Three Graduations

The CDCR website features two news items about recent graduations. The first of these is the March 11 graduation of inmates with certificates in marine technology and carpentry. The marine technology graduates laugh as the speaker tells them that they are uniquely skilled for the profession, being more acclimated than others to live in small quarters. As the speakers congratulate the graduates for their newly acquired skills, they inform them, and the audience, that recidivism rates are significantly lower than for the general population (20% for carpentry graduates, and almost no recidivism at all for marine technology). Leonard Greenstone says, beaming with pride “I just hope you guys succeed in this program… every time a group of your leave, stay out of prison, aren’t coming back… really, it’s the most heartwarming, satisfactory feeling a human being can have… we all can take all kinds of credit, but this wouldn’t be here, or successful, without you. God bless you”. Secretary Cate said, “I have become a born again believer in these programs that provide our graduates… with the skills necessary to be successful on parole”, and mentioned that in budgetary constraint times, “this program pays for itself”. He adds, though, “[i]t’s not about politics or about the economy… this is about human beings… one life change impacts many others… one man who has the pride of a skill set and can support a family, can impact a generation”.

While CDCR is not currently accepting applications for guard positions, they feature the first 2009 Peace Officer Graduation streamlined video on their website. Prison guards are assigned to handle a variety of prison and parole operations, including transportations, escort, gang investigations, etc. The 16-week training takes place at theBasic Peace Officer Academy, located in Galt and Stockton.

Finally, my own students are graduating today. While I’m very sad to say goodbye to so many people I have such professional respect and personal affection for, I am proud and happy for them. They are not only exceptionally smart and hardworking people, but also imbued with a strong sense of social conscience and a commitment to making our society better. Many of today’s graduates played an important role in envisioning, organizing, and running our conference this March. While their opinions on law enforcement and corrections vary, they all have a healthy interest in doing their part in improving our criminal justice system. I hope that, despite the current job market situation, they will all be soon gainfully employed in places that allow those of them who wish to do so, to be part of the solution for the California Corrections Crisis. Congratulations, folks; I love you and believe in you.

Selling San Quentin

The Marin Independent Journal reported yesterday on the Governor’s intention to sell San Quentin. The piece is very good, and brings up a variety of angles on the merits and costs of this initiative, including the recent costly innovations at San Quentin (such as the lethal injection chamber and the improvement in medical services) and the issue of costs. Here are some tidbits:

Marin officials Thursday cheered a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sell San Quentin State Prison, part of a plan to raise between $600 million and $1 billion to help close the state’s budget deficit.

But although local officials who have long fought planned construction of a new $356 million death row complex at San Quentin welcomed the governor’s change of heart, they stopped short of declaring victory.

…

The state recently spent more than $164 million on new medical facilities and $850,000 for a new lethal injection room to replace the cramped gas chamber that was deemed unacceptable by a federal judge.

California has also already spent $17 million toward the new complex for condemned inmates. San Quentin, which opened in 1852, has 639 inmates on death row.

State and Consumer Services Secretary Fred Aguiar said the governor has not decided where San Quentin’s 5,150 inmates should go if the prison were sold, or which other prison would perform executions.

Aguiar estimated it would cost more than $350 million to move death row alone, because that’s what the state plans to spend rebuilding the condemned unit at San Quentin.

…

Beyond the issues of feasibility and costs, this also seems to be a proposal of symbolic magnitude. San Quentin has been a fixture in the Bay Area scenery for a long time, and has more visibility in public discourse than many other correctional facilities.

Is this sale a good idea? What do you think?

——————-
Props to Simon Grivet for alerting me to this.

More News on the Sentencing Commission Bill

Following the Appropriations Committee hearing of the Sentencing Commission bill, it has been moved to the Suspense File. I made some phonecalls to find out what that meant. As it turns out, any proposal above a certain amount – not a lot, these days – or any proposal that saves money above a certain amount – is placed in the Suspense File, and all proposals in the file are then dealt with by the CA State Assembly in a quick-firing session. Since budgeting is a major consideration these days, the proposals might we weighted one against the other.

