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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Don Thompson, Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has spent billions of dollars and endured years of federal lawsuits to improve conditions in its state prisons, but the problems it has been trying to correct are now trickling down to local governments as county jails deal with thousands of additional inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law firms advocating for inmates' rights have sued or threatened lawsuits against a handful of California counties because of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to send lower-level offenders to local jails instead of state prisons as a way to comply with a federal court order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77734\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/10/09/disabled-inmates-suffer-in-shift-to-county-jails/jail-monical-lam-cir/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-77734\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-77734\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/jail-monical-lam-cir-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The lawsuits allege the subpar conditions that led to legal actions against the state's prison system — overcrowding, poor medical and dental care, inadequate mental health treatment — are repeating themselves at the county level. They note that jails designed for short-term stays are now being flooded with thousands of new inmates, many of whom are serving long-term sentences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riverside County is the latest to be sued and will be served with the legal papers on Tuesday, attorneys say. Fresno County is trying to negotiate a settlement to a lawsuit filed shortly after Brown's realignment plan took effect in October 2011. Alameda County was sued in November, and Monterey County is expecting to be sued.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It was a masterful stroke by Governor Brown to shift all the state's prison problems to county jails,\" Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His jail has become so crowded that he set out to buy triple-stacked bunk beds to handle the flood of inmates. Then a nearby state prison donated surplus beds it had been using when prison crowding there was at its worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Ironically, the state of California gave us triple bunks they no longer need,\" Miller said. The stacking of inmate beds in state prisons was one of the conditions that persuaded federal judges to order a drastic reduction in the prison population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Warner, the California State Sheriffs' Association's legislative director, said counties are concerned they will be exposed to the same liabilities under Brown's so-called realignment plan that the state has spent billions of dollars trying to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They had problems before, but realignment makes it worse because people are spending more time in jail,\" said Don Specter, director of the nonprofit Berkeley-based Prison Law Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of February, more than 1,100 inmates serving sentences of five years or more were in jails designed for stays of a year or less, and that number is expected to grow in the years ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Prison Law Office's lawsuit against Riverside County claims that medical care is so poor in its jails that some of its 4,000 inmates go months without seeing a doctor. When they do, the lawsuit contends they receive only cursory medical exams, inadequate follow-up and are rarely referred to specialists even when outside care is clearly needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an example, the suit notes the case of a female inmate who entered the Riverside County Jail with Stage 4 colon cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Nobody paid attention to her complaints that the cancer had returned,\" said Sara Norman, the lead attorney filing the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff said funding for jail mental health and medical services was cut during the recession but was being restored when Brown's realignment law took effect, flooding the jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inmates who previously would have been sent to state prisons now fill about a quarter of the county's jail beds, forcing the early release of less-serious offenders. The county cannot keep up even with alternative custody programs such as tracking detainees with GPS-linked ankle bracelets, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have more and more of these special circumstances we never had to deal with,\" Sniff said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Prison Law Office's lawsuit against Fresno County alleges that its inmates are routinely denied treatment for physical or mental illness or dental problems, and are vulnerable to attacks from other inmates because of the jail's poor design and lack of staffing. Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said she could not discuss conditions because of the settlement talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey County has inadequate facilities and programs for inmates who use wheelchairs, are blind or have other disabilities, or are mentally ill, said Michael Bien, whose San Francisco-based firm is considering a lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal Services for Prisoners with Children sued Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern last fall over his jail's treatment of disabled inmates, with both sides blaming the increase in disabled prisoners entering the jail since realignment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Unfortunately, you can't just knock down a wall and make handicapped-accessible cells. It takes time,\" said Alameda County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To comply with the federal lawsuits, state spending on inmate medical, dental and mental health care has more than doubled over the last decade to a projected $2.3 billion this fiscal year. The state also has spent billions of dollars on new medical facilities and equipment, while the number of prison medical, mental health and dental workers more than doubled over six years, to 12,200 in 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials decided California could not comply with the federal court orders simply by building more prisons, so under Brown's direction decided to sentence lower-level offenders to county jails. Those convicted of crimes that are considered serious, violent or sexual still go to state prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counties are receiving about $865 million to help with jail operations under realignment this fiscal year, an amount that is expected to exceed $1 billion next year. Given the number of new inmates, some sheriffs are questioning whether that will be enough, especially if lawsuits force them to spend even more so conditions meet constitutional standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republican state Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres has proposed legislation, SB144, that would funnel any money the state saves through realignment back to local communities. His office estimates that would give local governments about $777 million more each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the operating money, the state has given $1.2 billion to 21 of California's 58 counties for jail construction, plus another $500 million to renovate existing jails. The money is expected to build space for nearly 15,000 local inmates over the next several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard and the governor acknowledge that counties are facing a surge of more serious criminals as a result of the realignment law. Yet the Democratic governor is steadfast in his view that local governments are better able to make punishment decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"People commit crimes in the local community and they are now, to a greater degree, being supervised, being rehabilitated or being incarcerated locally. We're transferring billions of dollars to achieve that goal,\" Brown said in January. \"We want the community that spawns the crime to handle the crime.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Don Thompson, Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has spent billions of dollars and endured years of federal lawsuits to improve conditions in its state prisons, but the problems it has been trying to correct are now trickling down to local governments as county jails deal with thousands of additional inmates. Law firms advocating",
"title": "Alameda, Fresno, Riverside Counties Hit with Lawsuits for Prison Conditions | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Don Thompson, Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has spent billions of dollars and endured years of federal lawsuits to improve conditions in its state prisons, but the problems it has been trying to correct are now trickling down to local governments as county jails deal with thousands of additional inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law firms advocating for inmates' rights have sued or threatened lawsuits against a handful of California counties because of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to send lower-level offenders to local jails instead of state prisons as a way to comply with a federal court order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77734\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/10/09/disabled-inmates-suffer-in-shift-to-county-jails/jail-monical-lam-cir/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-77734\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-77734\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/jail-monical-lam-cir-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The lawsuits allege the subpar conditions that led to legal actions against the state's prison system — overcrowding, poor medical and dental care, inadequate mental health treatment — are repeating themselves at the county level. They note that jails designed for short-term stays are now being flooded with thousands of new inmates, many of whom are serving long-term sentences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riverside County is the latest to be sued and will be served with the legal papers on Tuesday, attorneys say. Fresno County is trying to negotiate a settlement to a lawsuit filed shortly after Brown's realignment plan took effect in October 2011. Alameda County was sued in November, and Monterey County is expecting to be sued.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It was a masterful stroke by Governor Brown to shift all the state's prison problems to county jails,\" Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His jail has become so crowded that he set out to buy triple-stacked bunk beds to handle the flood of inmates. Then a nearby state prison donated surplus beds it had been using when prison crowding there was at its worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Ironically, the state of California gave us triple bunks they no longer need,\" Miller said. The stacking of inmate beds in state prisons was one of the conditions that persuaded federal judges to order a drastic reduction in the prison population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Warner, the California State Sheriffs' Association's legislative director, said counties are concerned they will be exposed to the same liabilities under Brown's so-called realignment plan that the state has spent billions of dollars trying to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They had problems before, but realignment makes it worse because people are spending more time in jail,\" said Don Specter, director of the nonprofit Berkeley-based Prison Law Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of February, more than 1,100 inmates serving sentences of five years or more were in jails designed for stays of a year or less, and that number is expected to grow in the years ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Prison Law Office's lawsuit against Riverside County claims that medical care is so poor in its jails that some of its 4,000 inmates go months without seeing a doctor. When they do, the lawsuit contends they receive only cursory medical exams, inadequate follow-up and are rarely referred to specialists even when outside care is clearly needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an example, the suit notes the case of a female inmate who entered the Riverside County Jail with Stage 4 colon cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Nobody paid attention to her complaints that the cancer had returned,\" said Sara Norman, the lead attorney filing the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff said funding for jail mental health and medical services was cut during the recession but was being restored when Brown's realignment law took effect, flooding the jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inmates who previously would have been sent to state prisons now fill about a quarter of the county's jail beds, forcing the early release of less-serious offenders. The county cannot keep up even with alternative custody programs such as tracking detainees with GPS-linked ankle bracelets, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have more and more of these special circumstances we never had to deal with,\" Sniff said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Prison Law Office's lawsuit against Fresno County alleges that its inmates are routinely denied treatment for physical or mental illness or dental problems, and are vulnerable to attacks from other inmates because of the jail's poor design and lack of staffing. Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said she could not discuss conditions because of the settlement talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey County has inadequate facilities and programs for inmates who use wheelchairs, are blind or have other disabilities, or are mentally ill, said Michael Bien, whose San Francisco-based firm is considering a lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal Services for Prisoners with Children sued Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern last fall over his jail's treatment of disabled inmates, with both sides blaming the increase in disabled prisoners entering the jail since realignment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Unfortunately, you can't just knock down a wall and make handicapped-accessible cells. It takes time,\" said Alameda County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To comply with the federal lawsuits, state spending on inmate medical, dental and mental health care has more than doubled over the last decade to a projected $2.3 billion this fiscal year. The state also has spent billions of dollars on new medical facilities and equipment, while the number of prison medical, mental health and dental workers more than doubled over six years, to 12,200 in 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials decided California could not comply with the federal court orders simply by building more prisons, so under Brown's direction decided to sentence lower-level offenders to county jails. Those convicted of crimes that are considered serious, violent or sexual still go to state prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counties are receiving about $865 million to help with jail operations under realignment this fiscal year, an amount that is expected to exceed $1 billion next year. Given the number of new inmates, some sheriffs are questioning whether that will be enough, especially if lawsuits force them to spend even more so conditions meet constitutional standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republican state Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres has proposed legislation, SB144, that would funnel any money the state saves through realignment back to local communities. His office estimates that would give local governments about $777 million more each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the operating money, the state has given $1.2 billion to 21 of California's 58 counties for jail construction, plus another $500 million to renovate existing jails. The money is expected to build space for nearly 15,000 local inmates over the next several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard and the governor acknowledge that counties are facing a surge of more serious criminals as a result of the realignment law. Yet the Democratic governor is steadfast in his view that local governments are better able to make punishment decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Jails Unequipped for 1,100 Long-Term Inmates",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>By Don Thompson, Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003c/em>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)—California counties are housing more than 1,100 inmates on long-term sentences in jails designed for stays of a year or less, according to the first report detailing the growth in that population under Gov. Jerry Brown’s criminal justice realignment strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77734\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/10/09/disabled-inmates-suffer-in-shift-to-county-jails/jail-monical-lam-cir/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-77734\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-77734 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/jail-monical-lam-cir-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The oversight of so many long-term inmates is presenting challenges for county sheriffs, especially with the number expected to grow markedly in the years ahead. In addition to finding adequate space to house the new population, the sheriffs also must provide the inmates with education, treatment programs, rehabilitation services and recreation, which adds to their costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vehicle theft, drug trafficking, receiving stolen property, identity theft and commercial burglary were the most common crimes for jail inmates who were sentenced to 5 to 10 years in county jails, according to the report, which was obtained by The Associated Press before its public release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, covering all but six of the state’s 58 counties, was done by the California State Sheriffs’ Association and sent to the governor’s administration and Legislature.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not set up to house inmates for this period of time,” said Nick Warner, the association’s legislative director. “They’re living in conditions that they’re not designed to stay in for this long.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles County Jail is holding 35 percent of all long-term inmates. Statewide, 44 inmates already have been sentenced to more than a decade in local jails, with one Los Angeles County man serving a 43-year term for trafficking large amounts of drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Monday, the association found that 1,153 inmates in county jails were sentenced to at least five years. Drug trafficking resulted in most of the sentences topping a decade, although a Riverside County inmate is serving nearly 13 years for felony child abuse and a Solano County inmate is serving more than 10 years as a serial thief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The association started with inmates whose formal sentences are at least five years because most will actually be released after serving less than that. With time off for good behavior, for example, an inmate serving a five-year sentence can be released in about 2 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of long-term inmates in local jails will keep growing as the state diverts more lower-level criminals from state prisons to comply with the governor’s realignment law and federal court orders to reduce the population in the state’s 33 adult prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before lawmakers approved Brown’s law enforcement realignment in 2011, the only prisoner who might spend more than a year in a county jail would be someone awaiting trial in a complicated case such as murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the number of long-term inmates represents less than 2 percent of the 77,000 prisoners who can be housed in California’s 58 county jails, sheriffs say they command a disproportionate share of money and attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many sheriffs would like to return their long-term inmates to state prisons, Warner said, although he acknowledged that is not likely as long as the state is trying to relieve prison crowding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a really tough issue to resolve,” Warner said. “There are some inmates who don’t belong in county jails for this period of time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman for the state Department Corrections and Rehabilitation, acknowledged that sheriffs need a different type of facility to handle long-term inmates, but he noted that state lawmakers authorized $500 million last year to help counties renovate jails and add space for treating inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the kind of construction you’re seeing already,” Callison said. ‘The jails are getting modernized. They’re able to offer more programs to their inmates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers have approved $1.2 billion in bonds for building new jails, many of which are under construction. Counties are getting $865 million in operating money through the state this fiscal year, with their allocation budgeted to exceed $1 billion next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Callison said the state also is discussing with counties ways in which they can better accommodate their long-term inmates, including contracting with outside facilities that are better designed to handle that population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said judges also can sentence inmates to split sentences that reduce jail time while requiring that released felons are supervised in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to dramatically reduce its prison population. Rather than release prisoners early, the state is complying through realignment,” Elizabeth Ashford, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in an emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the state will keep helping counties as they implement the policy.