Sassounian
News.AZ

The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), America's leading and largest democratically-elected Turkish heritage membership organization, has submitted a dossier in opposition to the release of Armenian terrorist, Hampig "Harry" Sassounian, whose parole hearing will take place on July 3 at San Quentin Prison, near San Francisco, California.

Southern California man convicted of killing girlfriend, stuffing her in suitcase
The Associated Press

MURRIETA, California — A Riverside County man has been convicted of killing his girlfriend then stuffing her into a suitcase he left at a motel.

The District Attorney's office says a jury Thursday found 28-year-old Joseph David Dorsey guilty of one count of first-degree murder.

REALIGNMENT

Grand Jury gives Butte realignment mixed review
Dan Reidel, Chicoer.com

OROVILLE — Butte County has done well implementing Assembly Bill 109, but the annual Grand Jury report said the jail is still overcrowded and the county must address the medical needs of those in the jail system.

Officials Oppose Early Release of Prisoners
Court-ordered move may strain county resources
Dana Littlefield, U-T San Diego

In the two years since the phrase “public safety realignment” became part of California’s plan to ease prison overcrowding, local and state officials seem to have spent as much time and energy explaining what it is as they have what it isn’t.

County jails morphing to ‘felony prisons'?
Teri Sforza, Orange County Register

Some Orange County jails are crammed with twice as many inmates as they should ideally hold – and many of these inmates are more violent and have more mental health and drug issues than in the past, according to a jarring probe by the Orange County grand jury.

Arrest highlights AB 109 concerns
Oceano man, out on probation, is linked to Nipomo homicide
Niki Cervantes, Santa Maria Times

A deadly brawl and subsequent high-speed chase through Santa Maria that resulted in the arrest Sunday of an Oceano man who was out on the streets as a result of the California Public Safety Realignment Act, illustrates the threat posed by the law, according to local law enforcement.

CDCR RELATED

Maldonado uses Hollywood killing to raise money
By Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

The stabbing death of a woman who attempted to take photographs of the homeless on Hollywood's Walk of Fame is being seized by a potential candidate for governor -- even if the crime doesn't fit his campaign.

OPINION

Our View: Health facility near Stockton will improve inmates' care
Merced Sun-Star

Some Californians think that state prison inmates are pampered. A federal judge didn't see it that way at all, and in 2006 ordered California to substantially improve the medical treatment provided to inmates and to reduce prison overcrowding.

Visiting editors on freed prisoners, dogs in summer and FFA
GiGi DeVault, The Modesto Bee

Let's say you live in suburbia near unsettled public land. Black bears sometimes find their way into your yard, your dog's food bowl on the porch, the bird feeder, compost pile or garbage cans. Your phone calls eventually connect you to the proper Fish and Wildlife authority. If the bear is not habituated to humans, it may be relocated to a place where the catalysts for the bear's problem behavior are not present. All this occurs at considerable expense to the state, but experts recognize that the same environmental conditions will lead to the same bad bear behavior. Now, let's say you have been released from prison after serving your term. You get $200 at the gate minus the cost of your new clothes, meds you need and public transportation to … well, anyplace else. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Parolee Information Handbook cautions you: "Do not waste this money. Gate money should be used for needs like food, a room, and travel." Your gate money is considerably less than the expense of relocating a Category 1 bear.

Do more for state’s children
Lompocrecord.com

We wrote about the California prison situation the other day, and how the governor is battling the federal government over the prison population.

CDCR NEWS

Bad news for smugglers: CDCR adds dogs to K-9 corps
Dana Simas, Public Information Officer

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has a some new four-legged staff members. They go by the names “Pink,” “Goose,” and “Yoska”

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Gov. Jerry Brown holds strong hand on prisons
Standing up to three federal judges, who want nearly 10,000 inmates released, makes the governor look like he's protecting Californians from thugs.
George Skelton, Capitol Journal

SACRAMENTO — Three liberal federal judges — relics of the Jimmy Carter era — are trying to force Gov. Jerry Brown to release nearly 10,000 criminals from state prisons. Politically, it doesn't get much better for a governor.

REALIGNMENT

RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Jail population getting tougher under realignment
Richard K. De Atley, The Press Enterprise

Riverside County’s jails are becoming more dangerous as inmates sentenced for nonviolent crimes are released early due to overcrowding brought on by state prison realignment, leaving a population of more hardened inmates, officials say.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Inside the SHU Part 3: Hunger strikes
Inmates’ public relations push captures nation’s attention
Anthony Skeens, The Del Norte Triplicate

Something big is coming, Lt. Christopher Acosta said in the spring of 2011.

“We’re just getting ready. We’ll see.”

Acosta is a slim Hispanic man who speaks as fast as lightning, a mile-a-minute type. His head is shaved and there’s usually a white line above each ear, where his sunglasses block UV rays while he leads prison tours.

CDCR RELATED

Sutter County fears inmate lawsuits
Griffin Rogers, The Appeal Democrat

"Chronic needs" of Sutter County Jail inmates are sometimes left unmet as time-strapped staff struggle with an exceeding number of health problems dumped on them by the state, officials said.

OPINION

Stop the revolving jail door
Split sentencing, in which a felon serves a portion of his time in jail and another portion in the community but under supervision, shows promise
Los Angeles Time Editorial Board

Criminal defendants convicted of felonies in California used to be sentenced to state prison. Most, after serving 50% of their terms, were released on parole and returned to their communities. And of them, most ended up back in prison, either because they committed new crimes or because they were caught violating parole. California was good at running felons through a revolving door and very bad at guiding their safe return to society: getting the addicted off drugs, getting treatment for the mentally ill, getting those with antisocial and criminal mind-sets into structured, supervised programs with reliable records of reforming those former inmates who were amenable to reform.

Constitutional crisis over prisons draws nearer: Thomas Elias
Thomas D. Elias, Long Beach Press Telegram

Imagine a troop of U.S. marshals trying to move aside the cadre of California Highway Patrol officers assigned to protect Gov. Jerry Brown and carry him off to a federal lockup.

Staff at Salinas Valley State Prison sighted a person throw a package over the fence near one of the institutions housing facilities. Staff recovered the package and discovered the following contraband:

• 21 - Cell Phones
• 7 - Cell Phone Batteries
• 15 - Cell Phone Chargers
• 3 - Blue Tooth Devices
• 6 - Blue Tooth Ear Pieces
• 7 - Lighters
• 4 - Cans Chewing Tobacco
• 2- Commercial Hypodermic Needles
• 18 - Commercial Bottles of Tattoo Ink
• 5 -Tongue Rings
• 7 - Buglar Cigarette Rolling Paper Packages
• 1 - Buglar Tobacco Pouch
• 4 - Cigar Rolls
• 1 - SD Memory Card
• 3 pounds of loose tobacco
• 2.7 grams of Heroin
• 228.04 grams of Marijuana
• 7.0 grams of Crystal Methamphetamine

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California To Move Inmates Over Valley Fever
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State corrections officials said Tuesday they will comply with a federal court order to move thousands of inmates out of two Central Valley prisons where an airborne fungus has led to widespread illnesses.

