CDCR Star

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Buzzing with activity
Lights are on, fences electrified and work begins at inmate health facility
Kevin Parrish, The Stockton Record

STOCKTON - Six men, three from a state prison in Lancaster and three from a state prison in Salinas, arrived Monday at the California Health Care Facility.

The inmates were transferred in restraints, wearing either blue or orange jumpsuits and carefully guarded. They were headed for brightly lit, modern mental health housing units.

Dan Walters: Former California governors help Brown on prisons -- or do they?
Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee

California's four living former governors have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of current Gov. Jerry Brown's plea for relief from a court order to drop the state's prison population by nearly 10,000 more inmates.

REALIGNMENT

Hawaiian Gardens Crime Rate Posts Dramatic Drop
One-year and Five-year Part 1 crime statistics show increased safety, dispel perception
Brian Hews, Los Cerritos News

HAWAIIAN GARDENS, CA —The City of Hawaiian Gardens today announced serious crime has dropped approximately 50% in the past five years. The dramatic drop in Part 1 total crimes comes at a time when many people believed the challenging economy would cause an increase in criminal activity.

Realignment targets adults, but youth system also in flux
Samantha Gallegos, Capitol Weekly

While public attention has focused in recent years on startling changes in California’s prison system, the transformation of the youth correctional system has been even more dramatic.

California board teams with non-partisan research group to measure realignments’ effects
Julie Small, KPCC

The state board in charge of tracking the effects of California's criminal justice realignment voted Monday to partner with the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California to get the job done.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California prison officials to meet with advocates of striking inmates
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

SACRAMENTO -- California prison officials have agreed to meet with advocates for inmates who are now in their third week of a statewide hunger strike. The discussions are to take place Tuesday in Sacramento.

Calif man sentenced for killing woman in scheme to seize laptop with credit data
The Associated Press

LONG BEACH, California — A Southern California man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the 2009 murder of woman to steal a laptop loaded with stolen credit data.

CDCR RELATED

State parole agent to get new hearing on reverse-discrimination claim
Daniel O’Leary, The Fresno Bee

A white parole agent who sued the state claiming he lost a promotion to a less qualified African-American parole agent because of race should have a second chance to prove his case, a state appeals court ruled.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Justice Kennedy to decide fate of 9000 inmates at California prisons
Press TV

The fate of more than 9,000 inmates languishing in California’s prisons is once again in the hands of US Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy who will decide whether they must be released because of overcrowding.

REALIGNMENT

Stanislaus County approves funding for realignment
Ken Carlson, The Modesto Bee

MODESTO — Stanislaus County supervisors had reservations Tuesday about approving a third-phase spending plan for public safety realignment.

The plan developed by an executive committee from law enforcement and criminal justice will spend more than $1 million above a $14.5 million state allocation for realignment efforts in Stanislaus County this year.

SLO County gets positive prisoner realignment report
Early data shows costs covered, uptick in jail violence
April Charlton, The Santa Maria Times

Nearly two years into a plan to shift responsibility for low-level state prisoners to county jails, San Luis Obispo County officials are reporting positive results for local implementation of the state-mandated program.

State Attempts to Track Effect of Realignment
Julie Small, Valley Public Radio

A state board agreed this week to partner with the Public Policy Institute of California to examine the effects of a change to the state’s criminal justice policy called realignment.

Yolo County justice system ruled by meth
Don Frances, Daily Democrat

Spend some time in the courtroom of Commissioner Janene Beronio and the prevalence of methamphetamine use in Yolo County becomes clear.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California officials, inmate advocates discuss hunger strike
Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO -- Inmate advocates were left disappointed by their conversation with California prison officials Tuesday, the first such meeting since a statewide hunger strike began two weeks ago.

Rockefeller impostor convicted of murder loses bid for delay in sentencing
Linda Deutsch, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A Rockefeller impostor convicted in a California cold-case murder appeared in court as his own lawyer Tuesday and failed to delay his sentencing.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Parolee sought in Sacramento fire and deaths found dead in south state
Kurt Chirbas, The Sacramento Bee

Abraham Felmley, the parolee named as a person of interest in the Florin-area house fire that claimed the lives of his grandfather and uncle, was one of two men found dead Tuesday afternoon in Huntington Beach, police said.

Police: Parolee falls short of grilling ribs stolen from Fremont supermarket
Natalie Neysa Alund, Bay Area News Group

FREMONT -- A Brentwood parolee who police say got caught stealing BBQ ribs from a local Safeway and threatened to shoot an employee there was nabbed at a relative's nearby apartment before he could start grilling the stolen meat.

DEATH PENALTY

Former San Quentin warden to speak on abolishing the death penalty
Marin Independent Journal

Jeanne Woodford, a former warden of San Quentin state prison, will speak about her statewide campaign to abolish the death penalty at 2 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium of the Redwoods senior community in Mill Valley.

Appellate Court Blocks Import of Key Lethal-Injection Drug
Ashby Jones, Wall Street Journal

The federal Food and Drug Administration acted illegally when it allowed several state correctional departments to import a drug used in executions, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled on Tuesday.

CDCR RELATED

Camp inmates affect drawing trustee areas
By Susan Meeker, Tri-County Newspapers

When it comes to political boundaries, inmates are people, too.

For Stony Creek Joint Union School District, the inclusion of Valley View Conservation Camp residents has enormous consequences when it comes to drawing five balanced trustee areas for the very first time.

OPINION

OP-ED: Troubled Young People Deserve Compassion, Not Punishment
Lizzie Buchen, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

SAN FRANCISCO — At the turn of the 20th Century, Lucy Flower, my grandmother’s great grandmother, established the world’s first juvenile court inside the Cook County courthouse in central Chicago.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

San Quentin grads grateful, intentional
Baptist Press

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP) -- Songs, prayers and tears marked the commencement ceremony even though the graduates were wearing prison garb under their regalia -- and the service was held at San Quentin State Prison in California.

San Quentin Prisoners Learn to Find Peace and Power Through Personal Exploration
Kate Olson, PBS News Hour

Inside the walls that hold many of California's offenders, some inmates are learning to find peace. Prisoners at San Quentin can take part in a year-long initiative where they practice tactics to address the root causes of their violent behavior. Special correspondent Katie Olsen shows us who is benefiting from the program.

Hunger strike continues in California prisons but participation decreases
Lori Fowler, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Inmates at prisons throughout the state are still refusing meals to protest conditions for gang members held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison near Eureka.
But the number of participants has continuously decreased since the hunger strike first started more than two weeks ago, prison officials said.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

New mental health facility dedicated at Corcoran prison
By Diana Aguilera — The Fresno Bee

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation dedicated a new mental health facility Wednesday at Corcoran State Prison, spokesman Bill Sessa said.

The 14,000-square-foot building is the latest addition to the department's $2 billion expansion of medical and mental health facilities to meet court-ordered improvements in the quality of care provided to inmates.

Brown Scuttled Prison Bond Haunts Inmate Release Order
Michael B. Marois, Bloomberg

Six years ago, California lawmakers shook hands on a $7.4 billion deal to build lockups for 53,000 prisoners to reduce overcrowding that was so severe a federal judge threatened to set thousands of convicts free.

REALIGNMENT

Realignment in California: The Story So Far
Ryken Grattet, Public Policy Institute of California

October of this year marks the two-year anniversary of the introduction of California’s historic corrections reform known as public safety realignment.

Realignment shifted significant corrections oversight and funding from the state to its counties—including authority over most non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual offenders. Motivated in part by rulings from the federal courts to reduce prison overcrowding, this is the biggest shift in California corrections policy in decades.

Special dispatchers considered for Calif. county probation officers
Stanislaus County supervisors could approve funding today for three emergency dispatchers for the regional 911 center
Ken Carlson, The Modesto Bee

STANISLAUS COUNTY — In the brave new world of public safety realignment, county probation officers are out in the field so often, checking on former prison inmates, that officials want them to be talking with their own dispatchers.

Central Valley jails swamped by state prison realignment
Brad Branan, The Sacramento Bee

The county jail in downtown Fresno has an imposing presence: Three concrete buildings up to six stories tall, with few windows, occupying a full city block and the corner of another.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Mental health center at California Men's Colony to open in August
AnnMarie Cornejo, The San Luis Obispo Tribune

A $23 million mental health facility at the California Men’s Colony is expected to open in August to fulfill a federal mandate calling for improved care of the incarcerated mentally ill.
The licensed 50-bed correctional treatment center will provide temporary care for inmates suffering a mental health crisis.

North Kern State Prison search reveals contraband problem
Cell phones, drugs, and weapons found
23 ABC Bakersfield

A recent search of a North Kern State Prison has revealed a contraband problem.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation searched one facility on Wednesday and found a number of banned items.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Prison Program Helps Inmates Find Jobs After Release
Stephanie Chuang, NBC Bay Area

From recent college graduates to those who are still trying to bounce back from losing their jobs – finding work has been a big struggle. But there’s one group that’s ahead of the pack – nabbing great Silicon Valley jobs. Who are they?

Men who have been locked up in San Quentin State Prison. From armed robbery to shooting and killing a man, prisoners are taking courses and meeting Silicon Valley leaders inaccessible to people outside prison walls.

Calif. Inmates 'Prepared to Starve Themselves' to Protest Indefinite Isolation
PBS.org

SUMMARY

Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California is designed to hold some of the state's most violent offenders in isolated security units. In early July, inmates launched a state-wide hunger strike to demand limits on time spent in solitary. Special correspondent Michael Montgomery offers background on the policy.

More inmates head to prison infirmaries during hunger strike
Paige St. John, The Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO-- The flow of inmates through prison infirmaries is beginning to pick up as an inmate hunger strike over conditions in isolation units and prison gang policies is midway through its third week.

California prison health officials said 16 fasting inmates at three prisons were sent to treatment areas on Thursday, double the number of the day before. They were treated and returned to their cells, said Joyce Hayhoe, spokeswoman for the court-appointed medical receiver's office that runs prison healthcare services.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Fugitive Arrested at R.V. Park in Buellton
Sheriff's Gang Detectives Track Down and Arrest Fugitive Suspect Found Hiding Out at an R.V. Park in Buellton
Edhat.com

At around 5:30 this morning, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Gang Enforcement Unit confirmed that 33-year-old Arturo Renteria of Santa Maria was hiding out in a cabin at an R.V. Park located in the 100 block of Avenue of the Flags in Buellton. Renteria is a documented Santa Maria gang member with a history of narcotics sales who had escaped from parole and was wanted by authorities. Sheriff's Detectives, assisted by the Santa Barbara Regional Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Santa Maria Police Department, Gang Street Team and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, responded to the scene. Because authorities believed the suspect was armed and potentially dangerous, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Special Enforcement Team (S.W.A.T) was called in to assist and some campers at the R.V. Park were safely evacuated.

REALIGNMENT

'Split sentencing': Los Angeles County stays away from prison alternative that Riverside County and others embrace
Rina Palta, KPCC

"Dangerous animal, coming through," calls Riverside police Detective Ron Kipp.
Behind him is a young springer spaniel named Tilly, a narcotics dog. And like most people in the room, she'd clearly rather be elsewhere.

For hours, the Riverside area compliance team rifled through drawers, checked behind a set of 50 decorative plates that line the wall, and even opened the toilet lid. They found the man's cell phone with messages from earlier in the day, asking – in not so many words – if he had any drugs. And they called in a female officer to search his girlfriend.

CDCR RELATED

US prison population down for 3rd straight year
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The government says the U.S. prison population dropped for the third straight year in 2012.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics says there were more than 1.5 million prison inmates last year. That's a drop of 1.7 percent from 2011.

OPINION

Prison reform the conservative way
It's time to retire the tough-on-crime sound bites. There are several ways to cut costs and still keep people safe.
Pat Nolan and Chuck DeVore, The Los Angeles Times

When liberals expand the reach and cost of government, we conservatives label them "knee-jerk." However, conservatives have shown themselves to be enthusiastically knee-jerk in one area: criminal justice spending. For more than 40 years, conservatives have blindly supported a vast expansion of criminal laws and appropriated billions of dollars for new prisons to hold the inmates convicted under those laws.

Are we chicken about prison reform?
Steven Greenhut, Human Events

SACRAMENTO – Many voted in 2008 for Proposition 2, which requires the state’s farmers to provide chickens and some other critters with enough room to extend their wings, lie down and turn around.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Politicians weigh in on prison protests
Anthony Skeens, The Triplicate

The ranking members of the state Assembly’s Public Safety Committee are at odds over prison inmates’ efforts to end long-term solitary confinement.

Committee Chairman, Tom Ammiano, a Bay Area Democrat, released a public statement last week calling the state’s practice of solitary confinement unjustifiable because it often labels inmates gang members without sufficient evidence.

Independent monitors to keep watch on hunger strike at 9 prisons
State authorities send independent monitors into nine California prisons to assess developments during the inmate hunger strike.
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — State authorities have sent independent monitors into nine California prisons to keep watch on an inmate hunger strike that will soon enter its third week.

REALIGNMENT

Editorial: Sheriffs should end dream of a building binge
The Sacramento Bee

Because of overcrowding, Central Valley county sheriffs claim they can't keep dangerous criminals in their jails.

In a Thursday story in The Bee, they attribute the problem to Gov. Jerry Brown's public safety realignment, where people convicted of non-serious, nonviolent and non-sex crimes now serve their time in county jails instead of more costly state prisons.

Y-S jail violence up; cause debated – realignment a year in
Rob Parsons, The Appeal Democrat

Three Yuba County Jail inmates stabbed another inmate in the head and neck at least five times with a shank on June 21, and the 36-year-old victim suffered non-life-threatening wounds.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California prisons, hunger-strike backers clash over inmate death
Steve Gorman, Reuters

(Reuters) - Supporters of California prison inmates staging a prolonged hunger strike said on Saturday that one of the prisoners who had been refusing meals has died, but state corrections officials said the death was under investigation as a suicide.

Prison hunger strike leaders are in solitary but not alone
Convicted killer Todd Ashker, the legal brains behind the strike, and three other leaders are confined at Pelican Bay prison.
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON — Inside the concrete labyrinth of California's highest-security prison, an inmate covered in neo-Nazi tattoos and locked in solitary confinement has spearheaded the largest prison protest in California history.

Officials: CA inmate appears to have hanged self
The Associated Press

CORCORAN, Calif.—California prison officials are investigating a death of an inmate as an apparent suicide by hanging that they say had no connection to a system-wide hunger strike.

San Diego County mother gets 8 years for drunken driving reservoir crash that killed 2 girls
Associated Press

CHULA VISTA, California — A 23-year-old woman has been sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to crashing her minivan into a San Diego County reservoir while drunk, killing her 5-year-old daughter and another girl.

LA district attorney seeks state Supreme Court review of sex predator release
Linda Deutsch, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The California Supreme Court has been asked to step into the volatile issue of the impending release of a serial rapist.

Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who lost an earlier bid to an appeals court, filed a request with the high court Friday for a hearing. She said the release from a state hospital of 62-year-old Christopher Hubbart would pose a significant threat to public safety.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Parolee Turned Poet Publishes Children's Book
Keith Carls , Central Coast News

SANTA MARIA - "Once upon a time in a little windy city there lived a tricky cat known as Clever Kitty", 46 year Walt Rouse recites verses in his children's book called the Adventures of Clever Kitty.

Parole alerts drop as Calif. refines GPS tracking
The Associated Press

A flood of electronic alerts that was inundating California parole agents has dropped by half since The Associated Press first reported the problem two years ago.

The alerts are generated by satellite-linked ankle bracelets strapped to paroled sex offenders. They send alarms when offenders tamper with the devices, stray into areas where they're not supposed to be or move too far away from home.

DEATH PENALTY

Former San Quentin warden: Death penalty all but dead
Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal

To hear former San Quentin State Prison Warden Jeanne Woodford tell it, the death penalty is all but dead in California.

"The political consensus is that California's death penalty is on its way out," she told an audience of about 70 people Saturday in the auditorium at the Redwoods in Mill Valley. "The question remains when and how it will go."

CDCR RELATED

Stockton Police Complete Three-Day “Heat Wave”
Luana Munoz, Fox 40

STOCKTON –The Stockton Police Department completed its three-day “violence suppression mission”, named “Operation Heatwave” on Sunday night.

Operation Heatwave, which was a continuation from missions held within the last year, was a mission to help stop crime and violence in Stockton, as well as the rest of San Joaquin County. The concentration of the mission focused on finding people belonging to groups and gangs, identified in the earlier “Operation Ceasefire”, who are involved in gun violence.

County juvenile hall cuts use of force, beefs up education in lawsuit's wake
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

Sun shines through the skylights and tomatoes grow on the outdoor patios. Staff members smile and chat people up. Modern three-dimensional artwork decorates the walls.

Lines of kids walking single file and looking straight ahead give away that it's a correctional setting, but even at that, the Sacramento County Youth Detention Facility – juvenile hall – is a calmer, cooler place these days.

Calif. legislator launches task force to raise awareness about potentially deadly Valley Fever
Associated Press

FRESNO, California — A California legislator is announcing new a task force to increase awareness about the potentially deadly disease known as Valley Fever.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield will co-chair the Congressional Valley Fever Task Force comprising of 14 lawmakers from California, Arizona and Texas.

Part of Old Fire reward given after almost 10 years
Joe Nelson, San Bernardino Sun

A $60,000 check has been cut for the great-great aunt of convicted Old Fire arsonist Rickie Lee Fowler -- San Bernardino County's share of a $110,000 reward offered in 2003 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for causing the county's most devastating wildfire, officials said Friday.

