By Matthew Cate
Special to The Bee
"Prisons Cut the Rehab Training" (March 8, Page A1) points out the importance of rehabilitating inmates, but missed a key point: Old ways of doing business have not been effective enough in reducing recidivism.
In my previous position as inspector general overseeing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, I found that its substance abuse programs were "a $1 billion failure." We have done a great deal since then to improve outcomes.
Yet, some seem to want to stay stuck in the past with no attention to whether programs worked.
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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
911 caller issues threat to Hemet Police Dept.
HEMET, Calif. (KABC) -- The Hemet Police Department is on heightened alert after another threat against officers.
Authorities said an unidentified person called 911 Friday at about 5:45 p.m. and said a police car in the Hemet San Jacinto area would be blown up in the next 48 hours.
The caller said the attack would be in retaliation for the law enforcement sweep against the Vagos Motorcycle Club earlier in the week. At least 30 members the gang were arrested Wednesday in an interstate crackdown. The gang specializes in methamphetamine sales, identity theft and violence, Riverside County sheriff's Capt. Walter Meyer said.
However even before the sweep, there have been at least three booby trap attacks on anti-gang officers...
To view the full article click on title.
Authorities said an unidentified person called 911 Friday at about 5:45 p.m. and said a police car in the Hemet San Jacinto area would be blown up in the next 48 hours.
The caller said the attack would be in retaliation for the law enforcement sweep against the Vagos Motorcycle Club earlier in the week. At least 30 members the gang were arrested Wednesday in an interstate crackdown. The gang specializes in methamphetamine sales, identity theft and violence, Riverside County sheriff's Capt. Walter Meyer said.
However even before the sweep, there have been at least three booby trap attacks on anti-gang officers...
To view the full article click on title.
Brown picks up union endorsements
By Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown ramped up his attacks on former eBay CEO Meg Whitman on Saturday, saying she has proposed policies to put California "in the loving embrace of Wall Street" while trying to "scapegoat" immigrants and silence working people with what he called an unprecedented effort to "buy the election."
"When things get tough ... do we crush the poor even more, do we scapegoat the immigrants, do we make the enemy the public servants who serve us in all manner of capacity?" he said. "That's the temptation we have to fight. Now, more than ever, a sense of morality ... and the true spirit of democracy has to be the spirit going forward."
The state Attorney General and former two-term governor delivered the broadside during a question-and-answer session seeking the endorsement of the 87,000-member Oakland-based California Nurses Association, one of two key appearances Saturday before labor unions in which he aimed to draw a sharp contrast between his campaign and a corporate executive who would "roll over jobs, roll over people, roll over families." Brown also appeared Saturday in Oakland before a town hall gathering of the Service Employees International Union, one of a dozen across the state in which 2,000 union members participated via teleconference...
To view the full article click on title.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown ramped up his attacks on former eBay CEO Meg Whitman on Saturday, saying she has proposed policies to put California "in the loving embrace of Wall Street" while trying to "scapegoat" immigrants and silence working people with what he called an unprecedented effort to "buy the election."
"When things get tough ... do we crush the poor even more, do we scapegoat the immigrants, do we make the enemy the public servants who serve us in all manner of capacity?" he said. "That's the temptation we have to fight. Now, more than ever, a sense of morality ... and the true spirit of democracy has to be the spirit going forward."
The state Attorney General and former two-term governor delivered the broadside during a question-and-answer session seeking the endorsement of the 87,000-member Oakland-based California Nurses Association, one of two key appearances Saturday before labor unions in which he aimed to draw a sharp contrast between his campaign and a corporate executive who would "roll over jobs, roll over people, roll over families." Brown also appeared Saturday in Oakland before a town hall gathering of the Service Employees International Union, one of a dozen across the state in which 2,000 union members participated via teleconference...
To view the full article click on title.
Ex-ward, staffer settle in case of '04 fight at Chad
By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
STOCKTON - Attorneys reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit sparked by a 2004 videotaped fight at a Stockton area youth prison, according to papers filed at the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
The settlement keeps the brawl between two wards and two staffers at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility from being argued in a civil trial before a jury.
The Jan. 20, 2004, incident ignited calls for reform of the California Youth Authority, since dubbed the state's Division of Juvenile Justice.
In the suit, former Chad ward Narciso Morales accused the state and staffers of assault. Delwin Brown - one of the six Chad staffers - sued Morales in return, claiming emotional distress...
To view the full article click on title.
Record Staff Writer
STOCKTON - Attorneys reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit sparked by a 2004 videotaped fight at a Stockton area youth prison, according to papers filed at the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
The settlement keeps the brawl between two wards and two staffers at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility from being argued in a civil trial before a jury.
The Jan. 20, 2004, incident ignited calls for reform of the California Youth Authority, since dubbed the state's Division of Juvenile Justice.
In the suit, former Chad ward Narciso Morales accused the state and staffers of assault. Delwin Brown - one of the six Chad staffers - sued Morales in return, claiming emotional distress...
To view the full article click on title.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Calif boosts sex offender tracking
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California parole officials said Friday they have ordered increased monitoring of all sex offenders after recent high-profile lapses, most notably in the case of a young woman who was held captive for 18 years by a convicted rapist.
