What a terrific little recipe this is; a mix of fruit salad, an oatmealish-substance without oatmeal, and lots of kick from dried fruit. Makes for an excellent breakfast. Feeds four.
Two red apples two oranges five medjool dates five dried figs five dried plums 30 almonds 20 macadamia nuts soymilk or almond milk (plain or vanilla flavored) orange, apple or prune juice cinnamon
Soak almonds, macadamia nuts, figs and plums in boiling water first thing in the morning. Thinly chop apples and oranges. Combine in a bowl with a splash of soy or almond milk and a splash of juice. Strain nuts, figs and plums, and thinly chop or grind. Add to fruit in bowl and mix well until thing reaches cereal-like consistency. Add cinnamon to taste.
We’re in the early stages of planning a sequel to our 2009 California Correctional Crisis conference. We expect to be covering the aftermath of Brown v. Plata, news about the death penalty, the drug war, sentencing alternatives, parole reform, and many other topics near and dear to the hearts of our readers. Like the previous conference, which was attended by hundreds of people and featured experts and policymakers from all over the country, this will be a huge public event, and now’s the time to provide your input as to the content you’d like to receive.
A disconcerting trend predicted on the San Francisco Bay View: The depopulation of prisons may be accompanied by an increase in the use of solitary confinement. The mostly-unreported hunger strike of September and October was in manifestation of inmate concerns with the change in security groups. Here’s more information, as per letters from Todd Ashker, the strike organizer:
Written Jan. 22, postmarked Jan. 27, 2012 – As soon as I first heard during our face to face meeting with former Undersecretary Kernan of CDCR’s plans to go to a “security threat group” (STG) system of classification, I recognized the very real potential for manipulation and abuse of such by certain factions in power positions in CDCR – e.g. CCPOA (California Correctional Peace Officers Association), gang unit etc. I immediately detailed my concerns to our attorneys – this was part of the reason for hunger strike no. 2 in September and October.
Briefly, here’s what I’m concerned about: Right at the time – in May – when the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s prison population reduction order, in seeming response to our July hunger strike, CDCR unveils their STG plan. Here’s how it looks to me: The prison population reduction of 35,000-40,000 prisoners equals a potential loss of $2 billion in the yearly CDCR budget and the loss of approximately 7,000 CCPOA members. That’s the loss of a lot of union dues!
A clever way to offset some of this loss is to create a “new” security threat designation scheme – used in a lot of states, including Arizona, where it’s used to isolate all inmates labeled southern Hispanic from California – enabling CDCR to segregate a lot more men. Segregation costs nearly double general population and requires more staff.
Does any of our readers have more information about this?
Sam Mateo County facility; photo courtesy CJCJ publication.
OH Close YCF; photo courtesy CJCJ publication.
While we remain curious as to the ability of county jails to supplant state institutions for a considerable percentage of the adult population, a similar move for juvenile offenders seems to offer more optimism. A new publication from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice takes a comparative look at state and county juvenile institutions, being much more impressed with county modern facilities than with the disturbingly grim and defunct state institutions. The bottom line:
The review demonstrates that local secure county-based facilities currently surpass existing state youth correctional facilities in architectural design and structural integrity. Due to various federal grants and funding stream requirements, counties have renovated and enhanced their juvenile facilities to provide maximum, medium, and minimum security levels of custody that allow for provision of fully integrated rehabilitative services on-site. 41 California counties have already invested $438,612,750 of state and federal funding to renovate or construct new maximum-security juvenile halls within the last five years. Meanwhile state facilities have continued to decay into a condition of disrepair.
Perhaps this report will provide prosecutors with disincentives to file charges against juvenile defendants as adults, a practice known as “direct filing”, whose usage varies between counties (Ventura County seems the worst offender). The impetus to do so stems from the fact that trying juveniles as adults shifts the price tag from the county to the state. But if the choice is between a distant adult state prison and a local, modern juvenile facility, which might be closer to support structure and offer community corrections benefits, in the long run it may be cheaper for all of us.
Today’s SF Weekly features a detailed story by Lauren Smiley about rehabilitative initiatives for realignment inmates in San Francisco jails, complete with data, anecdotes, and an interview with yours truly. To whet your appetite about the story:
Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a three-judge ruling that California must reduce its overcrowded prisons to 137.5 percent of capacity by mid-2013, down from a peak of 202 percent capacity in 2006. That meant siphoning out about 34,000 prisoners, enough inmates to nearly fill the Oakland A’s stadium.
The state came up with a plan: Nobody gets out of prison early, but less-serious offenders would be sentenced to county jail, and the supervision of certain criminals released from prison would be moved from state parole agents to county probation officers. That means that if these ex-cons violate the terms of their release, they will be booked into county jail, not prison.
Voilà: Prisoner numbers are down for the state. The prisons are currently on track to meet the deadline, at 164 percent capacity and descending.
