Hey Cayenne: Kiss My Ass!!

Kiss my ass

this is the sentence that started the latest ’shrew’s rant’…..with Me as her target….

‘The purpose of prison is to punish- Mark Grangetto Denied ‘

Had some interesting happening’s in my blogosphere yesterday and the day before… Check this out and please, I would be more than interested in your opinion- I am requesting comments!!

Cayenne Bird has always had a ‘thing’ ( more like a raging hard on) against me. Boarder line paranoid- she has this notion/fantasy I am on Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety, (TiPS) payroll in order to discourage people from joining her UNION, ( like CA needs another union!!) Her latest “joke on Carol”, appears on the SacBee for all to see. She has so many notions about me, yet the reality is, she knows nothing except that I advocate for prison reform and I do not & will not support her UNION.

Everyone that comes here knows I rarely post my own stuff, I admit I dont really write and certainly not for a living! I post articles that most people wouldnt usually see or read on the prison & justice system. I also share important information so the ‘mainstream’ public will KNOW first hand what the system is REALLY LIKE….I have never once not given proper credit or cited a source. I have never claimed work/stories that are not mine.

Cayenne contacted WordPress and raised holy hell…the post was marked and my blog was flagged/disabled. She stated I stole her work, the article featuring Mark Grangetto and his fight for compassionate release ..I stole HER WORK….she blew up my email, so I can only imagine the onslaught WP received from her.

I obliged, and removed the article. You know, I was under the impression that a story such as Mark Grangetto’s should be be shared- for all to see. So that we can learn and educate others, as well as show support and compassion ( something Bird knows nothing about).

I was wrong…You see this isnt about Mark Grangetto…this is all about Cayenne Bird, F’ing right it is….

She didnt like the disclaimer I included with the article-

*I dont usually post Cayenne’s stuff, but this is one case where I will post news of Mark Grangetto and his mothers fight for compassionate release; look very closely at his photo—>
Mark Grangetto and his mom Nora Weber

is this man a risk to society if released? Why are we still holding him in prison? we all need to ask, because this could be anyone of our loved ones…we still have a LONG ways to go towards prison reform, and as Mary stated, not many of us are fighting anymore….I am angry and ashamed……Carol

So she attacks and emails- anyone and everyone that may listen…and rants and raves about ME…who only wanted to make sure more of public knew what was happening with Mark. So now its my turn….

Here are some interesting tidbits on the self proclaimed ‘Reverend B. Cayenne Bird’ and what she was sending me…I have also included a few comments from others who have had some experiences with the Bird….

Warning about Cayenne Bird and UNION – Chronicles of Abuse, Fraud and Scams


From: Rightor1@aol.com
Subject: They took down Carol Leonard’s post
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 1:38 AM

and so now she knows that she had better never do that again.
That little intro she gave me cost her some points with her blog host WordPress.
I gave her three warnings and she decided to take me on.
She lost fair and square. One thing on AOL, it is necessary to hold the
control button down to do the refresh.
I owe her for about ten years of grief and undermining that she
and Matthew Gray caused us all. They were telling people for
years not to come to the hearings for the Plata case, not to
support the UNION, going online and telling people not to come
when we were desperate for a crowd to get press coverage.
Nothing short of a public apology and taking down that defamatory
libelous post on PTO will change my mind about her.
She is lucky that she lives in Tennessee.
The Examiner likes us to get so many clicks
and they only give us that penny a click after 2500 have accumulated.
I would have a different attitude of it were someone else posting it.
The nerve of that cow.

A new comment on the post #1888 “The purpose of prison is to punish sick people – Grangetto denied” is waiting for your approval
http://prisonmovement.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/the-purpose-of-prison-is-to-punish-sick-people-grangetto-denied/

Author : Toni (IP: 71.142.232.17 , adsl-71-142-232-17.dsl.scrm01.pacbell.net)
E-mail : realsimple778@aol.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=71.142.232.17
Comment:
You are violating a copyright law of the Examiner. Please post the link to the article only. Everyone should care because this is going to be the outcome of all compassionate releases until serious organizing takes place. The UNION families have 30 lawsuits in progress, I don’t see anyone else who has fought this hard and accomplished so much for everyone in a real way, not just talk.

