CDCR STAR - Correction Clips

CDCR NEWS:

Kern Valley State Prison Minimum Security Facility Escapee Captured
An inmate who walked away from Kern Valley State Prison (KSVP) has been located and apprehended by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Special Service Unit agents. Inmate Miguel Jaime Jr., who walked away from the Minimum Support Facility of KSVP on Tuesday, March 1, was apprehended on March 3 in Modesto by CDCR special agents at approximately 8:45 p.m. Jaime has since been transported back to KVSP.

NEWS STORIES:

High Profile Case:

Confessions in Dugard kidnapping part of plea dance
Associated Press -- The revelation that a Northern California couple confessed to kidnapping Jaycee Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years likely indicates plea bargain negotiations that could resolve the case without a trial are well underway, legal experts say. Stephen Tapson, a court-appointed attorney who represents defendant Nancy Garrido, told reporters this week his client and her husband, Phillip Garrido, recently gave "full confessions" to detectives.

DJJ:

Preston Youth Authority Bill to be heard in State Assembly March 15
Ledger-Dispatch -- Pushing ahead on her efforts to stop the current closure proceedings at the Preston Youth Authority, Assemblymember Alyson Huber, (D-El Dorado Hills) has announced that the Assembly Committee on Public Safety has scheduled her legislation, AB 8, for hearing at 9 a.m. on March 15, at the State Capitol. AB 8, introduced by Huber last December, seeks to temporarily halt the closure of the Preston Youth Correctional Facility. The measure delays the closure process at any youth facility for a period of six months. During this time frame the Legislature and the governor can examine the decisions of CDCR, as they begin to address how to best serve the youth offender population. AB 8 also states that employee staffing may not be cut, instead keeping staff at levels the same as before the closure was announced last October. "This will not be an easy fight, but it is the right fight for Amador County and for the dedicated employees and their families who have given so much to Preston and to the state of California," Huber said.

Parole:

State's sickest inmates could be paroled to save money
KGET -- Ten of our state's sickest inmates may be headed for parole under a new law intended to save taxpayers millions of dollars. They are inmates being treated and monitored outside of prison because of their dire medical conditions. One of those inmates lies in a Kern County hospital, guarded by two corrections officers at an annual cost of close to $1 million.

Death Row:

Death penalty advocate dies at 88; his daughter's murderer remains on death row
By Teri Figueroa, North County Times -- George Cullins' long-held prediction was right. He died before the serial killer who murdered his daughter could be executed. Cullins, 88 and a former longtime North County resident, died in an Antelope Valley hospital Tuesday, about four months after a car crash left him and his wife hospitalized, family friends Louise and Walter Rogers said Friday. Dean Carter, the man who murdered Cullins' daughter in 1984, sits on California's death row, where he has lived since February 1990. He is serving a separate death sentence for killing three Los Angeles women.

Institutions:

California’s many license plates
Press Democrat -- California’s license plates are made by the thousands each year at Folsom State Prison. And the inmates make all kinds, considering that, as of a year ago, there were 31,916,865 registered vehicles in the state.

New warden takes reins at San Quentin
By Will Jason, Marin Independent Journal -- A veteran of the state corrections system has been tapped to take over at San Quentin State Prison, where he started his career 30 years ago. Mike Martel, 56, became warden at the state's oldest prison on Feb. 22. "It's an honor for me," he said. "This is my last job that I anticipate having so I like the fact that I'm going to complete my career at the place where I started." Martel takes over amid state budget problems and court battles over California's lethal injection procedures and a plan for a $356 million death row complex at San Quentin. He said he would focus his attention on the safety of inmates and staff and on complying with court orders, leaving larger policy questions to others.

CDCR Related & Miscellaneous:

Parole agent charged with taking inmate's money
Associated Press -- A California parole agent has pleaded not guilty to stealing $3,000 from a jailed female parolee. Prosecutors say the woman authorized 53-year-old Robert Earl Wilson to withdraw the money from her bank account last year so it could be transferred to her jail account. Wilson is charged with keeping the money.

Wall Street Get Ready — White-Collar Crime Clothing Is Coming Your Way
Forbes -- “Do good, make a change and make a positive difference in peoples’ lives”, that is the motto at White-Collar Crime Clothing. An innovative and unique company based in Southern California has created quality t-shirts and hats based on prison themes. Prison inmates create a life for themselves behind bars and in the process unique communities are established just as they are across the fabric of America. This reality sparked an idea that has found its way into apparel that portrays life behind bars…but in a more positive light.

OPINION:

Red ink is flowing from prisons
Lompoc Record -- California’s prison system is so rife with problems; it’s difficult to know where to begin a discussion of how to resolve those issues, several of which are tied directly to the prison guards and their powerful union. There is, for example, the problem of millions of tax dollars being wasted on inmates who are, for one reason or another, physically incapacitated.

Leadership absent from prison budget proposal
Fresno Bee -- Despite proposing deep cuts across state government, Gov. Jerry Brown plans no reduction to the state prison budget. Costs for next year will be roughly the same as this year — $9.1 billion. Under the governor's proposal, the number of inmates, about 160,000, would fall by a mere 650. Over time, Brown wants 38,000 fewer people in prisons, and is proposing to send low-level offenders to county jails. He notes that the number of these offenders in state prison has increased dramatically since California changed to a determinate sentencing model.