The Chron reports on the Governor’s plan for corrections cuts, which includes changing the definition of some offenses, charging wobblers as misdemeanors, moving undocumented immigrants to the hands of the Feds, and narrowing the scope of parole. This plan will reduce the CA prison population by 27,000 inmates, and is already generating much opposition from Republican politicians.
Stay tuned for more.
CA Assemblyman Paul Cook‘s legislative proposal – the newest version of sex offender legislation – died in committee. The novelty? Forbidding registered sex offenders whose offense included a child under 16 to sell ice cream. As is often the case with this sort of bill, it is presented as prompted by a particular incident, reported on Cook’s website, where “the Megan’s Law database revealed that a local ice cream truck driver was a registered sex offender”.
Senator Mark Leno‘s questioning at the Standing Committee on Public Safety addressed the necessity of this new venture.
Current law says a registered sex offender whose offense involved a child under 16 cannot work “directly and in an unaccompanied setting with minor children on more than an incidental and occasional basis.”
“Where is the weakness in that statute that … you believe we’re going to have registered sex offenders selling ice cream to our children?” Leno asked Cook Monday during a committee hearing. “I don’t think there’s any problem with the current statute.”
But Cook said that leaves some ambiguity because an ice cream vendor isn’t working with children in the same way as a day care worker.
“Are you working with kids, or are you selling ice cream?” he said. “If you’re working with kids, then prevailing law applies. But if you’re selling ice cream, you’re selling ice cream to everybody.”
Cook said the issue is particularly important because children are attracted to ice cream trucks and tend to trust those who operate them.
Sen. Roderick Wright, D-Inglewood, who voted for the bill, said an ice cream vendor can build a relationship with a child that can later lead to exploitation or an attack.
. . .
Leno called Cook’s bill “a solution in search of a problem.”
In response to Leno’s question whether there were actual examples of sex offenders operating the trucks, Cook mentioned the case that allegedly inspired the bill, but Riverside County Sheriff’s officials denied having heard of the situation. Read more at The Sun.
It should probably be mentioned that a similar law was being considered in Iowa last year. Follow this one up to its probable doom at the CA legislation website.
The negotiation regarding the transfer of CA prisoners to Michigan facilities seems to be well under way. Bay City News reports:
Representatives from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation made visits to the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility and the Muskegon Correctional Facility last week and negotiations between the two states are ongoing.
Seth Unger, spokesman for the California prison system, said the meetings were “very productive.”
He said Michigan needs to assure officials that their prisoners will be living under standards set by the state of California.
John Cordell, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said his agency is working on a formal proposal to put forth to California.
The proposal will include the cost of housing California prisoners in Michigan, among other things.
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Props to Jerry Jarvis for the update.
The new California budget deal has been struck yesterday, and among other policies, it includes $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to CDCR. While the San Jose Mercury reports that inmate release is not explicitly mentioned as one of the cuts, the broad issue is still on the table. As expected, some are not thrilled with this humonetarian move. The Sac Bee reports:
The campaign, expected to consist of thousands of phone calls, targets Democrats who plan to run for higher office next year, represent hotly contested districts, or who have been sympathetic or outspoken about law enforcement issues in years past.
“Frankly, it will not be possible for anyone who votes for the early release of felons to ever be taken seriously on public safety issues again,” the campaign said in a memo to participants.
As part of a much larger plan to bridge the budget gap, the prison agreement would cut $1.2 billion from the prison system, which Melekian and other opponents fear could release more than 19,000 prisoners before their sentences expire.
“The concern is that the only way that you get to that amount of money is to release people from prison,” Melekian said.
He said police chiefs are also concerned that there is no money available to help with prisoners’ return to society.
“There’s no money for job training – there’s no money to do anything to transition these folks from institutional life to life back in the community,” he said. “It’s more than just releasing them. It’s releasing them with no real plan for dealing with them.”
Also see the report from UPI.
While releases of non-violent offenders would do good to a system that had no business locking up so many people in the first place, the concerns regarding reentry are certainly warranted. The time to think about reentry options for these released inmates is now.
(GPS tracking device image courtesy Slate Magazine)
Violators of domestic violence protective orders are increasingly subjected to GPS monitoring in several States, as reported by the NY Times and by the Chronicle. Implementing such legislation in CA, as opposed to Illinois and Texas, is somewhat of a challenge. The Chron elaborates:
Without GPS, police have been lax to follow up on complaints that partners are ignoring protective orders, said Tara Shabazz, executive director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.
However, Shabazz and her organization oppose California’s proposed GPS legislation because it would require the state to order GPS tracking for an offender without providing details on how to implement it.
Dear Readers,
Thank you for your patience with the recent scant posting. I’ve been away, backpacking through China (and, incidentally, learning a bit about the Hong Kong correctional system). We’re returning to a regular posting schedule and look forward to informing you and being informed by your comments and emails.
Best, HA
One of the sex-offender related legislative innovations of the last decade was the introduction of residence restrictions. As we explained elsewhere, residence restrictions, which prohibit registered sex offenders from living near schools or parks, have made many parts of California inhabitable for those formerly for sex offenses, many of whom have become homeless.
As to others, well, it turns out that at least one CA lawmaker thought they should stay out of his county, even before Jessica’s Law was enacted. . The Sac Bee reports:
In what state Sen. George Runner characterized as a “side agreement” with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the prison and parole agency said it would limit assignments of released offenders into the Antelope Valley to those who had “historical ties” to the area….
CDCR officials, saying that the deal violated the law, terminated the agreement this spring.
“When we took a look at it, we said we can’t treat offenders in this county any different than offenders in any other county,” said Terri McDonald, the CDCR’s chief deputy secretary for adult operations.
Runner sees the agreement as a proper way to correct the imbalance generated by the habit of “dumping” parolees in Lancaster Valley.
“From the very beginning, there was not a connection between the issue of ‘Jessica’s Law’ and this particular issue of parolees in the Antelope Valley,” Runner said in an interview.
He said that the location of a major, maximum-security prison in the Antelope Valley combined with the area’s relatively cheap housing made it “easier to dump (parolees) in Lancaster.”
I think this story is an interesting lesson in the side effects of sweeping punitive legislation, and it is a good reminder of the inequality between different counties. Can we imagine how the segregation of parolees into specific counties might contribute to the big differences in how they are treated and perceived?
Volume 2(6) of the Receivership newsletter, Turnaround Lifeline, is out. Among other issues, you’ll find information on creating an electronic repository of the inmates’ medical files, as well as on containing the H1N1 flu virus (an issue we reported about here).
Although closing to visitors was considered necessary to minimize the possibility of an influenza pandemic, it came at an unfortunate time for many- the prisons were closed on the weekend of Mother’s Day… [f]ortunately for all involved, only a very small percentage of CDCR’s pending probable cases of the H1N1 “Swine Flu” virus were confirmed by the State Testing Lab and the virus was contained. Dr. Winslow attributes this success to “fast and effective action by our medical and custody staff throughout the State.” He goes on to note that the steps taken by CDCR and CPHCS during the flu outbreak “appear to have helped avoid a potentially dangerous situation.” Visitation has since resumed and the previously cancelled Mother’s Day visitation trip has been rescheduled for June 26th, but precautionary health measures have been implemented to ensure the continued containment of the H1N1 “Swine Flu” virus.
There are also interesting features on telemedicine and on the pharmacy improvements. True to the spirit of humonetarianism, telemedicine is advocated as a cost-saving measure.
The enclosed video reports on an initiative of developing healthy father-child relationships in a DC jail. Similar initiatives are occurring locally, as we read today in a heartwarming report from the CDCR website: