CDCR News
The man accused in the brutal knife attack Monday that killed a woman
and wounded another woman and a police officer had not been released
early from prison because of overcrowding, a state prison spokesman said
Tuesday.
However, a judge gave Crockell credit for just over 800
days, meaning he had served his sentence when he was released from
prison, said Luis Patiño, a spokesman for the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A state program, commonly referred
to as realignment, had nothing to do with Crockell's release, Patiño
said. No state prisoner is released early because of realignment, he
said.
Associated Press, Washington Post
Robert Ross’ mother
died while he was in prison for robbing a bank and he hasn’t seen his 12-year-old son since the boy was in diapers.
For all that he has lost, however, Ross says he found something
far greater behind bars thanks to a college-level seminary course that
trains inmates to plant churches and evangelize in poor communities upon
their release.
Realignment
Nicole Jones, KALW
Imagine
you’re 18 years old and you commit a crime. A robbery. You go to prison at one
of the only women’s facilities in the state. You get out a year later, on
parole – and you’re back in the same neighborhood where you first got in
trouble. You commit another crime. And the cycle starts all over again. That’s
what happened to Courtney Samson.
San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascon
The criminal
justice system is failing us. In an era of decreased crime, we must have the courage
to call it like it is and enact criminal justice reforms that assist victims,
prioritize public safety and provide opportunities for offenders to redeem
themselves.
Michele Willer-Allred, Ventura County Star
The
Board of Supervisors
on Tuesday approved the second phase of a state plan for Ventura County
to take on more prisoners and parolees, even as the latest figures show
many are getting arrested for new offenses.
The state is allocating $15.5 million to the county this fiscal year
to take over incarcerating, supervising and treating lower level
offenders under California's public safety realignment law that took
effect in October.
CDCR Related
Michelle Durand, Daily Journal
Ongoing site preparation for a new San Mateo County jail hasn’t
dampened opponents who again gathered at the Board of Supervisors meeting to
demand they focus on rehabilitation and programming rather than a new
incarceration facility.
KCRA 13 Sacramento
The state of California took money straight out of a Grass Valley
grandmother’s bank account. After the state admitted a criminal really
owes the money, CBS13 investigated how this could happen.When a felon goes to prison, we learned they can give any name, Social Security number or birth date they want. But how does that lead to a grandma having money plucked right out of her savings?
FULL VERSION
The man accused in the brutal knife attack Monday that killed a woman and wounded another woman and a police officer had not been released early from prison because of overcrowding, a state prison spokesman said Tuesday.
Michael Crockell, 25, was sentenced to three years in prison for domestic violence in October and was released in March, authorities said.
However, a judge gave Crockell credit for just over 800 days, meaning he had served his sentence when he was released from prison, said Luis Patiño, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A state program, commonly referred to as realignment, had nothing to do with Crockell's release, Patiño said. No state prisoner is released early because of realignment, he said. The program did shift post-release community supervision of felons from state to counties, if they violate their probation, he said.
"That means the counties are responsible for the less-violent offenders," Patiño said.
At a news conference Monday afternoon to discuss the stabbings,
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Crockell got out of prison in March,
less than six months after his domestic violence sentence started, and
added that Crockell is the ninth person under post-release supervision
to be accused of murder in Fresno this year.
On Tuesday, Dyer said he is frustrated that some felons who are under local supervision, like Crockell, have violent backgrounds. He said state lawmakers should revisit realignment "to strengthen the criminal justice system and enhance the safety of citizens."
Crockell's criminal record shows he was convicted of brandishing a firearm and battery in 2006 and, as part of his sentencing, was ordered to undergo a mental health appraisal and take medication. In 2007, he pleaded no contest to charges of vandalism. In 2009, he was convicted of domestic violence and sentenced to three years' probation.
Dyer said he was not aware of any probation violations or jail time served by Crockell since his prison release before Monday's knife attacks.
Meanwhile, the identity of the woman killed in Monday's attacks in the Tower District remained undisclosed Tuesday as officials searched for relatives.
Two other victims, a Fresno police officer and a roommate of the slain woman, are recovering as officers continue to investigate the case.
Police spokesman Donald Gross said that officer Jonathan Linzey, who sustained knife wounds to his head while struggling with Crockell, was recovering at home and was in good spirits.