A new comment on the post #1888 “The purpose of prison is to punish sick people – Grangetto denied” is waiting for your approval
http://prisonmovement.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/the-purpose-of-prison-is-to-punish-sick-people-grangetto-denied/

Author : 1union1 (IP: 71.142.232.17 , adsl-71-142-232-17.dsl.scrm01.pacbell.net)
E-mail : uniondatabase@aol.com
URL : http://www.1union1.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=71.142.232.17
Comment:
You are violating copyright laws for the Examiner and journalist B. Cayenne Bird.

Take it down and post the link only. Say thank you to B. Cayenne Bird, the journalist and activist whose group wages these battles on everyone’s behalf instead of introducing and negating it with an insult.

Your remarks are offensive. It is clear that you do not live in California and are not a part of the front line war against medical neglect.

How many rallies, lawsuits, columns and dollars did you spend to help families whose loved ones died in prison?

From: Name Removed
Subject: RE: my reply to a post in CDC- IN Cayenne Bird
To: carol

She’s gone straight to employers trying to get people fired, for what? Whatever she can fabricate in her sick & twisted mind. # 1 is to threatened the employer she will sue them if they don’t fire whomever. She’s threatened to sue I don’t have a clue how many people. I do know I was one. All her rants about the number of lawsuits SHE has brought on behalf of the people she is supposedly trying to help, SHE has not done one!!! Nor has she sued anyone that stands up to her. Not even Matt Gray!!!!

She HATES Matt Gray!!! Why because he won’t acknowledge her or HER UNION. Anyone that mentions Matt Gray ends up on her target list. He’s no different than anyone that spends five minutes listening to her rant or reading what she has written to know she is nutcase. She will concoct some form of conspiracy with anyone that challenges her or not doing what she wants them to do. Heaven forbid anyone that she thinks is taking away a second of her limelight. She’s SICK!!!!

I wouldn’t shut down your blog because of Cayenne going to the blog host. All you have to do is ask and I’d bet you’d end up choking the host’s email account with messages regarding Cayenne and what she has done to them. It wouldn’t take long before they would get the picture she is a nutcase.

Geez!!! Carol, if every newspaper, blog or whatever source of communication shut down because of the bullshit from one crazy the world would be a lot less informed.

The best way to handle Cayenne is to ignore her and let her rant to the wall. Go about your business and whatever you do don’t bite on her rants. That just feeds her into never-ending, time consuming babble of bullshit.

Stand your ground!!!! If the blog host wants to hear from others that have had dealings with her just let us know. I can name many groups, sites, etc that she has been banned from. That should say something to the blog host.

I say again…STAND YOUR GROUND!!!!!

From: Name Removed

Cayenne also has the prison politics issues down like no one else i have ever witnessed. Problem is her strong & dysfunctional personality will alienate anyone and almost everyone who wants to be a part of her group of advocacy. Her flaws and short comings are too severe to get a real UNION group together. So what she has proposed to try and do for years is get 6500 prisoners family members together to form a union.

You get the idea, and of course there is so much more to tell….I took the post/article down- I had to… ALL the emails she sent were read and placed in a file-for now, I am not going to fight with her, but will deal with her in another manner….kinda like this….*smile*

I will, however, continue to try to Help Mark & Nora….despite Cayenne and her BS. The bottom line is…we are all in this together, and petty bullshit like Cayenne is pulling with me, is just petty bullshit.

I know where my head & heart is….
blessed be-
Carol

Email from a state employee - Hold back your tears!

From: Michael Subject: Email from a state employee - Hold back your tears! Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 1:31 PM The attached PDF is an email supposedly from a CDCR employee making it's rounds on the net. I have taken the liberty and time to annotate the piece of fiction both for your education and amusement. Pass it on ... maybe it will fly far and wide!