Inmates to be moved from two prisons because of valley fever threat
Denny Walsh, The Sacramento Bee

California corrections officials announced Tuesday they will comply with a federal judge's order to move inmates at risk of contracting valley fever out of two San Joaquin Valley prisons.
To read more articles on this topic follow these links:

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Officials-say-they-ll-move-inmates-at-risk-of-4643967.php

http://www.times-standard.com/news/ci_23590294/california-move-inmates-over-illness

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/political/la-me-ff-state-agrees-to-move-2600-inmates-at-risk-of-valley-fever-20130702,0,216644.story

http://www.turnto23.com/news/state/calif-to-move-inmates-over-valley-fever-illness-070213

Inside the SHU Part 4: Changes
SHU reforms are under way, but how far will they go?
Anthony Skeens, The Del Norte Triplicate

Antonio Guillen stares through a visitation window at Pelican Bay State Prison and speaks of spirituality.

His brown eyes are intense, his voice deep. He says he doesn’t fear death.

Jury returns verdicts of death in prison murder
Bakersfieldnow.com

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) -- A jury has returned death verdicts for two Tehachapi prison inmates who murdered a fellow inmate in May 2009.

CDCR RELATED

First-ever County Inmate Hand Crew will help fight fires in local area
Alejandro Cano, Fontana Herald News

In an attempt to better serve the local area in cases of emergency, San Bernardino County officials announced the first-ever County Inmate Hand Crew program during a press conference held at Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in Devore last week.

Millions of residents had personal info exposed
Dan Nakaso, Woodland Daily Democrat

In the first report of its kind, state Attorney General Kamala Harris said 2.5 million Californians had Social Security numbers, credit card and bank accounts and other sensitive information exposed in 131 data breaches.

Sullivan: No Triplicate in prison
Jessica Cejnar, Del Norte Triplicate

County Supervisor Mike Sullivan says he wants to keep Pelican Bay State Prison inmates from receiving the Del Norte Triplicate.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Sullivan said some of his constituents, including correctional officers and non-prison employees, have brought their concerns to him about why inmates are able to receive the paper.

Violence on the rise in California’s county jails
State’s prison realignment plan leaves local lockups more dangerous
Kristopher Anderson, Lode News Sentinel

When the state Legislature passed a realignment plan in 2011, they hoped to reduce overcrowding in California’s prisons. But since its adoption, there has been an alarming unintended consequence: Violence in county jails throughout the state has soared.

Serious felons filling county’s two jails
Part one of a two-part series
Darleen Principe, Thousand Oaks Acorn

An estimated 117 state parolees may be released early onto the streets of Ventura County by the end of this year, following a federal court order made to Gov. Jerry Brown last month to release nearly 10,000 inmates to ease prison overcrowding in California.

OPINION

Mercury News editorial: California Must Comply With Court Order on Overcrowded Prisons
Mercury News

Republican Abel Maldonado is making noise about running for governor on an anti-crime platform, believing Gov. Jerry Brown may be vulnerable on the mess that is the California prison system.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Prison hunger strikes begin at High Desert
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

A week before protests in prisons are planned to start statewide, inmates at High Desert State Prison in far Northern California have launched their own hunger strike.

To cut STD rate, California considers condoms in prison
The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California prisoners have unprotected sexual contact, forced or consensual, even if both are illegal, and this reality often leads to the spread of HIV and other diseases in prisons and in communities where felons are paroled.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Female inmates sterilized in California prisons without approval
Corey G. Johnson, The Center for Investigative Reporting

Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

To read more on this topic follow these links:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/07/california-prisons-were-illegally-sterilizing-female-inmates/66905/

http://www.mediaite.com/online/california-prisons-forcibly-sterilized-150-women-treated-them-like-animals-they-didnt-want-to-breed/

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/07/07/Female-inmates-sterilized-without-approval/UPI-24111373215112/?spt=hs&or=tn

The Murky History of California's Ban on Personal Inmate Photos
Michael Montgomery, The California Report

The history of California's unusual ban on personal photographs for inmates held in special security units remains murky.

State corrections officials said inmates assigned to the units were always barred from having new photographs taken ever since the facilities were developed in the early 1980s. But a review of documents and interviews with former inmates suggest the ban developed in a haphazard fashion.

Ex-landlord out from behind bars
Rosalio Ahumada, The Modesto Bee

MODESTO — More than 16 years after authorities arrested him and later sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in prison, George Souliotes walked out a free man from a Stanislaus County jail Wednesday afternoon.

Sacramento priest accepts plea deal in molestation case
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

Grudgingly, one of the nation's leading critics of the Catholic Church's handling of sexual abuse by priests credited the Sacramento Diocese with doing some things right in the prosecution of the Rev. Uriel Ojeda.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Day-care killer, abuser denied parole
UPI.com

CORONA, Calif., July 7 (UPI) -- A California parole board has denied the release of a former day-care provider who was convicted in 1983 of murdering a toddler and abusing 30 other children.

REALIGNMENT

Jail expansion: Last option in crime fight?
Jason Campbell, Manteca Bulletin

There is no room at the inn.

Those arrested for petty, non-violent crimes end up back on the street in a couple of days – some within 24-hours – only for police to often run across them for the same crime.

CDCR RELATED

Lawmakers approve 4.5 percent raises for state union that has donated $54,000 to governor
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Rebounding state revenue bolstered by temporary tax increases recently approved by voters are paying off for California's largest public employees' union.

We need to take extra steps to protect peace officers
Michael Ramos, Fontana Herald News

Every hour of every day, law enforcement officers in San Bernardino County put their personal safety at risk to protect our communities.

Probation in the dark on some arriving inmates
Tami Abdollah, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- County probation officials say they aren't consistently getting required notice about inmates being released to their supervision, making it harder to monitor felons and potentially endangering the public.

The late notice puts additional pressure on an overburdened criminal justice system where county offices are underfunded and understaffed. Officials worry convicted felons are ending up on the streets without anyone helping or keeping an eye on them.

Property crimes get less police attention in Sacramento area
Kim Minugh, The Sacramento Bee

In Jennifer Seghers' corner of Land Park, property crimes are almost a weekly occurrence – a fact Seghers became aware of only after she fell victim herself.

Her car was broken into last year and Seghers wanted to warn her neighbors. Turns out:
"Everybody has a story."

Meth use is up in Sacramento, but cracking down is harder
Jack Newsham, The Sacramento Bee

In the wake of another study indicating widespread meth use in Sacramento, Central Valley law enforcement officials say savvy meth traffickers have made it harder to crack down on the drug.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

30,000 California prisoners refuse meals in apparent hunger strike
Protesting California prison policies of indefinite isolation, inmates signal beginning of a hunger strike by refusing meals.
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — Officials said 30,000 California inmates refused meals Monday at the start of a prison strike involving two-thirds of the state's 33 lockups, as well as four out-of-state facilities.