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>By Don Thompson, Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003c/em>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)—California counties are housing more than 1,100 inmates on long-term sentences in jails designed for stays of a year or less, according to the first report detailing the growth in that population under Gov. Jerry Brown’s criminal justice realignment strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77734\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/10/09/disabled-inmates-suffer-in-shift-to-county-jails/jail-monical-lam-cir/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-77734\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-77734 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/jail-monical-lam-cir-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno jail inmates. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The oversight of so many long-term inmates is presenting challenges for county sheriffs, especially with the number expected to grow markedly in the years ahead. In addition to finding adequate space to house the new population, the sheriffs also must provide the inmates with education, treatment programs, rehabilitation services and recreation, which adds to their costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vehicle theft, drug trafficking, receiving stolen property, identity theft and commercial burglary were the most common crimes for jail inmates who were sentenced to 5 to 10 years in county jails, according to the report, which was obtained by The Associated Press before its public release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, covering all but six of the state’s 58 counties, was done by the California State Sheriffs’ Association and sent to the governor’s administration and Legislature.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not set up to house inmates for this period of time,” said Nick Warner, the association’s legislative director. “They’re living in conditions that they’re not designed to stay in for this long.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles County Jail is holding 35 percent of all long-term inmates. Statewide, 44 inmates already have been sentenced to more than a decade in local jails, with one Los Angeles County man serving a 43-year term for trafficking large amounts of drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Monday, the association found that 1,153 inmates in county jails were sentenced to at least five years. Drug trafficking resulted in most of the sentences topping a decade, although a Riverside County inmate is serving nearly 13 years for felony child abuse and a Solano County inmate is serving more than 10 years as a serial thief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The association started with inmates whose formal sentences are at least five years because most will actually be released after serving less than that. With time off for good behavior, for example, an inmate serving a five-year sentence can be released in about 2 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of long-term inmates in local jails will keep growing as the state diverts more lower-level criminals from state prisons to comply with the governor’s realignment law and federal court orders to reduce the population in the state’s 33 adult prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before lawmakers approved Brown’s law enforcement realignment in 2011, the only prisoner who might spend more than a year in a county jail would be someone awaiting trial in a complicated case such as murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the number of long-term inmates represents less than 2 percent of the 77,000 prisoners who can be housed in California’s 58 county jails, sheriffs say they command a disproportionate share of money and attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many sheriffs would like to return their long-term inmates to state prisons, Warner said, although he acknowledged that is not likely as long as the state is trying to relieve prison crowding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a really tough issue to resolve,” Warner said. “There are some inmates who don’t belong in county jails for this period of time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman for the state Department Corrections and Rehabilitation, acknowledged that sheriffs need a different type of facility to handle long-term inmates, but he noted that state lawmakers authorized $500 million last year to help counties renovate jails and add space for treating inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the kind of construction you’re seeing already,” Callison said. ‘The jails are getting modernized. They’re able to offer more programs to their inmates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers have approved $1.2 billion in bonds for building new jails, many of which are under construction. Counties are getting $865 million in operating money through the state this fiscal year, with their allocation budgeted to exceed $1 billion next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Callison said the state also is discussing with counties ways in which they can better accommodate their long-term inmates, including contracting with outside facilities that are better designed to handle that population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said judges also can sentence inmates to split sentences that reduce jail time while requiring that released felons are supervised in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to dramatically reduce its prison population. Rather than release prisoners early, the state is complying through realignment,” Elizabeth Ashford, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in an emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the state will keep helping counties as they implement the policy.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“I haven’t seen the moon since 1998.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s inmate Jeremy Beasley, talking to me while sitting–shackled–in an interview room at Pelican Bay State Prison, California’s highest security lockup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beasley, a convicted murderer, was clearly surprised by my presence—he told me he hadn’t met with a visitor since 1994, when he was incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just the moon Beasley hadn’t seen in 15 years. During that time, in fact, Beasley rarely glimpsed the outside world. Before being transferred to another prison, he was held in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, a windowless, bunker-like facility that houses more than 1,000 California inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 22-and-a-half hours a day, each inmate here is locked, usually alone, in an 8-by-10 feet cell. For 90 minutes the inmate is allowed to exercise in an adjacent room with 25-30 feet high walls. And that’s their entire day — every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen guys lose their minds back here,” Beasley tells me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRO9BHbF9GA&w=800&h=450]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Isolation Unit Conditions: Torture?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday in Sacramento lawmakers are delving into a growing national controversy over special security units like Pelican Bay’s that are used to isolate thousands of inmates from the regular prison population. Civil rights groups say long-term isolation amounts to torture, while state corrections officials say the units are necessary and the conditions are humane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the state there are four of these Security Housing Unit facilities. Pelican Bay’s is the most controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cstrong>For 22-and-a-half hours a day, each inmate is locked, usually alone, in an 8-by-10 feet cell. They get 90 minutes of exercise in an adjacent room. That’s their entire day — every day\u003c/strong>.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Conditions in the units are one part of the debate. Many inmates are held in windowless cells and have been denied everything from calendars and sweatpants to phone calls. Also at issue: criteria that determine which prisoners are placed there and how they can get back into the regular population again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there is the long amount of time some inmates spend in the facilities. More than 500 California prisoners have been locked in the special units for 10 years or longer, according to state data. Of those, 78 prisoners have been held inside for more than 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, authorities have allowed media into Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, but access has been limited and the inmates carefully selected by the prison staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, top corrections officials granted unusual access to a team of reporters and videographers from the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED. We visited all areas of Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit except for a section that houses leaders of a 2011 hunger strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a small camera mounted to a wall, our team recorded Beasley exercising with a rubber handball in the small concrete pen (prison staff began allowing the balls last year). At all other times–day and night—he was held in his cell, alone. While skylights allow filtered sunlight into the units, there are no windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/127065819/Ruiz-Amended-Complaint-May-31-2012\" target=\"_blank\">class action lawsuit\u003c/a> filed last year by a coalition of civil rights groups states:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>California’s uniquely harsh regime of prolonged solitary confinement at Pelican Bay is inhumane and debilitating. Plaintiffs and class members languish, typically alone, in a cramped, concrete, windowless cell, for 22 and one-half to 24 hours a day. They are denied telephone calls, contact visits, and vocational, recreational or educational programming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defendants persistently deny these men the normal human contact necessary for a person’s mental and physical wellbeing. These tormenting and prolonged conditions of confinement have produced harmful and predictable psychological deterioration among Plaintiffs and class members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solitary confinement regime at Pelican Bay, which renders California an outlier in this country and in the civilized world, violates the United States Constitution’s requirement of due process and prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the most basic human rights prohibitions against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Indeed, the prolonged conditions of brutal confinement and isolation at Pelican Bay cross over from having any valid penological purpose into a system rightly condemned as torture by the international community.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>But state corrections officials maintain that conditions in the special units are humane; that they do not practice solitary confinement; that inmates are “segregated” but not “isolated”; and that there is a valid purpose for keeping prisoners in the units—protecting other inmates, staff and the public from men who have been linked to violent prison gangs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the men who are propagating the violence, the drug trafficking, the extortions and the murders throughout the larger communities of our state,” said Pelican Bay warden Greg Lewis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>New prison policy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90081\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/prison+isolation+video/_mg_0800/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90081\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90081\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/MG_0800-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Units at Pelican Bay's Security Housing Units have no windows, so inmates' only regular view of the outside world is through the top of the exercise pens. (Monica Lam/CIR)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Units at Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Units have no windows so inmates’ only regular view of the outside world is through the top of the exercise pens. (Monica Lam/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Without conceding any shortcomings, however, corrections officials are embarking on a new policy to bring in more educational and self-help programs, and to reduce the amount of time some inmates spend in the units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since last October, officials have reviewed the cases of 144 inmates and determined that 75 should be transferred immediately to regular prisons because they were not active in gangs. Some of the inmates have been held in the special units for more than 20 years, according to Kelly Harrington, an associate corrections director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelican Bay inmates who led the 2011 hunger strike, as well as some prisoner rights groups, have denounced the new policy and are threatening more protests this summer. Amid a long list of demands, they are seeking shorter, fixed terms for inmates in the special units (currently, most are held there on “indeterminate” terms), more programs and more frequent visits with family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cstrong>I believe that some people should be isolated. If they were to cut me loose before I debriefed and I went back to the mainline, I would have killed somebody…”\u003c/strong>\n\u003cp>–Convicted murderer Jeremy Beasley\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>For his part, Jeremy Beasley said that while the conditions at Pelican Bay are awful, he doesn’t think they amount to solitary confinement. Although he can’t see other inmates from his cell (doors are made of perforated steel and face a wall), Beasley says he can carry on conversations with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “It sucks in here. I hate it. But some prisoners have found that they can get a lot of attention by exaggerating how bad it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beasley said he was an active member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white-power gang, and committed assaults on behalf of the group. He agreed to drop out and provide authorities with incriminating information about other members, a process known as “debriefing.” In exchange, officials recently transferred Beasley to a different prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that some people should be isolated. If they were to cut me loose before I debriefed and I went back to the mainline,” he said, using the term for the general prison population, “I would have killed somebody or at the very least I would have stabbed somebody else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Pelican Bay inmates see it differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is only one option to get out of here and that is to make up lies about other people,” said 39-year-old Henry Albanez, who is serving a 27-year sentence for kidnapping. Albanez said he expected the department’s new policies would fail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90082\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/prison+isolation+video/_mg_0830/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90082\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90082\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/MG_0830-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit is organized into small pods housing eight cells set side-by-side on two tiers. Through the perforated steel doors inmates can only see a blank wall. (Monica Lam/CIR)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit is organized into small pods housing eight cells set side-by-side on two tiers. Through the perforated steel doors inmates can only see a blank wall. (Monica Lam/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“How do you expect to take all of these guys out of the SHU (Security Housing Unit) and throw them in the same yard and expect them to get along when you have all this sensory deprivation,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Albanez said he probably would take part in a new step-down program that begins later this year. Corrections officials have said the program allows inmates to earn their way out of the special units in 2-4 years without being required to renounce the gangs they have been affiliated with. Instead, they must declare that they won’t participate in gang activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who visited Pelican Bay early this month, said he found the prison clean and professionally staffed but was troubled thinking that some inmates are locked up for decades in small cells with little or no regular human contact. Inmates must also be shackled whenever they are outside their cells and in the presence of another individual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think it’s psychologically devastating to be in such a tight space for so long,” Ammiano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What, then, about the question of torture?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ammiano said the strangest thing he saw at the prison was a group therapy room where inmates are locked in small cages during sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Could I say that’s torture? Perhaps I could,” he said. “But did we witness any torture? No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can listen to Michael Montgomery report from California’s most controversial, highest security lockup on Monday morning on The California Report, on the \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/tunein/\" target=\"_blank\">following stations\u003c/a> around the state. The report will also be \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">archived at the show’s web site\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“I haven’t seen the moon since 1998.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s inmate Jeremy Beasley, talking to me while sitting–shackled–in an interview room at Pelican Bay State Prison, California’s highest security lockup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beasley, a convicted murderer, was clearly surprised by my presence—he told me he hadn’t met with a visitor since 1994, when he was incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just the moon Beasley hadn’t seen in 15 years. During that time, in fact, Beasley rarely glimpsed the outside world. Before being transferred to another prison, he was held in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, a windowless, bunker-like facility that houses more than 1,000 California inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 22-and-a-half hours a day, each inmate here is locked, usually alone, in an 8-by-10 feet cell. For 90 minutes the inmate is allowed to exercise in an adjacent room with 25-30 feet high walls. And that’s their entire day — every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen guys lose their minds back here,” Beasley tells me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wRO9BHbF9GA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wRO9BHbF9GA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Isolation Unit Conditions: Torture?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday in Sacramento lawmakers are delving into a growing national controversy over special security units like Pelican Bay’s that are used to isolate thousands of inmates from the regular prison population. Civil rights groups say long-term isolation amounts to torture, while state corrections officials say the units are necessary and the conditions are humane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the state there are four of these Security Housing Unit facilities. Pelican Bay’s is the most controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cstrong>For 22-and-a-half hours a day, each inmate is locked, usually alone, in an 8-by-10 feet cell. They get 90 minutes of exercise in an adjacent room. That’s their entire day — every day\u003c/strong>.