CDCR STAR - Corrections Clips

CDCR NEWS:

CDCR This Week
In CDCR This Week: Get On the Bus Children Celebrate Mothers Day at Three Women’s Facilities. CDCR Attends LA County Fire Department Ceremony Recognizing Fallen Heroes.

CDCR Secretary Honored By State IT Chief for “Innovation and Vision”
Matthew L. Cate, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), was honored May 12 with the “Innovation and Vision Award” by Government Technology Magazine at a special ceremony conducted during the GTC West Government Technology Conference. “I am thrilled to announce that Secretary Matthew Cate is being honored with the Innovation and Vision Award for his leadership and dedication,” said California Chief Information Officer (CIO) Teri Takai, who presented the award to Cate. “Secretary Cate has been a technology champion and great inspiration to us.”

NEWS STORIES:

Policy:

Schwarzenegger plan would put nonviolent felons in county jails
By Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will revive a plan to house 15,000 nonviolent felons in county jails instead of state prisons, a cost-cutting move that likely would result in some inmates leaving jail early. The Republican governor will include the proposal in his May budget revision today. His office warned earlier this week that the package will contain "absolutely terrible cuts" to shrink a nearly $20 billion deficit.

Assembly OKs food stamps for drug felons
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee -- After a sharp partisan debate, the Assembly voted today to allow persons convicted of drug felonies to receive federal food stamps without having to prove that they are enrolled in a drug use prevention program.

Parole:

Calif. agents use award ruse to reel in fugitives
By Don Thompson, Associated Press -- Dozens of California parole violators showed up to claim a very attractive offer: $200 and amnesty. And dozens of parole violators found themselves in handcuffs and, for most, headed back to prison. In a corrections department variation on the old bait-and-switch, officials set up an elaborate sting aimed at some of the more than 14,000 California ex-convicts who broke off contact with their parole agents, are suspected of committing new crimes or of violating terms of their parole. They used a website, an e-mail account, and appointed an agent to the fictitious post of "amnesty program director." They sent 2,700 letters to relatives of parolees-at-large advertising the reward and fake amnesty program. Using the Web page and such is a new way to do it. We used to play on the greed, and now we're playing on the promise that they might be released from custody," said Tony Chaus, who runs the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Office of Correctional Safety.

High Profile Cases:

Sexual Predators: Are Tougher Laws The Answer?
By Kenny Goldberg, KPBS -- Some say the murders of Chelsea King and Amber Dubois could have been prevented had the state had tougher sanctions on sexual predators. But others question whether stricter laws make a difference. California voters approved a crackdown on sexual predators in 2006. Jessica's Law severely restricts where a registered sex offender can live. It also mandates lifetime electronic monitoring of felony sex offenders.

Killer heads to prison amid changes to Calif laws
By Elliot Spagat, Associated Press -- A man once imprisoned for molesting a child is going back — this time to serve a life term for raping and murdering two girls in a case has sparked calls to change the way child sex predators are punished. John Albert Gardner III, 31, will be sentenced in San Diego Friday under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty but denies him any possibility of parole.Calls to stiffen penalties for child sex offenders began almost the moment Gardner was arrested Feb. 28, three days after he attacked Chelsea on an afternoon run in San Diego, strangled her, and buried her in a shallow, lakeside grave.

See attack victim and families speak at sentencing hearing parts 1 and 2 (see video)
By Cindy Adams, San Francisco Examiner -- On Friday, convicted sex offender John Gardner was given two life sentences for killing California teens Chelsea King, 17, and Amber Dubois, 14. He was also given life for an attack on jogger Candice Moncayo in December. During the hearing, Amber’s mother Carrie McGonigle, her stepfather David Cate, and her father Maurice Dubois also spoke.

Killer of 2 California Girls Gets Life in Prison [VIDEO]
Citrus Daily -- John Albert Gardner, a sex offender convicted of killing two teenage girls in San Diego, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gardner reached a plea deal last month that spared him a possible death penalty.

John Gardner Captured Amber DuBois With Threat of Knife, Gun, Teen's Mom Says
ABC News -- The California sex offender who was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murders of two San Diego teenagers forced one of them into his car by trapping her on a fenced street and threatening her with a knife and gun. Carrie McGonigle said John Gardner, 31, told her in a jailhouse meeting before his sentencing that her daughter, 14-year-old Amber DuBois, had nowhere to run when he pulled up beside her as she walked to school on Feb. 13, 2009. Gardner was sentenced Friday to three consecutive life sentences without parole for the rape and murders of Amber and 17-year-old Chelsea King.

Death Row:

Sacramento's condemned criminals
By Phillip Reese and Pete Basofin, Sacramento Bee -- Since 1978, Sacramento County jurors have condemned about three dozen killers to death. One of them, Manuel Babbitt, has been executed by the state. The rest are awaiting execution. Aaron Norman Dunn will join their ranks if a judge follows the recommendation jurors made Wednesday.