Behind the Prison RIot in California

Pat Nolan
Vice President of Prison Fellowship
Posted: August 12, 2009 11:38 PM


The bloody riot at California's prison at Chino raged for 4 long hours, injuring 175 inmates, with 55 with such serious wounds that they were rushed to local hospitals. 16 inmates were still hospitalized on Monday. Inmates suffered vicious stab and head wounds as prisoners attacked each other with makeshift weapons including shards of glass and broken water pipes. Sixteen inmates remained hospitalized Monday.
This violence was predicted in 2007 by the former director of the Texas Prisons, Wayne Scott, based on his evaluation of the prison at Chino. "If the prisoners wanted to take over the dorm they could do so in a second and no one would know," Scott reported after he visited Cleveland Hall located in Chino's West Facility, where Saturday's riot occurred. The dorms were built in the 40's during World War II. They house 198 inmates, guarded by only two officers, one of them separated from the living area in an office. The bunks are so close together that there is no way that the officers can observe the entire dorm at once.
Inmates arrive at Chino to be assessed as to the danger they pose to staff. After they are classified, they are bused to one of the 33 prisons in California sprawling corrections system. Inside the prison at Chino the inmates range from low level offenders doing time for check kiting or technical parole violations to murderers and rapists returning to prison after multiple prior stays. Violent prisoners are mixed with vulnerable offenders in dorms where there are no cells and no place to hide. The prison, originally designed to hold 3,000 prisoners is now bulging at almost double that number - 5,900.
Imagine the conditions in which these prisoners are held. The prison is in a hot, desert with the Sun baking the compound and its inhabitants. Packed inside are twice as many inmates as it was designed for. A constant flow of bodies jostle through the narrow aisles between the sea of bunk beds. The inmates hassle over toilets and wash basins because there are only half as many as are needed. With the men stacked like cords of wood, the noise, heat and smell of sweat is overwhelming.
In this roiling cauldron of tension add the twin curses of loneliness and boredom: the inmates spend hour after hour liked rats in a cage with nothing productive to occupy their time. The budget cuts have eliminated the educational and addiction treatment programs that used to fill their hours and give them hope. Then add in the racial tensions that permeate our inner cities and our prisons and you have an extremely volatile mixture.
This was the atmosphere in Chino's Cleveland Dorm when it exploded in violence last weekend. When the officers finally took back control, many inmates had been permanently maimed.
Don't blame the corrections officers for these conditions. They are merely carrying out the policies adopted by the legislature and the governor. Unfortunately, meting out long sentences gets more adoring headlines than appropriating the money to pay for them. Corrections leaders have warned of the dangers of crowded prisons for years, but the legislature and the governor haven't responded with enough money to solve the problem.
Comments on several news sites suggest that we shouldn't care about these inmates. Some writers said that the guards should have held back and let the inmates fight until they had all killed each other. My hunch is these attitudes would be very different if one of their sons or brothers were housed in Chino.
When the government incarcerates an inmate it strips him of all control over his life, even the ability to defend himself. The inmate has no choice over where he sleeps, whom he lives next to, when he gets up, where he goes, where and what he eats. If the lights are out in the shower room - a very dangerous situation - he can't shower somewhere else and can't fix the light. He is prohibited from arming himself. He is vulnerable. When the government takes away all ability of an inmate to defend himself, it assumes responsibility to keep him safe. In many cases, the government has failed in this responsibility. It certainly failed at Chino last weekend.
And some in government don't seem to care. The local Assemblyman for the Chino area, Curt Hagman, commented, "By nature prisons are violent". With a shrug he accepted the stabbings and broken bones, the eyes gouged out and the heads cracked open that occurred over the weekend. Assemblyman Hagman's remark reminds me of a similar callous remark by a Massachusetts Corrections Official who, when asked about prison rape, said, "What can I say. It's prison."
Actually there are prisons where violence is not a problem and where beatings and rapes do not occur. Rather than shrugging off the violence, leaders like Assemblyman Hagman should be supporting corrections leaders who are trying to make prisons safe and restore the programs that allow prisoners to prepare to live contributing and law-abiding lives after they are released.
Prisons can be safe. In Louisiana, Angola State Prison is the largest maximum security prison in the US. Until a few years ago it was also America's most violent prison. The inmates slept with metal plates or phone books on their chests to prevent stabbings to their chests.
Under the leadership of Warden Burl Cain, all that has changed. Angola is now the safest prison in the US. Cain shows the men respect. Although 98% of the inmates will die in that prison, he promises them good food, good medicine, good fun and good praying. I have visited Angola and have seen the difference in the prisoners. They look you in the eye. Most inmates in maximum security avoid your eyes out of fear. At Angola, the inmates are taught how to prepare delicious food for their fellow prisoners by New Orleans chefs. There is a seminary in the prison, training men to become pastors for their fellow prisoners. The inmates have a great time at the annual rodeo, which draws thousands of local residents who get a chance to see that the inmates are human just like them.
As a member of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and also a member of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's prisons, I had the chance to learn from corrections professionals what steps can be taken to make prisons safe rather than descending into violence. Leadership is a critical element in establishing a safe environment for staff, inmates and volunteers. But good leaders have a harder time if the inmates are packed liked sardines in a can. Both commissions identified prison crowding as one of the key factors leading to physical assaults and rapes in prisons.
All of us should care what happens to inmates while they are incarcerated because 95% will serve their time and be released back to our communities. When they are released, what kind of neighbors will they be? The skills the inmates develop to survive violent prisons like Chino make them dangerous when they are released. You can't cage men like animals and then expect them to be model citizens when they return home.
The next time a politician promises to lengthen sentences, ask him if he is willing to support more money to house the increase in inmates caused by the longer sentences. Hold your representatives' feet to the fire. If they aren't willing to spend the dime, they should not be voting for more time.
Here are more resources on the impact of violence in our prisons and ways to stop it:
Prison Violence
Prison Rape
Warden Burl Cain