California Prisoners Can Pay for Better Rooms
Mike Tuttle, Webpronews.com

WTKR reports that some inmates in California prisons are getting much nicer accommodations than others. This preferential treatment is happening for a simple reason: they are paying for it.
A jailhouse in Fremont, California was built with the intention of being used for minimum security inmates from the county jail to stay and do landscaping and other chores. But it never got used. So the $10 million dollar facility stood empty, unused.

Report: violent crime up slightly in Calif. in 2012 but crime rate remains at historic lows
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — State officials report that violent crimes slightly increased in California last year, but that crime rates remain at historic lows.

The annual "Crime in California" report released Friday shows that there were 160,629 violent crimes in 2012, nearly 3 percent more than the 155,313 violent crimes in 2011.

How pedophile slipped through system, abused more boys
Matthias Gafni, Contra Costa Times

For most of two decades, convicted pedophile Christopher Miller conducted real-life lessons in how to avoid paying for your crimes. He was accused of molesting two young boys in Southern California over extended periods of time. He was arrested three times for possessing child porn. But he spent less than five years in custody after three convictions, resuming his behavior after each release.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Inmate death at Corcoran prison ruled suicide
Sam Stanton, The Sacramento Bee

The death of an inmate last Monday at California State Prison-Corcoran has been ruled a suicide, despite claims by inmate advocates that it may have resulted from an ongoing hunger strike.

Kings County Chief Deputy Coroner Tom A. Edmonds said this morning that the inmate, 32-year-old Billy Michael Sell died from "ligature strangulation."

Prisoners' hunger strike meets tough response
Prison officials say they're out of patience with the strike tactic
Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle

SACRAMENTO — For the third time in two years, thousands of California prisoners have taken part in a hunger strike to demand reforms in solitary confinement, but this strike has a markedly different feel from a pair in 2011 — prison officials aren't giving an inch.

Shifting of Calif. prisoners prompts calls of unfairness, racial discrimination
State moving thousands of inmates to, from different prisons due to Valley Fever
Claire Doan, KCRA

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is shifting thousands of inmates in and out of state prisons, due to concerns over Valley Fever, a fungal infection that can cause flu-like symptoms, and in rare cases, death.

Prison term 42 years for Shasta Ponzi scam
Dale Kasler, The Sacramento Bee

Convicted in one of the biggest Ponzi schemes Northern California has seen in years, a Redding man was slapped with a 42-year prison term last week.

James Koenig, 60, was convicted of multiple fraud charges in connection with a Ponzi scheme that bilked more than 400 investors out of $90 million. The operator of a firm called Assent Real Estate Corp., he was sentenced last Friday in Shasta Superior Court.

REALIGNMENT

CCPOA VP: Realignment ‘Hasn’t Stepped Up’ Prison Rehabilitation
Charlotte Dean, IVN

Governor Jerry Brown and Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Brown are in hot water with the Supreme Court. The system appears to be 9,600 inmates over the legally determined cap. They have until year’s end to make the deadline. How will the state realign inmate numbers with constitutional standards without endangering the public?

LAPD North Hollywood Division cracking down on thefts from cars
Gregory J. Wilcox, Los Angeles Daily News

The Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood Division is making progress in its effort to quash a recent spike in thefts from vehicles in the southeast area of the Valley, officials said Monday.

CDCR RELATED

Mental health workers in demand
County psych techs taking new prison facility jobs, leaving old unfilled
Zachary K. Johnson, The Stockton Record

STOCKTON - Officials say the new prison health care facility on the edge of Stockton has already siphoned away a significant number of county mental health workers.

So far, Behavioral Health Services has lost about one-fifth of its psychiatric technicians to the California Health Care Facility, an $839 million operation that houses more than 1,700 sick or mentally ill state prisoners.

Police in the Inland Empire on alert after another attack
Lori Fowler, The San Bernardino Sun

The arrests of the men accused of ambushing two San Bernardino police officers last week brings to light that it's been a violent year so far for peace officers in the Inland Empire.
This year alone, two law enforcement officers were killed and seven other officers were shot at.

National FBI crackdown on child sex trafficking rescues Elk Grove, Sacramento teens
Kurt Chirbas, The Sacramento Bee

Authorities rescued three teenage girls – from Elk Grove, Sacramento and Fresno – this weekend in a nationwide crackdown on child sex trafficking, the FBI said Monday.

The girls – ages 14 and 15 – were among 105 children who were removed from forced prostitution during the seventh round of a campaign known as Operation Cross Country.

Celebrities join prison hunger strikers in protesting isolation
Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and Jay Leno are among those petitioning Gov. Jerry Brown to end California's use of solitary confinement to control prison gang violence.
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and Jay Leno have joined prison hunger strikers in calling for an end to California's use of solitary confinement to control prison gang violence.

The civil rights crusaders, singer and late-night comedian are among those who signed a letter sent Monday to Gov. Jerry Brown. The letter calls isolation units "extensions of the same inhumanity practiced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay."

OPINION

Contra Costa Times editorial: Christopher Miller deserves a very long stay in confinement

Christopher Miller must go to jail and it should be for a very long time.

After reading a weekend article by the Bay Area News Group's Matthias Gafni about the convicted pedophile's manipulation of the legal system, we became convinced that serious prison time is the only possible outcome that justice can accommodate.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

CAL FIRE Camp Crews provide valuable service to the Community
Highland Community News

San Bernardino - For 67 years, CAL FIRE and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been operating Conservation Camps utilizing incarcerated men and women to fight fire and help protect the citizens their property and the resources of California. The Conservation Camp program began in 1946 when the Rainbow Conservation Camp was established in San Diego County. CAL FIRE is currently authorized to operate 196 fire crews year-round.

Supporters of California Prison Hunger Strikers Petition Governor
Max Pringle, Capital Public Radio

Supporters of California prisoners on a weeks-long hunger strike against the prison system’s gang isolation program are urging Governor Jerry Brown to end practices they say are inhumane.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

10 officers on leave after Friday shootout in Salinas
Allison Gatlin, The Salinas Californian

Ten law enforcement officers — including eight from the Salinas Police Department — are on leave after they were involved in a firefight Friday with a 30-year-old Salinas man who died of his wounds, police Cmdr. Vince Maiorana said Monday.

REALIGNMENT

A California crime wave? Or anomaly?
Inland Daily Bulletin

The ongoing push and pull over California's so-called prison realignment program has been an abstract political battle among federal, state and local officials.
For the public, the realignment debate -- which is the political term for the shift of inmates out of state prisons and into county jails, or to their freedom -- is more a concern about thugs getting sprung from prison early.

CDCR RELATED

The Sting of Juvenile Detention
David Maass, The Crime Report

When young people held in San Diego County’s juvenile hall are disciplined with pepper spray, guards at the Kearny Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility ask afterwards if they want a shower.The best response, says former youth offender Ian Arellano, is “no.”

Water reactivates the sting—which then washes down your body, he explains. Instead of affecting just your arms or face, suddenly every pore burns.

FBI-led crackdown on child sex trafficking rescues 12 children in SF Bay Area, most in nation
The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — The FBI says 12 child prostitutes have been rescued and 21 alleged pimps were arrested in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of a nationwide crackdown on child sex trafficking.

Looking At A Half-Decade Of Private Prison Growth In Oklahoma
Oklahoma Watch and Shaun Hittle, KGOU

At the July Oklahoma Department of Corrections board meeting, officials announced the approval of moving 310 more Oklahoma inmates to the Cimarron Correctional Facility, a private prison in Cushing.

The move was just the latest in a recent shift of state inmates to three private prisons in Oklahoma. Since July 2008, the number of Oklahoma inmates in private prisons has grown by 32 percent, from 4,264 to 5,625 in July 2013.

South Sacramento woman gets 10 years for fatal shooting
Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

A shooting death on drug-troubled Loucreta Drive resulted Tuesday in a 10-year sentence for the woman who pulled the trigger.

Andreawanna Giavonniel Clemmons, 21, drew the term as a result of her no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter in the 3:10 a.m. July 18, 2012, killing of Lisa Bisher, 38.

Orange County hockey mom sentenced to 16 months in prison for molesting son's teen friends
The Associated Press

SANTA ANA, California — An Orange County hockey mom who sexually assaulted her son's teenage friends has been sentenced to 16 months in prison.
City News Service says 45-year-old Kathia Davis was sentenced Tuesday. The divorced mother of three was arrested in September.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Tehama County grand jury: Ishi Camp A-OK
Andre Byik, Red Bluff Daily News

The 2012-13 Tehama County grand jury in its annual report lauded the operation of the CalFire Ishi Conservation Camp, which houses inmate crews that aid in fire suppression.