More on this topic:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021356499_jailprotestxml.html

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/politics/2013/07/08/14194/ca-prisoners-resume-hunger-strike-to-protest-isola/

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/Blogthing/archives/2013/07/08/hunger-strike-resumes-at-pelican-bay

REALIGNMENT

Prison realignment: Counties, local law enforcement unlikely to see any major fix
Julie Small, KPCC

California’s Realignment law was the Brown Administration’s solution to reduce overcrowding in state prisons. The law (AB109) sends lower-level felons to serve sentences in county jails. But the state hasn’t reduced the prison population enough to satisfy a federal court, and 9,600 more inmates must be released by year’s end.

Supes to take next step for jail expansion
Cost analysis required to receive $33 million for project
Mike Eiman, The Hanford Sentinel

HANFORD — In order to secure state funding for the Kings County Jail expansion, the Board of Supervisors will consider adopting a cost analysis associated with the project at its meeting Tuesday.

CDCR RELATED

Guilt, innocence and the American way
Nick O’Malley, Sydney Morning Herald

The first man to be freed from death row in the US because of DNA evidence remembers the moment his lawyer gave him the news as though it were yesterday.

''It is as clear as the vision before me now,'' says Kirk Bloodsworth, who was exonerated in 1993 after nine years in prison.

OPINION

A Civilized Society
Mike Farrell, Huffington Post

"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." - Fyodor Dostoevsky

"A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones." - Nelson Mandela

"... even the vilest criminal remains a human being possessed of common human dignity" - Justice William J. Brennan

Today, more American men and women struggle to survive in prison than do the citizens of any other country in the world. And here correctional officers, staff, administrators and wardens are virtual royalty, holding unquestioned authority over the lives, circumstances and futures of those entrusted to their care. This is ironic because 'care' is a word ill-used to describe the situations of many who today suffer abuse, discrimination and in some cases torture at the hands of the often ruthless "public officials" who wield power over Secure Housing Units (SHUs) for selected inmates and an Adjustment Center (AC) for the condemned.

CDCR NEWS

Day in the Life of a Correctional Case Records Analyst for DAPO
Inmate discharge: not one day early, not one day late
Dana Simas, Public Information Officer

After making sure an offender is released from state prison “not one day early and not one day late,” the job of the Correctional Case Records Analyst (CCRA) isn’t over.

Offenders who are released to parole for post-release monitoring also have specific review and discharge dates, as well as conditions of parole that must be maintained.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California inmates protest solitary confinement by refusing food
Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

LOS ANGELES, July 9 (Reuters) - About 29,000 California prison inmates refused meals on Tuesday to protest what prisoner advocates say are inhumane conditions in the state's highest-security lockups, where inmates are housed in isolated cells for up to 23 hours per day.

Calif. Officials Respond To Female Inmate Sterilization Claims
Dina Kupfer, News10

SACRAMENTO, CA - State officials are responding to claims that doctors forced female inmates to undergo surgery that would make them sterile.

Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized 148 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, as first reported by The Center for Investigative Reporting.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Plans to expand California Institution for Men in Chino are scrapped
Canan Tasci, San Bernardino Sun

CHINO -- City officials have recently learned the California Institution for Men is not being considered for the placement of additional housing facilities for prisoners.

CIM was one of several locations being reviewed by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for construction of up to three, 792-bed Level II correctional housing facilities and related support buildings.

NORCO: Prison to resume feeding feral cats
Peter Fishetti, The Press Enterprise

In a policy shift, feral cats on the grounds of the Norco prison will again be fed, according to a memo from its warden.

Cynthia Tampkins, warden at California Rehabilitation Center, told staff in a Wednesday, July 3, memorandum that “effective immediately, we will reinstate an organized feeding process” for the cats.

REALIGNMENT

Undersheriff, professor outline challenges and successes of state prison realignment
Barbara Arrigoni, Orovillemr.com

OROVILLE — During a talk on prison realignment Tuesday afternoon in Oroville, Butte County Undersheriff Kory Honea emphasized a misperception he sought to clear up.

"People in prisons are not being sent to Butte County," Honea said twice during a presentation at the Oroville library. "They lived here, were arrested here and prosecuted here for local crimes."

North State Law Enforcement Make Felony Arrests of Two on Post Release Community Supervision
KHSLTV.COM

Between July 6 and July 8, The Paradise Police and the Tehama County Sheriff’s made felony arrests of two men on who were on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS). In the two separate arrests, law enforcement cumulatively located roughly a pound of meth as well as felony possession of weapons and ammunition.

CDCR RELATED

Web page provides info to former inmates
Dana Littlefield, U-T San Diego

SAN DIEGO — People who have been released from prison or jail have a new web-based resource for information that may help them transition back into the community, county officials announced Tuesday.

SEIU Local 1000 members overwhelmingly approve contract
Amy Gebert, The Sacramento Bee

Ninety percent of SEIU Local 1000 voters approved a new contract with Gov. Jerry Brown, the union announced late Tuesday.

The Legislature ratified the contract last week, and the union says it expects Brown to sign the deal on Wednesday. It includes a 4.5 percent pay raise for SEIU members by 2015. It also bans furloughs for the length of the contract period and increases travel and business reimbursements.

CCA Awarded Three-Year Contract Renewal With California
The Wall Street Journal

NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwired - Jul 10, 2013) - CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), America's largest owner of partnership correctional and detention facilities, announced today that it has renewed its contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for an additional three years.

Sex video clears men accused of rape
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

The hookup got hot and wild, and one of the two men whipped out his cellphone to shoot a video of the room-to-room romp with the woman they'd just met that night.

The sex video may have been the only thing that saved the two from prison.

Los Angeles County to challenge location of sexually violent predator's release
Tami Abdollah, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — District Attorney Jackie Lacey said Tuesday her office will challenge a Northern California judge's decision to release a sexually violent predator in Los Angeles County.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown granted convicted serial rapist Christopher Evans Hubbart, 62, a conditional release from custody in May.

LA County jury deliberates for less than an hour, convicts man of burning a Catholic church
Associated Press

POMONA, California — Los Angeles County prosecutors say a man has been convicted of setting fire to a catholic church and causing more than $3 million in damage.

A jury deliberated for less than an hour Tuesday before convicting 35-year-old Gregory Shiga (SHEE-guh) of five separate counts including aggravated arson. He could get life in prison at his sentencing scheduled for July 19.

OPINION

To California's cons: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time
Paul Whitefield, Los Angeles Times

OK, excuse me while I see how much sympathy I can work up for the inmates in California’s prisons.

Umm, yep, sorry -- not really feeling the love, guys.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

California asks high court to stay order to reduce prison crowding
Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

(Reuters) - California officials petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to release the most populous state from a court order demanding it reduce its prison population by about 10,000 inmates this year to ease crowding.