Jennifer Gonzalez, 20, remains at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno. Police say Crockell stabbed Gonzalez as many as 15 times in the face and upper body.
Police said Crockell and Gonzalez, who were friends, had dinner at Crockell's apartment near Maroa and Carmen avenues Sunday night. Gonzalez said that she was in bed about 5 a.m. Monday at her apartment near Home and Maroa avenues when she heard her roommate cry for help.
Linzey, 32, who responded to the 911 call, was attacked near Maroa by Crockell, and the two struggled for several minutes before Crockell was taken into custody.
On Tuesday, Dyer said he is frustrated that some felons who are under local supervision, like Crockell, have violent backgrounds. He said state lawmakers should revisit realignment "to strengthen the criminal justice system and enhance the safety of citizens."
Crockell's criminal record shows he was convicted of brandishing a firearm and battery in 2006 and, as part of his sentencing, was ordered to undergo a mental health appraisal and take medication. In 2007, he pleaded no contest to charges of vandalism. In 2009, he was convicted of domestic violence and sentenced to three years' probation.
Dyer said he was not aware of any probation violations or jail time served by Crockell since his prison release before Monday's knife attacks.
Meanwhile, the identity of the woman killed in Monday's attacks in the Tower District remained undisclosed Tuesday as officials searched for relatives.
Two other victims, a Fresno police officer and a roommate of the slain woman, are recovering as officers continue to investigate the case.
Police spokesman Donald Gross said that officer Jonathan Linzey, who sustained knife wounds to his head while struggling with Crockell, was recovering at home and was in good spirits.
Jennifer Gonzalez, 20, remains at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno. Police say Crockell stabbed Gonzalez as many as 15 times in the face and upper body.
Police said Crockell and Gonzalez, who were friends, had dinner at Crockell's apartment near Maroa and Carmen avenues Sunday night. Gonzalez said that she was in bed about 5 a.m. Monday at her apartment near Home and Maroa avenues when she heard her roommate cry for help.
Linzey, 32, who responded to the 911 call, was attacked near Maroa by Crockell, and the two struggled for several minutes before Crockell was taken into custody.
Associated Press, Washington Post
Robert Ross’ mother
died while he was in prison for robbing a bank and he hasn’t seen his
12-year-old son since the boy was in diapers.
For all that he has lost, however, Ross says he found something
far greater behind bars thanks to a college-level seminary course that
trains inmates to plant churches and evangelize in poor communities upon
their release.
Ross, 32, works fulltime as a clerk at the chapel at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, about an hour southeast of Los Angeles, where inmates began enrolling in The Urban Ministry Institute as an experiment four years ago. He plays keyboard and guitar during services and is considered a leader in the seminary training program that is being expanded to 18 California prisons and nearly 900 inmates, including women.
World Impact Inc. developed the seminary curriculum to target poor communities and partnered with the nonprofit group Prison Fellowship in 2008 to try teaching the rigorous, three-and-half year course behind prison walls. The partnership between the two evangelist organizations graduated 10 men last year and expects to graduate 14 more next year.
Prisons in Michigan, Florida and Colorado have also started classes.
The institute had spread to five other California prisons and about 220 inmates when wealthy Malibu real estate entrepreneur Wayne Hughes Jr. gave $2 million to the program last year. The partnership started classes at Ironwood State Prison in Blythe earlier this month and will add more prisons this fall.
Hughes, himself a devout Christian, decided to fund the institute after visiting Angola prison in Louisiana, where a similar seminary program for inmates has reduced violence dramatically, he said.
“I really think there’s a tipping point. If you can get 3 to 4 percent of the general population engaged, I think you’ll really change the culture within the prison — and when they get out, they’ll really change the culture from whence they came,” he said.
Prison officials say it’s too early to tell if the institute reduces recidivism but they are supporting the roll-out into more than half the state’s 33 adult institutions based on anecdotal evidence that it’s making a difference, said Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It takes three years to determine any program’s recidivism success rate.
“Any program that offers inmates an opportunity to gain some introspection and self-study, to change their attitude toward life, is a huge step toward making their lives constructive when they leave prison,” Sessa said.
Inmates who want to participate must get approval from the prison’s chaplain after an interview and the coursework is tough, said Donald Warrick, the Protestant chaplain at the Norco lockup.
