July 25, 2011, 12:05 AM
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a court filing last week that it has the funding to reduce its prison population in compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling [PDF], but it anticipates it will meet the court’s first prisoner reduction benchmark a month behind...
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July 21, 2011, 4:38 PM
Inmates at California’s highest-security lockup agreed to end a three-week hunger strike that appeared to be gathering momentum despite an apparent lack of concessions from corrections officials. In a statement, Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections...
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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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July 13, 2011, 12:05 AM
The year before California voters passed Jessica’s Law, a broad crackdown on sex offenders, the state prison system referred 512 potentially “violent predators” for examination. By 2007, the year after the law (Proposition 83) passed, that number had rocketed by more than 1,...
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June 29, 2011, 12:05 AM
Built in 1989, Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City was California’s first supermax prison, designed to keep the “worst of the worst” criminals under strict security, often in solitary confinement. On Friday, about 100 of those inmates plan to start a hunger strike...
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June 27, 2011, 12:05 AM
California is shrinking retirement benefits for the managers who oversee corrections officers at state prisons, saving $9.6 million next fiscal year. The rank-and-file officers guarding inmates negotiated away the extra pension contribution they'd received for more than a decade. In...
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June 20, 2011, 12:05 AM
Come November, California voters might again be weighing changes to the state’s “three strikes” law. The San Jose Mercury News reported last week that a group is crafting ballot language and seeking high-profile endorsements for an initiative that would require that a...
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June 14, 2011, 12:05 AM
California’s latest plan to alleviate prison overcrowding and meet a federal court order – announced last week – relies heavily on the transfer of thousands of inmates to county facilities, as long as the state can come up with the funding. But unless prison officials exceed...
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June 13, 2011, 12:05 AM
Juvenile inmates at California correctional facilities have been held in isolation nearly 24 hours straight on hundreds of occasions this year, in violation of state regulations. An audit by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in March found multiple facilities operated...
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June 1, 2011, 12:05 AM
Calling the move "long overdue," Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday ordered more than 400 administrative positions permanently cut at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation – a move the governor's office said would save taxpayers $30 million. Brown said that...
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May 26, 2011, 12:05 AM
A state audit that found prison officials allowed 450 violent convicts to be placed on unsupervised parole last year prompted a sharp exchange between the department of corrections and the inspector general’s office. A report released yesterday by Inspector General Bruce...
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May 23, 2011, 1:24 PM
California is most likely to dramatically shrink its inmate population by changing who goes to prison in the first place, not by mass release of convicted felons. The U.S. Supreme Court this morning narrowly upheld [PDF] an appellate court ruling that ordered the state Department of...
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May 13, 2011, 12:05 AM
Random staff searches that are part of an effort to curb the smuggling of cell phones into state prisons are drawing objections from the powerful union representing correctional officers. At issue is a two-year program – known as Operation Disconnect – that requires all adult...
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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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