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Conditions in the units are one part of the debate. Many inmates are held in windowless cells and have been denied everything from calendars and sweatpants to phone calls. Also at issue: criteria that determine which prisoners are placed there and how they can get back into the regular population again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there is the long amount of time some inmates spend in the facilities. More than 500 California prisoners have been locked in the special units for 10 years or longer, according to state data. Of those, 78 prisoners have been held inside for more than 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, authorities have allowed media into Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, but access has been limited and the inmates carefully selected by the prison staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, top corrections officials granted unusual access to a team of reporters and videographers from the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED. We visited all areas of Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit except for a section that houses leaders of a 2011 hunger strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a small camera mounted to a wall, our team recorded Beasley exercising with a rubber handball in the small concrete pen (prison staff began allowing the balls last year). At all other times–day and night—he was held in his cell, alone. While skylights allow filtered sunlight into the units, there are no windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/127065819/Ruiz-Amended-Complaint-May-31-2012\" target=\"_blank\">class action lawsuit\u003c/a> filed last year by a coalition of civil rights groups states:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>California’s uniquely harsh regime of prolonged solitary confinement at Pelican Bay is inhumane and debilitating. Plaintiffs and class members languish, typically alone, in a cramped, concrete, windowless cell, for 22 and one-half to 24 hours a day. They are denied telephone calls, contact visits, and vocational, recreational or educational programming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defendants persistently deny these men the normal human contact necessary for a person’s mental and physical wellbeing. These tormenting and prolonged conditions of confinement have produced harmful and predictable psychological deterioration among Plaintiffs and class members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solitary confinement regime at Pelican Bay, which renders California an outlier in this country and in the civilized world, violates the United States Constitution’s requirement of due process and prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the most basic human rights prohibitions against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Indeed, the prolonged conditions of brutal confinement and isolation at Pelican Bay cross over from having any valid penological purpose into a system rightly condemned as torture by the international community.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>But state corrections officials maintain that conditions in the special units are humane; that they do not practice solitary confinement; that inmates are “segregated” but not “isolated”; and that there is a valid purpose for keeping prisoners in the units—protecting other inmates, staff and the public from men who have been linked to violent prison gangs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the men who are propagating the violence, the drug trafficking, the extortions and the murders throughout the larger communities of our state,” said Pelican Bay warden Greg Lewis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>New prison policy\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90081\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/prison+isolation+video/_mg_0800/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90081\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90081\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/MG_0800-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Units at Pelican Bay's Security Housing Units have no windows, so inmates' only regular view of the outside world is through the top of the exercise pens. (Monica Lam/CIR)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Units at Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Units have no windows so inmates’ only regular view of the outside world is through the top of the exercise pens. (Monica Lam/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Without conceding any shortcomings, however, corrections officials are embarking on a new policy to bring in more educational and self-help programs, and to reduce the amount of time some inmates spend in the units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since last October, officials have reviewed the cases of 144 inmates and determined that 75 should be transferred immediately to regular prisons because they were not active in gangs. Some of the inmates have been held in the special units for more than 20 years, according to Kelly Harrington, an associate corrections director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelican Bay inmates who led the 2011 hunger strike, as well as some prisoner rights groups, have denounced the new policy and are threatening more protests this summer. Amid a long list of demands, they are seeking shorter, fixed terms for inmates in the special units (currently, most are held there on “indeterminate” terms), more programs and more frequent visits with family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003cstrong>I believe that some people should be isolated. If they were to cut me loose before I debriefed and I went back to the mainline, I would have killed somebody…”\u003c/strong>\n\u003cp>–Convicted murderer Jeremy Beasley\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>For his part, Jeremy Beasley said that while the conditions at Pelican Bay are awful, he doesn’t think they amount to solitary confinement. Although he can’t see other inmates from his cell (doors are made of perforated steel and face a wall), Beasley says he can carry on conversations with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “It sucks in here. I hate it. But some prisoners have found that they can get a lot of attention by exaggerating how bad it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beasley said he was an active member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white-power gang, and committed assaults on behalf of the group. He agreed to drop out and provide authorities with incriminating information about other members, a process known as “debriefing.” In exchange, officials recently transferred Beasley to a different prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that some people should be isolated. If they were to cut me loose before I debriefed and I went back to the mainline,” he said, using the term for the general prison population, “I would have killed somebody or at the very least I would have stabbed somebody else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Pelican Bay inmates see it differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is only one option to get out of here and that is to make up lies about other people,” said 39-year-old Henry Albanez, who is serving a 27-year sentence for kidnapping. Albanez said he expected the department’s new policies would fail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_90082\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/prison+isolation+video/_mg_0830/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-90082\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-90082\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/MG_0830-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit is organized into small pods housing eight cells set side-by-side on two tiers. Through the perforated steel doors inmates can only see a blank wall. (Monica Lam/CIR)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit is organized into small pods housing eight cells set side-by-side on two tiers. Through the perforated steel doors inmates can only see a blank wall. (Monica Lam/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“How do you expect to take all of these guys out of the SHU (Security Housing Unit) and throw them in the same yard and expect them to get along when you have all this sensory deprivation,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Albanez said he probably would take part in a new step-down program that begins later this year. Corrections officials have said the program allows inmates to earn their way out of the special units in 2-4 years without being required to renounce the gangs they have been affiliated with. Instead, they must declare that they won’t participate in gang activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who visited Pelican Bay early this month, said he found the prison clean and professionally staffed but was troubled thinking that some inmates are locked up for decades in small cells with little or no regular human contact. Inmates must also be shackled whenever they are outside their cells and in the presence of another individual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think it’s psychologically devastating to be in such a tight space for so long,” Ammiano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What, then, about the question of torture?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ammiano said the strangest thing he saw at the prison was a group therapy room where inmates are locked in small cages during sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Could I say that’s torture? Perhaps I could,” he said. “But did we witness any torture? No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can listen to Michael Montgomery report from California’s most controversial, highest security lockup on Monday morning on The California Report, on the \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/tunein/\" target=\"_blank\">following stations\u003c/a> around the state. The report will also be \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">archived at the show’s web site\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "State Challenges Federal Oversight of Prisons",
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"content": "\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://calchannel.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=826\">\u003cstrong>Watch Brown’s press conference\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> (California Channel)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/119420665/California-Asks-Court-to-Cancel-Prison-Population-Cap\">\u003cstrong>Read the state’s court filing\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown is challenging federal oversight of state prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prison emergency is over,” Brown said in a press conference Tuesday morning. “After decades of work, the job is now complete.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He filed court documents late Monday night arguing that efforts to reduce prison populations have already succeeded and don’t need to go any further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition he is asking the court to end its receivership of the prison’s mental health program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By god, let those judges give us our prisons back,” he said. “We’ll run them right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown has also issued an executive order ending a state of emergency that his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared. That state of emergency allowed California to transfer thousands of prisoners involuntarily out of state. With the order lifted, those prisoners may return to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_84954\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-84954\" title=\"Chino Prison inmates\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State prison inmates in Chino (Kevork Djansezian)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The courts have given California until next June to shrink its prison population to about 110,000 as part of a plan to improve medical care for inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said that cap should be lifted because the prisons have addressed the problem by shedding about 43,000 inmates. “I don’t believe it’s wise or sound public policy to release any more people out of our prisons other than in accordance with state laws.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some of the prisons still exceed their “designed capacity,” Brown said they are not overcrowded. Independent experts have assured him that conditions in the prisons are good enough to protect the inmates’ health. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have gone from serious constitutional problems to one of the finest prison systems in the United States,” he said. “Most of the people in the prisons get far better care… inside the prison than they will get once they are on the streets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Rebekah Evenson of the Prison Law Office, which is suing the state, told KQED’s Michael Montgomery that California can meet the court order safely and on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state can reduce prison crowding through a number of mechanisms including increasing good time credits for prisoners who follow the rules,” she said. “So the only question now is whether the state has the will to comply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to satisfying the courts, Evenson says the measures could save California hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said it was unreasonable demands from court overseers that are costing the state too much money. With the major problems fixed, the new demands amount to “gold plating,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also defended the “realignment” process through which the state transferred thousands of prisoners from state custody to county jails. “We want the community that spawns the crime to handle the crime,” he said. On the other hand, transferring anymore prisoners from the state to the counties would overwhelm local officials, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said he would take his arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. In imposing its cap on the prison population in 2011, the court did not take into consideration improvements in prison conditions, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Civil Liberties Union of California disagrees with the governor’s assessment of prison conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any suggestion that the over-incarceration crisis in California has been remedied belies reality, and it is imperative that state leaders remain committed to ending the state’s decades-long addiction to incarceration that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and eroded public safety,” said Allen Hopper, director of criminal justice and drug policy for the ACLU of California in a written statement.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Watch Brown’s press conference (California Channel) Read the state’s court filing Gov. Jerry Brown is challenging federal oversight of state prisons. “The prison emergency is over,” Brown said in a press conference Tuesday morning. “After decades of work, the job is now complete.” He filed court documents late Monday night arguing that efforts to reduce",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://calchannel.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=826\">\u003cstrong>Watch Brown’s press conference\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> (California Channel)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/119420665/California-Asks-Court-to-Cancel-Prison-Population-Cap\">\u003cstrong>Read the state’s court filing\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown is challenging federal oversight of state prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prison emergency is over,” Brown said in a press conference Tuesday morning. “After decades of work, the job is now complete.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He filed court documents late Monday night arguing that efforts to reduce prison populations have already succeeded and don’t need to go any further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition he is asking the court to end its receivership of the prison’s mental health program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By god, let those judges give us our prisons back,” he said. “We’ll run them right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown has also issued an executive order ending a state of emergency that his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared. That state of emergency allowed California to transfer thousands of prisoners involuntarily out of state. With the order lifted, those prisoners may return to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_84954\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-84954\" title=\"Chino Prison inmates\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State prison inmates in Chino (Kevork Djansezian)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The courts have given California until next June to shrink its prison population to about 110,000 as part of a plan to improve medical care for inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said that cap should be lifted because the prisons have addressed the problem by shedding about 43,000 inmates. “I don’t believe it’s wise or sound public policy to release any more people out of our prisons other than in accordance with state laws.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some of the prisons still exceed their “designed capacity,” Brown said they are not overcrowded. Independent experts have assured him that conditions in the prisons are good enough to protect the inmates’ health. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have gone from serious constitutional problems to one of the finest prison systems in the United States,” he said. “Most of the people in the prisons get far better care… inside the prison than they will get once they are on the streets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Rebekah Evenson of the Prison Law Office, which is suing the state, told KQED’s Michael Montgomery that California can meet the court order safely and on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state can reduce prison crowding through a number of mechanisms including increasing good time credits for prisoners who follow the rules,” she said. “So the only question now is whether the state has the will to comply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to satisfying the courts, Evenson says the measures could save California hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said it was unreasonable demands from court overseers that are costing the state too much money. With the major problems fixed, the new demands amount to “gold plating,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also defended the “realignment” process through which the state transferred thousands of prisoners from state custody to county jails. “We want the community that spawns the crime to handle the crime,” he said. On the other hand, transferring anymore prisoners from the state to the counties would overwhelm local officials, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said he would take his arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. In imposing its cap on the prison population in 2011, the court did not take into consideration improvements in prison conditions, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Civil Liberties Union of California disagrees with the governor’s assessment of prison conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any suggestion that the over-incarceration crisis in California has been remedied belies reality, and it is imperative that state leaders remain committed to ending the state’s decades-long addiction to incarceration that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and eroded public safety,” said Allen Hopper, director of criminal justice and drug policy for the ACLU of California in a written statement.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Prosecutors' Opposition Could Limit Release of Third-Strike Inmates",