Realignment
Nicole Jones, KALW
Imagine
you’re 18 years old and you commit a crime. A robbery. You go to prison at one
of the only women’s facilities in the state. You get out a year later, on
parole – and you’re back in the same neighborhood where you first got in
trouble. You commit another crime. And the cycle starts all over again. That’s
what happened to Courtney Samson.
“My first time in prison was a manslaughter, just like a
domestic violence situation that went bad,” she says. “Probably because I was
abusive. After I get released from that, I didn’t never look at drugs or
anything like that being a part of what had happened. I just started back
getting high after I got out that first time. Just never stopped, until I went
back to prison five years later.”
For Samson, like thousands of women in California, this has been
the cycle. But a new policy is making it easier for some of them to finally
break it and stay out of custody.
Since last October, realignment, known legally as AB109, has
shifted the responsibility for low-level offenders from state prison to county
jails. It’s giving people who would have been on state parole second and even
third chances to turn their lives around, by placing them on what’s called post-release
community supervision. Right now, over 30,000 people are in the program. About
20 percent of that group are women. Christina Martinez is one of those women.
Martinez and her probation officer, Robbyn-Nicole Livingston,
are looking down at a file four inches thick.
“That’s crazy. That’s crazy. That’s a big ol’ folder right
there,” says Martinez. “How embarrassing. It’s huge. It’s like I’m not adding
to that folder right there.”
“All these green papers are cases,” Livingston says.
Martinez replies that her first case was at 18 years old. This
is the first time Martinez has come face to face with her file, documenting 12
years in the criminal justice system.
Martinez was released from Central California Women's Facility
in Chowchilla in February. She’s supposed to check in with Livingston once a
week, but she’s missed an appointment here and there. Today she’s due for a
drug test. It’s positive, just like her last two.
“So now we need to do outpatient,” Livingston tells Martinez.
“But I need you to go.”
If it were a year ago, an infraction like this would have sent
Martinez right back to prison. But the state’s new policy of realignment means
she can stay on probation instead. But if she racks up enough violations, there
are consequences.
“If I make the referral to outpatient and you don’t go, well
then your next referral is inpatient,” Livingston says to Martinez. “And let’s
say you don’t go there. Now you’re next step is custody – and that’s what
actually took me so long. I kept you guys waiting. I have to flash somebody
because he didn’t show up. And I don’t want you to be that person.”
Martinez tells Livingston she won’t take it to that level.
To “flash” someone is to flash incarcerate them. It’s a
punishment for routine infractions, like missing an appointment or testing
positive for drugs. Flashes last just a few days. It takes a serious crime to
send someone back to prison for good. Until then, they get chances.
“I don’t want you to give up on yourself,” Livingston tells
Martinez, “because I’m not going to give up on you, you know?”
Livingston tells Martinez she’s going to keep calling her and
reminding her of her appointments so Martinez doesn’t miss them.
“Because you got to know it’s better,” says Livingston. “It’s
better than what you have right here. But all you’re ever going to be is that
gangster girl. All you’re ever going to be is Chola who comes up and, you know,
knocks you out.”
“Chola – the gangbanger.” That’s how Martinez is known on the
street. She used to be the one her friends would come to when they needed
something done – or someone hurt. One afternoon at a Denny’s in Antioch, she
shows me her tattoo-covered arms and chest, each signifying a distinct point in
her life. One says: “No hard feelings.” Another says: “Hated by all confronted
by none.”
Martinez wears these tattoos like she does her past: with
confidence, and certainty. She has a pretty face. Her lips are always glossed,
her nails painted in some bright hue. She has a taste for designer clothes,
something her past activities allowed her to indulge.
“This is all I know, I could do this and that, make an ID,
check, credit cards and go shopping all day, or I could anything,” she says, “I
could get the pound of drugs and go selling it. And I did it, I ain’t going to
lie. It’s messed up, but I was never nobody struggling. I used to go through
the stores and get anything I wanted.”
She can’t do that anymore. She was released from prison with
just $200, and she’s trying to earn a legal living.
Martinez says she runs into people from her life before prison,
“and they’re just like ‘you just aren’t the same since you got home,’ “ she
says. “And I’m just like, ‘It ain’t the same.’”
Chola is not the same. But a lot of things still are. After
leaving the Denny’s, Martinez heads for her old neighborhood.
“This is where they have all the shootings and stuff, they hang
out right there on the railroad tracks,” she says while driving by.
This was her hangout over the last fifteen years: where she went
when she got out of prison, and where she did the things that sent her back in.
“After I turned 18, everything went down,” she says, “I was in
and out there, my teenage years, in that apartment. That’s when I thought I was
a gangbanger, I thought I was selling drugs, I thought I was hustling.”
Martinez attitude is different today.
“It ain’t cool. And look what it got me. A prison sentence,
another prison sentence, another prison sentence,” she says.
Martinez says she’s done with that life, but it’s not easy to stay
away from. A week later, Martinez is back in Livingston’s office.
“Things are getting worse and worse and worse and worse and
worse and worse the more I try to stay away from everybody,” she tells
Livingston. “In a way, it’s worse.”
Martinez explains that she had to leave the place she’s staying
at and is now back on the streets.
“It’s like part of me wants to just give up and just go back,”
she says, “just take me to prison.”
Livingston says often that she thinks Martinez wants to change,
for good this time.
“She struggles every day,” Livingston says, “And she's
struggling with maintaining her sobriety, you know, seven days at a time is a
long time for her. But she wants help. She's let me know that she wants help.
She’s shown up to get help.”
Right now, Martinez needs really basic things, like a stable
place to live and a job. But the basic things are some of the hardest to find.
Realignment is still relatively new, and many communities don’t yet have the
resources to handle the influx.
Edwina Perez-Santiago runs the Reach Fellowship Foundation, a
nonprofit in North Richmond that helps low-income women with housing,
counseling classes, GED preparation, and more. She’s been watching
realignment unfold and is concerned that single women like Martinez aren’t
getting enough support.
“A lot of places are family oriented,” she says, “so my single
women coming out of prison don't have nowhere for me to put them. I can bring
them here all day. They can eat but at nighttime where do I send them? That
breaks my heart.”
The city of Richmond has created a reentry council dedicated to
helping people like Martinez re-enter the community safely. Livingston says
that’s a good start.
“Anything that would help women, you know, we have to kind of
think of the women coming out of prison as women in a developing nation,” she
says, “because we're developing as we go. I’ve had people tell me, just send me
back to prison. It’s too hard.”
Every day, between finding someplace to sleep and reliable
transportation to meetings, Martinez knows she’s walking a thin line between
freedom and being back in custody.
“If I had any other P.O., I would have just gave up and not been
back, but she’s, like persistent, like you’re going to be here. She works with
me so much,” she says.
Martinez knows she now has to start outpatient treatment for her
drug addiction. She’s warming to the idea – and to Livingston herself.
Livingston says working with Martinez takes patience.
“You know, someone else might have given up and said, you know,
she doesn't really care. But if you talk to her, and you get to listen to what
she's saying, you hear just the opposite,” Livingston says. “She does care.”
Martinez says the main goal is not going back to prison.
“It’s hard to get out and not know where you’re going to stay
and sleep where you’re going to put your head,” she says. “Where you’re going
to shower. What you are going to wear tomorrow. It’s a struggle, but keep
moving forward. I feel it’s going to all fall in place.”
San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascon
The criminal
justice system is failing us. In an era of decreased crime, we must have the courage
to call it like it is and enact criminal justice reforms that assist victims,
prioritize public safety and provide opportunities for offenders to redeem
themselves.
As a law enforcement official with three decades of experience, I am deeply committed to public safety. I came from Cuba to a poor working class neighborhood in South L.A. County and worked my way up the ranks at the Los Angeles Police Department from beat officer to Assistant Chief. As the Assistant Chief running LAPD's operations under Chief Bratton, I helped lead the LAPD achieve some of the most substantial crime drops in L.A.'s history. As Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, I reduced serious crime by 30 percent without a concomitant rise in the jail population. As Chief of Police in San Francisco, we lowered murder rates to the lowest they had been in 50 years also without dramatically increasing the number of inmates.
I now serve as San Francisco's District Attorney. As the first former Police Chief to be elected District Attorney, I have unique insight into our criminal justice system. It is a fallacy to believe that people can only be a victim advocate or a justice reform advocate. Embracing and protecting victims and demanding the justice system be honest, fair and proportional in its response to crime are the bedrocks of true public safety.