The grand jury found that the fire camp in Paynes Creek in northeast Tehama County is operated in an "exemplary manner," inmates are properly trained, certified and vetted prior to participation in the program, and that the camp is meeting its goals to improve the employability of inmates and reduce recidivism while enhancing public safety.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Attorneys seek limited isolation for mentally ill inmates
Julie Small, KPCC

The California Health Care Facility in Stockton (seen here under construction) will soon be open and is expected to house some mentally ill inmates currently kept in prison isolation units.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Registered sex offender at large
The Bakersfield Californian

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is asking the public's help in locating Douglas Horton, a parolee at large and registered sex offender.
Horton is on parole for reckless evading of a peace officer. He has a prior conviction for annoying or molesting children.

REALIGNMENT

El Dorado County probation department takes more space
Ben van der Meer, Sacramento Business Journal

New programs under state realignment have pushed El Dorado County’s probation department to lease about 4,000 square feet of new space in Shingle Springs.

CDCR RELATED

Gang sweep nets eight arrests
The Porterville Recorder

Detectives with the Porterville Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, with the assistance of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office Gang Unit, Tulare County Probation Department and agents with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, conducted a citywide gang suppression detail Friday specifically targeting known areas where gang members frequent.

Ied Murder Sentences Delivered
Eastside Gang Members Face 15 Years to Life
Tyler Hayden, The Santa Barbara Independent

“I’ve handed down sentences like this for the last 10 years, and I’m still at a loss for why this continues to happen,” Judge Brian Hill said Tuesday as he ordered two Santa Barbara gang members to prison for 15 years to life. “We’re losing part of a generation of young Latino males.”

UC Irvine professor whose emails detail school massacre plot set to be sentenced for arsons
The Associated Press

SANTA ANA, California — A Southern California professor whose private emails described a plot to attack students and administrators at his late son's high school is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for setting a series of fires after the boy committed suicide.

OC man sentenced to 6 years for taking dead father's social security checks
The Associated Press

SANTA ANA, California — An Orange County man has been sentenced to six years in prison for collecting Social Security checks intended for his dead father, whose skeletal human remains were found in a backyard.

CDCR Institutions/Camps

CAL FIRE Camp Crews provide valuable service to the Community

San Bernardino - For 67 years, CAL FIRE and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been operating Conservation Camps utilizing incarcerated men and women to fight fire and help protect the citizens their property and the resources of California. The Conservation Camp program began in 1946 when the Rainbow Conservation Camp was established in San Diego County. CAL FIRE is currently authorized to operate 196 fire crews year-round.

Realignment

County gets positive prison realignment report

April Charlton, The Adobe Press

Nearly two years into a plan to shift responsibility for low-level state prisoners to county jails, San Luis Obispo County officials are reporting positive results for local implementation of the state-mandated program.

California Prisons

California prisons: U.S. Supreme Court rejects state bid to avoid removal of more inmates

Howard Mintz, San Jose Mercury News

Gov. Jerry Brown and his top prison officials may be running out of options to avoid having to remove another 10,000 inmates from the state's prisons by the end of the year.

In a brief but significant order, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Brown administration's bid to stall a federal court demand that the state shed the inmates to resolve California's prison overcrowding crisis. It was the latest setback in a long-running case that has stirred fears of thousands of criminals walking free, although the state would likely seek to place many of the prisoners in other facilities, including county jails.

Justice Scalia voices uncommon dissent in California prison ruling

Evan Halper and Paige St. John

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- Not all the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court were in agreement with the decision Friday that will force California to remove more than 9,000 inmates from its overcrowded prisons by the end of the year.

Though the court’s ideological differences are well known, it is unusual for the justices to write a dissent on procedural matters such as California’s request for a stay of an order from a panel of federal judges.

Early release ruling troubles authorities

Rob Parsons, Appeal-Democrat

Yuba-Sutter law enforcement officials are critical of a U.S. Supreme Court decision forcing California to release nearly 10,000 state prison inmates by year's end.

A majority of justices on Friday refused an emergency request from Gov. Jerry Brown to halt a lower court's directive for the early release of the prisoners to ease severe overcrowding at California's 33 adult prisons.

Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams said the high court's decision shows the federal government has "too much power" over state and local officials.

California Inmates

Killers for Human Rights

National Ledger

Before you join Jay Leno and Susan Sarandon and sign an open letter to Gov. Jerry Brown to protest "solitary confinement" in California prisons' security housing units, there are a few things you should know. Start with the criminal records of the leaders of the Short Corridor Collective -- the four inmates who, despite their "extreme isolation," orchestrated a hunger strike with more than 30,000 inmate participants July 8.

While serving time for burglary in Folsom State Prison, hunger strike leader Todd Ashker stabbed a fellow inmate to death in 1987.

Mentally Disturbed Sex Offender Wanted by U.S. Marshals

Sex Offender has ties to Alaska

LOS ANGELES –The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a fugitive sex offender. Cash Allen Lewark, 41 is being sought on an outstanding warrant for probation violation. His probation stems from a conviction of Lewd Acts with a Minor in San Diego, CA. Lewark is known to have strong family ties in Puyallap, Washington; Reno, Nevada; and Alaska.

CDCR News
Hunger strike in California prisons is a gang power play
The inmates calling the shots are leaders in four of the most violent and influential prison gangs in California. We're talking about convicted murderers who are putting lives at risk to advance their own agenda of violence.

By Jeffrey Beard, CDCR Secretary

A few hundred inmates are continuing to take part in a hunger strike in California prisons. Some prisoners claim this strike is about living conditions in the Security Housing Units, commonly called SHUs, which house some of the most dangerous inmates in California. Don't be fooled. Many of those participating in the hunger strike are under extreme pressure to do so from violent prison gangs, which called the strike in an attempt to restore their ability to terrorize fellow prisoners, prison staff and communities throughout California.

I am concerned about the toll this hunger strike is taking on my staff, the inmates and their families. I am uneasy about what some inmates are telling my staff. Many say they want to resume eating but are afraid of the retaliation they will suffer at the hands of other inmates acting on orders from their gang leaders. In one prison, an inmate was assaulted because he refused to share his food with striking inmates. He suffered facial fractures and had to be hospitalized for several days.

For decades, California has had the most violent and sophisticated prison gangs in the nation. When gang violence exploded during the 1970s and 1980s, and crime rates around the state rose to record highs, state prisons felt the impact. Between 1970 and 1973, 11 employees of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were slain by inmates, and many others were brutally assaulted.

PHOTOS: Inside Pelican Bay State Prison

After this turbulent and violent time, and in response to the growing threat of gangs, the corrections department created SHUs to safely house gang members and their associates while minimizing their influence on other prisoners. Restricting the gangs' communication has limited their ability to engage in organized criminal activity and has saved lives both inside and outside prison walls.

There are SHUs at four prisons in California. At three of them — in Tehachapi, Corcoran and Folsom — there are outdoor-facing windows in the cells that allow for direct sunlight. At Pelican Bay, all SHU cells have skylights. In all of the facilities, inmates in the SHU have radios and color TVs with access to channels such as ESPN.

They have weekly access to a law library and daily exercise time. Many have cellmates; they can earn degrees; they can send and receive letters; and their family and friends can visit them every weekend. SHU inmates receive the same meals and portions as general population inmates. This is not "solitary confinement," in that prisoners can have visitors and, in many cases, interaction with other inmates.
Even so, we remain committed to improving our facilities and policies. The department has brought in outside experts to evaluate our gang-management strategies. Based on their recommendations, we implemented a new comprehensive gang-management strategy last fall.

The new strategy places an emphasis on documented gang-related behavior, something hunger strike leaders asked for in 2011. It also features enhanced due process, along with a step-down program aimed at inmates who want out of the SHU but don't want out of their gangs. We no longer commit people to indeterminate placements in SHUs, in which the terms have no end dates. And we are committed to providing less-restrictive housing and more privileges for inmates who demonstrate their willingness to refrain from gang behavior.

Also, as part of the reforms implemented last year, we are conducting case-by-case reviews of inmates who had been previously given indeterminate terms in SHUs. To date, we have completed 399 reviews, and about 62% of those whose cases have been reviewed have been transferred, or are about to be transferred back into the general prison population. An additional 30% were placed in various phases of the step-down program, receiving more privileges and rehabilitative services.

The corrections department has done everything it committed to do following the hunger strike in 2011. Several months after that strike, California's Office of the Inspector General, which is responsible for independent oversight of the department, issued a report confirming the department's good-faith efforts.

So what is this really about? Some of the men who participated in the last hunger strike have since dropped out of the gangs for religious or personal reasons, and they said it best in recently filed court declarations. "Honestly, we did not care about human rights," one inmate said about the 2011 hunger strike. "The objective was to get into the general population, or mainline, and start running our street regiments again." Another described the hunger strike this way: "We knew we could tap big time support through this tactic, but we weren't trying to improve the conditions in the SHU; we were trying to get out of the SHU to further our gang agenda on the mainline."