"title": "Prosecutors' Opposition Could Limit Release of Third-Strike Inmates",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>by Michael Montgomery, \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/prosecutors-opposition-could-limit-release-third-strike-inmates-18755\" target=\"_blank\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State inmates serving life terms are starting to file resentencing petitions with local judges following the passage of Proposition 36, the ballot measure that overhauls California's controversial three strikes law. But opposition from local prosecutors and other factors could limit the number of qualifying inmates who actually get released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2011/08/107515794.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36359\" title=\"Supreme Court To Rule On California's Overcrowded Prisons\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2011/08/107515794-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\">\u003c/a>Scott Thorpe, CEO of the California District Attorneys Association, said his organization is recommending that district attorneys file subpoenas for the prison records of inmates seeking a resentencing hearing so they can scrutinize everything from the offenders’ health and psychological profile to their participation in rehabilitation programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re arguing that everything should be taken into consideration,” he said. “If they haven’t taken advantage of programs that were available to them, we’re saying that’s a relevant fact in determining whether this is a responsible person to go out into society.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prop. 36 allows sentence reductions for inmates convicted under the original 1994 law if their third strike was not a serious or violent felony (as defined by the California Penal Code) and their prior convictions did not include rape, murder, child molestation or other grave crimes. \u003c!--more-->Some 2,800 inmates serving life terms could be eligible for shorter sentences or release under the measure, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/541374-prop36countyestimates.html\" target=\"_blank\">data\u003c/a> from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Of those offenders, nearly 70 percent originally were sentenced in five counties: Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Resentencing is not automatic. The measure gives judges discretion to consider a host of factors to determine whether an offender poses an “unreasonable risk” to public safety and should remain in prison. Those factors include the types of previous crimes, injuries to victims, lengths of prior prison terms, disciplinary and rehabilitation records in prison, and any other evidence the court deems relevant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of Prop. 36 have argued that the measure was unnecessary because judges already have discretion to impose lighter sentences. They also criticized the initiative for allowing inmates who committed violent crimes prior to their final strike to qualify for possible release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorpe said the measure is putting a heavy burden on prosecutors to pull together all the pertinent records to determine the level of risk an offender poses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district attorneys have that responsibility for saying, ‘Hey, this guy is or is not a danger to public safety,' ” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public defenders' offices around the state also are bracing for a heavy workload, especially if a large number of petitions are challenged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The costs could grow significantly,\" said Laura Hoffman, chief deputy public defender for San Bernardino County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prop. 36 provides little guidance on how the petition process should be conducted, though it specifies that inmates must file their petitions by November 2015. In recent weeks, prosecutors and defense attorneys around the state have been working with corrections officials to create a system to locate, copy and transfer inmates' prison records to local courts assigned to evaluate the petitions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some cases, the records go back decades and are kept only on paper. In San Bernardino County, prosecutors have filed subpoenas seeking records on 16 inmates, according to corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who publicly supported Prop. 36, said his office also is requesting prison records for all third-strike inmates seeking new sentences. Rosen said that of the 120 to 130 inmates who likely will qualify under the measure, more than half could win reduced sentences, leaving a significant minority that will remain behind bars for the duration of their terms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that Proposition 36 balances individual fairness with public safety,” Rosen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District attorneys in Orange and Kern counties declined to comment on how they were implementing Prop. 36.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lawyers representing third-strikers expressed concern that challenges over prison records could create a bottleneck in the petition process and long delays for some inmates who are eligible for release. Michael Romano, a Prop. 36 co-author who directs a law clinic at Stanford University, said another challenge is ensuring that every inmate who qualifies under the statute receives adequate representation and has a transition plan for life after prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Their lives are on the line,\" he said. \"This is their last, best chance of getting out of prison, reuniting with their families and getting to put their lives back together.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some petitions might be unopposed, Romano said, a \"large number of cases are going to be contentious.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are not expecting that prosecutors are going to roll over,\" he said. \"We are loading for bear.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe width=\"640\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col2%3E%3E1+from+1cEbJ3xTeC-5ETWGdFnF2vMPAGq-i67SRK239Ybk&h=false&lat=37.29922349623006&lng=-119.65726290624995&z=6&t=1&l=col2%3E%3E1&y=5&tmplt=2\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/12/prisonersforrelease-key.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/12/prisonersforrelease-key.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"prisonersforrelease-key\" width=\"630\" height=\"100\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-83409\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Michael Montgomery is an investigative journalist for \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/\">California Watch\u003c/a> and KQED News\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "by Michael Montgomery, California Watch State inmates serving life terms are starting to file resentencing petitions with local judges following the passage of Proposition 36, the ballot measure that overhauls California's controversial three strikes law. But opposition from local prosecutors and other factors could limit the number of qualifying inmates who actually get released. Scott",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>by Michael Montgomery, \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/prosecutors-opposition-could-limit-release-third-strike-inmates-18755\" target=\"_blank\">California Watch\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State inmates serving life terms are starting to file resentencing petitions with local judges following the passage of Proposition 36, the ballot measure that overhauls California's controversial three strikes law. But opposition from local prosecutors and other factors could limit the number of qualifying inmates who actually get released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2011/08/107515794.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36359\" title=\"Supreme Court To Rule On California's Overcrowded Prisons\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2011/08/107515794-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\">\u003c/a>Scott Thorpe, CEO of the California District Attorneys Association, said his organization is recommending that district attorneys file subpoenas for the prison records of inmates seeking a resentencing hearing so they can scrutinize everything from the offenders’ health and psychological profile to their participation in rehabilitation programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re arguing that everything should be taken into consideration,” he said. “If they haven’t taken advantage of programs that were available to them, we’re saying that’s a relevant fact in determining whether this is a responsible person to go out into society.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prop. 36 allows sentence reductions for inmates convicted under the original 1994 law if their third strike was not a serious or violent felony (as defined by the California Penal Code) and their prior convictions did not include rape, murder, child molestation or other grave crimes. \u003c!--more-->Some 2,800 inmates serving life terms could be eligible for shorter sentences or release under the measure, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/541374-prop36countyestimates.html\" target=\"_blank\">data\u003c/a> from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Of those offenders, nearly 70 percent originally were sentenced in five counties: Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Resentencing is not automatic. The measure gives judges discretion to consider a host of factors to determine whether an offender poses an “unreasonable risk” to public safety and should remain in prison. Those factors include the types of previous crimes, injuries to victims, lengths of prior prison terms, disciplinary and rehabilitation records in prison, and any other evidence the court deems relevant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of Prop. 36 have argued that the measure was unnecessary because judges already have discretion to impose lighter sentences. They also criticized the initiative for allowing inmates who committed violent crimes prior to their final strike to qualify for possible release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorpe said the measure is putting a heavy burden on prosecutors to pull together all the pertinent records to determine the level of risk an offender poses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district attorneys have that responsibility for saying, ‘Hey, this guy is or is not a danger to public safety,' ” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public defenders' offices around the state also are bracing for a heavy workload, especially if a large number of petitions are challenged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The costs could grow significantly,\" said Laura Hoffman, chief deputy public defender for San Bernardino County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prop. 36 provides little guidance on how the petition process should be conducted, though it specifies that inmates must file their petitions by November 2015. In recent weeks, prosecutors and defense attorneys around the state have been working with corrections officials to create a system to locate, copy and transfer inmates' prison records to local courts assigned to evaluate the petitions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some cases, the records go back decades and are kept only on paper. In San Bernardino County, prosecutors have filed subpoenas seeking records on 16 inmates, according to corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who publicly supported Prop. 36, said his office also is requesting prison records for all third-strike inmates seeking new sentences. Rosen said that of the 120 to 130 inmates who likely will qualify under the measure, more than half could win reduced sentences, leaving a significant minority that will remain behind bars for the duration of their terms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that Proposition 36 balances individual fairness with public safety,” Rosen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District attorneys in Orange and Kern counties declined to comment on how they were implementing Prop. 36.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lawyers representing third-strikers expressed concern that challenges over prison records could create a bottleneck in the petition process and long delays for some inmates who are eligible for release. Michael Romano, a Prop. 36 co-author who directs a law clinic at Stanford University, said another challenge is ensuring that every inmate who qualifies under the statute receives adequate representation and has a transition plan for life after prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Their lives are on the line,\" he said. \"This is their last, best chance of getting out of prison, reuniting with their families and getting to put their lives back together.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some petitions might be unopposed, Romano said, a \"large number of cases are going to be contentious.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are not expecting that prosecutors are going to roll over,\" he said. \"We are loading for bear.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe width=\"640\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col2%3E%3E1+from+1cEbJ3xTeC-5ETWGdFnF2vMPAGq-i67SRK239Ybk&h=false&lat=37.29922349623006&lng=-119.65726290624995&z=6&t=1&l=col2%3E%3E1&y=5&tmplt=2\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/12/prisonersforrelease-key.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/12/prisonersforrelease-key.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"prisonersforrelease-key\" width=\"630\" height=\"100\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-83409\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Michael Montgomery is an investigative journalist for \u003ca href=\"http://californiawatch.org/\">California Watch\u003c/a> and KQED News\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Prop. 36 Will Release Felons from Prison. Who Gets Out?",
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"headTitle": "Prop. 36 Will Release Felons from Prison. Who Gets Out? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Passing with 68% of the vote last Tuesday, Proposition 36 softened California’s controversial three strikes law, one of the toughest sentencing rules in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_80107\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/handcuffs.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-80107\" title=\"handcuffs\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/handcuffs-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getty Images\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Three strikes, which voters put in place in 1994, allows for sentences of life in prison for anyone convicted of three felonies, regardless of the crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prop. 36 will let some “third strikers” out of prison if their felonies were not serious or violent. And it will shorten the sentences given for new third-strike offenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how many people will get out of prison under the new measure? Not as many as you might think, California Watch investigative reporter Michael Montgomery told KQED Online Editor Jon Brooks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks: \u003c/strong>Are we going to see a flood of felons leaving state prisons?\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>: \u003c/strong>Inmates who were sentenced under the law, whose third strikes were not violent felonies or serious felonies, will be eligible to petition the judge in the original court for a re-sentencing. However there is a provision that disqualifies an inmate from possible re-sentencing if his first or second strike included very serious crimes such as rape or murder. There are just under 9,000 three-strikers in prison, total. Just over half of those have violent, or serious, third strikes. So, you’ve already whittled the number down to about 4,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number you sometimes hear is three- to three-and-a-half-thousand people who could be eligible. Experts who’ve looked at this say that the number is actually a lot smaller than that, maybe 2,000, but probably even smaller than that, because of various elements to people’s sentences and previous felonies. So, I think right now we can say perhaps hundreds of inmates will be eligible for resentencing. What’s interesting is that the text of Proposition 36, when you read the text, which is a very long text, you realize how careful, and in fact narrow, the measure is. Not surprising, if you’re going to get the buy-in from people like LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley and Grover Norquist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_80115\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/Three-Strikes_Prop-36_GroupShot_.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-80115\" title=\"Three Strikes_Prop 36_GroupShot_\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/Three-Strikes_Prop-36_GroupShot_-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of a San Quentin self-help group for three-strikers meet with reporter Michael Montgomery. Most say they are here for non-violent crimes. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting))\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Grover Norquist supported the measure? What was his reasoning?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: There’s a movement among conservatives in the US called “\u003ca href=\"http://www.rightoncrime.com/\">Right on Crime\u003c/a>.” Grover Norquist is part of it, Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich. The idea, particularly with Norquist, is that mandatory minimum sentencing, which is sort of what Three strikes is, in an extreme sense, is a waste of resources, that we shouldn’t be sending away low-level drug offenders to prison at \u003cem>huge\u003c/em> cost to the taxpayers, when there are much more efficient, effective and cheaper alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: So, it’s sort of an extension of their anti-tax positions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> For Norquist, it is. I interviewed a guy named Craig DeRoche. He’s in this Prisons Fellowship, this is the group that Chuck Coleson started – the Watergate guy – and also Pat Nolan has been involved. He was a former California lawmaker who was sent to prison on corruption charges, converted to Christianity, born again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their feeling is that conservatives have scrutinized every aspect of government except criminal justice policy. They’ve come around to the feeling that there are some things that are out of whack. And they would point to California’s three strikes as a great example of that. It’s totally interesting. Go to their web site; it’s fascinating, and look at Norquist’s statement. \u003ca href=\"http://www.rightoncrime.com/2010/11/test-gallery-post/\">“Grover Norquist’s Remarks on the Conservative Case for Criminal Justice Reform.”\u003c/a> He did endorse Prop 36; it’s on the Yes on 36 web site. Look at the supporters of [Prop] 36, scroll way down, and you’ll see some conservative groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: Why were the backers so careful in writing the text?\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Conservatives have scrutinized every aspect of government except criminal justice policy. They’ve come around to the feeling that there are some things that are out of whack.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> The back story to Proposition 36 is that the group of people who put it together had to work very, very, very hard to convince Steve Cooley to sign on. And they got his agreement, his support, and I think that that was critical to 36’s success. If you had the DA’s from the biggest cities in California — San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose and Jeff Rosen — you had high-profile DA’s supporting it. They made a TV ad which you can check out; it’s on \u003ca href=\"http://www.yeson36.org/\">their web site\u003c/a>. That made a huge difference at reassuring voters that this wasn’t a soft-on-crime measure, that it wasn’t going to endanger public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing that’s interesting is, you can debate, “Is the success of Prop 36 in its symbolic importance, or in its practical importance?” I would argue possibly that it’s really in its symbolism for two reasons. It shows that voters are willing to back a measure that brings more leniency into sentencing. I think the San Jose Mercury News looked at this, and they said it’s only the second time in the last hundred years that there’s been a voters’ initiative that’s actually ratcheted-down on sentencing. The other thing that’s hugely important is that this shows to other politicians that you can publicly support sentencing reform and not get burned as being called “soft on crime.” I mean, that’s the hope in any case. You know this has been one of the third rails of politics for a long time, especially in California. I mean, you had three Supreme Court judges recalled for being called “soft on crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: For the death penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Exactly. And so the politics of this are really interesting, maybe more than its impact on criminal justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks:\u003c/strong> You were saying that some of the poster children for reforming the law — like the guy sentenced to live in prison for walking away with a slice of pizza — almost all of that sort of sentencing happened before 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> It’s not that if you qualify, you just immediately get a sentence reduction. You have to go to the judge, and there is a provision here that the judge can consider the petitioner’s disciplinary record and record of rehabilitation while incarcerated. And if a judge determines that you haven’t done well enough behind bars, they could very much deny your petition, and this “pizza thief” could remain behind bars for his 25-life sentence. So, it’s not automatic. And the judges still have a lot of discretion. One other very interesting question is, in the run up to Proposition 36, we interviewed Carl Adams, the head of the District Attorneys’ Association of California. They opposed Proposition 36, as did almost all district attorneys in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: Except for the high-profile ones you talked about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Except for the three. And, will these district attorneys band together and fight these cases, these petitions? Will there be an active opposition? Will they go to the judge and really try to block, get these petitions denied? It’s going to be very interesting to see how that plays out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks:\u003c/strong> Are the district attorneys part of the process formally, as opposed to just weighing in? Do they need to sign off on something?