What impact might this information have on the proposal’s chances? As you may recall, the proposal was amended and its text is now very vague on what the role of the commission might be. Sometimes, vague legislation is passed in hopes that later it will be amended by the Senate. There are some encouraging aspects to all this, which suggest that the proposal might not die a slow death in the suspense file:

1) The proposal comes from Karen Bass, the Assembly Speaker. The previous incarnations of sentencing bills came from a variety of lawmakers.

2) The analysis that accompanied the bill created a strong link between sentencing reform and avoidance of overcrowding. While the expenditures and savings that might result from what is currently a very vague bill are unclear, a strong argument in its favor might be that this is a much better, more organized, and more controlled, alternative to the arbitrary release of tens of thousands of prisoners, and is therefore a more palatable response to overcrowding. In that sense, ironically, the bill has perhaps a better chance to pass in times of scarcity than in times of plenty.

Sentencing Commission Bill Comes Before Assembly Committee on Appropriations

The Sentencing Commission Bill, A.B. 1376, will come today before the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. The Analyst’s review connects the Bill to the overcrowding crisis and to the tentative decision in the health care cases. Its comments about the fiscal effects of the new bill are particularly telling as to the shorter, vaguer, amended version of the bill we have discussed here and here:

1)Because this measure is in skeletal form, precise costs cannot be determined. Based, however, on earlier sentencing commission models, annual costs would be in the range of $2.5 million, depending on the authority of the body.

For example, this committee estimated costs for SB 110 (Romero, 2008) – which was charged with developing mandatory sentencing guidelines and significant tasks, such as preparing inmate population projections, developing recommendations on the state’s inmate population, providing training to criminal justice practitioners, conducting research, and developing materials, information systems and annual reports to the legislature – would be in the range of $2.5 million, with a staff of about 20.

2) Prospective costs/savings due to actions of the body cannot be determined, though it is likely a non-politicized sentencing commission, using evidence-based practices and models, could recommend a sentencing/parole scheme that results in significant net state savings.

In non-legislative language: Since we don’t know what is proposed, we don’t know how much it costs. But if this is a cover for the same thing that has been proposed time and time again, we’ve already estimated the cost of that. The initiative’s potential for savings depends on how well it does its job.

We’ll post an update as soon as we know what happened at the hearing.

Leadership Reorganization and a Hospice Program, reported on the Receiership Newsletter

The Receivership’s newsletter, Turnaround Lifeline, reports structural changes in the Receivership’s leadership structure. 

[T]he executive level structure of the California Prison Health Care Services has been reorganized.  This structure, staffed with state-employed civil servants, is designed so that CPHCS will be prepared to function as an entity within the State of California once the goal of improving prison health care services to a constitutionally acceptable and sustainable level has been met.


The newsletter contains some basic facts about the Receivership, as well as the fact that that it has recently received MCE (Medical Continuing Education) accreditation. There’s also an interesting piece about the Supportive Care Services – a hospice program at the California Men’s Colony, which, among other things, trains prisoners to offer spiritual comfort to their dying friends. It makes a fascinating read, particularly given the rising rates of aging and chronically ill inmates. It is also a good reminder that people not only live – but also die – within walls.

More Marijuana Humonetarianism: This time, from the Governor

Governor Schwarzenegger is open to the possibility of regulating marijuana, as the Sac Bee reported yesterday. If this is not humonetarianism, I don’t know what is:

…Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened a new front for discussion this week, saying that while it’s not time to legalize pot, he’s willing to talk about it as a revenue-raising measure.

…

Schwarzenegger, who was filmed smoking a joint in the 1977 film, “Pumping Iron,” sparked headlines by responding to a reporter’s question about a Field Poll. The survey found that 56 percent of voters support taxing pot used for pleasure or partying.

“I think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues – I’m always for an open debate on it. … But just because of raising revenues, we have to be very careful not to make mistakes at the same time,” Schwarzenegger said.

…

California would be the first to legalize recreational pot use under legislation introduced months ago by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who has shelved it until next year.