The new policy requires parole agents to more closely track the movements of offenders using GPS-linked ankle bracelets.
It also requires agents to visit high-risk sex offenders at their homes twice a month, up from just one monthly visit.
The policy change memo independently obtained by The Associated Press came after agents were criticized for not discovering a convicted sex offender was allegedly keeping Jaycee Dugard hidden at his Contra Costa County home for 18 years...
To view the full article click on title.
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California parole officials said Friday they have ordered increased monitoring of all sex offenders after recent high-profile lapses, most notably in the case of a young woman who was held captive for 18 years by a convicted rapist.
The new policy requires parole agents to more closely track the movements of offenders using GPS-linked ankle bracelets.
It also requires agents to visit high-risk sex offenders at their homes twice a month, up from just one monthly visit.
The policy change memo independently obtained by The Associated Press came after agents were criticized for not discovering a convicted sex offender was allegedly keeping Jaycee Dugard hidden at his Contra Costa County home for 18 years...
To view the full article click on title.
UC could oversee prison health
By Michael Rothfeld From LA Times
Reporting from Sacramento
The Schwarzenegger administration wants to put the University of California in charge of state prison inmates' medical needs in an overhaul of the troubled corrections healthcare system that could save $12 billion over a decade, officials say.
The arrangement, similar to a centralized system of managed care, would dramatically expand the use of telemedicine, a technique by which patients are seen by doctors in remote locations over a screen with an Internet connection. It would institute electronic record-keeping so providers could access medical information from anywhere.
And the plan, still being refined, could include the purchase or construction of a central hospital near several prison infirmaries for housing and treatment of the chronically sick. That would reduce the state's current -- and expensive -- practice of paying correctional officers overtime to transport and guard inmates at community hospitals around the state...
To view the full article click on title. First seen on Pacovilla.
Reporting from Sacramento
The Schwarzenegger administration wants to put the University of California in charge of state prison inmates' medical needs in an overhaul of the troubled corrections healthcare system that could save $12 billion over a decade, officials say.
The arrangement, similar to a centralized system of managed care, would dramatically expand the use of telemedicine, a technique by which patients are seen by doctors in remote locations over a screen with an Internet connection. It would institute electronic record-keeping so providers could access medical information from anywhere.
And the plan, still being refined, could include the purchase or construction of a central hospital near several prison infirmaries for housing and treatment of the chronically sick. That would reduce the state's current -- and expensive -- practice of paying correctional officers overtime to transport and guard inmates at community hospitals around the state...
To view the full article click on title. First seen on Pacovilla.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
One-year anniversary of deadly OPD shootings
OAKLAND, CA (KGO) -- March 21, 2010 marks the one-year anniversary of the day four Oakland police officers were killed in the line of duty. Many changes have been made in the department since then, and still, there are many more in the works.
It was a sunny afternoon in East Oakland one year ago -- two motorcycle officers on a routine traffic stop approach the driver side door and they have no time to react. Lovelle Mixon, a wanted parolee intent on not going back to prison, leans out of the window and shoots each officer twice.
Mixon then walks over and shoots them in the back, killing Sgt. Mark Dunakin, a member of the motorcycle drill team and father, and Ofc. John Hege, whose organs after his death gave four others a second chance at life...
To view the full article click on title.
It was a sunny afternoon in East Oakland one year ago -- two motorcycle officers on a routine traffic stop approach the driver side door and they have no time to react. Lovelle Mixon, a wanted parolee intent on not going back to prison, leans out of the window and shoots each officer twice.
Mixon then walks over and shoots them in the back, killing Sgt. Mark Dunakin, a member of the motorcycle drill team and father, and Ofc. John Hege, whose organs after his death gave four others a second chance at life...
To view the full article click on title.
Sac Bee Editorial: Furloughs must end: Then what?
Three-day-a-month furloughs of California state workers have run their course as a response to an immediate cash-flow problem. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to end them June 30.
It's about time. Although furloughs were preferable to layoffs in dealing with California's financial crunch last year, they haven't produced cost savings that many anticipated.
As The Bee reported last week, the state paid civil service and California State University workers about 4 percent less in 2009 than in 2008. But many furloughed workers put off vacations, meaning that the state faces deferred costs.
California can't continue with its practice of borrowing from the future. Solving the state's budget woes will require new revenue, and selective and permanent cuts in the size of state government, including payroll.
Read the full article
It's about time. Although furloughs were preferable to layoffs in dealing with California's financial crunch last year, they haven't produced cost savings that many anticipated.
As The Bee reported last week, the state paid civil service and California State University workers about 4 percent less in 2009 than in 2008. But many furloughed workers put off vacations, meaning that the state faces deferred costs.
California can't continue with its practice of borrowing from the future. Solving the state's budget woes will require new revenue, and selective and permanent cuts in the size of state government, including payroll.
Read the full article
Sex offender arrested in Sacramento 18 days after release from prison
After having served more than 20 years in prison, Robert Winston Precobb was on the outside for just 18 days before he found himself back behind bars, once again accused of a sexual offense.
Sacramento County's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team arrested the 55-year-old Precobb on Tuesday and booked him into the Main Jail on suspicion of felony child molestation and failure to register his address with authorities, according to authorities.
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