California makes last bid to delay releasing 10,000 inmates, seeks stay from US Supreme Court
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday made one final bid to delay a federal court order requiring the state to release nearly 10,000 inmates by year's end to improve conditions in California prisons, saying it would jeopardize public safety.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Hunger Strike by California Inmates, Already Large, Is Expected to Be Long
Jennifer Medina, New York Times

LOS ANGELES — Nearly 29,000 inmates in California state prisons refused meals for the third day Wednesday during a protest of prison conditions and rules. The protest extended to two-thirds of the 33 prisons across the state and all 4 private out-of-state facilities where California sends inmates, corrections officials said.

Calif. corrections secretary says hunger strike will only harm inmates' cause, delay releases
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Inmates who are refusing meals to protest the state's solitary confinement program for gang leaders are harming their own cause, California's prison chief said Wednesday in his first comments on the subject.

California Inmates, Family Members Speak Out Against Solitary Confinement 'Torture'
Robin Wilkey, The Huffington Post

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa Dewberry has seen real sunlight only four times in the last 28 years.

Dewberry, an inmate at Pelican Bay State Prison, has been locked up since 1985 for murder. A few years into his 25-years-to-life sentence, he was admitted into the prison's Secure Housing Unit (SHU), a controversial solitary confinement unit designed to isolate prisoners suspected of gang affiliation.

What Happens to Your Body During a Hunger Strike
Ian Chant , Geekosystem

This morning in California, nearly 30,000 inmates in prisons throughout the state’s penitentiary system entered the second day of an apparent hunger strike. While the beginning of Ramadan — during which Muslim prisoners do not take meals during daylight hours — has complicated an exact count, it’s becoming clear that thousands of the prisoners who refused meals yesterday did so not out of religious obligation, but in solidarity with prisoners at the Pelican Bay State Prison who are protesting what they call abusive policies that can find prisoners suspected of gang ties locked in solitary confinement for decades at a time. While this isn’t an official hunger strike yet — the state’s policy is not to deem a prisoner on hunger strike until he or she has missed 9 meals — this looks a lot like the beginning of the largest one seen in America in some time. With that in mind, we bring you this primer on what happens to the body during a hunger strike. Just a warning: It’s not pretty.

Lawmakers call for investigation into sterilization of female inmates
Corey G. Johnson, Center of Investigative Reporting

State lawmakers called today for an investigation of the physicians involved in the sterilization of women inmates and raised questions about a federal prison overseer's role in handling the matter.

REALIGNMENT

Probation officers have more to do as prison realignment advances
Part two of a two-part series
Darleen Principe, Thousand Oaks Acorn

Besides filling Ventura County’s two jails with state prisoners and pushing the system to near capacity, realignment has also heaped a greater workload on the county’s 202 probation officers.

Realignment repeat
Despite need elsewhere, California pays for local police to do the same job as probation officers
Raheem F. Hosseini, Sacramento News & Review

Police and probation will now overlap and be watching the same offenders; a Sacramento State University research proposal to study rehabilitation efforts locally stated that supervision programs “may even increase recidivism” when applied exclusively.

DEATH PENALTY

Gov. Brown Drops Appeal Of 3-Drug Execution
The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California prison officials said Wednesday that they are dropping the state’s three-drug execution method to pursue a single-drug protocol recently adopted by other states.

San Rafael videographer's documentary on execution earning awards
Vicki Larson, Marin Independent Journal

AS A RESIDENT of San Quentin Village for many years, S. Kramer Herzog had already experienced what happens to the sleepy village of 100 before an execution.

CDCR RELATED

Body of fallen firefighter Christopher MacKenzie returned to Hemet
Hemet native Chris MacKenzie was killed while battling the Yarnell Hill wildfire
Blake Herzog, The Desert Sun

HEMET — Hundreds of residents clustered along Florida Avenue on Wednesday afternoon to await the arrival of the procession carrying the body of one of the 19 firefighters killed June 30 while battling a wildfire outside Yarnell, Ariz.

Aging prisoners' costs put systems nationwide in a bind
This 'national epidemic' includes packed prisons, high-cost medical care and dwindling resources. This all begs the question: Should frail, incapacitated inmates be there?
Kevin Johnson and H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

ANGOLA, La. — For decades, the Louisiana State Penitentiary has taken great pride in its vast farming operations, as well as its reputation as one of the toughest lockups in America.

OPINION

Editorial: California's sad history of sterilizing prisoners
Los Angeles News Group

The revelation that California women's prisons conducted coerced -- or, at least, vigorously suggested -- sterilization of inmates as recently as 2010 raises disturbing images and questions.

Jerry Brown’s George Wallace Moment on Prisons
Steven Greenhut, Bloomberg

The fight between many states and the federal government over carrying out the health-care law figured to be the most significant states’ rights blowup of the decade. Yet the most colorful battle of this sort may be taking place in California over prison overcrowding.

Marc Klaas and Abel Maldonado: Spend more on prisons, don't release felons
Marc Klaas and Abel Maldonado, Special to the Mercury News

With one signature, Gov. Jerry Brown turned California's entire criminal justice system on its head. To solve the problem of prison overcrowding, Brown undid decades of public safety progress championed by the majority of Californians and managed to make the overcrowded conditions of California's jails worse. Rather than choosing to preserve the safety of our communities, he threw caution to the wind and enacted a complete system overhaul.

CDCR NEWS

CDCR Secretary Jeff Beard’s Appointment Confirmed by Senate 23-6
CDCR Today

SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) today announced that CDCR Secretary Dr. Jeffrey Beard, 66, was confirmed by the California Senate with a 23-6 vote

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

California Senate approves leader of prison 'institution in crisis'
Laurel Rosenhall, The San Luis Obispo Tribune

After a partisan debate in which Republicans criticized Gov. Jerry Brown's nominee to run the state's prisons and Democrats praised him as the best man for the job, the California Senate voted Thursday to confirm Jeffrey Beard as secretary of the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Senate backs Brown's choice to lead California prison system as judge orders more oversight
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — The state Senate on Thursday confirmed Gov. Jerry Brown's choice to lead California's troubled prison system on the same day that a new challenge arose from a federal judge.

Probe of California's prison-based mental health facilities ordered
U.S. judge orders the probe of California's prison-based mental health facilities, citing evidence of doctor shortages, treatment delays and 'denial of basic necessities, including clean underwear.'
Lee Romney and Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — Citing evidence of doctor shortages, treatment delays and "denial of basic necessities, including clean underwear," a federal judge on Thursday ordered an in-depth probe of conditions at prison-based mental health facilities run by the California Department of State Hospitals.

Deuel Vocational Institution adds guard post
Denise Ellen Rizzo, Tracy Press

Visitors to Deuel Vocational Institution will now be stopped and searched when entering and exiting the rural Tracy prison, following the opening of a guard shack on Monday, July 8.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

More than 12,000 California inmates on hunger strike, but participation has dropped sharply
The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — The number of California inmates participating in a hunger strike has dropped sharply, four days into the protest over prison conditions.
California corrections officials say more than 12,400 prison inmates have skipped at least nine consecutive meals, a threshold that led the department to label the protest an extended hunger strike.