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: No. It’s up to the judge, but they could influence the judge, no doubt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Let’s get back to the pre-2000 inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> According to the District Attorneys’ Association, around 85% of the current three strikers were sentenced before 2000. So, there’s this idea that in the first years after three strikes passed were the years when the most egregious cases happened. And since the early 2000’s, particularly when Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley adopted these reforms, he said, “Look, we’re not going to send away non-violent, low-level criminals as three-strikers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> So, he was already subscribing to this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. You could argue that Proposition 36 affirms the Steve Cooley approach to three strikes. And in fact, Cooley has \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/08/23/video-george-gascon-steve-cooley-describe-their-positions-on-death-penalty-3-strikes-ballot-initiatives/\">said on KQED\u003c/a> that Proposition 36 is the best way to preserve the three strikes law and protect it from future legal challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://youtu.be/vJMvvByDEHs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his view, the way LA County approaches three strikes is “sound.” Now, there’s an interesting debate about that, because under the Cooley approach, which has now been adopted by California voters, people convicted of three so-called “serious crimes\u003cstrong>”\u003c/strong> are eligible for life sentences. But a serious crime can be a home burglary. So, we’re still in a situation where it’s possible that someone could be sentenced for 25-life for three burglaries of an unoccupied home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Is LA County so important because they send a majority of felons to prison?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Yeah, it’s huge. I don’t know the percentage, but one other thing to point out is that even though there’s the Cooley rule, which big-city prosecutors adopted, but there’s still prosecutors in smaller counties who were sending people to prison for life on fairly low-level crimes, in terms of three strikes. So, the argument in support of Proposition 36 is, “We have to have some \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/07/30/where-does-your-county-rank-in-imprisonment/\">consistency statewide\u003c/a>.” It’s unfair to have someone convicted in San Francisco go to jail for maybe five years while if that same person was convicted for the same crimes in Kern County, they’re going to get 25 to life. That’s really not a good idea in the eyes of the supporters of Proposition 36\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks: \u003c/strong>So, as the judges have to go and sign off on this stuff, that also could be County-dependant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Right. Now opponents of 36 argue that judges already have discretion; they can knock down a strike. It’s up to the prosecutor and even the judge. If three strikes were automatic, California would have tens of thousands of people behind bars for life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: That’s why I was so surprised to find out it was so few prisoners. I thought it was filling the jails up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: I think a lot of people when the see the numbers are surprised and probably thought there were more three strikers than there are. However, there is the two strike element, and this is an important thing. What mandatory minimums are about, is essentially sentence enhancements that are automatic. There’s a strong argument that a key factor in our crowded prisons are these sentence enhancements. It’s not that we’re sending more people to prison. It’s that we’re sending people to prison for longer periods of time. At least, that’s the bigger factor. And so, one element that Proposition 36 does not address is this “two strikes,” which is a doubling of your penalty, if you have a second felony. The estimates are that there are more than 30,000 people in California prisons serving two strike terms. Check out the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Two-strikes-have-large-impact-on-prison-population-2352565.php.\">article about this by Marisa Lagos\u003c/a>, It’s the elephant in the room, or the gorilla in the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks:\u003c/strong> Two felonies, you double the penalty? And they don’t have to be violent felonies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: That’s right. So, if people thought that Prop 36 is going to be a major factor in reducing prison overcrowding, they’re going to need to reconsider that, because it’s not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: And Prop 36 says nothing about two strikes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Nothing. So, critics of 36, let’s say on the liberal side, will say that it doesn’t go far enough, because we still have in place this idea of very long sentences for let’s say ‘mid-level’ crimes. Do we want to do that as a society? Is it helpful or not? I don’t know how voters feel about that, but it certainly wasn’t on the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: Last thing, I wanted to ask about the failure of the death penalty initiative, Proposition 34. A colleague wondered if people split their criminal justice vote — if they were uncomfortable about voting to abolish the death penalty, they felt they could overturn three strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: That’s really interesting. In talking to some of the people who were involved in writing the ballot initiative for three strikes, running up to the vote, there was this idea that people were going to pass it, because it was about money, and we’re in a recession, and it was really just about saving money. If that were the case, then people would have also voted for the death penalty. What supporters of 36 say is that the money is sort of icing on the cake. You had to have a story. There had to be a story to tell that people would be engaged in. And if you look on the Yes on 36 web site, read some of those stories. They’re very moving. There is a sense of injustice. I would argue is that if it had just been the injustice, I’m not sure 36 would have passed. But because you had a sense of injustice and an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money, those things together worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of capital punishment, there are no poster cases of injustice. There’s no specific case of someone being executed who was wrongfully convicted. There are wrongful convictions, but I think people feel that there is a system to address that. We see people who’ve gotten out after being wrongfully convicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another interesting element is that Proposition 36 people kept their distance from Proposition 34. They did not want people to confuse the two measures. It’s difficult when you look at some of the people who are on death row, it’s difficult for voters to sense injustice. It’s really hard, even though I think a lot of Californians are uncomfortable with state-sanctioned executions. It’s hard to get into the story of these people and not be disgusted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other important thing about Proposition 36 is that there was no active opposition. I mean, the opponents of Proposition 36 raised about $130,000. There were no TV ads. Don’t forget last time, in 2006, a ballot measure to change three strikes, four governors went publicly against it, including Jerry Brown. There were TV ads with Arnold Schwarzenegger that he paid for himself, that came on right before the vote. That was a major push against it. And the measure wasn’t as narrowly crafted. We didn’t get any of that this time. Brown was silent, the prison guards’ union was silent. In a sense, I think Prop. 36 got either the explicit or the tacit support of the political establishment in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: And who financed it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: George Soros put in I think a million dollars. David Mills, who’s an investor, who also teaches at Stanford, put in almost a million dollars. Here’s one more thing. Part of this story is about Stanford Law School. There was a team of devoted professors and students who really took on both cases of three strikers who they’ve gotten out of prison – at least two dozen – but also getting this measure crafted, getting support. You know, without Stanford University’s law school, it may be that this measure wouldn’t have existed, or it wouldn’t have passed. So, for people who supported 36, they need to tip their hats to Stanford Law School.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Prop. 36 Will Release Felons from Prison. Who Gets Out? | KQED",
"description": "Passing with 68% of the vote last Tuesday, Proposition 36 softened California’s controversial three strikes law, one of the toughest sentencing rules in the country. Three strikes, which voters put in place in 1994, allows for sentences of life in prison for anyone convicted of three felonies, regardless of the crime. Prop. 36 will let",
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"headline": "Prop. 36 Will Release Felons from Prison. Who Gets Out?",
"datePublished": "2012-11-12T15:40:47-08:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Passing with 68% of the vote last Tuesday, Proposition 36 softened California’s controversial three strikes law, one of the toughest sentencing rules in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_80107\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/handcuffs.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-80107\" title=\"handcuffs\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/handcuffs-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getty Images\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Three strikes, which voters put in place in 1994, allows for sentences of life in prison for anyone convicted of three felonies, regardless of the crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prop. 36 will let some “third strikers” out of prison if their felonies were not serious or violent. And it will shorten the sentences given for new third-strike offenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how many people will get out of prison under the new measure? Not as many as you might think, California Watch investigative reporter Michael Montgomery told KQED Online Editor Jon Brooks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks: \u003c/strong>Are we going to see a flood of felons leaving state prisons?\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>: \u003c/strong>Inmates who were sentenced under the law, whose third strikes were not violent felonies or serious felonies, will be eligible to petition the judge in the original court for a re-sentencing. However there is a provision that disqualifies an inmate from possible re-sentencing if his first or second strike included very serious crimes such as rape or murder. There are just under 9,000 three-strikers in prison, total. Just over half of those have violent, or serious, third strikes. So, you’ve already whittled the number down to about 4,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number you sometimes hear is three- to three-and-a-half-thousand people who could be eligible. Experts who’ve looked at this say that the number is actually a lot smaller than that, maybe 2,000, but probably even smaller than that, because of various elements to people’s sentences and previous felonies. So, I think right now we can say perhaps hundreds of inmates will be eligible for resentencing. What’s interesting is that the text of Proposition 36, when you read the text, which is a very long text, you realize how careful, and in fact narrow, the measure is. Not surprising, if you’re going to get the buy-in from people like LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley and Grover Norquist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_80115\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/Three-Strikes_Prop-36_GroupShot_.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-80115\" title=\"Three Strikes_Prop 36_GroupShot_\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/11/Three-Strikes_Prop-36_GroupShot_-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of a San Quentin self-help group for three-strikers meet with reporter Michael Montgomery. Most say they are here for non-violent crimes. (Monica Lam/Center for Investigative Reporting))\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Grover Norquist supported the measure? What was his reasoning?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: There’s a movement among conservatives in the US called “\u003ca href=\"http://www.rightoncrime.com/\">Right on Crime\u003c/a>.” Grover Norquist is part of it, Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich. The idea, particularly with Norquist, is that mandatory minimum sentencing, which is sort of what Three strikes is, in an extreme sense, is a waste of resources, that we shouldn’t be sending away low-level drug offenders to prison at \u003cem>huge\u003c/em> cost to the taxpayers, when there are much more efficient, effective and cheaper alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: So, it’s sort of an extension of their anti-tax positions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> For Norquist, it is. I interviewed a guy named Craig DeRoche. He’s in this Prisons Fellowship, this is the group that Chuck Coleson started – the Watergate guy – and also Pat Nolan has been involved. He was a former California lawmaker who was sent to prison on corruption charges, converted to Christianity, born again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their feeling is that conservatives have scrutinized every aspect of government except criminal justice policy. They’ve come around to the feeling that there are some things that are out of whack. And they would point to California’s three strikes as a great example of that. It’s totally interesting. Go to their web site; it’s fascinating, and look at Norquist’s statement. \u003ca href=\"http://www.rightoncrime.com/2010/11/test-gallery-post/\">“Grover Norquist’s Remarks on the Conservative Case for Criminal Justice Reform.”\u003c/a> He did endorse Prop 36; it’s on the Yes on 36 web site. Look at the supporters of [Prop] 36, scroll way down, and you’ll see some conservative groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: Why were the backers so careful in writing the text?\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Conservatives have scrutinized every aspect of government except criminal justice policy. They’ve come around to the feeling that there are some things that are out of whack.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> The back story to Proposition 36 is that the group of people who put it together had to work very, very, very hard to convince Steve Cooley to sign on. And they got his agreement, his support, and I think that that was critical to 36’s success. If you had the DA’s from the biggest cities in California — San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose and Jeff Rosen — you had high-profile DA’s supporting it. They made a TV ad which you can check out; it’s on \u003ca href=\"http://www.yeson36.org/\">their web site\u003c/a>. That made a huge difference at reassuring voters that this wasn’t a soft-on-crime measure, that it wasn’t going to endanger public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing that’s interesting is, you can debate, “Is the success of Prop 36 in its symbolic importance, or in its practical importance?” I would argue possibly that it’s really in its symbolism for two reasons. It shows that voters are willing to back a measure that brings more leniency into sentencing. I think the San Jose Mercury News looked at this, and they said it’s only the second time in the last hundred years that there’s been a voters’ initiative that’s actually ratcheted-down on sentencing. The other thing that’s hugely important is that this shows to other politicians that you can publicly support sentencing reform and not get burned as being called “soft on crime.” I mean, that’s the hope in any case. You know this has been one of the third rails of politics for a long time, especially in California. I mean, you had three Supreme Court judges recalled for being called “soft on crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: For the death penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Exactly. And so the politics of this are really interesting, maybe more than its impact on criminal justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks:\u003c/strong> You were saying that some of the poster children for reforming the law — like the guy sentenced to live in prison for walking away with a slice of pizza — almost all of that sort of sentencing happened before 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> It’s not that if you qualify, you just immediately get a sentence reduction. You have to go to the judge, and there is a provision here that the judge can consider the petitioner’s disciplinary record and record of rehabilitation while incarcerated. And if a judge determines that you haven’t done well enough behind bars, they could very much deny your petition, and this “pizza thief” could remain behind bars for his 25-life sentence. So, it’s not automatic. And the judges still have a lot of discretion. One other very interesting question is, in the run up to Proposition 36, we interviewed Carl Adams, the head of the District Attorneys’ Association of California. They opposed Proposition 36, as did almost all district attorneys in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: Except for the high-profile ones you talked about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Except for the three. And, will these district attorneys band together and fight these cases, these petitions? Will there be an active opposition? Will they go to the judge and really try to block, get these petitions denied? It’s going to be very interesting to see how that plays out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks:\u003c/strong> Are the district attorneys part of the process formally, as opposed to just weighing in? Do they need to sign off on something?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: No. It’s up to the judge, but they could influence the judge, no doubt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Let’s get back to the pre-2000 inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> According to the District Attorneys’ Association, around 85% of the current three strikers were sentenced before 2000. So, there’s this idea that in the first years after three strikes passed were the years when the most egregious cases happened. And since the early 2000’s, particularly when Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley adopted these reforms, he said, “Look, we’re not going to send away non-violent, low-level criminals as three-strikers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> So, he was already subscribing to this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. You could argue that Proposition 36 affirms the Steve Cooley approach to three strikes. And in fact, Cooley has \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/08/23/video-george-gascon-steve-cooley-describe-their-positions-on-death-penalty-3-strikes-ballot-initiatives/\">said on KQED\u003c/a> that Proposition 36 is the best way to preserve the three strikes law and protect it from future legal challenges.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/vJMvvByDEHs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/vJMvvByDEHs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In his view, the way LA County approaches three strikes is “sound.” Now, there’s an interesting debate about that, because under the Cooley approach, which has now been adopted by California voters, people convicted of three so-called “serious crimes\u003cstrong>”\u003c/strong> are eligible for life sentences. But a serious crime can be a home burglary. So, we’re still in a situation where it’s possible that someone could be sentenced for 25-life for three burglaries of an unoccupied home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Is LA County so important because they send a majority of felons to prison?