So San Francisco will now attempt what the state corrections system failed at: rehabbing Nate Bracy. It will try to override 17 years of criminal behavior and to get him — and the 700 others who will arrive in San Francisco over the next two years — to live like your average Joe Citizen.
Assembly Bill 327, introduced by Assembly Member Davis, passed in the assembly today. The new bill, whose text can be found here in full, would activate the “third strike” life imprisonment provision only if the third felony is for a serious or violent felony.
What counts as “serious or violent” felony is defined in section 667.5 of the existing penal code. The category includes serious offenses like murder, attempted murder, rape and kidnapping, but also first degree burglary, extortion and the like. It would seem to exclude some of the more scandalous examples of three strikes practices, in which the third offense would be petty theft of some sort.
The bill now moves to the senate floor. But getting too excited about this may be premature; the bill explicitly specifies that it only comes into effect if approved by voters in the 2014 election.
The California Correctional Crisis Blog joins the struggle against Internet censorship, and will therefore not offer new content today. Tell your representatives that you oppose SOPA and PIPA and be one more voice on behalf of freedom of information.
Today, Judge Thelton Henderson of the U.S. District Court expressed satisfaction with the improvements to prison health care, and ordered the federal Receiver, Clark Kelso, to report by april 30th when the receivership should end and whether the prison health care system will remain under federal oversight.
The Associated Press and the San Francisco Chronicle report:
The ruling marks an important milestone in a process that began nearly six years ago when the judge appointed a receiver to run California’s prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. He cited inmate overcrowding as the leading cause, but said in Tuesday’s order that conditions have improved.
He praised the better conditions throughout the system, particularly noted during inspections of medical facilities by the prison system’s independent inspector general.
“Significant progress has been made,” Henderson wrote, citing the receiver’s own report to the federal court last week. “While some critical work remains outstanding — most notably on construction issues — it is clear that many of the goals of the Receivership have been accomplished.”
While the Prison Law Office expressed concern that the Receivership’s end is premature, it might be a wise thing to start preparing for the shift in health care with the realignment. Counties will have to incur some of the costs for inmates’ health. But it’s worthwhile to remember that serious offenders, who usually serve more time, will remain in state prisons, and their lengthy prison sentences also implies that they age in prison and thus require expensive care.
———- Many thanks to Brooke McCarthy for alerting me to this.
Governor Brown has released the proposed 2012-2013 California budget. The full details are here and the summary is here.
The correctional budget comprises 7.8% of the total state budget including special funds. Looking just at general fund numbers, the expenditure on corrections is slightly less than that on higher education.
However, counting in special funds and bonds, the total expenditure on corrections will be $10,719 million, which is an increase of 11.4% from last year’s budget, and slightly more than the expenditure on higher education.
For those of you wondering how this money will be distributed among various correctional agencies post-realignment, look at the next table:
Most of the money still goes to the state apparatus with only about $100,000 being allocated to the counties. The full breakdown is available here in PDF format.
The report also lists the changes in programs that will ensue from the new budget. The main changes are as follows:
The decrease in numbers of state inmates (from 163,152 to 132,167) and parolees (from 108,338 to 56,440) due to the realignment implies a decrease in state incarceration and parole budgets–a reduction of $453.3 million in 2011-12 and $1.1 billion in 2012-13.
The outcome of Coleman v. Brown (the mental health side of the Plata case) required an increase of $34.3 million in 2011-12 and $27.3 million in 2012-13 in money allocated for mental health programs.
Shifting responsibilities for juvenile offenders from the state level to the county level, which decreased the size of the state apparatus (1174 to 1149 inmates, 850 to 656 parolees) also implies a decrease in budget.
The Estrella Correctional Facility has been cancelled, as there is no need for more beds.
Expenditures for constructing the California Health Care Facility (CHCF) ($10.9 million) have been earmarked.
Pharmaceutical Costs-The Budget includes $59.9 million for adult inmate pharmaceutical costs, primarily driven by an increase in drug prices.
The budget includes an increase of $49 million in Community Corrections Performance Incentive Grants, which county probation departments receive if they demonstrate success in recidivism reduction.
Another $8 million General Fund and $46.3 million are reduced to reflect the transfer of resources from the Corrections Standards Authority to the newly established Board of State and Community Corrections.
FInally, the budget includes $101 million to restore a prior one-time reduction to rehabilitation services programs.
What’s also interesting is the distribution of funds within the counties. The full budget for state and community corrections can be found here in PDF format. It seems to still be in somewhat amorphous form, which makes sense given that each county will probably have some freedom in crafting its own budget.
We will continue to follow up on the realignment and on the expenditures of these funds in the future.
The Criminal Justice Realignment will figure prominently in our posts this year, with a special focus on the recent news regarding cuts that may endanger many juvenile programs. The most serious concern stemming from the cuts is that juveniles will be tried as adults. Some thoughts on the proper direction to take from Selena Teji and Emily Luhrs are posted here.