The state Board of Equalization has estimated that legalizing marijuana would reduce its street price by 50 percent, increase consumption, and generate about $1.3 billon annually in taxes.

Sentencing Commission Bill Continues On

Legislative breaking news: The Sentencing Commission Bill, which was amended on April 13, has gone through the Committee on Appropriations, whose primary jurisdiction is fiscal bills, and is back before the assembly. An analysis of the bill, authored by Asm. Jose Solorio, has a positive take on establishing the sentencing commission, citing, among other sources, the Little Hoover report on the California Corrections Crisis. The report, as some of you may recall, dispelled myths about sentencing commissions, and as you’ll see in the original Little Hoover press release, tried to dissuade politician fears that having a sentencing commission means being “soft on crime”:

The Commission recommended that the State begin a comprehensive evaluation of its sentencing system by establishing an independent sentencing commission with the authority to develop sentencing guidelines that become law unless rejected by a majority vote of the Legislature. The Commission said California should learn from states with effective sentencing commissions, such as Virginia and North Carolina.

“Critics who suggest that a sentencing commission is a code word for shorter sentences are misinformed,” Alpert said. “Other states have used sentencing commissions to lengthen sentences for the most dangerous criminals, to expand community-based punishment for certain offenders and to bring fiscal responsibility to criminal justice policies.”

The Commission asserted that the Supreme Court ruling on January 22, 2007 that found California’s determinate sentencing law unconstitutional provides one more impetus for an independent commission to conduct a systematic review of California’s sentencing laws and propose long-term solutions.

The analysis also details the many times in which sentencing commission bills came before the Assembly and failed. Will our economic concerns lead politicians to leave behind their fears of being soft on crime and fix the sentencing system? Stay tuned!

The Flu Arrives in CA Prison System

As reported by CDCR:

SACRAMENTO – The State Viral Lab is reporting that the inmate case at Centinela State Prison that had been categorized as 95% probable has now been confirmed. The inmate remains in Centinela Prison. His case remains mild. The infected inmate’s cellmate remains under quarantine but has not exhibited any symptoms of H1N1 Influenza. The actions taken by California Prison Health Care Services (CPHCS) and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) appear to have stemmed the spread of the virus at Centinela Prison. No other potential cases have been reported there.

However, the receiver’s office is currently monitoring numerous other potential cases throughout the system that have been sent for testing. More detail on those cases will be available once they are deemed probable or are confirmed. Due to the new potential cases, the visiting restrictions will continue in effect until further notice.

Much has been said in the last few days about the justification for the swine flu panic that has been sweeping the world. Whether or not the panic and precautions are necessary is a topic for a different blog. It is certainly the case, however, that whatever the dimensions of the problem is, it is orders of magnitude more problematic in prisons and other total institutions than in other places, for obvious reasons.

Should this become more problematic, in terms of numbers of cases, it will be a real test of the Receivership’s ability to handle such issues in a difficult environment.

Survey Research

This post is only tangentially related to Califronia corrections; my apologies about that. I am posting to invite all of you to participate in a web-based survey I am conducting, which examines how people respond to interpersonal problems.

The survey is anonymous and confidential and can be completed in a few minutes. I will very much appreciate your participation, and will be particularly grateful if you forward the link to your friends, colleagues, and students. We are looking for a large, diverse group of respondents.

http://www.whatwouldyoudosurvey.org/introduction.asp

The survey has been IRB-approved and I am happy to provide the exemption letter upon request.

Thank you,

HA

Killing Me Softly


More news from CDCR: The state has submitted lethal injection procedures to the Office of Administrative Law, which are available for public review and comment. The public comment period will close on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 5PM. A public hearing has been scheduled for June 30, 2009 from 9AM-3PM at the Auditorium of the Department of Health Services, 1500 Capitol Ave.

Take a look at the regulations, or read more about them from our blogging friends over at PrisonMovement.

I find myself somewhat speechless at the entire computer-generated display, complete with euphemisms, so I’ll just express puzzlement over the construction plans in the face of a $400,000,000 deficit. I prefer the New Mexico solution.