States Can't Afford Prison System Boom

NEAL PEIRCE

August 12, 2009

In a season of deep deficits and alarming program cuts, why aren't states more seriously focused on reducing their swelling prison populations? The Vera Institute of Justice reports unusual progress — 22 states, pressed by the recession, are reluctantly starting cutbacks. But with a world-leading 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has a long, long way to go. California's case is extreme, but illustrative.

In the mid-1970s, it had about 20,000 offenders behind bars. Today the total is 168,000 inmates — an increase of 740 percent. In 1999, its prison system cost an already massive $4 billion to operate. Now, with more prisoners, more penitentiaries, more guards and more health costs, the budget figure has topped $10 billion — a big contributor to the $26 billion state budget shortfall. And the money is producing more horrors than cures.

After 14 years of lawsuits by inmates alleging cruel and unusual punishment, a three-judge federal court panel on Aug. 4 ordered California to reduce its prisoner rolls by 43,000 inmates over the next two years. The state, the judges wrote shortly before a major riot at a prison in Chino, has created a "criminogenic" system that pushes prisoners and parolees to more crimes through "appalling," "horrific" prison conditions:

"Some institutions have populations approaching 300 percent of their intended capacity. In these overcrowded conditions, inmate-on-inmate violence is almost impossible to prevent, infectious diseases spread more easily, and lockdowns are sometimes the only means by which to maintain control. In short, California's prisons are bursting at the seams and are impossible to manage."

Mentally ill inmates are left without access to health care, said the judges, noting that in the past four years "a California inmate was dying needlessly every six or seven days." California's fiscal crisis has already led Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to agree to cut $1.2 billion from the prison budget.

They haven't agreed how, though discussion includes reducing prison rolls by up to 37,000 through early releases and revised parole practices. Already, California's increasingly ideological Republicans are opposed. Assembly Leader Sam Blakeslee talks darkly of "letting out some very dangerous criminals onto our streets and into our neighborhoods."

And it isn't just Republicans who resist significant reform — it's California's powerful "prison-industrial complex." Last autumn, the reformist Drug Policy Alliance Network and its allies put a Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act on the ballot.

Supported by a wide range of treatment officials and former high-ranking corrections officials, it focused on non-prison treatment for nonviolent drug offenders plus "good time" credits for inmates and fewer arrests of parolees for technical violations. California's high recidivism rates would be curbed and billions in new prison construction forestalled

But California's prison guards union (with 2,000-plus members earning more than $100,000 a year) didn't like the idea of fewer inmates (and jobs). So with other pro-prison forces, it mounted a $3.5 million television campaign in opposition. California's political establishment fell into line, including Schwarzenegger and former governors such as present Attorney General Jerry Brown (a likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate). The measure lost resoundingly.

In contrast to California's folly, New York state has actually reduced its prison rolls by 10,000 in the past decade. How? By relying heavily on the types of alternative treatment for nonviolent offenders that California spurns. And just this year, New York finally repealed the infamous "Rockefeller drug laws" that helped swell its prisons with minor offenders serving long terms.

Now California reformers are pushing a "People's Budget Fix" formula they say would save at least $12 billion over the next five years. It includes a claimed $5.5 billion savings through community-based addiction treatment for minor drug offenses. Another $1 billion a year could be saved by limiting three-strikes penalties to violent crimes (not just shoplifting or simple drug possession).

Such rational reforms — increasingly echoed in states nationally as the fiscal grinder minces budgets — were needed long before the current recession. They'll be important long afterward. When, as a society, we take these rational steps, we'll not just save dollars. We'll also start to spare the horrendous human waste and harm to families of knee-jerk law-and-orderism that can't discern between deep and serious criminal behavior and the missteps, usually in youthful years, that most societies deal with far more calmly — and effectively.