Sex Offenders:

1,100 Local Sex Offenders Not On Megan's Law Site
10 News San Diego -- During a recent check on registered sex offenders in the East County, sheriff’s deputies and parole agents paid a surprise visit to an apartment complex in Santee. “You’re not in any trouble, OK, we’re just doing parole checks,” one agent told a man wearing a GPS bracelet on his ankle. The man, a resident of the apartment complex, was caught distributing child porn and spent a couple of years behind bars. Now, he’s finishing up his parole. “So far so good,” the man told 10News. “I’ve been compliant and haven’t had any violations.” The man is known as a “no post” to law enforcement, which means they are aware of who he is, what his crimes are and how long he will be on parole. But that same information is not available to the public.

Cops arrest sex offender living in trailer by Carmichael daycare
By C. Johnson, News 10 Sacramento -- A registered sex offender living in a travel trailer across the street from a Carmichael daycare the past five months has been arrested, says a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman. Jonathan Aragon, 50, convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under age 14, was taken into custody Tuesday for providing false information to law enforcement, said Sgt. Tim Curran.

Institutions:

Chino prison riot responders recognized

By Neil Nisperos, Daily Bulletin -- Dozens of state prison employees who responded to last year's riot at California Institution for Men were honored Friday for their courage in the face of life-threatening circumstances. Responders, who included local law enforcement officers and firefighters, found danger and chaos Aug. 8 at the Chino prison as inmates set a building on fire and fashioned weapons from broken furnishings.

Mule Creek State Prison officer honored at statewide event
Amador Ledger Dispatch -- The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation honored a Mule Creek State Prison employee for actions above and beyond the normal demands of correctional service. The award was presented by CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate at a ceremony in Sacramento. Some 50 employees received awards that ranged from the Medal of Valor to Unit Citations. Correctional Lt. Kenneth A. Clendenin was honored with the Bronze Star Medal.

Prisoners Talk About Cell Phones Being Smuggled [VIDEO]
KCRA -- Inmates reach out to KCRA 3 in response to our stories about cell phones being smuggled into prisons.

Tennis is serious sport in San Quentin Prison
By Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times -- This will be a cakewalk, I tell myself, even though I'm up against a pair of convicted killers. I toss a tennis ball and swing, a familiar feeling. Years ago I was pretty good, but I don't play much anymore. The guys on the other side, two members of a squad called the Inside Tennis Team, do. This is tennis behind the broad, looming walls of San Quentin. The 20 or so members of the Inside Tennis Team are racially mixed, unusual in California prisons. They are lifers who have committed the worst of crimes, and "three-strikers" serving at least 25 years for repeated but lesser offenses.

CDCR Related and Miscellaneous:

Pasadenans urged to welcome back unsupervised parolees
By Brian Day, Pasadena Star News -- As California begins releasing tens of thousands of inmates from state prison without traditional parole supervision, police and community leaders are urging residents to welcome released convicts back home. City officials, Pasadena police, the Flintridge Operating Foundation and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives hosted a panel discussion Thursday at Robinson Park Community Center to discuss changes in the state parole system.

Technology to curb mobile phone use in prison
By Matthew Lasar, CNN -- The campaign to rid our nation's prisons of cell phones went to the next level on Wednesday, with a call from the Department of Commerce for intel on devices that can get the situation under control. The government is "seeking comment on technical approaches" to the problem, Commerce says. "The illicit use of cell phones by prisoners is a danger to public safety and must be addressed," declared the department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration boss Lawrence Strickling upon release of a Notice of Inquiry.

Sexually dangerous can be kept in prison
By Jesse Holland, Associated Press -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal officials can indefinitely hold inmates considered "sexually dangerous" after their prison terms are complete. The high court reversed a lower court decision that said Congress overstepped its authority in allowing indefinite detentions of considered "sexually dangerous."

Lil' Wayne Contraband
By Kara Gilmour, News Oxy -- Lil' Wayne contraband found in jail search. The contraband included a cell phone in Lil' Wayne's possession. The rapper was not caught with paraphernalia or weapons that would normally be illegal. During a routine search at the Rikers Island Jail, a cell phone, an MP3 charger and headphones were found in Dwayne Michael Carter's jail cell.

Jail jammers to cut inmates off from bread & butter
Tribune Express -- Prisoners across Sindh are up in arms against their jailers as the government starts installing cell phone jammers to put an end to crime from behind bars. Some cell phone jammers have already been installed, Sindh IG jails Abdul Qadir Thebo said at the passing-out parade of police personnel at the Sindh Prison Staff Training Institute in Nara Jail. Sindh has already put down Rs8 million for the machines. On Thursday, Thebo assured the Sindh police of “complete cooperation” for search operations they plan to launch in prisons across the province.

OPINION:

Do sex offenders need a place of their own?
Post Star, New York -- Warren County has tried practically everything to deal with its homeless sex offenders. It has tried placing them in a single motel near the Northway in Queensbury, far from schools or playgrounds. After the news got out about so many convicted abusers all living in a place where a family might unexpectedly drop in and rent a room, the hotel owner lost his insurance and the county had to find other accommodations. Despite the county's best efforts to find housing for its homeless paroled sex offenders, nothing's worked so far.