It's no different this time. The inmates calling the shots are leaders in four of the most violent and influential prison gangs in California: the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia and the Black Guerrilla Family. We're talking about convicted murderers who are putting lives at risk to advance their own agenda of violence.

The leaders of these four gangs are directly responsible for at least five ruthless murders, 35 violent assaults, including stabbings, and they have racked up more than two dozen violations for possession of weapons and other contraband.

Brutal killers should not be glorified. This hunger strike is dangerous, disruptive and needs to end.

Jeffrey Beard heads the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

California Prisons
Editorial: State needs to take long-term view on prisons
Sacramento Bee Editorial Board

The expected occurred. The U.S. Supreme Court in a 17-word, terse 6-3 ruling on Friday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown's latest attempt to stall on the 2009 order to get population in 33 state prisons to 137.5 percent of design capacity (about 110,000 inmates) by Dec. 31.

California corrections chief outlines plan to reduce prison population
Brad Branan, Sacramento Bee

California will move nearly 10,000 inmates to county jails, community correctional facilities and out-of-state prisons by year's end in response to a federal court order, the state's corrections secretary said Monday.

Jeffrey Beard described the plan to The Sacramento Bee's editorial board three days after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Gov. Jerry Brown's request to delay a court order to reduce inmates by December. The reduction is necessary to improve substandard health care in the prisons, the courts have ruled.

Calif. Officials Outline Plans for Complying With Inmate Release Order
California Healthline

On Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) administration announced plans to comply with a federal court order to release nearly 10,000 state prisoners by relying on county jails, community correctional facilities and out-of-state prisons, the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports (Branan, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 8/5).

California seeks to move inmates to private prisons
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — California will seek to move thousands of inmates to private prisons in a last-ditch attempt to avoid releasing violent offenders to ease prison crowding, the state corrections chief said Monday.

CDCR Related
Convicted MD sentenced to eight years in prison
Judge: 'Defendant's lack of remorse is stunning'
By Anna Bitong

Former Thousand Oaks family doctor Barry Lefkovitch, who was convicted in September of sexually abusing three of his female patients, has been sentenced to eight years in state prison.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright handed down the lengthy sentence today after listening to a statement from one of Lefkovitch's victims. Lefkovitch was given credit for the 628 days he served in county jail. He was also ordered to pay more than $10,000 in fines and restitution.

Mental state likely to be key in Santa Cruz fatal stabbing case
Judge will decide whether the defendant -- who was released from a state mental hospital because of a clerical error -- should stand trial for murder.
By Lee Romney This article has been corrected. See the note below for details.

SANTA CRUZ — After months spent in a state mental hospital, Charles Anthony Edwards was brought Monday to a Santa Cruz County courtroom, where a judge will determine whether he should be tried in a slaying that shocked this beach town.
Edwards' public defender conceded during the first day of an expected two-day preliminary hearing that his client had been identified by two witnesses to the stabbing of downtown business owner Shannon Collins.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

CCI: prison goes green with solar power
Matthew Martz, Tehachapi News

When one thinks of institutions that embrace renewable energy, prisons don't immediately come to mind.

But correctional facilities require a lot of electricity to run, and the large the amount of open spaces they often occupy make them perfect for solar power.

Prison overcrowding could force Kern County Correctional Facilities to reopen
Taft and Shafter facilities would be first to open
23 ABC

Two correctional facilities in Kern County could be reopening because of pressure on state officials to ease prison overcrowding.

Taft police say the community corrections facilities of Taft and Shafter could be the first to reopen.

Prison overcrowding: shift inmates out of state?
Nanette Miranda, ABC News

SACRAMENTO (KABC) -- California's crowded prisons are causing headaches in Sacramento. Rather than releasing felons, Governor Jerry Brown is looking at ways to move the overcrowding across state lines. But the proposal is controversial and expensive.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

VALLEY FEVER: Inland inmates may replace transferred prisoners
Richard K. De Atley and Janet Zimmerman, The Press Enterprise

California’s prisons this week will start transferring inmates susceptible to Valley Fever from two Central Valley prisons, where infections from the airborne fungus sickened more than 1,800 prisoners between 2008 and 2012.

Death sentence upheld for ex-cop who killed 6
Bob Egelko, The San Francisco Chronicle

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a former Millbrae policeman convicted of committing six brutal murders related to drugs and prostitution in 1983 while he ran an electrical contracting business in a Burlingame warehouse.

REALIGNMENT

Calaveras struggles with prison shift
Board OKs recommended 2013-14 budget
Stephen Crane, Calaverasenterprise.com

The state prison system is bursting at the seams, and counties are now in charge of easing the burden.

That burden is a heavy one, and some Calaveras County department heads predict the road ahead may be bumpy.

CDCR RELATED

U.S. issues indictments in alleged Mexican Mafia, drug cartel scheme
Officials say they have disrupted a planned merger between the Michoacan drug cartel and the Mexican Mafia prison gang that would have distributed large amounts of methamphetamine in the region.
Richard Winton, The Los Angeles Times

A notorious prison gang and a Mexican drug cartel were on the brink of forging a powerful alliance as part of an effort to muscle into the Southern California methamphetamine business with an army of street dealers, federal and local authorities confirmed Tuesday.

To read more on this issue follow this link: http://www.loscerritosnews.net/2013/08/06/feds-bust-13-la-area-mexican-mafia-la-familia-members-in-cartel-crackdown/

Porterville man accused by police of stabbing three, killing one, found and arrested
Anne Stegan, 23 ABC

PORTERVILLE, Calif. - Officers of the Porterville Police Department arrested a man police said is suspected of stabbing three, killing one man.

Detectives received information that the suspect, Carlos Espinoza, was possibly in the Woodville area near Porterville on August 5 at around 7:30 p.m, officials said.

Vietnam executes first prisoner by lethal injection
Associated Foreign Press

HANOI - Vietnam executed its first prisoner by lethal injection on Tuesday, state media said, after a two-year hiatus in carrying out capital punishments due to problems procuring the chemicals.

OPINION

Prison hospital presents opportunity
Recordnet.com

One of the worries of area medical officials about the construction of a huge prison hospital in Stockton is that it would siphon off medical personnel already in short supply here. That's apparently happening.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

STATE PRISONS: Senate leaders call for spending to avert releases
Jim Miller, The Press Enterprise

SACRAMENTO – The state Senate’s top Democrat said lawmakers need to be ready to spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent the court-ordered release of thousands of prison inmates.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told reporters that a federal three-judge panel put public safety at risk by ordering the state to release more than 9,000 inmates by year’s end to reduce overcrowding. The U.S. Supreme Court last week denied the Brown administration’s motion to stay a lower court ruling and the governor is appealing.

California prisons could free 1,000 to ease crowding
The state scrambles to relocate thousands of inmates to comply with a court order.
Chris Megerian and Paige St. John, The Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — Under court orders to ease prison crowding by the end of the year, California officials are scrambling to relocate 9,600 inmates but may be forced to free roughly 1,000 of them before they have completed their sentences.

Taft and Shafter prisons could reopen to ease overcrowding
Theo Douglas, The Bakersfield Californian

Community correctional facilities in Taft and Shafter that closed two years ago could be reopened to ease overcrowding in state prisons, officials in both cities said Wednesday.

Jeffrey Beard, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, toured both CCFs on July 18 to determine their condition, according to the city managers of Taft and Shafter.

Circuit Slams California Prisons for Understaffing
Lorraine Bailey, Courthouse News
(CN) - The 9th Circuit revived claims over the suicide of a man in a California state prison where he was left unsupervised for several hours because of a staff meeting.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Prison hunger strike leader named in crackdown
Don Thompson, The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A gang leader who helped organize a massive hunger strike in California state prisons has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in federal indictments aiming to disrupt the Mexican Mafia prison gang and a Mexican drug cartel.

Inmate advocates meet CDCR head
Ideas offered for ending hunger strike; state details its current reforms
The Del Norte Triplicate

Advocates for inmates on a hunger strike to protest California’s solitary confinement program met with the state prisons chief on Friday as they pushed for an end to practices they say are inhumane.

SILVER FIRE: Weekend weather means ‘everything is going to burn,’ forecaster says
Michael Watanabe, The Press Enterprise

Fifteen structures had been destroyed by the fast-moving Silver Fire on Wednesday, Aug. 7, while the weather forecast for the next few days wasn’t expected to help fire-fighting efforts.

Federal appeals court rejects 254-year sentence for Southern California serial rapist
The Associated Press

LONG BEACH, California — A federal appeals court has rejected the virtual life sentence for a Southern California serial rapist.

The court in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that Roosevelt Moore shouldn't have been given a collective sentence of 254 years because he was only 16 at the time of the crimes.

