CDCR STAR - Correction Clips

NEWS STORIES:

Institutions:

Delano Kids Get Early Christmas
By Camila Bastidas, KERO -- Correctional officers from Kern Valley State Prison handed out dozens of toys at La Escuelita Day Care in Delano. Every year officers choose a local school of low income families for the Adopt-A-School program. It's a way for them to give back to the community. "I was one of these kids and this is my way of giving back," said Kern Valley State Prison correctional sergeant Lori Sobbe.”

Conservation Camps:

Teaching Firefighting Skills to Inmates
By Mike Harris, Crestline Courier News -- Drivers traveling along Highway 138 between Lake Silverwood and the backside of Crestline probably don't even think twice about the sign directing visitors to Pilot Rock Conservation Camp No. 15. A camp for tourists? Maybe a Boy Scout or Girl Scout camp? No, it's one of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) 44 conservation camps created to house convicted felons.

Capital Punishment:

State withholds name of lethal drug supplier
By Ryan Gabrielson, California Watch -- The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a secret lethal injection drug supplier. This anonymous exporter is a British company (price quotes are in “pounds sterling”), apparently based in London. It has experience moving pharmaceuticals through U.S. Customs and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Such vague details come courtesy a trove of heavily redacted e-mails the state agency released last week under court order.

Health Care:

Trade secrets: inmate health-care contracts kept confidential
By Jennifer Chaussee, Capital Weekly -- Hundreds of millions of dollars are involved in a new state contract for prison health care, but there’s no telling now exactly much money California is spending under the agreement, which takes effect in just weeks. Even lawmakers are kept in the dark. The contract and its fiscal details are secret because of an exemption related to health care information within the state Public Records Act, said Liz Kanter, a spokesperson for the California Prison Health Care Services, the government body that awarded the contract to Health Net Federal Services, an outside HMO and subsidiary of Health Net.

CDCR Related & Miscellaneous:

Inmates' Jobs, From Call Centers To Paint Mixing
National Public Radio -- Many people understand inmates have jobs, but don't realize the variety of products and services they provide and the byzantine pay system in place for many prison jobs. It's not just license plates anymore: Prisoners operate call centers, build office furniture and mix the paint used on highways.

A look back: California corrections in 2010
By Bob Walsh, The California Crisis -- I am reminded of an ancient Chinese curse; “May you live in interesting times.” The Corrections System of California, and that of most other jurisdictions in this country, has had an interesting, and difficult, year. Next year may not be much better. Much of the problem is financial. Locking people up takes money, which is in short supply. Many other priorities, all of which have a much better warm-fuzzy quotient than prison operation, compete for available funding. Schools, health care, infrastructure—all are in legitimate need. Jails and prisons tend to be out of sight and out of mind for most of the electorate (except those directly touched by the system in one fashion or other).

D.A.: Arrests cripple white-supremacist gangs
By Greg Hardesty, The Orange County Register -- Prosecutors Thursday announced a crackdown on white supremacist prison and street gangs in Orange County, saying they've crippled the gangs' local operations by arresting 34 members of racist hate groups, including a top "shot caller" and his wife. It's the largest-ever takedown of white-supremacist gang members in Orange County, the Orange County District Attorney's Office said.

Gang Sweep Nets About 50 Alleged White Supremacists in Orange County, Calif.
By Barry Leibowitz, CBS -- A gang sweep in Southern California has resulted in the arrest of nearly 50 alleged white supremacists on suspicion of extortion, conspiracy and solicitation of aggravated assault and murder. Federal and state officials announced the arrests as the culmination in Operation Stormfront, named after a supremacist Web site called "Stormfront," according to CBS affiliate KCAL.

Three locals charged in white supremacist case
By Joseph Serna, Los Angeles Times -- Three Costa Mesa residents were among nearly 50 people arrested or indicted in Orange County's biggest white supremacist prison and street gang crackdown ever. Jessie Raffensberger, 31, Richard Michael Briggs, 58, and Edward Anthony Ferraro, 30, are among more than a dozen suspected white supremacists charged with a litany of felonies, from extortion to assault with enhancements for allegedly being affiliated with a gang. All three face life in prison if convicted of all charges.

Suspect arrested in south area barbershop shootout
By Kim Minugh, Sacramento Bee -- Lonnie Orlando Mitchell had been out of prison six weeks – his third time leaving the big house – before he allegedly took part in this week's deadly barbershop shootout. If convicted of his alleged role as one of at least four gunmen to spray two dozen bullets into and outside of the Stockton Boulevard shop Tuesday afternoon – killing two people and injuring five more – he could go back to prison for the rest of his life.

'Person of interest' in 2002 LaForge murder sentenced to prison for probation violation
By Elizabeth Larson, Lake County News -- A woman who police said is a person of interest in the 2002 Barbara LaForge murder has been sentenced to state prison for failing to repay more than $44,000 in restitution and violating probation in two cases charged at around the time LaForge was shot to death. Linda Ann Mafrice, 55, a massage therapist from Kelseyville, was transported to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation this week after Judge Andrew Blum sentenced her to four years and eight months in state prison earlier this month.

OPINION:

How SCOTUS Threatens Much of California's Budget
NBC -- Recently, the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about California's overcrowded state prison system. The case is significant because it touches on the fastest growing part of the state budget that has been out of state hands for many years. At issue is whether the federal courts have the right to tell California how to run its prison system.

14 alleged white supremacists arrested in O.C. sweep
By Ann M. Simmons. Los Angeles Times -- Fourteen alleged white supremacists have been arrested and more than two dozen firearms seized by law enforcement agents in Orange County, authorities said Thursday. The sweep, called Operation Stormfront, was touted by authorities as being the largest such raid ever made in Orange County involving federal, state and local law enforcement agents.