CDCR STAR – Corrections Clips

CDCR NEWS:

Inmate Caught After Escaping From Pleasant Valley State Prison Minimum-Security Facility
Coalinga – This morning at approximately 1:10 a.m. a Los Angeles County inmate was discovered to be missing during an unannounced count at the Minimum Support Facility at Pleasant Valley State Prison. Emergency procedures were immediately initiated and search teams were dispatched. At approximately 1:50 a.m. the escapee, Jeovani Rivera Orozco, was apprehended on prison grounds without incident.

NEWS STORIES:

Sex Offenders:

Agents On Lookout For Sex Offenders At State Fair
KCRA Sacramento -- Parole officials will be tracking sex offenders in an effort to keep children safe at the California State Fair. Many sex offenders cannot be where children are as part of their parole. With that in mind, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Division of Adult Parole has drawn an exclusion zone around Cal Expo where such parolees can't enter. If any parolee wearing a global positioning system device enters the zone, agents will get an alert, said Marvin Speed, a parole administrator.

GPS monitoring used at state fair to keep sex offenders out
By C. Johnson, News 10 Sacramento -- The state corrections department wants those going to the California State Fair to be assured sex offender parolees outfitted with GPS devices are being monitored if they try to get into Cal Expo during the fair's 19-day run. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Adult Parole Operations Director Robert Ambroselli says if GPS monitoring shows a sex offender in violation of his parole terms, he will be arrested.

Parole:

LAPD complains about parole officials classifying suspect in police shooting as 'low-level, nonviolent'
By Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times -- The Los Angeles Police Department has asked the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to investigate how a parolee who fired nearly a dozen gunshots at two LAPD officers over the weekend in the San Fernando Valley was able to gain early release and why he was classified as a low-level offender. State corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said it was possible there was confusion about Rueda's gang status. But he added that that even if Rueda had been on supervised parole, Saturday's events might still have occurred. "Supervised parole is not incarceration," Hidalgo said.

Institutions:

Chowchilla prison locked down
Fresno Bee -- Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla has been on lockdown since Friday evening, a prison spokesman said Wednesday. Lt. Michael Burns said the lockdown was prompted by "health and safety concerns" and the need to search for "suspected contraband." Burns said the prison hopes to complete the search by Saturday so it can allow visitations this weekend.

Lockdown spurs hunger strike at Corcoran prison
By Joe Johnson, Hanford Sentinel -- Corcoran State Prison's Substance Abuse Treatment facility went into lockdown on Friday when two inmate-made weapons were found hidden on the recreation yard, prompting a two-day hunger strike by the prisoners. More than 800 inmates in Facility A, a medium-security area, refused to eat or work Saturday after the Warden implemented a "modified program" to search for more weapons while restricting inmate movement. This means access to the recreation yard and visitation programs were cut off, prison Lt. Stephen Smith said.

Salinas Valley State Prison inmate taken to Bay Area hospital after assault
By Kimber Solaro, Salinas Californian -- A 42-year-old inmate has been taken to a Bay Area hospital following an assault at the Salinas Valley State Prison. SVSP spokesman Lt. Michael Nilsson said the victim was involved in a “physical altercation” with another inmate today. Citing that it’s an ongoing investigation, Nilsson declined to release any other information, including the name of the suspect and the condition of the victim.

Coalinga prison inmate escapes briefly
By Jim Guy, Fresno Bee -- A minimum-security prisoner escaped custody briefly Wednesday at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, authorities said. Jeovani Rivera Orozco, who is serving a four-year sentence for burglary, went missing about 1 a.m. He was found about an hour later on prison grounds. Orozco is the second inmate to escape from the prison in a week. Still missing is Antonio Montelongo Jaureque, 24, who fled Saturday. Jaureque, from Fresno County, is 6 feet tall, weighs 210 pounds, and has tattoos on the right side of his neck and on both hands. Anyone who believes they have seen Jaureque can call 911

Chino prison inmate accused of starting barracks fire during unrest to stand trial
By Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times -- A Chino prison inmate who is accused of helping to start a barracks fire during a prison riot could face up to 11 years in jail if convicted, San Bernardino County Superior Court officials said Wednesday. A judge on Tuesday ordered Caris Lynn McDougald, 24, to stand trial for his alleged role in the disturbance last August. McDougald is accused of adding flammable material to a fire set by another inmate. The violence left about 200 prisoners injured and forced officials to relocate at least 1,000 men.

CDCR Related and Miscelleanous:

No appeal of sex offender registration for 3 men
Associated Press -- The California Supreme Court has declined to review an appeal by three men who sought to avoid having to register as sex offenders after being convicted of the 2002 videotaped sexual assault of an unconscious 16-year-old girl in Orange County. The court passed on reviewing the case Wednesday.

Prison guard gets 110 days behind bars
By Ashley Archibald, Union Democrat -- A state correctional officer was sentenced to 110 days in Tuolumne County Jail on Tuesday for what the judge called the worst case of misdemeanor resisting an officer she’d ever seen. Christopher Bradbury, 44, a lieutenant at Sierra Conservation Center, the state prison near Jamestown, was pulled over by a Tuolumne County sheriff’s deputy on suspicion of driving under the influence at 10:33 p.m. Nov. 5, 2008.

Former guard convicted of solicitation of murder
Associated Press -- A former Salinas Valley State Prison guard will be spending time on the other side of prison bars after being convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill his ex-girlfriend. Monterey County prosecutors say Timothy Rodriguez was convicted Wednesday of attempted premeditated murder and solicitation of murder. Rodriguez was arrested last fall after authorities say he tried to solicit an undercover Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent who was posing as a hit man. The 39-year-old Rodriguez is facing seven years to life in prison when he's sentenced Aug. 27.

Ex-Salinas Valley State Prison correctional officer found guilty in murder-for-hire case
By Sunita Vijayan, Salinas Californian -- A judge convicted an ex-Salinas Valley State Prison correctional officer in a murder-for-hire case Wednesday, saying the defendant put a "significant amount of planning" into a plot to kill a woman he had dated. Monterey County Superior Court Judge Russell Scott found Timothy Rodriguez guilty of attempted first-degree murder and solicitation of murder, following nearly two days of testimony in a bench trial.

Girl, 15, dies after crash involving driver chased by CHP
By Sean Webby and Mark Gomez, San Jose Mercury News -- A chase through busy San Jose streets that began when a California Highway Patrol officer pursued a car making an illegal turn has now led to the death of a teen passenger in the vehicle struck by the fleeing car. Frederick Bridgewater, a spokesman for the parole division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said agents issued a no-bail warrant June 10 after failing to make contact with Cuebas, a violation of the conditions of his parole. Cuebas was considered a high-control parolee, meaning he required the maximum level of supervision by parole agents, Bridgewater said.

Critics blast governor's state board vacancies
By Michael Hall, San Diego Union Tribune -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to leave vacant 15 percent of the seats on California’s boards and commissions is prompting debate about whether the panels have enough members to conduct prompt business and provide adequate oversight. As a result of the vacancies: The Sex Offender Management Board lacked a chairman and couldn’t manage a quorum in March at the first meeting it held to discuss its review of how the state handled parole for convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III.

OPINION:

Parole system's errors exposed
Pasadena Star News -- How does one put a dollar figure on the physical and emotional damage inflicted upon Jaycee Dugard over the 18 years she was held captive? We're not sure. But the state of California managed to do that last week, settling on $20 million. That's what taxpayers will pay Dugard and her family for the series of blunders made by state officials in supervising paroled rapist Phillip Garrido and not discovering that Dugard, now 30, and her two daughters,