U.S. Marshals seek suspect with ties to Alaska
Homer News

The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a fugitive sex offender, Marshals said in a press release.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Killer moving near Sierra High?
Residents uneasy about mentally unstable parolee
Jason Campbell, The Manteca Bulletin

Ronald Benjamin Toppila wasn’t a Manteca resident when he stabbed and beat his mother to death in 2004.

But if a Sacramento Superior Court judge gives his blessing, the 72-year-old – who has been confined at the Napa State Hospital since 2006 when a jury found him not guilty of the crime by reason of insanity – could end up in a transitional care facility within walking distance of Sierra High School.

REALIGNMENT

State corrections chief likes county's AB 109-related effort
Ramona Giwargis, The Merced Sun-Star

MERCED — Gov. Jerry Brown's secretary of corrections, Jeffrey Beard, toured the Trident Center in Merced on Wednesday, a one-stop shop providing services to county jail inmates released under the state's prison realignment law.

Beard commended the center for providing "wrap-around" services under one roof to individuals released under Assembly Bill 109, which aims to reduce prison overpopulation by allowing nonserious, nonviolent and nonsexual offenders to serve their time with the counties instead of state prison.

Immigration 'holds' down in Monterey County
Drop seen in wake of state prisoner realignment
Julia Reynolds, The Monterey County Herald

The number of immigration "holds" in Monterey County Jail has dropped dramatically since state prisoner realignment took effect, newly released data show.

And while some California counties appear to be deliberately reducing federal immigration detentions to free up jail beds in the wake of realignment, it's still unclear why Monterey County's numbers have dropped in half.

CDCR RELATED

San Diego County To Send 50 More Inmates To Fire Camps
Susan Murphy, KPBS

Dozens of San Diego inmates will soon be transferred from county jails to state-run fire camps as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and to provide support to firefighters on the front lines.

What If?........Could the California Youth Authority Site Become a Charter School?
Melissa Chavez, Paso Robles Magazine

“What if...?”

Consider the number of cures and groundbreaking discoveries that began with “what if...?” Several successful educators are asking that very question. They are seriously considering the former El Paso de Robles Correctional Youth Facility as the perfect location to establish the tentatively-named Paso Robles Charter School & Youth Center. The estimated 157-acre site is located inside the city limits at 4545 Airport Road, just north of Highway 46-East.

OPINION

Time to end overcrowding
Supreme Court message to California prisons is crystal clear
The Stockton Record

When the Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency request to halt a lower court's order for California to release more inmates to ease prison overcrowding, the high court sent the state yet another signal: It's time to get it done.

Dan Walters: Gov. Jerry Brown reaping what he sowed on state prisons
The Sacramento Bee

The biblical injunction "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" has a political version — what goes around comes around.

More prisons equals more prisoners -- is that what we want?
The Ventura County Reporter

Despite Gov. Jerry Brown’s best efforts to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the early release of 10,000 inmates due to overcrowding by Dec. 31, the justices dismissed the emergency request last week and they, according to Covina Police Chief Kim Raney, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, ignored the efforts already under way to reduce overcrowding. The early release will include felons convicted of a variety of crimes, including violent ones.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Governor changes tactics, seeks more private prison beds to avoid freeing Calif. inmates early
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Eight months after Gov. Jerry Brown tried to end California's reliance on private prisons to handle an overflow of inmates, his administration has changed tactics.

California seeks private prison deals
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown's administration is discussing deals to lease more than 4,600 private and publicly owned prison beds in California, inching the state toward compliance with federal court orders to reduce crowding in its own lockups.

Private prisons won't solve California's problems, advocates say
Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — California officials want to comply with a court order to reduce the prison population by simply locking up inmates in different places, but advocates say that's a shortsighted approach to the problem.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California prisoners continue hunger strikes
Prison protests against "cruel and inhumane conditions" are seen by officials as ploy by gang leaders to regain power.
Alfonso Serrano, Aljazeera

Hundreds of inmates across California prisons are continuing their hunger strike, one month after starting protests to highlight what they say are inhumane conditions in solitary confinement.

Skeptical prison officials have dismissed the action as a ploy by gang leaders to regain power.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Fugitive Gang Member Arrested
Santa Barbara Edhat

On August 7th, 2013, at 07:15 AM, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office Gang Enforcement Unit located and apprehended 29-year-old Ernest Gil of Santa Maria, during a traffic stop at the intersection of North Thornburg Street at Mill Street in the city of Santa Maria. Gang Detectives knew Gil to have two warrants issued for his arrest, including a no-bail warrant for escaping from parole and a $250,000 warrant for assault with a firearm. Gil is a Santa Maria gang member who has a history of narcotic sales, domestic violence, firearms possession and vandalism.

CDCR RELATED

Cynthia Brown assumes leadership role at Ventura, but for how long?
Selena Teji, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice

Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in Camarillo is one of three remaining state operated facilities for California’s high-needs justice-involved youth. The facilities are under court mandate to improve their conditions of care, previously documented as inhumane and abusive. Today, Ventura YCF still struggles to meet those mandates, in part due to its fragmented and ever changing leadership.

U.S. Prisons Are a Mess. Congress May Actually Do Something About It.
Matt Berman, National Journal

Prisons in the United States are something of a disaster—both in terms of justice and the budget.

Raids Cripple ‘Budding’ Mexican Mafia, Drug Cartel Joint ‘Project’
EGP News

Twenty-two people named in two federal grand jury indictments outlining an alliance between the Mexican Mafia prison gang, a South Los Angeles street gang and a drug cartel were arrested Tuesday in a series of Southern California raids.

OPINION

California's prison mess
The federal court order to cut the inmate population in state prisons offers an opportunity to revamp criminal justice.
Los Angeles Times Editorial Board

Under a 4-year-old order to reduce the state's prison population, Gov. Jerry Brown is preparing, finally, to file a plan with the court outlining how he and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation intend to comply. They have been dragging their feet long enough — and in fact are continuing to do so. They lost their request last week to block the order and are now pressing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to get out from under a Dec. 31 deadline. The longer they wait, the more difficult it will be for communities to safely reabsorb former inmates and for the state's criminal justice system to begin operating in a more efficient and effective fashion.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

California files formal appeal with US Supreme Court in long-running prison crowding feud
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — Against growing odds, Gov. Jerry Brown formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court late Friday to intervene once again in California's yearslong battle with federal judges over control of the state's prison system.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Dan Morain: The real story behind hunger strike
The Sacramento Bee

Philip Cozens has spent three decades representing murderers, gang leaders and other outlaws.

But the criminal defense attorney never ran across anyone more dangerous than Todd Ashker, his former client, a killer and a leader of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.

Valley Fever: California's Silent Epidemic
Disease killed dozens of California inmates earlier this year
Stephanie Chuang, NBC Bay Area

Medical experts are calling it a silent epidemic.

The disease known as Valley Fever is spreading here in California, hitting more people than ever before.

Justice Department takes a stand on solitary confinement
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

This post has been updated.

SACRAMENTO -- The U.S. Justice Department has weighed in on California's use of solitary confinement and other forms of isolation for mentally ill inmates, saying it has found that such conditions subject prisoners “to a risk of serious harm."

Former fugitive sentenced in 12-year-old sex crime case
Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee

A man was sentenced today in El Dorado County Superior Court to 138 years to life in prison for acts of sexual misconduct committed more than a decade ago.

An El Dorado County jury in July convicted Patrick Senatore, 45, of 10 felony counts of sexual misconduct.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Facebook posting raises alarm over sex offender
But law enforcement reports no new complaints about Morton
Kerana Todorov, Napa Valley Register

Recent accusations about a Napa man released from state prison in November have gone viral on social media.

However, Napa Police have not received new complaints about the man, Jefferson Charles Morton, Napa Police Capt. Jeff Troendly said Wednesday. Neither have the Napa County Sheriff’s Office nor the Napa County District Attorney’s Office, which receives complaints from law agencies.

REALIGNMENT

Supervisors Move to Keep Low-risk Inmates Working Fire Lines
The San Diego County region depends on four inmate fire camps run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and CAL FIRE for brush management and wildfire response.
Daniel Woolfolk, Oceanside-Camp Pendleton Patch

Some criminals sentenced to San Diego County jails will soon be transferred to local state fire camps, a somewhat weird twist in local governments efforts to manage inmates and protect public safety under California's "public safety realignment." After all, it was less than two years ago that the state forced counties to house state criminals sentenced for nonviolent felonies in local jails, but already the state could use hundreds of such inmates back to help provide much-needed fire protection.

AV sweep nets 29 arrests
Rebecca Howes, Victorville Daily Press

APPLE VALLEY • The Apple Valley Sheriff’s Station and the San Bernardino County Probation Department held a probation compliance operation sweep Friday night and made 29 arrests.
The operation targeted 45 probationers and AB 109 offenders in Apple Valley who are on supervised release due to the Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011.

