Daily Corrections Clips

NEWS:

DJJ

Cuts Could Trigger Bigger Juvenile Justice Bills
By Trey Bundy, The Bay Citizen-- Juvenile offenders are often reminded that bad decisions have consequences. The juvenile justice systems in California counties are about to learn the same hard lesson.

California Institutions

New warden at San Quentin State Prison
By Rob Rogers, Marin Independent Journal-- A Folsom Prison official has been named as the new warden at San Quentin State Prison.

California Inmates

Prisoner steals fire engine, escapes
By Arthur Weinreb, Digital Journal-- Officials at a California state prison may want to reconsider letting inmates convicted of auto theft go outside the prison's walls and have access to vehicles.

State Workers

Law enforcement rises to the occasion, helps area families during the holidays
By Joe Johnson, Hanford Sentinel-- Some people question whether peace officers have the community's best interests at heart. But police Cmdr. Steve Rossi doesn't.

CDCR Related

Getting Prison Numbers Down—For Good
By Malcolm C. Young, The Crime Report-- Some commentators are celebrating the decrease in prison population numbers reported for 2010 by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)—and they should.

Va. Tech killer Cho’s calculator for sale, renewing debate on ‘murderabilia’
By T. Rees Shapiro, The Washington Post-- According to the seller, the item is a Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus calculator, similar to thousands of others used in college-level math classes. It usually retails for about $99. This one is listed at $3,700.

OPINION:

PD Editorial: Weighing cost, effectiveness of death penalty
Press Democrat-- California’s chief justice struck the right tone in her grim assessment of the state’s capital punishment system.

Why the Death Penalty Is Slowly Dying
By Adam Cohen, Time Magazine-- Little by little, governors, state legislatures, judges and juries are quietly deciding not to support capital punishment.

California's death penalty: Unusual but not cruel
By Charles Johnson, Los Angeles Times-- With a drug cocktail that puts death row inmates to sleep, California's capital punishment can hardly be said to be cruel — but it is so unusual that death row inmates in the Golden State routinely die of old age or by suicide.

STATE: Fire-crew folly
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE-- Reshaping the state’s corrections system should not carve a hole in state fire protection. The Legislature needs to ensure that the valuable, cost-effective inmate firefighting program continues. California should not let a change in inmate supervision erode the ranks of badly needed prison fire crews.