California's mass prison hunger strike enters fourth day
Julie Small, KPCC

The number of California prison inmates on a hunger strike dramatically dropped Thursday, but 12,000 inmates still refused to eat for a fourth consecutive day to protest the common use of long-term isolation. For the first three days of the strike, 29,000 inmates participated.

California inmates on hunger strike face potential discipline
Laila Kearney, Reuters

(Reuters) - California prison authorities warned thousands of hunger-striking inmates on Thursday that they could face discipline for illegal "mass disturbances," and confirmed that more than 12,000 prisoners missed nine consecutive meals in the past three days.

Emmerson reaches out to legislators on reports that two state women's prisons performed sterilization procedures on inmates
Lori Fowler, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

A local politician and his constitutes are reaching out to legislators with hopes of getting more information regarding recent reports that two California women's prisons performed sterilization procedures on inmates.

Santa Clarita: Man convicted in DUI crash with injuries begins 2-year sentence
Jim Holt, The Santa Clarita Valley Signal

A South Lake Tahoe man responsible for sending two young Valencia women to the hospital with serious injuries in a May DUI-related collision was taken to state prison Thursday to begin serving a two-year sentence, law enforcement officials said.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Son Fights Killer’s Release at a Time When More Lifers are Getting Parole
Krista Almanzan, kazu.org

Many don’t have vivid memories of when they were just seven-years-old, but Jason Chelius does. That’s how old he was when his father was murdered back in 1979. “I remember sitting in the bathtub, and I mean still to this day, I can hear the rap on the door. So I hear the knock on the door, and the blood curdling screams of my mother, just echo through your body,” said Chelius.

REALIGNMENT

Parole hearing historic, court says
Proceeding state's first at county level
Ramona Giwargis, Merced Sun Star

MERCED — Merced County Superior Court officials said they made history Thursday as the first court in California to hold a parole hearing at the local level, a change mandated by the state's prison realignment law.

DEATH PENALTY

Drug Protocol Change Could Delay All California Executions For Several Years
Julia Cheever, Bay City News

A decision by the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown to switch from three drugs to a one-drug protocol for lethal injections will delay the potential resumption of death-penalty executions in California for at least one year and possibly several years.

CDCR RELATED

Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for Sex Discrimination
E News Park

Washington, DC--(ENEWSPF)--July 11, 2013. The Department of Justice announced today the filing of a lawsuit, against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), alleging that CDCR discriminated against Joe B. Cummings on the basis of his sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. Title VII is a federal statute that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion.

OPINION

Viewpoints: Indefinite solitary confinement is moral issue worth hunger strike
Beth Witrogen, The Sacramento Bee

Tonight my partner will go to bed hungry. Actually he will go to bed starving, and it won't really be a bed. He will forgo a too-thin, too-short, too-lumpy mattress on a concrete slab and sleep on the concrete floor to catch a drift of fresh air seeping in under his cell door, which is covered in Plexiglas.

Steven Greenhut: Feds, state battle over prison population
Steven Greenhut, The Monterey County Herald

The fight between many states and the federal government over carrying out the health care law figured to be the most significant states' rights blowup of the decade. Yet the most colorful battle of this sort may be taking place in California over prison overcrowding.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Brick by brick, Folsom female inmates build foundation for solid future
Don Chaddock, Folsom Telegraph

FOLSOM, CA - Behind a courtyard of gray stone walls ringed with barbed wire, 15 women marked the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.

Wearing pink shirts to signify their graduation from the California Prison Industry Authority’s (Cal-PIA) Career Technical Education Pre-Apprenticeship Program, the female inmates at the Folsom Women’s Facility were awarded certificates on July 11.

Protesters rally to support inmate hunger strike
The Associated Press

CORCORAN, Calif. -- Several hundred people rallied outside Corcoran State Prison on Saturday to show their support for a hunger strike at more than 20 California prisons.

Hunger strikers, slightly fewer, continue prison protests
Paige St. John, The Los Angeles Times

Hunger strikes continued Saturday at 23 California prisons and one out-of-state facility, with more than 6,300 inmates refusing meals for days. The corrections department Saturday would not say how many have refused to eat meals since Monday.

Calif. inmates sue over potentially fatal fungus
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California inmates who contracted a potentially fatal illness known as valley fever are suing state officials for lifetime medical care, including coverage for drugs that their attorney said can cost $2,000 a month.

Inmate escapes from Ironwood State Prison, captured by CHP
Jaclyn Randall, Palo Verde Valley Times

BLYTHE - An inmate who somehow escaped from Ironwood State Prison (ISP) within the last 24 hours is already in custody after being detained by California Highway Patrol officers on either Friday night or Saturday morning.

2 California inmates escape minimum security facility; were serving time for burglary, robbery
The Associated Press

(Note: The two inmates who walked away from Eel River Conservation Camp were captured on Sunday.)

REDWAY, California — State corrections officials say two inmates have escaped from a minimum security facility in Northern California.

Officials say 20-year-old Dennis Rene Welch and 30-year-old Glen Martin Whiteside walked away from the Eel River Conservation Camp near Redway early Saturday.

2 men sentenced to death for LA County pizzeria shooting that killed 3, injured 7
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Two reputed gang members have been sentenced to death for a shooting at a Los Angeles County pizzeria that left three people dead and seven injured.

City News Service says the men were sentenced Friday for the June 2009 shooting outside Falcone's Pizza in Pico Rivera, where a motorcycle club called the Old School Riders was holding fundraiser for children who had lost a parent in a fire.

Two men sentenced for 2011 shooting death
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

Two men were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Friday for their first-degree murder convictions in a April 14, 2011, retaliatory shooting spree in which they killed a man who reportedly robbed one of them in a drug deal.

112 years in prison for 2010 teen slaying
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

A man convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a one-time high school basketball player was sentenced Friday to 112 years to life in prison.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White imposed the term on Al Henry Allen Sr., 22, for the June 5, 2010, shooting death of D'andre Blackwell, 18, who played basketball for Valley High School. The shooting took place at a graduation party at an Elk Grove hotel.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Why California won't build prisons to ease inmate overcrowding
David Siders, The Sacramento Bee

In his final effort to forestall a federal court order requiring the state to reduce its prison population by nearly 10,000 inmates, Gov. Jerry Brown last week counted the ways prison conditions have improved since the court first winced at overcrowding years ago.

Judge orders investigation into Salinas Valley State Prison psychiatric unit
Focus on low staff levels at Salinas Valley prison
Julia Reynolds, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Saying California officials "divorced themselves from reality" when they recently claimed mental health care is up to par in state prisons, a Sacramento judge has ordered an immediate investigation of Salinas Valley State Prison's psychiatric unit.

California Is Facing More Woes in Prisons
Jennifer Medina, New York Times

LOS ANGELES — Just six months after declaring “the prison crisis is over in California,” Gov. Jerry Brown is facing dire predictions about the future of the state’s prison system, one of the largest in the nation.