Violent crime up slightly in Merced, though overall reported crime down 20 percent
Numbers show big contrast with startling spike in 2012
Victor Patton, Merced Sun-Star

MERCED -- Overall reported crime in Merced went down about 20 percent during the first half of the year, though violent crime inched up slightly, according to mid-year statistics released by the Police Department.

CDCR RELATED

Mom's suit revived in 2006 prison death
Denny Walsh, The Sacramento Bee

A federal court of appeals has revived a Placer County mother's lawsuit claiming California prison authorities are responsible for the suicide of her mentally ill son while he was an inmate.

OPINION

Editorial: Why are celebrities doing bidding of prison gang leaders?
The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board

Civil libertarians and Hollywood celebrities recently signed a letter voicing support for prisoners engaged in a hunger strike over conditions in the security housing unit at Pelican Bay State Prison.

They ought to save their outrage.

California Prison Hunger Strike – So What’s It Really All About?
Leona Salazar, BernardGoldberg.com

On July 8th, a reported 30,000 prisoners started a hunger strike in California prisons, most in Pelican Bay State Prison. At the end of the month, only about 600 inmates were still refusing two of their three daily meals. This so-called “hunger strike” was the brainchild of convicted killer, Todd Ashker, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, and three other inmates, representing the Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia and the Black Guerilla Family, four of the most violent and influential prison gangs in California, according to a recent op-ed piece in the L.A. Times.

CA Spending Per Inmate Rising Faster Than Spending Per Child
Charlotte Dean, IVN.US

California’s correctional system has received a federal order to release 9,600 prisoners by December. Administrators are no longer able to avoid releasing inmates early and the governor claims the terms are too strict for the system’s rate of change.

California’s Continuing Prison Crisis
The Editorial Board, New York Times

California has long been held up as the land of innovation and fresh starts, but on criminal justice and incarceration, the Golden State remains stubbornly behind the curve.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

CTF scores high in national accreditation
Allison Gatlin, The Salinas Californian

Soledad’s Correctional Training Facility was certified on Monday by the American Correctional Association during its 143rd Congress of Correction in Maryland, according to a CTF release.

The ACA is the oldest, most respected and largest international correctional association in the world, the release states.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

San Diego man gets 6 life terms for murder of his wife, mother-in-law and ex-girlfriend
The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego County man was sentenced Monday to six life terms in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to the murder of his wife, mother-in-law and an ex-girlfriend.

Michael Eugene Richardson, 60, agreed to the plea deal to avoid the death penalty and have charges of sex with a minor dismissed, said Deputy District Attorney Kurt Mechals.

Man sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for 2008 Sacramento Sikh sports festival killing
The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — A Northern California man convicted of second-degree murder has been sentenced to 35 years to life in prison in the shooting death at a sikh sports festival.
The Sacramento Bee reports that Sacramento County Judge Greta Curtis Fall sentenced 28-year-old Gurpreet Singh Gosal on Friday.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Questions arise about parolee involved in Coke case
KTVU

OAKLAND, Calif. —There were new questions Monday night about how closely authorities were keeping tabs on a convicted sex-offender and parolee who was named as a person of interest in the disappearance an Oakland woman last week.

CDCR RELATED

Attorney General Eric Holder announces drug-sentencing reform in San Francisco
Josh Richman and Thomas Peele, The San Jose Mercury News

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ushering in a significant shift in the nation's four-decade "war on drugs," Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that federal prosecutors will stop seeking longer mandatory sentences for many nonviolent drug offenders, part of a broad new effort to focus on violent crimes and national security while reducing the nation's gigantic prison population.

Controller's office bears some blame for payroll flop, report says
Chris Megerian, The Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO -- California officials failed to adequately oversee a stalled $373-million upgrade to the state's outdated payroll system, according to a report released by a Senate office on Monday.

The report is critical of the state controller's office, which was responsible for the project, and said officials withheld evidence of problems from lawmakers.

Sacramento suspect held in Albuquerque nightclub slaying
Kristopher Rivera and Kim Minugh, The Sacramento Bee

A Sacramento man with a history of drugs and violence is the focus of a homicide investigation in New Mexico, authorities said Monday.

The Albuquerque Police Department has issued a warrant for the arrest of Jashon "P Shawn" Warren, 27, in connection with the June 15 killing of Michael Moore, 29.

Suspects identified, gun found in Murray Street shooting in Santa Cruz
Stephen Baxter

SANTA CRUZ -- Police on Monday identified two men from Freedom and one from Watsonville who are suspected in a drive-by shooting early Saturday in Seabright.

Freedom resident Julio Adrian Nunez, 25, was arrested with Marcos Nunez, his 27-year-old brother, and Isaac Saavedra, 20, of Watsonville. The three men and a 15-year-old boy, whom police have not named, were arrested early Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder, carrying a loaded firearm and gang participation, said Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark.

OPINION

PD Editorial: Long-term thinking for state prisons
The Press Democrat

In his speech Monday about prison crowding, Attorney General Eric Holder candidly acknowledged what California officials have not.
“We cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation,” he said.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

American Correctional Association Certifies Five California Prisons Including Ione
SACRAMENTO – Five California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prisons were certified today by the American Correctional Association (ACA) during its 143rd Congress of Correction in National Harbor, Maryland....
Calaveras News-The Pine Tree

Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, High Desert State Prison in Susanville, Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, North Kern State Prison in Delano and Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City received near-perfect scores by the ACA, the oldest, most respected and largest international correctional association in the world.

California prison hunger strike appears headed for stalemate
Advocates for inmates say keeping prisoners in isolation is a form of torture that must end. The state corrections chief says the strike is controlled by violent gangs.
Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — The hunger strike in California prisons has dragged into its sixth week, apparently headed for stalemate.

Although Gov. Jerry Brown has made no public comment on the protest, his corrections chief says it is controlled by violent prison gangs bent on increasing their power. Advocates for the inmates say spending 23 hours a day in a windowless cell for decades is a form of torture that must end.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Inmate chokes doctor at N. California prison
Associated Press

IONE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a Northern California prison doctor is recovering after an inmate attacked her.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement Tuesday that 61-year-old inmate Robert Daniel Perry grabbed the 65-year-old doctor by the hair and started choking her during a medical appointment Monday at Mule Creek State Prison.

Lawmakers seek safeguards against sterilization of prison inmates
Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO -- Advocates for women prison inmates called Tuesday for state law to be changed to make sure convicts are not subject to sterilization surgery for birth control, and oversight over medical care is improved.

Life sentence for killer of Tracy motel manager
Jennie Rodriguez-Moore, Stockton Record

STOCKTON - An intruder who raped and murdered a Tracy motel manager was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in state prison after pleading guilty in a negotiated agreement with prosecutors.

Stephen Andrew Carreiro, 26, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of 62-year-old Lalitaben Patel, a mother of four and manager at the Hacienda Inn in Tracy.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Shots fired at dog as authorities chase parolee in Canyon Country
Joseph Serna and Emily Foxhall, Los Angeles Times

Shots were fired Tuesday as Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies assisted in trying to capture a parolee at large in Santa Clarita and a dog interrupted the pursuit, an official said.

The parolee's mother had notified the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that her son, whose name was not immediately released, had returned to their residence.

OPD: Body found in Vacaville identified as Sandra Coke
KTVU

OAKLAND, Calif. — A woman's body found near a Vacaville park last week is that of missing Oakland resident Sandra Coke, authorities said Tuesday.

The Alameda County Coroner's office has identified the body as the 50-year-old Coke, a federal investigator who had been missing since Aug. 4, Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said during a brief news conference with reporters.

REALIGNMENT

Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones: Don't panic over release of prisoners
Rick Longley, Willows Journal

Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones advises county residents not to be unduly alarmed by the additional mandated release of state prisoners to the counties.

"There is no need for panic," Jones said, but said it will take time to see whether the crime rate goes up because of it.

Probation Working Hard to Track GPS Wearing Parolees
Christian Hartnett, Central Coast News, KCOY 12/Fox 11

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - With AB 109 prison realignment in California, probation departments across the state are working harder than ever. That includes responding to alarms from GPS tracking devices on parolees.

CDCR RELATED

Pomona police start stepped-up enforcement in wake of killings
Melissa Pinion-Whitt, San Bernardino Sun

POMONA >> Police this week launched special enforcement operations targeting gang-related crime and areas of the city that are plagued by violence, an effort coming on the heels of last weekend’s three killings.

OPINION

Federal Realignment following California’s lead
Christopher Nelson, California Forward

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder released a three page memo and gave a landmark speech to the American Bar Association (ABA) outlining the Obama administration’s dramatic philosophical shift toward drug-related crimes and the types of sentencing they receive.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

Geo Community Reentry Services to Operate California Day Reporting Centers
Correctional News

BOULDER, Colo. — The California Department of Corrections and the Division of Adult Parole Operations has hired Geo Community Reentry Services, a division of Boca Raton, Fla.-based The Geo Group, to operate four intensive parolee reentry centers.