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Yeah, it’s huge. I don’t know the percentage, but one other thing to point out is that even though there’s the Cooley rule, which big-city prosecutors adopted, but there’s still prosecutors in smaller counties who were sending people to prison for life on fairly low-level crimes, in terms of three strikes. So, the argument in support of Proposition 36 is, “We have to have some \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/07/30/where-does-your-county-rank-in-imprisonment/\">consistency statewide\u003c/a>.” It’s unfair to have someone convicted in San Francisco go to jail for maybe five years while if that same person was convicted for the same crimes in Kern County, they’re going to get 25 to life. That’s really not a good idea in the eyes of the supporters of Proposition 36\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks: \u003c/strong>So, as the judges have to go and sign off on this stuff, that also could be County-dependant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Right. Now opponents of 36 argue that judges already have discretion; they can knock down a strike. It’s up to the prosecutor and even the judge. If three strikes were automatic, California would have tens of thousands of people behind bars for life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: That’s why I was so surprised to find out it was so few prisoners. I thought it was filling the jails up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: I think a lot of people when the see the numbers are surprised and probably thought there were more three strikers than there are. However, there is the two strike element, and this is an important thing. What mandatory minimums are about, is essentially sentence enhancements that are automatic. There’s a strong argument that a key factor in our crowded prisons are these sentence enhancements. It’s not that we’re sending more people to prison. It’s that we’re sending people to prison for longer periods of time. At least, that’s the bigger factor. And so, one element that Proposition 36 does not address is this “two strikes,” which is a doubling of your penalty, if you have a second felony. The estimates are that there are more than 30,000 people in California prisons serving two strike terms. Check out the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Two-strikes-have-large-impact-on-prison-population-2352565.php.\">article about this by Marisa Lagos\u003c/a>, It’s the elephant in the room, or the gorilla in the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks:\u003c/strong> Two felonies, you double the penalty? And they don’t have to be violent felonies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: That’s right. So, if people thought that Prop 36 is going to be a major factor in reducing prison overcrowding, they’re going to need to reconsider that, because it’s not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: And Prop 36 says nothing about two strikes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: Nothing. So, critics of 36, let’s say on the liberal side, will say that it doesn’t go far enough, because we still have in place this idea of very long sentences for let’s say ‘mid-level’ crimes. Do we want to do that as a society? Is it helpful or not? I don’t know how voters feel about that, but it certainly wasn’t on the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: Last thing, I wanted to ask about the failure of the death penalty initiative, Proposition 34. A colleague wondered if people split their criminal justice vote — if they were uncomfortable about voting to abolish the death penalty, they felt they could overturn three strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: That’s really interesting. In talking to some of the people who were involved in writing the ballot initiative for three strikes, running up to the vote, there was this idea that people were going to pass it, because it was about money, and we’re in a recession, and it was really just about saving money. If that were the case, then people would have also voted for the death penalty. What supporters of 36 say is that the money is sort of icing on the cake. You had to have a story. There had to be a story to tell that people would be engaged in. And if you look on the Yes on 36 web site, read some of those stories. They’re very moving. There is a sense of injustice. I would argue is that if it had just been the injustice, I’m not sure 36 would have passed. But because you had a sense of injustice and an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money, those things together worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of capital punishment, there are no poster cases of injustice. There’s no specific case of someone being executed who was wrongfully convicted. There are wrongful convictions, but I think people feel that there is a system to address that. We see people who’ve gotten out after being wrongfully convicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another interesting element is that Proposition 36 people kept their distance from Proposition 34. They did not want people to confuse the two measures. It’s difficult when you look at some of the people who are on death row, it’s difficult for voters to sense injustice. It’s really hard, even though I think a lot of Californians are uncomfortable with state-sanctioned executions. It’s hard to get into the story of these people and not be disgusted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other important thing about Proposition 36 is that there was no active opposition. I mean, the opponents of Proposition 36 raised about $130,000. There were no TV ads. Don’t forget last time, in 2006, a ballot measure to change three strikes, four governors went publicly against it, including Jerry Brown. There were TV ads with Arnold Schwarzenegger that he paid for himself, that came on right before the vote. That was a major push against it. And the measure wasn’t as narrowly crafted. We didn’t get any of that this time. Brown was silent, the prison guards’ union was silent. In a sense, I think Prop. 36 got either the explicit or the tacit support of the political establishment in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Brooks\u003c/strong>: And who financed it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: George Soros put in I think a million dollars. David Mills, who’s an investor, who also teaches at Stanford, put in almost a million dollars. Here’s one more thing. Part of this story is about Stanford Law School. There was a team of devoted professors and students who really took on both cases of three strikers who they’ve gotten out of prison – at least two dozen – but also getting this measure crafted, getting support. You know, without Stanford University’s law school, it may be that this measure wouldn’t have existed, or it wouldn’t have passed. So, for people who supported 36, they need to tip their hats to Stanford Law School.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "High Pay a Costly Legacy of Calif. Prison Receiver",
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"headTitle": "High Pay a Costly Legacy of Calif. Prison Receiver | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A doctor at California Medical Facility was paid more than $410,000 last year, while a registered nurse at High Desert State Prison made nearly $236,000 — more than twice the statewide average in both cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59316\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/pelicanbay1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/pelicanbay1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"pelicanbay1\" width=\"300\" height=\"257\" class=\"size-full wp-image-59316\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pelican Bay Prison in California\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A pharmacist at Corcoran State Prison was paid more than $196,000, nearly double what is typical across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compensation for medical providers has soared in the prison system since a federal judge seized control of inmate health care in 2006 and appointed an overseer with the power to hire and set pay levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the official begins to wind down his oversight, the medical hiring and salary increases have helped lead to an improvement in inmate care, but it has increased the bill for taxpayers too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has also led to criticism that the official — called a receiver — provided a “Cadillac” level of care for convicted felons. A state review found that only Texas pays its state prison doctors more that California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem that we had is that the receiver was not accountable to anybody,” said former state Sen. George Runner, a Republican who has frequently criticized the program. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So the receiver could just do or choose to spend whatever amount of money he thought was necessary to solve his problem, and unfortunately now the state is stuck with that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The receiver for medical care, J. Clark Kelso, said the state has been free to collectively bargain health care providers’ salaries since a court order increasing their wages expired three years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The receiver’s goal was to correct a prison medical system that was ruled unconstitutional for its substandard care and, at one point, contributed to an inmate death each week through negligence or malfeasance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do that, the receivership increased salaries, created new positions at high pay and hired hundreds of employees to fill longtime vacancies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Total spending on medical, dental and mental health care for inmates, numbering 124,700, has more than doubled over the last decade, from $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2003-04 to a projected $2.3 billion this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of medical, mental health and dental workers in the prisons more than doubled over six years, from 5,100 in 2005, the year before the receivership was created, to 12,200 last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 1,400 were administrators who don’t directly treat inmates, according to a state Assembly oversight committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. David M. Mathis at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, between Sacramento and San Francisco, was paid about $410,000 last year, the most of any prison doctor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mathis treats some of the sickest inmates and is the acting medical director at the prison hospice, where terminally ill prisoners go to die. He is a board certified physician who had a solo practice for 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his $239,572 base salary, Mathis was paid $169,548 for working nights and weekends. His pay topped other doctors because he also worked overnight, weekend and holiday shifts 10 to 15 times a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison doctors said they deserve higher pay because they face the constant threat of assault from inmates and because prisons, generally, are located in the most remote regions of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re doing it well now because we’ve got better docs who are willing to work in these less-than-ideal situations and are being adequately compensated,” said Mathis, who also worked in prisons in Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver, said paying doctors to work nights and weekends is cheaper than hiring additional doctors with full salaries and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has cut its costs for outside medical care in half by having more sick inmates treated by the prison doctors instead of being sent to hospitals. That also reduces the cost of transporting and guarding them while they are treated outside of the prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can save the taxpayer a lot of money by coming in to handle things,” said Dr. Vache Chakmakian, who works 90 miles from Ironwood State Prison near Blythe, a southern desert city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chakmakian was paid $358,645 last year — his regular pay of $239,572 plus $119,072 for frequently working overnight and holidays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal judges and receivers who oversee medical and mental health care said boosting pay significantly was the only way to attract quality employees to such jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One result is that of the top 100 highest-paid state employees outside the University of California system last year, 44 worked in the prisons, according to an Associated Press analysis of state payroll data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They averaged nearly $379,000 in salary and were led by the $803,271 paid to a psychiatrist at Salinas Valley State Prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Base salaries for prison psychiatrists range from $126,000 to $281,952, depending on seniority and other factors, with chief psychiatrists paid more. Dentists’ salaries can be as high as $288,000\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compared with the other most populous states, California had higher base salaries for prison doctors than New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But base salaries for prison doctors were higher in Texas, particularly when salaries were adjusted for California’s higher cost of living, according to a state Department of Finance report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prison receiver does not control mental health or dental care, but the finance department counts those in the overall cost of providing inmate medical care, which has risen from $7,747 per inmate the year before the federal receivership began to more than $18,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courts have directed the receivership to wind down while ensuring the state prison system maintains adequate health care for inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order reignited a debate between Kelso and Gov. Jerry Brown, who has fought the receiver’s efforts to provide what the governor once derided as “Cadillac care” for convicts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelso said the prisons provide “minimally necessary medical care.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "High Pay a Costly Legacy of Calif. Prison Receiver | KQED",
"description": "SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A doctor at California Medical Facility was paid more than $410,000 last year, while a registered nurse at High Desert State Prison made nearly $236,000 — more than twice the statewide average in both cases. A pharmacist at Corcoran State Prison was paid more than $196,000, nearly double what is typical across the state. Compensation for medical providers has soared in the prison system since a federal judge seized control of inmate health care in 2006 and appointed an overseer with the power to hire and set pay levels. As the official begins to wind down",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A doctor at California Medical Facility was paid more than $410,000 last year, while a registered nurse at High Desert State Prison made nearly $236,000 — more than twice the statewide average in both cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_59316\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/pelicanbay1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/03/pelicanbay1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"pelicanbay1\" width=\"300\" height=\"257\" class=\"size-full wp-image-59316\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pelican Bay Prison in California\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A pharmacist at Corcoran State Prison was paid more than $196,000, nearly double what is typical across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compensation for medical providers has soared in the prison system since a federal judge seized control of inmate health care in 2006 and appointed an overseer with the power to hire and set pay levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the official begins to wind down his oversight, the medical hiring and salary increases have helped lead to an improvement in inmate care, but it has increased the bill for taxpayers too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has also led to criticism that the official — called a receiver — provided a “Cadillac” level of care for convicted felons. A state review found that only Texas pays its state prison doctors more that California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem that we had is that the receiver was not accountable to anybody,” said former state Sen. George Runner, a Republican who has frequently criticized the program. \u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So the receiver could just do or choose to spend whatever amount of money he thought was necessary to solve his problem, and unfortunately now the state is stuck with that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The receiver for medical care, J. Clark Kelso, said the state has been free to collectively bargain health care providers’ salaries since a court order increasing their wages expired three years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The receiver’s goal was to correct a prison medical system that was ruled unconstitutional for its substandard care and, at one point, contributed to an inmate death each week through negligence or malfeasance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do that, the receivership increased salaries, created new positions at high pay and hired hundreds of employees to fill longtime vacancies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Total spending on medical, dental and mental health care for inmates, numbering 124,700, has more than doubled over the last decade, from $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2003-04 to a projected $2.3 billion this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of medical, mental health and dental workers in the prisons more than doubled over six years, from 5,100 in 2005, the year before the receivership was created, to 12,200 last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 1,400 were administrators who don’t directly treat inmates, according to a state Assembly oversight committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. David M. Mathis at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, between Sacramento and San Francisco, was paid about $410,000 last year, the most of any prison doctor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mathis treats some of the sickest inmates and is the acting medical director at the prison hospice, where terminally ill prisoners go to die. He is a board certified physician who had a solo practice for 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his $239,572 base salary, Mathis was paid $169,548 for working nights and weekends. His pay topped other doctors because he also worked overnight, weekend and holiday shifts 10 to 15 times a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison doctors said they deserve higher pay because they face the constant threat of assault from inmates and because prisons, generally, are located in the most remote regions of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re doing it well now because we’ve got better docs who are willing to work in these less-than-ideal situations and are being adequately compensated,” said Mathis, who also worked in prisons in Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver, said paying doctors to work nights and weekends is cheaper than hiring additional doctors with full salaries and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has cut its costs for outside medical care in half by having more sick inmates treated by the prison doctors instead of being sent to hospitals. That also reduces the cost of transporting and guarding them while they are treated outside of the prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can save the taxpayer a lot of money by coming in to handle things,” said Dr. Vache Chakmakian, who works 90 miles from Ironwood State Prison near Blythe, a southern desert city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chakmakian was paid $358,645 last year — his regular pay of $239,572 plus $119,072 for frequently working overnight and holidays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal judges and receivers who oversee medical and mental health care said boosting pay significantly was the only way to attract quality employees to such jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One result is that of the top 100 highest-paid state employees outside the University of California system last year, 44 worked in the prisons, according to an Associated Press analysis of state payroll data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They averaged nearly $379,000 in salary and were led by the $803,271 paid to a psychiatrist at Salinas Valley State Prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Base salaries for prison psychiatrists range from $126,000 to $281,952, depending on seniority and other factors, with chief psychiatrists paid more. Dentists’ salaries can be as high as $288,000\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compared with the other most populous states, California had higher base salaries for prison doctors than New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But base salaries for prison doctors were higher in Texas, particularly when salaries were adjusted for California’s higher cost of living, according to a state Department of Finance report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prison receiver does not control mental health or dental care, but the finance department counts those in the overall cost of providing inmate medical care, which has risen from $7,747 per inmate the year before the federal receivership began to more than $18,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courts have directed the receivership to wind down while ensuring the state prison system maintains adequate health care for inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order reignited a debate between Kelso and Gov. Jerry Brown, who has fought the receiver’s efforts to provide what the governor once derided as “Cadillac care” for convicts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelso said the prisons provide “minimally necessary medical care.