REALIGNMENT

County Supervisors to Review State Prisoner Shift
Perry Smith, Hometownstation.com

(Note: The reporter incorrectly copied the information that was sent to him. Los Angeles County’s AB 109 this year is actually $323 million.)

A report detailing Los Angeles County concerns with AB 109 will be reviewed Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The report was conducted by the county’s Probation Department at the request of supervisors, who have expressed concern with a burden the Public Safety Realignment puts on county jails.

DEATH PENALTY

Governor Brown Decides To Change Lethal Injection Process
The decision will delay the potential resumption of death-penalty executions in California.
Vanessa Castañeda, Redwood City – Woodside Patch

A decision by the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown to switch from three drugs to a one-drug protocol for lethal injections will delay the potential resumption of death-penalty executions in California for at least one year and possibly several years.

CDCR RELATED

Governor Brown Announces Appointments
Imperial Valley News

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments:Alexander Maurice Gonzales, 57, of La Quinta, has been appointed warden at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, where he has served as acting warden since 2011 and was chief deputy warden from 2010 to 2011, associate warden from 2008 to 2010 and facility captain from 2000 to 2008. Gonzales served in multiple positions at California State Prison, Los Angeles County from 1989 to 2000, including correctional lieutenant and facility captain and at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility from 1986 to 1989, including correctional counselor and sergeant. He was a correctional officer at the California Institution for Men from 1982 to 1985. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $130,668. Gonzales is a Republican.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Former Calif. governors back Brown in prison case, say inmate releases will jeopardize safety
Don Thompson, The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Four former California governors on Monday supported a request by Gov. Jerry Brown to delay the release of nearly 10,000 prison inmates by year's end.
They sent their request to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who oversees appeals from Western states.

Sacto 911: Four ex-governors seek delay in inmate releases
Sam Stanton, The Sacramento Bee

Four former California governors are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay that would delay the court-ordered release of nearly 10,000 prison inmates.

Photo ban intensifies isolation in prisons
Michael Montgomery, Center for Investigative Reporting

The snapshots are old and discolored, capturing the faces of men behind bars in California’s vast penal system and those destined to enter it. Some are wide-eyed. Others cast hard stares. One inmate, a bony heroin addict dressed in baggy prison denim, stares submissively into the camera.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Inmate hunger strike wanes, but thousands continue refusing meals
Chris Megerian, The Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — The number of inmates refusing meals as part of a statewide hunger strike has continued to drop, falling to 2,572 on Monday.

More than 2,500 inmates keep up California prison hunger strike
Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

(Reuters) - More than 2,500 prisoners in 17 prisons in California remained on hunger strike on Monday, more than a week after refusing food to demand an end to a policy of housing prisoners believed to be associated with gangs in near-isolation for years on end.

Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks Medical Care for Inmates Freed with Valley Fever
Ken Broder, All Gov

While the state ponders how to comply with federal court orders to move around 2,600 prisoners from two prisons in Central California because of Valley Fever, a class-action lawsuit has been filed on their behalf seeking lifetime medical care for their maladies.

Update: Escaped Pelican Bay inmate in custody, officials say
The Times-Standard

Update: Officials at the command center confirmed that the escaped inmate from the minimum security area of Pelican Bay State Prison was found and placed in custody at approximately 7:20 p.m.

Tore David Digirolamo was found on Lake Earl Drive, which runs next to the prison.

Border Patrol captured escaped convict then handed him over to CHP
Jaclyn Randall, Palo Verde Valley Times

BLYTHE - A minimum custody inmate who escaped from Ironwood State Prison (ISP) on Saturday morning was taken into custody by the United States Border Patrol and then handed over to California Highway Patrol-Winterhaven officers after being stopped for driving a stolen vehicle.

Driver who killed boy, 6, in Citrus Heights accident gets 15 years
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

Ten days before her car slammed into two boys walking to school and killed one of them, Tresa Ann Bales-Sterba attracted the attention of a firefighter when she swerved across three lanes of traffic in Citrus Heights and "lightly" rear-ended another motorist.

Calif man sentenced to life for killing 2 over dog
The Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. -- A Fresno man who shot and killed two people and paralyzed a third in a dispute over a lost dog has been sentenced to 82 years to life in prison, plus two life terms without the possibility of parole.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Children found in drug house
The Recorder

Detectives from the Porterville Police Department arrested three people Friday after they found methamphetamine and heroin packaged for sale at a home on the 100 block of South Newcomb Street where two children, aged 5 and 7, were also living.

REALIGNMENT

Council to mull safety tax survey
Joseph Luiz, The Hanford Sentinel

HANFORD — The Hanford City Council will consider hiring an Oakland-based firm to determine if there is public support to approve an increase in the city’s sales tax to fund public safety needs.

CDCR RELATED

Bill aims to aid jailed sex slave victims
Samantha Weigel, Daily Journal

Sara Kruzan was assaulted when she was 11 by a man who forced her into prostitution at age 13. After the abuse, Kruzan killed her captor when she was 16. In 1995, the Riverside girl was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

Though a convicted murderer, she is also a victim of sexual slavery.

How the Black Guerrilla Family gang took root in Maryland’s prisons
Ann E. Marimow and Peter Hermann, The Washington Post

Five years ago, next to the chapel in a Maryland prison, the Black Guerrilla Family kept its own office with desks, chairs — even computers. The group’s ranking members met there with community leaders, including a former Maryland state trooper, to talk about reducing gang activity in prison and beyond. They wrote a manual filled with self-help rhetoric that they distributed to hundreds of inmates.

CalPERS gains 12.5 percent, CalSTRS earns 13.8 percent for year on rising stock, real estate
Judy Lin, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — The nation's two largest public pension funds on Monday reported double-digit annual returns from rising stock and real estate prices, but cautioned against focusing too much on short-term performance.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California rolling back lengthy prison sentences for some juvenile offenders
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan has dealt with David Dewayne Griffin before.
When the 23-year-old was a teenager who had been convicted of five felonies, including attempted murder, she imposed a prison sentence so long – 85 years to life – that he won't be eligible for parole until he's 99 years old.

inmates told to prove it
Anthony Skeens, The Triplicate

State prison officials are taking the offensive, calling on inmates to prove they are truly on a hunger strike that is drawing national attention to their campaign against indefinite solitary confinement designed to thwart prison gangs.

2,500 inmates still on hunger strike, Lancaster on lockdown
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO -- The number of California inmates continuing a statewide hunger strike hovered at 2,500 on Tuesday, as prison medical workers worked to finish the first round of health checks.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Dan Walters: Jerry Brown channels George Wallace
The Sacramento Bee

George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama, became a national political figure on his pledge to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to preserve "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Glendale parolee arrested on assault charge
Man who murdered his mother allegedly beat a neighbor on his head.
Veronica Rocha, Glendale News

A 33-year-old male parolee who was convicted of killing his mother has been charged again, this time for allegedly hitting a neighbor over the head with a piece of metal, officials said.

