Daily Corrections Clips

CDCR NEWS:



CDCR Announces Final Deactivation of Non-Traditional Beds

Inmate population reduction eliminates iconic symbol of overcrowding crisis

SACRAMENTO— After more than two decades of using non-traditional beds, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is no longer double- and triple-bunking inmates in areas that were not designed for housing, such as gymnasiums and dayrooms.

Realignment

Symbol of Calif. prison overcrowding comes to end
By Don Thompson, Associated Press-- California prisons mark a milestone Friday, when officials announce they have removed the last of nearly 20,000 extra beds that had been jammed into gymnasiums and other common areas to house inmates who overflowed traditional prison cells.

Emmerson wants to revisit prison realignment plan
By Erica Felci, The Desert Sun-- State Sen. Bill Emmerson wants California lawmakers to take another look at the realignment that’s pushed more prisoners into county jails.

Prison realignment offers S.J. chance to examine its own crowded cells
By Zachary K. Johnson, Recordnet.com-- Last year's move to alleviate overcrowded state prisons by transferring money, responsibility and more criminal offenders to the counties also brought the focus in San Joaquin County back to its own packed jail.

State prison "realignment" falls short with plans for female ex-convicts
By Suzanne Bohan, Contra Costa Times -- When Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law last year drastically changing the rules for oversight of low-level felons upon their release from prison, plans for handling the influx of female parolees fell between the cracks, say many experts.

California Inmates

Assemblywoman Asks FBI Director to Reopen "Speed Freak Killers" Case
By Sam Cohen and Andria Borba, FOX40 News-- A California assemblywoman is pleading with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. to help speed up efforts to recover remains of victims of the “Speed Freak Killers”.

Chowchilla bus kidnapper could be freed within year
By Joshua Emerson Smith, The Merced Sun Star-- The youngest of the three Chowchilla kidnappers who buried a school bus full of students and a driver trying to collect ransom money more than 34 years ago could make parole from state prison within the year.

CDCR RELATED:

State lawmakers want answers on prison spending
By Chris Megerian, The Los Angeles Times-- When California’s prison system ran into the red last year, lawmakers forked over an additional $380 million. But now lawmakers say they can’t get answers on where the money went, and prison officials have missed two deadlines to explain the spending.

Lawmakers hammer Corrections official for lack of accounting
By Jon Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee-- Lawmakers lit into a California state prisons official Wednesday afternoon for his department's failure to account for its spending -- twice.

Head of Department of Corrections comes to the Valley
By George Gale, KXO Radio-- Matthew Cate, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation toured the two State Prisons in Imperial County

California death penalty ban headed towards November ballot
By Rina Palta, KALW News-- This morning at San Francisco’s City Hall, members of the SAFE California Coalition submitted signatures to the Department of Elections to put an initiative on the November ballot that would end the death penalty in California.

Group seeking to repeal California death penalty to turn in signatures
By Torey Van Oot, The Sacramento Bee-- Supporters of a proposed initiative to repeal the death penalty in California plan to begin turning in nearly 800,000 voter signatures today in hopes of qualifying for the November ballot.

Campaign moves closer to putting anti-death penalty measure on Calif. Ballot
By Sam Stanton / McClatchy Newspapers-- Douglas Scott Mickey crept into the rural Placer County home of Eric Lee Hanson and Catherine Blount after midnight on Sept. 29, 1980.

Death penalty to be decided by California voters?
By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times-- Capital punishment opponents announced Thursday they have submitted 800,000 signatures to election authorities to put a measure on the November ballot that would ask voters to replace the death penalty with sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

Bid to end death penalty headed to the ballot
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle-- For the third time in 40 years, Californians will likely vote in November on the death penalty, a practice that has had at least as much impact on the state's politics as on its institutions of crime and punishment.

End death penalty measure likely to be on November ballot
By HOWARD MINTZ, Daily Democrat-- California's voters in November will have their first opportunity in more than three decades to consider whether to scrap the death penalty and clear the largest death row in the nation's history.

Death penalty opponents seek repeal
By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service-- Opponents of capital punishment announced Thursday they have gathered nearly 800,000 signatures for a November ballot initiative that would repeal the death penalty in California and replace it with life in prison without parole.

OPINION:

Editorial: Giving youthful offenders a new chance in life
Ventura County Star -- In the United States, but no other nation on Earth, people can be sentenced to life in prison without parole for crimes they committed when they were under age 18.

Editorial: Balance needed on jail spending vs. rehabilitation
The Sacramento Bee-- Ever since lawmakers approved Gov. Jerry Brown's plan for public safety "realignment," local officials have engaged in a spirited debate about how much money should go to incarceration vs. rehabilitation