• Neal Peirce is a syndicated writer in Washington.

Bloody aftermath of prison riot

See Photos: Chino Valley Now blog
CHINO - Among the traces of mayhem from the weekend's violent prison riot, the blood on rags and mattresses at the California Institution for Men spoke volumes Tuesday.

The acrid stench of burned wood and scorched building materials still hung in the air at the prison on Tuesday when reporters were able to tour Reception Center West, where the racially divided riot on Saturday night injured 175 prisoners.

Six of the center's eight long wooden dorm buildings, that each house about 200 inmates and encircle a sprawling recreation yard, are uninhabitable after extensive damage caused by the melee.

"They literally tore the buildings apart," said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.

The entire reception center, which houses about 1,300 incoming prisoners for an evaluation period of about 45 days, is empty, officials said.

Hundreds of items of prisoner belongings lay strewn throughout the dorm area, a scene reminiscent of tornado damage footage from the Midwest. A mattress lying among tossed belongings had words written in large letters: "CIM RCW (Reception Center West) 8-8-09 History!"

Swastikas were scrawled across one burned-out dorm, street gang graffiti tags lined the wall of another, and gaping holes could be seen in the roof and walls of the burned unit. Shoes and orange jumpsuits, even prisoner information cards with photos on them, lay everywhere.

Corrections officers Tuesday made a line side-by-side to comb through the recreation yard in search of additional weapons. Many makeshift weapons could be seen surrounding the damaged dorms.

The weapons were pieces broken from bed frames, glass, and anything potentially harmful that inmates could get their hands on, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, CIM spokesman. Local fire officials who responded to the incident said there were numerous stabbings, and multiple lacerations and bruised inmates.

Officials said about 10 inmates still were being treated at local hospitals for serious injuries.

The inmates at Reception Center West were housed in units that according to law are not racially segregated, though each double-bunk inside the dorms was assigned to two inmates by race. The dorms had been on lockdown since Thursday after prison officials got wind of possible impending violence at the prison.

The riot began at around 8:20 p.m. - a time when some inmates where being fed and the majority were locked away inside their dorms. Rioters who began fighting in their dorms eventually forced their way out of the locked buildings, prompting dorm guards to flee for safety and to regroup, said Hargrove.

The riot was quelled after four hours when corrections officers used tear gas and pepper spray to put down the uprising, Hargrove said. The reception center was finally secured at around 7 a.m. on Sunday. A Department of Corrections investigation into the causes of the riot is ongoing.

"Hopefully the (ringleaders) will be prosecuted and get additional time and be housed in a more appropriate security level," he said.

Thornton said about 1,155 inmates from Reception Center West were sent to other prisons including 735 sent to a separate housing unit at the nearby Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility.

Critics of CIM infrastructure, including Chino Valley city officials, have said they were not surprised by the riot considering the deteriorating and overcrowded conditions at CIM. Thornton said overcrowding did not lead to the riot, though she said it did hamper efforts to quell the incident.

"There were about 1,300 inmates in (RCW), and it's a lot easier to deal with half that amount," Thornton said. "Overcrowding didn't cause the incident but it's no secret that overcrowded inmates impacts every single thing we do."

The sides of the 1940s-era dorms are made of block and the roofs are made of wood. There is no sprinkler system inside the buildings. CIM holds 5,900 men but was designed for 3,160.

Prison guards try to incite riots to keep their jobs

Nevada State Prison, is one of the nation’s oldest prisons, dating from 1862.


Editor’s note: The Bay View has been hearing from prisoners around the country that guards, fearing the loss of their jobs, are enraged by budget cuts and plans to release prisoners and close prisons. In some cases they are intensifying their harassment and torture of prisoners and in others they are trying to incite them to riot. That may be a factor in the Chino State Prison “race riot” and fire on Sunday, Aug. 9, just outside Los Angeles that injured more than 250 prisoners, destroyed one dorm and made most of the others uninhabitable. The Nevada prisons are generally considered some of the worst in the country. Here’s what’s happening there:

by Raymond Watison

Prisoners at Nevada State Prison are pleading for help. We truly believe that the administration is intentionally inflaming conflict. Not only are tensions between inmates rising, but those between correctional officers and inmates are at an all-time high.

Most importantly, we are starting to become angry because of an ugly rumor that is circulating in this institution. Word is we are deliberately being used for political gain due to the budget cuts.

