February 9, 2012, 12:05 AM
County governments have invested nearly a half-billion dollars over the past 15 years to modernize juvenile lockups and now have the capacity to absorb offenders currently housed in the state’s youth prisons, if those facilities are closed, a new study contends. The report [PDF] by...
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January 11, 2012, 12:05 AM
Prisoners serving long sentences under California’s “three strikes” law are so expensive that legislative analysts say releasing some of them early could eventually save the state $100 million. A proposed ballot measure, called the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 [PDF],...
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September 7, 2011, 12:05 AM
The state auditor is recommending that California’s corrections system shut down tests that determine what rehabilitation prisoners need, calling the tools unproven and little used. Since 2006, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has developed and repeatedly...
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July 21, 2011, 12:05 AM
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation lacks adequate financial controls and repeatedly failed to recoup overpayments of salary and travel advances from its employees, an audit released yesterday by the state controller's office found. The report concluded that the...
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July 18, 2011, 12:05 AM
California has too many inmates, the U.S. Supreme Court and nearly everyone else agrees. Orange-jumpsuited felons pack cell blocks, and row after row of bunk beds claim countless square feet in gymnasiums and other correctional buildings in the state’s 33 prisons. The burden of...
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May 5, 2011, 12:05 AM
A team of advocacy groups is pushing Gov. Jerry Brown to include sentencing reforms in the revised state budget proposal he will unveil this month. The three organizations – the American Civil Liberties Union of California, the Drug Policy Alliance and the Ella Baker Center for Human...
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January 19, 2011, 12:05 AM
The California Department of Corrections allowed a prison psychiatrist to continue to treat patients for four months after allegations of incompetence surfaced and wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary during its three-year misconduct probe, according to the state auditor. The case...
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December 22, 2010, 12:05 AM
Even with the latest tuition increase, a year at Cal is still cheaper than a year at San Quentin. After soul-searching and protest, University of California President Mark Yudof last month persuaded the regents to hike UC student fees by 8 percent. The increase will likely push the total cost...
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