CDCR RELATED

Officials: Local jails could feel crunch with more prisoners released by end of 2013
County jails could see up to 800 new felons
Melissa Mecija, 10 News

**Note, In fiscal year 2011-2012, San Diego received almost $28 million
In fiscal year 2012-2013, San Diego received $60.3 million
This fiscal year 2013-2014, San Diego received $71.2 million**

SAN DIEGO - Up to 800 new prisoners could be transferred from California prisons to local jails by the end of the year, according to top law enforcement in San Diego County.

Stockton hires nine police officers; federal grant to hire more kicks in
The Stockton Record

STOCKTON – The Stockton Police Department announced nine new hires Tuesday, giving the department the staffing levels required to access federal grant money that will allow the city to hire 17 additional officers, authorities said.

Former gang member shares story through drama in Pasco
Tyler Richardson, Tri-City Herald

Art Blajos says his life changed as he sat in a maximum security jail cell, waiting for the appropriate time to kill the man next to him.

DNA solves 1988 killing near Fort Bragg
Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle

(07-16) 17:48 PDT MENDOCINO COUNTY -- Mendocino County and state investigators have solved the 25-year-old murder of a young woman by using advanced DNA technology - and the killer turns out to have been the man deputies always suspected, officials said Tuesday.

OPINION

Why court's Calif. inmate release mandate is dangerous!
10,000 prisoners may be on the street by the end of this calendar year that would not otherwise have been released from custody
Bob Walsh, Correctionsone.com

With the exception of a new prison hospital of 1,722 beds about to open very soon, the formerly great state of California has not opened a new prison in many, many years. They have retasked one women’s prison to house men and have done some other shuffling, including housing several thousand inmates in out-of-state contract beds. They have brought virtually no new beds on line. That, along with harsher sentencing laws and other issues, has brought about a significant increase in the number of persons in custody over a long period of time.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Inmate Housing Facilities Planned for California
Maggie Ryan, Correctional News

(Note: The reporter has substantially understated the projected cost of the infill facilities. The estimated costs in the article should be multiplied by 1,000.)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) received authorization from 2012 Senate Bill 1022 to begin the process of designing and constructing three new dorm buildings at any of four existing correctional center locations, including California Institute for Men in Chino, California State Prison and Sacramento/Folsom State Prison in Represa, California State Prison and Solano/California Medical Facility in Vacaville, Mule Creek State Prison (MCSP) in Ione or Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. Although planning has started, construction isn’t scheduled to begin until early 2014.

Prison guard from Atascadero dies in high-speed chase in San Benito County
David John Calmere, 41, crashed while fleeing police north of Salinas
Julia Hickey, San Luis Obispo Tribune

A prison guard from Atascadero died last week during a high-speed chase while fleeing from police in San Benito County.

REALIGNMENT

17 News Special Report: Kern County's realignment rehabilitation
17KGET.com

KERN COUNTY – Thousands of inmates are being released early into our streets, and many are re-offending. But, a new county-funded program is hoping to break the revolving door that is Kern County's jails.

The county program started in January. It releases inmates early, but instead of sending them to the streets, they're enrolled in a community-based rehabilitation program. And according to jail staff, it already has a high success rate.

Letter: Clearing up some things about prison realignment
Appealdemocrat.com

It's important to note that Public Safety Realignment does not involve "sending 'low-level' offenders out of state prison and back to county jails." Realignment took effect on Oct. 1, 2011, and from that date onward people convicted of lower-level crimes were sentenced to jail; in the past some would have been sent to prison. No one was or is transferred from prison to jail.

Realignment: Still Heavy Topic for California Corrections
Maggie Ryan, Correctional News

(Note: The first sentence of this story should refer to the San Bernardino County Grand Jury, not the “California Grand Jury”.)

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The California Grand Jury is pushing for a change in Assembly Bill (AB) 109, or The Public Safety Realignment Act, from 2011. Overcrowding has become a major issue in San Bernardino County jails since AB 109 was established. The law was enacted in order to combat the unconstitutional overcrowding and inadequate health care in California state prisons, as decreed by a federal ruling, but overcrowding is now an issue in county jails.

Calculating costs of realignment, mandates no easy task
John Howard, Capitol Weekly

As the state shifts more and more responsibility to local governments, disputes over the size of the tab and who picks it up are growing.

In theory, the transfer of state authority to the locals, such as in the $6.3 billion realignment program in which some state prisoners are sent to county lockups and myriad services are shifted to the counties, is supposed to be a wash, or revenue neutral.

CALIFORNIA INMATES
Prison hunger strike leaders moved to separate quarters
Hunger strike leaders have lost access to news and some legal papers have been seized. One lawyer for inmates has been temporarily barred from all prisons.
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — California prison officials have moved 14 inmate leaders of a hunger strike over solitary confinement conditions to more isolated quarters, cutting off their access to broadcast news and seizing some of their legal papers, according to one of their lawyers.

Officials move 14 inmates leading Calif. hunger strike
U.S. News

SACRAMENTO, July 18 (UPI) -- California prison officials moved 14 inmates who were leading a hunger strike to more isolated areas, the prisoners' lawyers said.
As of Wednesday, 2,326 inmates were refusing their meals as part of a protest over solitary confinement conditions now on its 11th day, the Los Angeles Times said.

Convicted Calif. killer who skinned, dismembered mother gets 25 years to life in prison
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the first-degree murder of his mother, whose dismembered remains were found in a freezer in their apartment.

DEATH PENALTY

One-drug protocol for executions
Marinscope

A decision by the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown to switch from three drugs to a one-drug protocol for lethal injections will delay the potential resumption of death-penalty executions in California for at least one year and possibly several years.

Jeffrey Callison, press secretary to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, confirmed today that the agency will be developing regulations for a one-drug execution process.

CDCR RELATED

The mentally ill are filling jails. What should we do about it?
Phil Willon, The Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez took at trip to the Los Angeles County jail and found all the evidence he needed to show why housing the mentally ill in jail cells is a mistake:

Clearly, locking these men up over and over again isn't working, and it isn't cheap. But it's what the system has been doing for years in Los Angeles County and in jails and prisons across the country.

County Jail Food Strike Ends
Inmates Accepted Lunch Wednesday
Kelsey Brugger, Santa Barbara Independent

The last of 230 inmates who had been refusing meals at the Santa Barbara County Jail accepted lunch Wednesday, officially ending the food strike that began nine days ago. As of Tuesday afternoon, only 27 of the inmates were still involved in the strike. Participants began refusing meals on July 7 to show solidarity with grievances raised about poor conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison, according to Sheriff’s spokesperson Kelly Hoover.

House escape
Woman slips off GPS device, faces prison time
Chico News & Review

A Chico woman was convicted July 10 on charges of felony escape after she slipped off her GPS ankle monitor while on home incarceration at a local clean-and-sober-living house. According to a press release from the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, Samantha Josephine Abernathy, 26, removed the monitor March 1 and then left the residence.

OPINION

Federal receiver must explain why he did not stop sterilizations: Editorial
Los Angeles News Group, The Daily News

The federal receiver who oversees medical care in the California prison system has some explaining to do.