We are starting to believe that we are, against our own will, being pushed to the edge so that the administration can make their case for more funds.

I have no choice but to reach out with this letter because other attempts to find assistance have been spoiled by what we call abuse of authority. The prison administration is abusing the disciplinary system that is designed for the safety and security of inmates’ rights.

The administration is trying to quiet our questions about their aggressive behavior. Not only the correctional officers but the administrators too are participants.

There is a grievance complaint system in place that we can no longer trust. This administration has given correctional officers the authority to either approve or deny inmate rights by doing away with the grievance procedure and to punish us for exercising our rights.

This is causing correctional officers to become very aggressive toward inmates. They refuse to obey their own rules and regulations without fear of consequences from any of the administrators.

We here at Nevada State Prison, like so many other prisoners around the globe, learn among ourselves that we are brothers in a never ending struggle. Seeking not to cause violence, we are trying hard to remain brothers because we recognize the administration’s motives in pushing us to cause destruction.

So I ask – no, I beg – you to intervene. You are our only hope. Is there any help for a widow’s son?
How you can help

Nevada State Prison is in Carson City, the state capital. Call, email, fax or write a letter today to Nevada Corrections Director Howard Skolnik, Nevada Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 7011, Carson City, NV 89702, phone (775) 887-3216, fax (775) 887-3253, email hskolnik@doc.nv.gov. He has responded before to pressure, and he will again.

Calls directly to the prison may also help. Call Warden Gregory Smith at (775) 882-8588.

Send our brother some love and light: Raymond Watison, 1031835, Nevada State Prison, P.O. Box 607, Carson City NV 89702.

The big prison duck

California incarcerates 170,000 people in facilities designed for less than half that number.

Guardian Editorial

EDITORIAL A panel of federal judges has ordered the release of 44,000 California prisoners, sending politicians of both parties scrambling for cover and throwing a crucial issue into the heart of the Democratic campaign for governor.

And so far, both major candidates are ducking, badly.

The state prison system is a mess; any sane person knows that. California incarcerates 170,000 people in facilities designed for less than half that number. Sick inmates don't get to see doctors; mentally ill or drug-addicted inmates often get no treatment at all. It's so bad that a federal monitor appointed by the courts has demanded that the state spend $8 billion building new medical facilities for prisoners.

Meanwhile, inmates are crowded into makeshift bunks in gymnasiums and dayrooms. The few modest rehabilitative programs California offers are stretched so thin that many inmates get no job training or violence-prevention skills at all. The parole system is overburdened and focuses far too heavily on people with minor, nonviolent offenses.

And politicians wonder why the state has a recidivism rate of 70 percent.

The solutions aren't rocket science, either. There's a clear reason why incarceration rates have jumped so high: harsh sentencing laws, passed by the Legislature and the voters with no concern for the costs of implementation. The state's three-strikes law is so draconian that thousands of people are serving 25 years to life for nonviolent felonies that typically would carry a sentence of a few years. So the first thing the Legislature and the governor need to do is change the sentencing laws (and give back discretion to judges).

Then there's a drug problem. California prisons are packed with people serving sentences for drug possession — and most of these people, and society in general, would be better served, at less than half the cost, with treatment programs.

And frankly it wouldn't be hard to release 44,000 inmates without any new threats to public safety. The vast majority of the inmates in California prisons are going to be released at some point anyway; in fact, the state now releases about 10,000 people a month. The early releases envisioned by the federal courts could simply mean allowing people who have served, say, three years of a four-year sentence to leave prison and shift to the custody of the parole system a few months earlier than scheduled. Many of those people are nonviolent offenders, particularly drug offenders.

With the state in a catastrophic fiscal condition, the cost of corrections ought to be a huge issue for the candidates for governor, particularly the Democrats. Mayor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Jerry Brown ought to be promoting a plan that would end the insanity of "three strikes," offer alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders and drug addicts, and allow early releases to bring down the current unsustainable incarcerated population.

So what are these candidates, supposedly alternatives to the Republican agenda, saying?

Here's Brown, quoted in the Los Angeles Times: "Government is established to protect the safety and security of its citizens, and these wholesale releases are totally incompatible with that." Where's Newsom? We called his campaign press office for comment, and haven't heard back.

This is unacceptable.