Parole Denied for Convicted Killer of Camp Pendleton Marine in San Clemente

Roy Garcia Garcia, 54, was convicted of one felony count of second degree murder and sentenced on Feb. 19, 1981, to 20 years to life in state prison.
Eric Yates, San Clemente Patch

The Office of the Orange County District Attorney made the following announcement on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013:

Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas is opposing the parole of an inmate convicted of murdering a Marine in 1980.

CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Prison Advocates Take Fight to State Capitol
As an inmate hunger strike in California stretches on, prison reform advocates want the rest of us to know what it’s like inside a SHU.
Katie Orr, Capital Public Radio

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa spends 22.5 hours a day in Security Housing Unit, or SHU. It’s a room the size of a parking spot. Jamma has been living that reality for the past 29 years. He’s an inmate at Pelican Bay State Prison and is participating in a hunger strike to protest the use of long term solitary confinement.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Convicted murderer to appeal sentence

Manibusan one of five from Monterey County still on Death Row
Allison Gatlin, The Salinas Californian

Convicted double-murderer Joseph Kekoa Manibusan will appeal his death sentence next month before the California Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn the penalty rendered 12 years ago in Monterey County.

Manibusan was sentenced on Jan. 24, 2001, for the 1998 deaths of Prya Matthews and Frances Olivo, and the attempted murder of another woman in what prosecutors called a “hunt” for people to rob.

REALIGNMENT

Fewer Robberies, but More Property Crime Last Quarter in La Mesa

Police Chief Ed Aceves blames property crime rise on public safety realignment act.
Steven Bartholow, La Mesa Patch

La Mesa Police Chief Ed Aceves told City Council that property crimes in the city are still on the rise this year, but fewer robberies were reported, according to the quarterly crime report presented at the meeting Tuesday.

CDCR RELATED

Investing in Early Childhood Education is the Best Way to Address Crime
Joseph DiSalvo, San Jose Inside

Factual or not, there is a perception that crime in San Jose is on the rise. At the very least our murder rate has increased the last two years, and many of my friends and colleagues say they avoid going to downtown due to the perceived threats to their personal safety.

Gun range manager held for being felon with gun
The Associated Press

CORONA, Calif. — The manager of a Southern California shooting range is fighting arrest for being a convicted felon in possession of a gun — in fact, lots of them.

Patrick Raahauge, 46, was arrested on Friday after state investigators acting on a tip allegedly saw him handling weapons and ammunition at the range in the Riverside County community of Corona, the Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/1czboM0) reported. "He was clearly working there, in and around all the firearms," state Department of Justice spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said. "He shouldn't be there at all."

CALIFORNIA INMATES

California grapples with inmate illness as hunger strike drags on
Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

(Reuters) - California prison officials are grappling with starvation-related ailments among hunger-striking prisoners who have refused to eat for nearly six weeks to protest the state's solitary confinement policies.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

California Parole Population Decreasing Faster Than Prison Population
Charlotte Dean, IVN

After the California Legislature introduced their 2011 plan to realign inmate numbers with the population capacity of prisons, the Californian correctional system has seen drastic changes. One of the most visible changes in corrections, however, is within the parolee population.

Mother fights parole for her daughter’s murderer
John Michael Turnipseed was convicted in 1988 of raping and killing Amy Newman
Kerana Todorov, Napa Valley Register

Amy Newman was a seventh-grader at Redwood Middle School in November 1986 when she disappeared on a Sunday evening near her home in north Napa. A search party the next day found her body in the woods near Shelter Creek condos.

CDCR RELATED

Report: Hollywood stabbing death was preventable
Tami Abdollah, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- A woman's fatal stabbing on Hollywood's Walk of Fame may have been prevented if there had not been several systemic failures in the Los Angeles County Probation Department, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

California Considers Drug Penalty Changes as U.S. Shifts Policy
Michael B. Marois, Bloomberg

California lawmakers are considering reducing penalties for minor drug offenses as the Obama administration said it’s taking a similar approach with federal sentences.

A measure before the state legislature would allow prosecutors to treat the cases as misdemeanors instead of felonies. That would reduce the amount of time convicts would spend behind bars and may help ease state prison crowding.

Calif Senate approves bill to end loophole in 1870s law that led to overturned rape conviction
Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, California — The state Senate unanimously approved a bill on Thursday that would close a loophole in California law that resulted in a rape conviction being overturned because the woman was not married.

OPINION

Tom Hayden on how to end California's prison hunger strike
Both sides must set aside their profound differences and look at steps to relieve the worst elements of solitary confinement.
The Los Angeles Times

At least 300 inmates are now several weeks into a fast that could soon lead to organ failure and death for many of them. Events are moving rapidly, but as I write, nothing has been resolved. And, as California corrections chief Jeffrey Beard made clear recently in an Op-Ed for this newspaper, the sides are far apart.

Stitching Up a Paper Cut: Eric Holder Is 'Fixing' a Federal Problem at the Expense of the States
Adam Banner, The Huffington Post

So, United States Attorney General Eric Holder vowed to the American Bar Association's House of Delegates that the federal government will no longer impose "draconian mandatory minimums" for nonviolent, low-level drug offenders not tied to gangs or cartels. Holder called the federal government "coldly efficient" in incarcerating drug offenders, but said that mandatory minimum sentences are not in the best interest of public safety. Good for him.

Guest View: What causes the recidivism
Weldon Shaw, Red Bluff Daily News

During my time as an investigator for the California Department of Corrections, I had the opportunity to conduct many interviews with criminals wishing to debrief from their prospective gangs. As a debriefer, I have written numerous autobiographies of high profile criminals who were trying to separate themselves from their current life style. During these interviews I was able to obtain a lot of facts in regards to their social structure and what made them end up back in prison.

CALIFORNIA INMATES

Bill gives California youths convicted of murder a second chance
ABC 7

SACRAMENTO (KABC) -- California inmates serving long prison terms for crimes they committed as teenagers could have a chance at an early release.

A bill, which passed the Senate, expands on legislation signed into law last year that gives a second chance to criminals who committed murder before they turned 18 and were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Los Altos bank robber pleads guilty, gets seven years
Diego Abeloos, Los Altos Town Crier

The Los Altos man arrested for a string of armed robberies in the city earlier this year is heading to prison for up to seven years.

Thomas Andrew Cronin, 26, pleaded guilty as charged “right out of the gate” last week to eight counts of armed robbery in Los Altos and two in Mountain View, according to Cindy Hendrickson, Santa Clara County Supervising Deputy District Attorney in the Palo Alto Branch Office. Cronin will be ordered to pay approximately $7,000 in restitution to the victims of his crimes, she added.

CALIFORNIA PAROLE

TEMECULA: Woman found dead in suspicious case
Emily Wells, The Press Enterprise

On Friday, Aug. 16, officers from the Temecula Police Department were dispatched to a residence in the 44000 block of Calle Hilario in Temecula where an unresponsive female was found. The reporting party attempted CPR; however, the female never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead by paramedics.

Wanted parolee commits suicide after motorcycle chase, standoff in San Fernando Valley
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Police say a motorcycle chase through the San Fernando Valley has ended with a parolee taking his own life after a standoff.
Authorities say the man shot himself in an apartment Thursday night as officers entered. His name wasn't released.

REALIGNMENT

Suit puts AB109 in spotlight
Stockton family of victim and suspect say parolee should not have been let out
Jennie Rodriguez-Moore, The Stockton Record

STOCKTON - In a case that has drawn the attention of critics of AB109, California's prison realignment law, the son and daughter of an elderly Stockton woman who was allegedly raped and murdered by her grandson are suing the state and San Joaquin County, saying he should have not have been released from county jail.

CDCR RELATED

Post-Prison Treatment Reduces Recidivism Among Women With Substance Use Problems
Lori Whitten, Corrections.com

Women offenders with substance use problems face many challenges when returning to the community after prison release—including obtaining employment, reuniting with children and family, and coping with pressures to return to drug use. Post-prison treatment, also called aftercare, can help these women adjust to community life and avoid recidivism during this critical transition period, according to a study by Christine E. Grella, Ph.D., and Mr. Luz Rodriguez, at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Uriel Ojeda to join few Catholic clergy in California prisons for child sex abuse
Cynthia Hubert, The Sacramento Bee

Some time during the next week or so, the Rev. Uriel Ojeda will leave Sacramento County's Main Jail and join other inmates for a long bus ride to state prison.

Once a rising star in the Sacramento Roman Catholic Diocese, lauded by parishioners for his compassion and faith, the young priest likely will spend at least seven years in the harsh confines of an institution where security cameras and uniformed guards will monitor his every movement.

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