State Senate Republicans sent a letter last week requesting that the Senate Committee on Public Safety convene an oversight hearing to investigate at least 148 unapproved sterilizations of female inmates in state prisons from 2006 to 2010. That should happen.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

'Living tombs': Thousands of California inmates protest solitary confinement with hunger strike
Erin McClam, NBC News

For some California inmates believed to be involved with prison gangs, home is a 7½-by-12-foot box — with no windows, no roommates and no idea how many years they’ll be in isolation.

Sacto 911 update: Inmate hunger strikers protest treatment as numbers dwindle
Sam Stanton, The Sacramento Bee

Supporters of state prison inmates taking part in a hunger strike complain that inmate leaders have been moved to more isolated areas and prevented from meeting with one of their attorneys.

Little recourse for attorney barred from visiting California prisoners during hunger strike
Julie Small, KPCC

Four California prisoners required medical treatment and a fifth was referred to a physician on the 11th day of a hunger strike to protest the long-term isolation of inmates, health care officials said Thursday.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Inmate in Vacaville prison granted parole
Catherine Bowen Mijs, Thereporter.com

The family of a slain narcotics officer was dealt a "devastating" blow Thursday when Vacaville prison inmate Jeffry Cook was granted parole 34 years after killing the undercover officer during a sting.

REALIGNMENT

Prison realignment: Republicans ought to be leading, not opposing, this trend
Garrick Percival, The Mercury News

With California's prison realignment plan firmly underway, Gov. Jerry Brown has chosen a hard line approach with federal overseers of the state's prison system.

Most recently he balked at a mandate requiring the state, for constitutional reasons, to shrink the prison population by another 10,000 inmates.

County probation officers busy keeping eye on state parolees
Part two of a two-part series
Darleen Principe, Simi Valley Acorn

Besides filling Ventura County’s two jails with state prisoners and pushing the system to near capacity, realignment has also heaped a greater workload on the county’s 202 probation officers.

Santa Barbara County Law Enforcement Putting A Stop To Offenders Cutting GPS Devices
Christian Hartnett, Central Coast News

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - 40-year old Manuel Aceves is behind bars tonight after Santa Barbara Sheriff's say he cut off his GPS ankle bracelet. He was arrested yesterday, two weeks after he cut off the monitoring device, which he'd been wearing for several months.

Prison realignment gets state scrutiny
Calcoastnews.com

An obscure state panel, the California State Sex Offender Management Board, has convened in Sacramento to study the social implications of the so-called prison realignment policy now being introduced by corrections officials. (Sacramento Bee)

DEATH PENALTY

The Reasons Behind the Slow Pace of Executions
Opponents of the death penalty have hit upon an effective tactic: Learn who is making the lethal drugs used in executions and publicly shame them. Now, death penalty states are fighting to make the names of the drugs a state secret.
Raymond Bonner, Pacific Standard

States that impose the death penalty have been facing a crisis in recent years: They are short on the drugs used in executions.

In California, which has the country’s largest death row population, the chief justice of the state supreme court has said there are unlikely to be any executions for three years, in part due to the shortage of appropriate lethal drugs. As a result, state prosecutors are calling for a return of the gas chamber.

CDCR RELATED

People in the News
Central Valley Business Times

Kenneth Pogue, 45, of Shingle Springs, has been appointed assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Mr. Pogue has been a deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice since 1999. He was an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Porter Scott Weiberg and Delehant from 1997 to 1999 and was a contract attorney at the Law Office of Robert Tronvig in 1997 and a contract district attorney in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office in 1996.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $138,000. Mr. Pogue is a Democrat.

Police name suspect in deadly pot shop shooting
17 KGET

BAKERSFIELD - Police say two people are wanted in connection with a double homicide inside a medical marijuana collective. Both are considered armed and dangerous. Officers say the motive for Wednesday's shooting was robbery.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Gang members say hunger strike aim is to 'sell drugs, make money'
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

California prison officials in federal legal filings alleged that the ongoing inmate hunger strike was orchestrated by prison gangs.

Attached to legal filings in U.S. District Court on Thursday, the state included declarations signed by former members of the prison gangs known as Nuestra Familia and the Aryan Brotherhood. The two inmates, both convicted murderers, have agreed to provide information against the gangs in return for being moved out of isolation at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border.

FRENCH VALLEY: Death sentence for former Marine who murdered couple
Sarah Burge, Press Enterprise

A judge handed down a death sentence Friday, July 19, for one of three Marines convicted of murdering a fellow Marine and his wife in 2008, saying the “savage brutality” of the crimes suggests he is “a man without a semblance of morality or a conscience.”

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Calif. youth detention facility replaces superintendent
Assistant Superintendent Cynthia Brown has been named acting superintendent
Ventura County Star

VENTURA — The superintendent of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in Camarillo has been replaced, state officials said Thursday.

Wednesday’s decision to replace Victor Almager was made because the facility “needed a change in management,” Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said without elaborating.

California can't find enough inmates to safely release under US judges' order to ease crowding
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Jerry Brown's administration says in a court filing that the state is falling far short of meeting a demand from federal judges to find thousands of inmates who could be released from prison early without endangering the public.

The Buzz: California inmates find ally in famed U.S. Supreme Court litigator
Michael Doyle, The Sacramento Bee

California inmates have an ally in Paul Clement, a famed U.S. Supreme Court litigator and former U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush.

Clement was among the attorneys listed as counsel of record on the brief filed Friday to challenge the state's request that the high court put off deadlines for lowering its prison population.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

At-Large Manslaughter Parolee Arrested After Stakeout
Police arrested Ryan Karr, 32, of Windsor, and Jonathan Lewis, 34, of Rohnert Park following two surveillance operations.
Petaluma Patch

Police in Petaluma made a pair of arrests on wanted DUI offenders Saturday.

Acting out on an anonymous tip, police and the California Parole Apprehension Team conducted two surveillance operations, targeting Ryan Karr, 32, of Windsor, and Jonathan Lewis, 34, of Rohnert Park, police said.

REALIGNMENT

Heightened realignment security
The Stockton Record

STOCKTON - Some of the changes from the shift in the state's criminal population to county supervision are large, others smaller. One of the small changes is a new metal detector now screening for weapons at the Canlis Building in downtown Stockton.

Realignment increasing jail's maximum security inmates
Realignment was the state's main response to a federal lawsuit requiring the state to reduce California's prison population
Linda Williams, The Willits News

The sweeping change in the way California felons are incarcerated and monitored introduced by the state legislature in 2011 is called realignment. The Mendocino County Jail has seen nearly a 70 percent increase in maximum security prisoners and a 30 percent increase in total prisoners with realignment.

This week in Realignment: July 19, 2013
Christopher Nelson, CAFWD.org

In journalism, you are told that a meeting is never the actual story. There is always subtext, a larger problem that is being addressed in the meeting with opposing viewpoints verbally clashing over the solution.

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