It's typical for Republicans to use scare tactics and talk about crime as a cheap way to win votes. But Newsom and Brown ought to know better. This is no time for demagoguery — the prison crisis is serious, festering, and a major factor in the state's financial mess. If the two leading Democrats can't come up with honest answers, it's time for someone else to enter the race. *

Tuesday August 11, 2009

A crooked sheriff is off to prison

Many, no doubt, will view the sentencing of Charlie Morris as the culmination of a great tragedy. A three-term sheriff being packed off to prison, they’ll say, is profoundly embarrassing for Okaloosa County. It brings shame upon the Sheriff’s Office. It is ruinous for his family.

Chin up, folks. The Morris mess is bad news all around, but it’s not a tragedy.

It’s not a tragedy when a crooked sheriff is removed from office and taken off the streets.

It’s not a tragedy when the bleeding of taxpayers’ money in a sleazy kickback scheme is finally stopped.

It’s not a tragedy when voters confront the abuse and lawlessness that reigned in a local government agency and swear they won’t let it happen again.

It’s not a tragedy when a community’s residents, even its youngest, see that a community’s leaders, even its most powerful, will be punished for breaking the law.

From those perspectives, Tuesday’s sentencing — indeed, the entire long, graceless fall of Charlie Morris, from his Feb. 27 arrest in Las Vegas onward — is a positive development. It is the righting of several years’ worth of wrongs.

Exactly how many years is unclear. But the modest 71-month sentence handed down in federal court roughly parallels the length of time Mr. Morris handed out ridiculously huge “performance bonuses” and then pocketed some of the cash as kickbacks. He is thought to have run this racket for five or six years.

Thus, the sentence provides a kind of closure.

Not everyone will see it that way. For some, Tuesday’s sentencing will be followed only by more grief.

Among the aggrieved, of course, will be the former Sheriff’s Office paper-pushers Mr. Morris is taking down with him. The latest count is four ex-administrators and, apparently, a fifth person the sheriff installed in a mostly imaginary “job.” They’re facing charges and possible jail time of their own.

There are also the Sheriff’s Office employees who accepted bonuses from Mr. Morris but who aren’t being charged. They’re still at work. If they’re unhappy with the way things have turned out, who can blame them? Some citizens now view them with suspicion for their roles, however innocent, in the kickback machine. And the Morris money spigot has been turned off.

As for members of the ex-sheriff’s family, our hearts and prayers are with them. But their problems with Charlie didn’t begin with Tuesday’s sentencing or even with his February arrest. Before the Sheriff’s Office scandal broke, according to investigators, Charlie Morris had a romantic relationship with a woman who wasn’t his wife. He gave her gifts bought with taxpayers’ money. He got her a high-paying, taxpayer-funded job with the county that didn’t require any real work.

Evidently, Mr. Morris’ commitment to his marriage was no firmer than his commitment to voters who had placed their trust in him.

Mr. Morris pleaded guilty to six federal charges back in May and could have been sentenced to 85 years. A pre-sentencing report recommended five to six. U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier gave him five years, 11 months, and told him to pay $212,000 in restitution.

Sure, we would rather have seen Mr. Morris receive a sentence closer to the max. But he still faces trial on state charges. More years may be added.

Today we’ll settle for the 71-month term. At least, for the duration, it’ll keep him away from money he could squander, voters he could hornswoggle, an office he could disgrace and taxpayers he could take to the cleaners. We hope he serves every day of it.

Revisiting Three-Strikes Laws

The pendulum is swinging on mass incarceration, and the notorious and ineffective three-strikes laws could fall across the country in the months and years ahead. States are broke, and they're looking at their corrections budgets (see the absurd spending numbers in yesterday's post) and realizing that locking people up for life for smoking crack might not have been the best idea.

Prosecutors in Washington State are bringing clemency petitions for people who served a decade or more under three-strikes laws and have never committed a violent crime. At least 100 people were sentenced to life without parole in the 1990s in Washington for three nonviolent crimes.

The L.A. Times reports today on the unusual steps being taken by Washington prosecutors, and highlights the case of Stevan Dozier (above), who was the first non-violent lifer in the nation granted clemency when he was freed in May.Today, Dozier is married and works at a Seattle nonprofit.

Twenty-four states still have three-strikes laws, despite a move toward judicial discretion over the last decade. These laws are applied more cautiously now than they were during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, but they need to be fully erased to guarantee that defendants are sentenced based on their crime and not outdated legislation.

Earlier this year, Washington three-strikes lifer Al-Kareem Shadeed wrote on Washblog about his life sentence for three street robberies, all without weapons.