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A hunger strike is continuing at one California prison but ended on Wednesday at another, according to Terry Thornton, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_78453\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-full wp-image-78453\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A unit of cells in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State prison. (Michael Montgomery/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some of the strikers were protesting a new policy aimed at reducing activity by gangs and other “security threat groups,” she said. Others did not give a reason for the strike, or said they were protesting food or other conditions at the prisons, said Thornton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said 69 inmates at California State Prison, Corcoran, were refusing food, some of them since Oct. 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, inmates started refusing food on Oct. 10. The number fluctuated, reaching 208 before declining to 135 yesterday and zero today, said Thornton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said did not know why the strike ended in Tehachapi. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she pointed out that the department has not yet launched its new gang management policies which would change the definitions used to determine which prisoners are sent to high-security housing units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/09/14/advocacy-groups-wary-of-new-plan-for-prison-isolation-units/\">report\u003c/a> by California Watch reporter Michael Montgomery described the new policy this way:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\nThe changes will give prison staff more flexibility in dealing with a range of “security threat groups,” according to an Aug. 30 corrections department notice sent to the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the powerful union representing prison guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policies will put California more closely in line with “recognized national standards and strategies,” staving off the “inevitable litigation and court mandated changes the State would face by remaining exclusively reliant on the current … system,” according to the document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But revisions in a June 29 \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426284-stg-draft-policy-3-1-12.html\">corrections document\u003c/a> obtained by California Watch, The Bay Citizen’s sister site, suggest that officials are moving away from the narrower focus on specific criminal or violent acts. Rather, they appear to be reviving controversial guidelines that have allowed authorities to send inmates to the special units for violations such as gang-related tattoos and drawings.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montgomery’s article quotes advocates for prisoners who were critical of the changes.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Prison Hunger Strikes Protest Gang Policy | KQED",
"description": "A hunger strike is continuing at one California prison but ended on Wednesday at another, according to Terry Thornton, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections. Some of the strikers were protesting a new policy aimed at reducing activity by gangs and other "security threat groups," she said. Others did not give a reason for the strike, or said they were protesting food or other conditions at the prisons, said Thornton. She said 69 inmates at California State Prison, Corcoran, were refusing food, some of them since Oct. 13. Meanwhile at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, inmates started refusing",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A hunger strike is continuing at one California prison but ended on Wednesday at another, according to Terry Thornton, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_78453\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-full wp-image-78453\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A unit of cells in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State prison. (Michael Montgomery/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some of the strikers were protesting a new policy aimed at reducing activity by gangs and other “security threat groups,” she said. Others did not give a reason for the strike, or said they were protesting food or other conditions at the prisons, said Thornton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said 69 inmates at California State Prison, Corcoran, were refusing food, some of them since Oct. 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, inmates started refusing food on Oct. 10. The number fluctuated, reaching 208 before declining to 135 yesterday and zero today, said Thornton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said did not know why the strike ended in Tehachapi. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she pointed out that the department has not yet launched its new gang management policies which would change the definitions used to determine which prisoners are sent to high-security housing units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/09/14/advocacy-groups-wary-of-new-plan-for-prison-isolation-units/\">report\u003c/a> by California Watch reporter Michael Montgomery described the new policy this way:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\nThe changes will give prison staff more flexibility in dealing with a range of “security threat groups,” according to an Aug. 30 corrections department notice sent to the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the powerful union representing prison guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policies will put California more closely in line with “recognized national standards and strategies,” staving off the “inevitable litigation and court mandated changes the State would face by remaining exclusively reliant on the current … system,” according to the document.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But revisions in a June 29 \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426284-stg-draft-policy-3-1-12.html\">corrections document\u003c/a> obtained by California Watch, The Bay Citizen’s sister site, suggest that officials are moving away from the narrower focus on specific criminal or violent acts. Rather, they appear to be reviving controversial guidelines that have allowed authorities to send inmates to the special units for violations such as gang-related tattoos and drawings.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montgomery’s article quotes advocates for prisoners who were critical of the changes.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Governor's Veto Leaves Media Still Unable to Record Some Prisoners",
"title": "Governor's Veto Leaves Media Still Unable to Record Some Prisoners",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77474\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-77474\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill expanding media access to state prisons, he was following in a long California tradition. Three previous governors have vetoed such bills that would let reporters record interviews with whatever prisoners they choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why does the Legislature keep butting heads with the governor on this issue?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bill passed in the State Senate, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said in a \u003ca href=\"http://asmdc.org/members/a13/news-room/press-releases/item/2995-senate-passes-prison-media-access-bill\">media release\u003c/a> that expanding media access would help uncover problems in the state prison system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The lack of good information is also a danger to the prisoners, the employees and the public at large. It was under these closed-door conditions that prison health conditions deteriorated to the point that the courts stepped in. When it comes to prisons, what we don’t know can really hurt us.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Brown argued in his \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/docs/AB_1270_Veto_Message.pdf\">veto message\u003c/a> that wardens need control of what television interviews prisoner can have.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Giving criminals celebrity status through repeated appearances on television will glorify their crimes and hurt victims and their families.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In an interview with KQED’s Joshua Johnson, California Watch prisons reporter Michael Montgomery provided some background.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Three previous governors have vetoed similar measures, in part after the Department of Corrections raised complaints. In this case the Department of Corrections said the bill would be very costly if it passed. It would have required prison officials to deal with lots of interview requests from the media, and it would have required them to respond on short notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson:\u003c/strong> What is the situation now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> As a reporter covering the prisons you can meet with inmates of your choice during regular visitor hours, if they have the right to visitors. You can take notes, but you can’t record your meeting, which is behind glass. So in essence the current rules are really much more restrictive of the broadcast media than print outlets. For broadcast reporters, it silences the voices of many of those inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson:\u003c/strong> What do you make of the governor’s argument that he didn’t want to make, essentially, TV stars out of these inmates?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> The current restrictions do make it impossible for a celebrity, like Charles Manson, to speak on television or the radio. However the issue for many reporters is that the current rules make it impossible to interview any inmate of your choosing. You can interview inmates randomly. You can interview inmates who are chosen by the Department of Corrections. But you cannot go to the department right now and say “I want to record an interview with a specific inmate.” That is banned by the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: How does that affect our ability to really understand how California’s prison system works, what’s going on behind bars, what areas might bear improvement?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> One example concerns last year’s hunger strike, which spread to about 13 prisons. The men who started that hunger strike are at Pelican Bay State Prison. And the Department of Corrections continues to prevent broadcast reporters from interviewing these men. These are men who launched a very successful hunger strike that helped pressure the Department of Corrections to make some changes in these isolation units. And they are inmates with whom the Department of Corrections has actually had a dialogue. However, we as broadcast reporters are not allowed to interview them on tape. So in that sense the public has been left a bit in the dark about what these men have to say.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77474\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-77474\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/10/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill expanding media access to state prisons, he was following in a long California tradition. Three previous governors have vetoed such bills that would let reporters record interviews with whatever prisoners they choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why does the Legislature keep butting heads with the governor on this issue?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bill passed in the State Senate, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said in a \u003ca href=\"http://asmdc.org/members/a13/news-room/press-releases/item/2995-senate-passes-prison-media-access-bill\">media release\u003c/a> that expanding media access would help uncover problems in the state prison system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The lack of good information is also a danger to the prisoners, the employees and the public at large. It was under these closed-door conditions that prison health conditions deteriorated to the point that the courts stepped in. When it comes to prisons, what we don’t know can really hurt us.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Brown argued in his \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/docs/AB_1270_Veto_Message.pdf\">veto message\u003c/a> that wardens need control of what television interviews prisoner can have.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Giving criminals celebrity status through repeated appearances on television will glorify their crimes and hurt victims and their families.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In an interview with KQED’s Joshua Johnson, California Watch prisons reporter Michael Montgomery provided some background.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Three previous governors have vetoed similar measures, in part after the Department of Corrections raised complaints. In this case the Department of Corrections said the bill would be very costly if it passed. It would have required prison officials to deal with lots of interview requests from the media, and it would have required them to respond on short notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson:\u003c/strong> What is the situation now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> As a reporter covering the prisons you can meet with inmates of your choice during regular visitor hours, if they have the right to visitors. You can take notes, but you can’t record your meeting, which is behind glass. So in essence the current rules are really much more restrictive of the broadcast media than print outlets. For broadcast reporters, it silences the voices of many of those inmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson:\u003c/strong> What do you make of the governor’s argument that he didn’t want to make, essentially, TV stars out of these inmates?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> The current restrictions do make it impossible for a celebrity, like Charles Manson, to speak on television or the radio. However the issue for many reporters is that the current rules make it impossible to interview any inmate of your choosing. You can interview inmates randomly. You can interview inmates who are chosen by the Department of Corrections. But you cannot go to the department right now and say “I want to record an interview with a specific inmate.” That is banned by the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: How does that affect our ability to really understand how California’s prison system works, what’s going on behind bars, what areas might bear improvement?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> One example concerns last year’s hunger strike, which spread to about 13 prisons. The men who started that hunger strike are at Pelican Bay State Prison. And the Department of Corrections continues to prevent broadcast reporters from interviewing these men. These are men who launched a very successful hunger strike that helped pressure the Department of Corrections to make some changes in these isolation units. And they are inmates with whom the Department of Corrections has actually had a dialogue. However, we as broadcast reporters are not allowed to interview them on tape. So in that sense the public has been left a bit in the dark about what these men have to say.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Amnesty International Slams Calif. Prisons' Isolation Cells",
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"content": "\u003cp>The global human rights group Amnesty International is calling on California to use fewer isolation units in its prison system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/060/2012/en/3af9a573-df33-4d9b-bfdb-5ef393df2b24/amr510602012en.pdf\">study\u003c/a> released Thursday, the human rights group called these units \"cruel, degrading and inhumane.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77131\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-77131\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Corrections officials isolate inmates they say are the “worst of the worst”--those who have committed violent crimes in prison or are deemed a member or associate of a prison gang. These inmates live in small cells 22-and-a-half hours a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the exercise yards are inhumane, said Amnesty International’s Angela Wright, who toured the Security Housing Units at Pelican Bay State Prison. \"They have high walls,\" she told KPCC's Julie Small. \"There’s absolutely no view. There’s absolutely no equipment in them. They’re covered with a mesh across the top so that there’s even restricted access to sunlight.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report found that 500 of the inmates living in isolation at Pelican Bay have been there for a decade or more, and 78 of them for 20 years. Amnesty International says California should reserve isolation for only the most extreme behavior and for only short periods of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/14/anatomy-of-a-prison-policy-document-on-new-isolation-rules-annotated/\">Anatomy of a Prison Policy: Document on New Isolation Rules Annotated \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>(March, 2012)\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The use of isolation units has survived many court challenges, but California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is about to revise its policy, Undersecretary of Operations Terri McDonald told Small. She said inmates will be able to earn their way to a less restrictive environment, but not for another three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While people may think it needs to go faster, we need to make sure our new policy isn’t endangering the orderly operation of our institutions.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDonald said the department will also refine its criteria for who gets sent to isolation units. She expects Corrections to release full details of the new policy this month.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The global human rights group Amnesty International is calling on California to use fewer isolation units in its prison system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/060/2012/en/3af9a573-df33-4d9b-bfdb-5ef393df2b24/amr510602012en.pdf\">study\u003c/a> released Thursday, the human rights group called these units \"cruel, degrading and inhumane.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_77131\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-77131\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Corrections officials isolate inmates they say are the “worst of the worst”--those who have committed violent crimes in prison or are deemed a member or associate of a prison gang. These inmates live in small cells 22-and-a-half hours a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the exercise yards are inhumane, said Amnesty International’s Angela Wright, who toured the Security Housing Units at Pelican Bay State Prison. \"They have high walls,\" she told KPCC's Julie Small. \"There’s absolutely no view. There’s absolutely no equipment in them. They’re covered with a mesh across the top so that there’s even restricted access to sunlight.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report found that 500 of the inmates living in isolation at Pelican Bay have been there for a decade or more, and 78 of them for 20 years. Amnesty International says California should reserve isolation for only the most extreme behavior and for only short periods of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/03/14/anatomy-of-a-prison-policy-document-on-new-isolation-rules-annotated/\">Anatomy of a Prison Policy: Document on New Isolation Rules Annotated \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>(March, 2012)\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The use of isolation units has survived many court challenges, but California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is about to revise its policy, Undersecretary of Operations Terri McDonald told Small. She said inmates will be able to earn their way to a less restrictive environment, but not for another three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While people may think it needs to go faster, we need to make sure our new policy isn’t endangering the orderly operation of our institutions.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDonald said the department will also refine its criteria for who gets sent to isolation units. She expects Corrections to release full details of the new policy this month.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "guards-link-prison-violence-to-staff-reduction",
