Daily Corrections Clips

NEWS:

California Institutions

Prison pulls out all the stops for schoolchildren
By Anthony Skeens, The Triplicate-- Christmas came early for some students at Smith River Elementary School on Friday.

Kris Kringle Conveys Kids to K-Mart
By Robert Jenson, The Desert Independent-- Santa Claus arrived in Blythe this morning, not on a sleigh but by a helicopter provided by the REACH Air Ambulance Service. St. Nick’s visitation was arranged by Civil Servants for Santa, organized by Chuckawalla State Prison Community Liaison Kenny Kalian and Capt. Richard Smith.

Realignment

State Prison Population Has Dropped by 8,000 Under Realignment Plan
California Healthline-- The number of state prison inmates has fallen by more than 8,200 since California implemented a realignment plan in October, according to court papers filed by state officials, KPCC's "KPCC News" reports (Small, "KPCC News," KPCC, 12/16).

Leaders divided on felon strategies
By Dana M. Nichols, Stockton Record-- A bitter rift among the leaders of Calaveras County public agencies is delaying progress on plans for handling felons who since Oct. 1 are being released from state prisons into county supervision.

CDCR Related

Three-strikes law could go on ballot
By Tracey Kaplan, The Daily Democrat-- Buoyed by a favorable financial analysis, advocates of an initiative to scale back the nation's toughest "three-strikes" law will soon launch a signature-gathering drive to put the measure on California's November ballot.

In Calif. Mental Hospitals, Assaults Rarely A Crime
By Ina Jaffe, National Public Radio-- Part of an ongoing series. If anyone came up to you on the street and clocked you in the face, I'm pretty sure they'd be arrested. [But at California's psychiatric hospitals], arrest is something that happens very rarely. - Psychiatrist Mona Mosk

Have You Ever Interacted With the Police?
By Holly Epstein Ojalvo, New York Times-- A new study shows that approximately one-third of Americans have been arrested by age 23. And a black college student wrote an Op-Ed about being stopped by the police multiple times and how, he says, racial profiling has affected young people. What kinds of experiences have you and others you know had with the police?

California teen gets 21 years for killing gay student
By Sara Weisfeldt, CNN-- A Southern California teen who pleaded guilty to killing a gay classmate was sentenced Monday to 21 years in prison.

Pasadena hopes to give a second chance to ex-cons
By Brian Charles, Pasadena Star-News-- Dozens of men and women recently released from county jail or state prison crowded a community center hoping that a 90-minute workshop will mark the beginning of a new chapter in each of their lives.