Toward this goal, I am pushing for three sound criminal justice reforms that focus on public safety rather than just punishing criminals -- supporting prison realignment, reforming the three strikes law, and replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole.
Making California's prison realignment experiment a success could have the greatest impact on justice reform in decades. It allows each county to decide how to handle non-violent non-serious offenders rather than handing them over to the state prisons. In San Francisco, we are embracing this opportunity by identifying community based solutions for many of these low-level offenders. Rather than stigmatize, traumatize and marginalize these individuals, we are trying to address their needs with the goal of finally stopping the revolving door in and out of prison that is often fueled by addiction and mental illness.
We have hired an Alternative Sentencing Planner to help guide our attorneys' sentencing decisions and are forming the first county level Sentencing Commission in country to evaluate our sentencing practices. This more surgical application of our most scarce and expensive resource -- jail -- has allowed us the space in our system to properly deal with the violent and serious offenders.
Similarly, our current three strikes law has resulted in thousands of Californians serving life sentences for non-violent crimes such as minor possession of drugs. My vision for our criminal justice system is one where we apply enough social control and opportunity to change someone's behavior, and no more. Justice both requires and limits punishment.
Proposition 36, a November ballot measure to reform Three Strikes will maintain the integrity of the law -- to protect society from violent repeat offenders -- without distorting its intent. Truly dangerous criminals will receive no benefit whatsoever from the Reform Act. Any defendant who has ever been convicted of a crime such as rape, murder or child molestation will receive a life sentence regardless of what their third strike crime is.
Proposition 34, also on the November ballot, would commute all death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. In my 30 years in law enforcement, the existence or absence of the death penalty has had no impact on general public safety. Strengthening families and neighborhoods, punishing criminals swiftly and surely, and thoughtful gun laws are more effective in deterring crime than remote threats of the death penalty. A sentence of life without the possibility of parole is a safe and effective solution for dealing with the most dangerous offenders. We are better off using the precious resources and funds to bring more killers and rapists to justice.
As a law enforcement official with three decades of experience, I am deeply committed to public safety. I came from Cuba to a poor working class neighborhood in South L.A. County and worked my way up the ranks at the Los Angeles Police Department from beat officer to Assistant Chief. As the Assistant Chief running LAPD's operations under Chief Bratton, I helped lead the LAPD achieve some of the most substantial crime drops in L.A.'s history. As Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, I reduced serious crime by 30 percent without a concomitant rise in the jail population. As Chief of Police in San Francisco, we lowered murder rates to the lowest they had been in 50 years also without dramatically increasing the number of inmates.
I now serve as San Francisco's District Attorney. As the first former Police Chief to be elected District Attorney, I have unique insight into our criminal justice system. It is a fallacy to believe that people can only be a victim advocate or a justice reform advocate. Embracing and protecting victims and demanding the justice system be honest, fair and proportional in its response to crime are the bedrocks of true public safety.
Toward this goal, I am pushing for three sound criminal justice reforms that focus on public safety rather than just punishing criminals -- supporting prison realignment, reforming the three strikes law, and replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole.
Making California's prison realignment experiment a success could have the greatest impact on justice reform in decades. It allows each county to decide how to handle non-violent non-serious offenders rather than handing them over to the state prisons. In San Francisco, we are embracing this opportunity by identifying community based solutions for many of these low-level offenders. Rather than stigmatize, traumatize and marginalize these individuals, we are trying to address their needs with the goal of finally stopping the revolving door in and out of prison that is often fueled by addiction and mental illness.
We have hired an Alternative Sentencing Planner to help guide our attorneys' sentencing decisions and are forming the first county level Sentencing Commission in country to evaluate our sentencing practices. This more surgical application of our most scarce and expensive resource -- jail -- has allowed us the space in our system to properly deal with the violent and serious offenders.
Similarly, our current three strikes law has resulted in thousands of Californians serving life sentences for non-violent crimes such as minor possession of drugs. My vision for our criminal justice system is one where we apply enough social control and opportunity to change someone's behavior, and no more. Justice both requires and limits punishment.
Proposition 36, a November ballot measure to reform Three Strikes will maintain the integrity of the law -- to protect society from violent repeat offenders -- without distorting its intent. Truly dangerous criminals will receive no benefit whatsoever from the Reform Act. Any defendant who has ever been convicted of a crime such as rape, murder or child molestation will receive a life sentence regardless of what their third strike crime is.