"title": "Amid Riots, Prison Guards Concerned About Staff Reductions, More-Violent Inmates",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last week riots sent 16 California prisoners to the hospital. Next week, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will send layoff notices to guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_76792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76792\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now prison guards are concerned that a “perfect storm” may be brewing linked to staff reductions and a higher ratio of violent inmates within the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officially, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is still investigating the cause of multiple incidents at\u003ca href=\"http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Facilities_Locator/SAC.html\"> California State Prison, Sacramento\u003c/a> (also known as New Folsom). Riots there followed similar brawls in recent years, creating at least the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/09/20/calif-prisons-grapple-with-violent-trend/\">appearance of a trend\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incidents come even though prisons have begun reducing their population under a court order. The department has moved the prisoners deemed least violent to county jails, resulting in a higher concentration of violent inmates.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of a perfect storm here,” Ryan Sherman, spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, told KQED’s Tara Siler. “We’re losing staff, we’re getting more violent inmates on a percentage basis… We’re putting more dangerous inmates in lower-security facilities. It’s a potential there for it to be some kind of lethal combination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From an all-time high of 173,479 in 2006, the total prison population declined \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Offender_Information_Services_Branch/WeeklyWed/TPOP1A/TPOP1Ad120919.pdf\">to 123,744 as of Sept. 19, 2012\u003c/a>, according to figures on the department’s website. Despite that large reduction, the system is still not in compliance with the order The system was designed to house a total of 84,130 individuals, which means it’s at 147% of design capacity. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered it to get to 137%. Note these figures apply to the total number of prisoners systemwide, so certain prisons remain much more crowded than others. Mule Creek State Prison, for example, is at 175.4% of design capacity, while Valley State Prison is at 89.6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Peace Officers Association’s Sherman acknowledges that a lower prison population required a smaller staff. But he says the prisons were understaffed before the reductions in the prison population, and that an even higher ratio of guards to prisoners is needed now. “Because we have got more violent and dangerous inmates in the prisons where we used to have more of a mix, [previous] staffing practices are not going to be adequate,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corrections officials dispute that conclusion. “We’re reducing our workforce very carefully over a period of years,” a department spokesman, Jeffrey Callison, told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he said there is no evidence that a larger staff could have prevented the recent violence. “I don’t think it’s possible to connect the two,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney Rebekah Evenson, who has represented California prisoners, says that overcrowding is one reason for violence in the prisons. “It’s undisputed,” she says. “If the prisons are overcrowded then, yes, you want more staff.” Evenson also says more education and recreation programs could ease tension. And she blames the department for confining prisoners to their cells, after violence incidents, on the basis of race. This leads them to identify with violent gangs, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Callison said there is no evidence that recent events indicate a statistical increase in violence, rather than a flare-up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he said no one in the department could say how much the staff will be reduced. In a previous wave of reductions that ended in February, the staff was cut “in the low three figures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherman said he had heard about 500 people will lose their jobs in the current reductions. But Callison said the numbers will not be known until October, because the department will offer transfers to most of the staff. How many will retire from the department remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last week riots sent 16 California prisoners to the hospital. Next week, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will send layoff notices to guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_76792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76792\" title=\"unit of pbshu prison Michael Montgomery\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/unit-of-pbshu-prison-Michael-Montgomery1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Montgomery/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now prison guards are concerned that a “perfect storm” may be brewing linked to staff reductions and a higher ratio of violent inmates within the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officially, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is still investigating the cause of multiple incidents at\u003ca href=\"http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Facilities_Locator/SAC.html\"> California State Prison, Sacramento\u003c/a> (also known as New Folsom). Riots there followed similar brawls in recent years, creating at least the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/09/20/calif-prisons-grapple-with-violent-trend/\">appearance of a trend\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incidents come even though prisons have begun reducing their population under a court order. The department has moved the prisoners deemed least violent to county jails, resulting in a higher concentration of violent inmates.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of a perfect storm here,” Ryan Sherman, spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, told KQED’s Tara Siler. “We’re losing staff, we’re getting more violent inmates on a percentage basis… We’re putting more dangerous inmates in lower-security facilities. It’s a potential there for it to be some kind of lethal combination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From an all-time high of 173,479 in 2006, the total prison population declined \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Offender_Information_Services_Branch/WeeklyWed/TPOP1A/TPOP1Ad120919.pdf\">to 123,744 as of Sept. 19, 2012\u003c/a>, according to figures on the department’s website. Despite that large reduction, the system is still not in compliance with the order The system was designed to house a total of 84,130 individuals, which means it’s at 147% of design capacity. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered it to get to 137%. Note these figures apply to the total number of prisoners systemwide, so certain prisons remain much more crowded than others. Mule Creek State Prison, for example, is at 175.4% of design capacity, while Valley State Prison is at 89.6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Peace Officers Association’s Sherman acknowledges that a lower prison population required a smaller staff. But he says the prisons were understaffed before the reductions in the prison population, and that an even higher ratio of guards to prisoners is needed now. “Because we have got more violent and dangerous inmates in the prisons where we used to have more of a mix, [previous] staffing practices are not going to be adequate,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corrections officials dispute that conclusion. “We’re reducing our workforce very carefully over a period of years,” a department spokesman, Jeffrey Callison, told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he said there is no evidence that a larger staff could have prevented the recent violence. “I don’t think it’s possible to connect the two,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney Rebekah Evenson, who has represented California prisoners, says that overcrowding is one reason for violence in the prisons. “It’s undisputed,” she says. “If the prisons are overcrowded then, yes, you want more staff.” Evenson also says more education and recreation programs could ease tension. And she blames the department for confining prisoners to their cells, after violence incidents, on the basis of race. This leads them to identify with violent gangs, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Callison said there is no evidence that recent events indicate a statistical increase in violence, rather than a flare-up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he said no one in the department could say how much the staff will be reduced. In a previous wave of reductions that ended in February, the staff was cut “in the low three figures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherman said he had heard about 500 people will lose their jobs in the current reductions. But Callison said the numbers will not be known until October, because the department will offer transfers to most of the staff. How many will retire from the department remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>What happens when you take 2,600 of the most violent people in the state and cram them in housing meant for 1,800?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_76393\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76393\" title=\"Chino Prison inmates\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State prison inmates in Chino (Kevork Djansezian)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That question is surfacing in the wake of a riot among more than 50 prisoners at California State Prison, Sacramento on Wednesday that sent 13 prisoners to the hospital, one of them shot by a guard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prison is at 145 percent of capacity. While the state has been reducing its prison population by sending some inmates to local jails, overcrowding persists. The Department of Corrections has not said whether this problem played a role in Wednesday’s melée at the institution known as “New Folsom.” But it fits a pattern of incidents over the past year:\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On September 15, 2012, a prisoner died after being stabbed at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On March 6, 2012, guards at the older Folsom State Prison suppressed a riot of about 70 suspected gang members using pepper spray and nonlethal rounds, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/07/4317197/guards-quell-riot-at-folsom-state.html#storylink=misearch\">Sacramento Bee\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On December 7, 2011, about 150 prisoners rioted at New Folsom, and 11 went to the hospital, also including one shot by officers.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On May 20, 2011, another riot at New Folsom sent six inmates to the hospital, two with serious injuries.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>To get an idea of what’s behind this violence, The California Report’s Rachael Myrow interviewed Michael Montgomery, who covers the state’s prison system for KQED and California Watch. Here are some excerpts from their conversation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery:\u003c/strong> This is a high-security prison. It’s where the most dangerous inmates are held, many of whom are convicted of violent offenses. These types of incidents are not uncommon. The department is nervous, and I am hearing at least anecdotally about a possible spike in violence. The fact that an officer used a firearm means it was very serious. They only do that when a life is threatened. Sources I talked to last night say there may have been gang involvement, but the Department of Corrections says they are still investigating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachael Myrow\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Now I thought the prison population was dropping overall because of realignment sending low-level offenders to county jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery:\u003c/strong> That’s right. Under Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan the counties are taking on more low-level offenders. But interestingly what that means is that there has been a demographic shift in the state prison population. According to one estimate, the percentage of offenders in state prisons who were convicted of violent offenses went from 30 percent pre-alignment to 50 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachael Myrow\u003c/strong>: Is this part of a trend?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery:\u003c/strong> It’s difficult to say until we get more facts. But you know an inmate was killed in a different prison last week. There is a little bit of nervousness right now in the system, and it’s one reason that the Department of Corrections is overhauling these security housing units, these sort of isolation units, where they house offenders who are considered the most violent or gang members. They are implementing the plan, in the department’s words, largely to cut down on violence. We will see whether that’s effective or not. But I don’t think anyone is expecting that these kinds of incidents won’t happen in the future. The question is how common they will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachael Myrow\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> You mentioned gangs and gang violence. How big a problem is that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: It varies by institution. Some of the gangs don’t want violence because they want to carry on business which is making money: extortion, drugs, what have you. But the gangs are defined largely by ethnic and racial groups with Latinos being divided between those who identify with Northern California and Southern California, Norteños and Sureños. So it’s infused with racial politics as well, and sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the gangs from the racial and ethnic groups. But California is considered a hotbed for prison gangs and in many ways they do control the prison yards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>For more background on the changes and controversies in the state’s prison system, see KQED’s multimedia feature \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/bayarea/prisons/\">Prison Break\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>What happens when you take 2,600 of the most violent people in the state and cram them in housing meant for 1,800?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_76393\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76393\" title=\"Chino Prison inmates\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2012/09/Chino-Prison-inmates.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State prison inmates in Chino (Kevork Djansezian)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That question is surfacing in the wake of a riot among more than 50 prisoners at California State Prison, Sacramento on Wednesday that sent 13 prisoners to the hospital, one of them shot by a guard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prison is at 145 percent of capacity. While the state has been reducing its prison population by sending some inmates to local jails, overcrowding persists. The Department of Corrections has not said whether this problem played a role in Wednesday’s melée at the institution known as “New Folsom.” But it fits a pattern of incidents over the past year:\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On September 15, 2012, a prisoner died after being stabbed at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On March 6, 2012, guards at the older Folsom State Prison suppressed a riot of about 70 suspected gang members using pepper spray and nonlethal rounds, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/07/4317197/guards-quell-riot-at-folsom-state.html#storylink=misearch\">Sacramento Bee\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On December 7, 2011, about 150 prisoners rioted at New Folsom, and 11 went to the hospital, also including one shot by officers.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>On May 20, 2011, another riot at New Folsom sent six inmates to the hospital, two with serious injuries.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>To get an idea of what’s behind this violence, The California Report’s Rachael Myrow interviewed Michael Montgomery, who covers the state’s prison system for KQED and California Watch. Here are some excerpts from their conversation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery:\u003c/strong> This is a high-security prison. It’s where the most dangerous inmates are held, many of whom are convicted of violent offenses. These types of incidents are not uncommon. The department is nervous, and I am hearing at least anecdotally about a possible spike in violence. The fact that an officer used a firearm means it was very serious. They only do that when a life is threatened. Sources I talked to last night say there may have been gang involvement, but the Department of Corrections says they are still investigating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachael Myrow\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> Now I thought the prison population was dropping overall because of realignment sending low-level offenders to county jails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery:\u003c/strong> That’s right. Under Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan the counties are taking on more low-level offenders. But interestingly what that means is that there has been a demographic shift in the state prison population. According to one estimate, the percentage of offenders in state prisons who were convicted of violent offenses went from 30 percent pre-alignment to 50 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachael Myrow\u003c/strong>: Is this part of a trend?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery:\u003c/strong> It’s difficult to say until we get more facts. But you know an inmate was killed in a different prison last week. There is a little bit of nervousness right now in the system, and it’s one reason that the Department of Corrections is overhauling these security housing units, these sort of isolation units, where they house offenders who are considered the most violent or gang members. They are implementing the plan, in the department’s words, largely to cut down on violence. We will see whether that’s effective or not. But I don’t think anyone is expecting that these kinds of incidents won’t happen in the future. The question is how common they will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachael Myrow\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong> You mentioned gangs and gang violence. How big a problem is that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Montgomery\u003c/strong>: It varies by institution. Some of the gangs don’t want violence because they want to carry on business which is making money: extortion, drugs, what have you. But the gangs are defined largely by ethnic and racial groups with Latinos being divided between those who identify with Northern California and Southern California, Norteños and Sureños. So it’s infused with racial politics as well, and sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the gangs from the racial and ethnic groups. But California is considered a hotbed for prison gangs and in many ways they do control the prison yards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>For more background on the changes and controversies in the state’s prison system, see KQED’s multimedia feature \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/bayarea/prisons/\">Prison Break\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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