Proposition 34, also on the November ballot, would commute all death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. In my 30 years in law enforcement, the existence or absence of the death penalty has had no impact on general public safety. Strengthening families and neighborhoods, punishing criminals swiftly and surely, and thoughtful gun laws are more effective in deterring crime than remote threats of the death penalty. A sentence of life without the possibility of parole is a safe and effective solution for dealing with the most dangerous offenders. We are better off using the precious resources and funds to bring more killers and rapists to justice.
The failing of our criminal justice
system is not an economic or crime problem; it is a political problem. If my
peers in elected office and I are honest with Californians, we will tell them that
jails and prisons are not the answer to every crime or every criminal. We will
say it is okay, even safe, to give people an opportunity to reform themselves.
We need drastic reform if we hope to live up to our ideals as a nation. Justice, fairness, equality and opportunity must continue to inform our future. We need to forge a path of healing over punishment, integration over marginalization, hope over fear and life over death.
As law enforcement leaders we must have the courage to call it -- we are not winning by locking everyone up.
We need drastic reform if we hope to live up to our ideals as a nation. Justice, fairness, equality and opportunity must continue to inform our future. We need to forge a path of healing over punishment, integration over marginalization, hope over fear and life over death.
As law enforcement leaders we must have the courage to call it -- we are not winning by locking everyone up.
Michele Willer-Allred, Ventura County Star
The
Board of Supervisors
on Tuesday approved the second phase of a state plan for Ventura County
to take on more prisoners and parolees, even as the latest figures show
many are getting arrested for new offenses.
The state is allocating $15.5 million to the county this fiscal year to take over incarcerating, supervising and treating lower level offenders under California's public safety realignment law that took effect in October.
"I've been a probation officer for nearly 24 years, and I can assure you it's the biggest change in criminal justice practices since I've been a probation officer in Ventura County," said Probation Director Mark Varela, who updated supervisors on the status of the realignment plan.
Of 463 offenders returned to Ventura County in the past 11 months, 81 have been arrested for 175 new crimes, with the majority being drug-related offenses, he reported.
And about 200 offenders have been referred for alcohol or drug treatment, 129 have been referred for mental health treatment, and 204 have been reported homeless after being released.
Varela added that Ventura County Superior Court has handed down a large number of jail-only sentences, which "has severely impacted our local jails" and has contributed to overcrowding. A number of offenders who have not followed the conditions of their release also have created a burden on the courts, the District Attorney's Office and parole officers.
The county has hired a consultant to help with the long-term realignment plan, which is supposed to help reduce recidivism and offer treatment, support and outreach for offenders and their families, among other things, Varela said.
He added that the county is receiving $9 million more from the state than last year because the funding is for an entire year and the county is seeing more offenders.
Varela estimates there will be 775 offenders returned this year to the county, so more deputy probation officers and social workers will be needed.
He pointed out that it will be challenging for the local courts to keep up with all the additional work.
The realignment law was established under Assembly Bill 109, which was signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. AB 109 changed the definition of a felony offense in California, shifted housing for lower level offenders from state prisons to local jails, and transferred the supervisions of designated parolees from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to county criminal justice agencies. State prisoners and parolees are returned to jurisdictions where their offenses occurred.
It also mandated forming a local "Community Corrections Partnership" and required each county to complete a realignment implementation plan.
The Board of Supervisors approved the first phase of the plan in September 2011. The state provided $6.5 million for start-up costs and to cover core functions of the realignment.
The latest round of funding will go to agencies responsible for aspects of the realignment, including the Sheriff's Office, Probation Department, Behavioral Health, District Attorney's Office and Public Defender's Office.
Some funding will go toward overtime pay for Sheriff's Office, which is overseeing a larger jail population and tracking more electronic monitors for low-level offenders released from jail. In addition, a crime analyst position has been added and a full-time probation officer will be working with juveniles at the Todd Road Jail.
About $1.25 million will go to local community-based organizations.
Supervisor Kathy Long said she appreciates that different county agencies have been able to work so well together.
"Up and down the state it's not working so well in some counties," said Long.
She noted the governor's tax initiative on the November ballot would, if passed, help county agencies pay for increased responsibilities for confining and monitoring convicts.
The state is allocating $15.5 million to the county this fiscal year to take over incarcerating, supervising and treating lower level offenders under California's public safety realignment law that took effect in October.
"I've been a probation officer for nearly 24 years, and I can assure you it's the biggest change in criminal justice practices since I've been a probation officer in Ventura County," said Probation Director Mark Varela, who updated supervisors on the status of the realignment plan.
Of 463 offenders returned to Ventura County in the past 11 months, 81 have been arrested for 175 new crimes, with the majority being drug-related offenses, he reported.
And about 200 offenders have been referred for alcohol or drug treatment, 129 have been referred for mental health treatment, and 204 have been reported homeless after being released.
Varela added that Ventura County Superior Court has handed down a large number of jail-only sentences, which "has severely impacted our local jails" and has contributed to overcrowding. A number of offenders who have not followed the conditions of their release also have created a burden on the courts, the District Attorney's Office and parole officers.
The county has hired a consultant to help with the long-term realignment plan, which is supposed to help reduce recidivism and offer treatment, support and outreach for offenders and their families, among other things, Varela said.
He added that the county is receiving $9 million more from the state than last year because the funding is for an entire year and the county is seeing more offenders.
Varela estimates there will be 775 offenders returned this year to the county, so more deputy probation officers and social workers will be needed.
He pointed out that it will be challenging for the local courts to keep up with all the additional work.
The realignment law was established under Assembly Bill 109, which was signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. AB 109 changed the definition of a felony offense in California, shifted housing for lower level offenders from state prisons to local jails, and transferred the supervisions of designated parolees from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to county criminal justice agencies. State prisoners and parolees are returned to jurisdictions where their offenses occurred.
It also mandated forming a local "Community Corrections Partnership" and required each county to complete a realignment implementation plan.
The Board of Supervisors approved the first phase of the plan in September 2011. The state provided $6.5 million for start-up costs and to cover core functions of the realignment.
The latest round of funding will go to agencies responsible for aspects of the realignment, including the Sheriff's Office, Probation Department, Behavioral Health, District Attorney's Office and Public Defender's Office.
Some funding will go toward overtime pay for Sheriff's Office, which is overseeing a larger jail population and tracking more electronic monitors for low-level offenders released from jail. In addition, a crime analyst position has been added and a full-time probation officer will be working with juveniles at the Todd Road Jail.
About $1.25 million will go to local community-based organizations.
Supervisor Kathy Long said she appreciates that different county agencies have been able to work so well together.
"Up and down the state it's not working so well in some counties," said Long.
She noted the governor's tax initiative on the November ballot would, if passed, help county agencies pay for increased responsibilities for confining and monitoring convicts.
CDCR Related
Michelle Durand, Daily Journal
Ongoing site preparation for a new San Mateo County jail hasn’t
dampened opponents who again gathered at the Board of Supervisors meeting to
demand they focus on rehabilitation and programming rather than a new
incarceration facility.
The standing-room group, a
mixture of several organized groups and some individuals who hoisted signs,
said the supervisors risk their political careers by continuing forward with
the jail and demanded they rethink $44 million in planning funds at the Sept.
25 county budget hearing.
By turns for nearly two hours, the opponents also
knocked the jail plan as a way to incarcerate more minorities who can be used
as free labor, generate federal money and avoid strategizing ways to cut
recidivism.
“This is the agenda of the 1
percent,” said Sandy Sanders who said money spent on jails is money that won’t
go for more important needs, like schools.
The crowd has made similar
entreaties, often when the issue is on the board agenda, and is undaunted by
the county not heeding its demands.
“We’re going to keep coming
back until you stop the jail,” said Emily Harris of Californians United for a
Responsible Budget.
Harris suggested the county
follow the example of Contra Costa County which decided not to go forward with
a jail.
The county signed off on a
new incarceration facility on the former Chemical Way in Redwood City after
several years of planning, community meetings and debate over location. The
men’s Maguire Correctional Facility is chronically overcrowded and the women’s
jail is antiquated, often flooding during winter months.
Currently, the new jail is
expected to open in 2015 with a roughly $155 million construction price tag
followed by $25 million to $27 million in annual operating expenses. Ground
broke in June and jail planners and architects are narrowing down a design.
The preferred option so far
is a mid-rise building configuration with administrative/support services in a
two-story structure separate from inmate housing which will be located in a
three-story building. Both that design and another option separate male and
female inmates and take into consideration the needs of inmates with longer or
extended stay lengths under the state realignment. Realignment shifted some
low-level offenders from state prison to county jails and kept some convicts
local rather than sending them to prison.
But for opponents, any jail
is the wrong option.
“I’m concerned that our
county’s justice system is headed off in a costly and ineffective direction,”
said Sabrina Brennan, a candidate for the San Mateo County Harbor District
Board of Commissioners.
Many speakers said the
overcrowding can be addressed by releasing inmates on their own recognizance
prior to trial or offering alternatives to sentencing. Defense attorney Richard
Keyes called the amount of money to be spent “outlandish” and cited both a high
bail schedule and policy of detaining non-citizens for immigration officials as
crowding contributors that can be fixed.
Redwood City resident James
Lee said the women’s jail need not be replaced but shut down completely because
most of the female inmates are incarcerated for drug or non-violent offenses.
While the Board of
Supervisors is not obligated to respond to public comment because the jail was
not an agenda item, board President Adrienne Tissier and others tried
clarifying the limits of its responsibility for the population.
“We don’t send people to
jail. We don’t arrest them. We don’t send them there,” she said. “What we want
to do is, if they are there, help them the best we can while they are there.”
Tissier also pointed out that
the county does not control school funding so is not choosing a jail over
education.
County Manager John Maltbie
tried tempering the dissent by saying that decisions leading to the increased
jail populations like laws or limits on inmate release are often made by the
judiciary or Legislature rather than local supervisors.
“If we’re serious about
reducing the population of the jail, we need to have conversations with those
who make those decisions,” he said.
He also said that simply not
building a jail won’t reduce the population or prevent incarceration.
The crowd appeared unmoved,
loudly changing “No more jails” as they left board chambers.
KCRA 13 Sacramento
The state of California took money straight out of a Grass Valley
grandmother’s bank account.
After the state admitted a criminal really
owes the money, CBS13 investigated how this could happen.
When a felon goes to prison, we learned they can give any name,
Social Security number or birth date they want. But how does that lead
to a grandma having money plucked right out of her savings?
Eric Hemminger likes having his mom, Jeanne Miller nearby. She has a home on the same property.
“It’s nice to have her around in her golden years,” said Hemminger.
He helps with her finances, so when she had a $721 bank withdrawal from the Franchise Tax Board, Hemminger looked into it.
“It was from the people who collect taxes, so she thought maybe it
was a late fee for taxes and we hadn’t filed on time,” said Hemminger.
“So I just figured it was something I owed, and I was going to pay it,” said Miller.
But paperwork from the state shows it’s a court-ordered debt owed to the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board.
The order from the state has Miller’s Social Security number on it, but it’s for a felon currently in prison named Jermain Kirk.
“I contacted the bank and they said there’s nothing they can do. It
was a court order and they have to abide by it and that we’d have to
talk to the state,” said Hemminger.
The victim claims board told us Kirk, a convicted burglar, gave the
wrong Social Security number. But how could the state allow money to be
wrongfully taken from this senior citizen’s account?
“They should be double-checking,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
He thinks the state should have verified Miller’s account was linked to the felon before taking her money.
“We have an innocent victim here who’s having money taken out of her account illegally and inappropriately,” said Coupal.
But claims board officials say they have no ability to double check
Social Security numbers provided by inmates. The Franchise Tax Board
says it can, but they quickly added this wasn’t their fault. They
refused to go on camera answering how this happened.
Miller and Hemminger weren’t happy to hear it could be 16 weeks to get her money back.
“Then I was told, ‘Hey, you’re not special. There’s a lot of people
before you and after you that this same thing has happened to,’” said
Hemminger.
Once CBS13 got involved, Miller received an apology from the claims board and a refund.
“Still unbelievable that it would happen,” said Miller.
So the question remains – how can this happen? The Franchise Tax Board refuses to give us answers.
We reached out to Miller’s bank, which admits it also could have also caught this once it made it to them.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tells us
it’s aware prisoners are giving inaccurate information. They’re now
talking about validating Social Security numbers right when the felon is
locked up.
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