Hopefully, one day I can be a contributor to society and make a difference in someone's life. Hopefully, someday I wall be able to see my mother and bothers and sisters again and hold them in my arms. My life s salvageable! I can make a difference. People always speak of accountability. Well, hold me accountable. I can and will be a productive contributor to society, and no longer will such unlawful behavior be magnified and reflected by me again. You can trust in that!

The state's board of pardons and parole has recommended freeing Shadeed.

Devastation marks scene of California prison riot

CHINO, Calif. — Blood-soaked mattresses, singed bedding and abandoned medical supplies littered the campus of a Southern California prison Tuesday, a testament to the mayhem and violence of a weekend riot that shut down part of the institution and injured about 175 inmates, some critically.

Prison officials staged a tour of the devastation at the California Institution for Men in Chino to reveal the extent of the racially motivated riot that broke out Saturday evening and raged for four hours before guards could bring it under control.

Seven of the eight units in the prison's Reception Center West, one of several housing areas, were left uninhabitable, and more than 1,100 inmates have been moved to other facilities. One of the dorms was completely gutted by flames.

Eleven inmates remained hospitalized Tuesday, state prisons spokesman Terry Thornton said.

The area where the riot broke out was eerily empty and silent, with only a skeleton staff of corrections officers staffing checkpoints. A half-dozen officers scanned the exercise yard with metal detectors, searching for homemade weapons that inmates might have buried.

The riot began in a dorm during dinner hour and quickly spread, temporarily overwhelming staff, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, a prison spokesman.

Prisoners pried heavy metal grates from windows to escape and scrambled up and over the dorm roofs to get around 10-foot-tall hurricane fencing intended to keep them from the main exercise yard. The fence was installed after a previous riot in 2006.

"Hundreds were out of the units. Once they began rioting and breaking out, once they left, they created a situation where ... telling them to remain in the dorms was no longer in effect," Hargrove said. "They had decided not to follow that rule."

The prison was built in 1941 to house 3,000 inmates but held 5,900 men at the time of the riot. Each dorm holds 198 inmates and is assigned two guards, with a third guard who roams between every two dorms.

The prison serves as a reception and triage center for inmates from the four-counties around Los Angeles. About 95 percent of the prisoners are parole violators. Most are released or reassigned to another prison within 90 days, with exceptions for those who require special protection, such as sexual predators and gang dropouts.

The prison had been on a modified lockdown since Thursday after receiving reports that inmates were planning some violence, but none of the information indicated the problem would be in Reception Center West, Hargrove said.

Even in lockdown, the medium-security inmates can mingle freely in their dorms, where they are separated by race in two-man bunks. That puts men of different races in bunks next to each other, with just a few feet between them.

Outside the dorms, a narrow strip of grass separating the long, barracks-style housing units and an asphalt entrance area was still littered with debris. The chaotic tapestry featured discarded alcohol swabs, plastic handcuffs and latex medical gloves, filthy, bloodstained bedding and piles of abandoned clothes.

Two emergency plastic stretchers sat where they were left by paramedics who had treated inmates. One metal bunk had been ripped from its bolts and thrown into the yard.

An inmate had scrawled "8-08-09 HISTORY" on one mattress in black ink to mark the date of the riot.

Dominoes, cards, religious books, packs of crushed instant noodles and dozens of inmate identification cards fluttered in a warm breeze that still smelled of smoke next to the dorm gutted by fire.

Nearly every window was shattered inside the dorms that didn't burn. In one, the metal legs of a dismantled bunk had been used to pry large pieces of wood from the walls to use as weapons. Gang graffiti covered the beams and walls.

Amid the chaos, were signs of personal lives interrupted.

A black-and-white photo from an ultrasound of a fetus — age 21 weeks — lay at the foot of a bunk draped with a mattress coated in dried blood.

Next to bunk No. 193, a prisoner had left behind reminders of life on the outside: a magazine photo of a fawn standing in a snowy forest, pinned next to a religious card labeled "Path to Salvation."

By another bunk, an inmate had pinned a calendar with the days of August crossed out until the date of the riot.

Sterling on Justice & Drugs: Does the government have a duty to tell the truth?

Sterling on Justice & Drugs: Does the government have a duty to tell the truth?

Prevention Not Punishment: Death row inmate takes plea and life in prison

Prevention Not Punishment: Death row inmate takes plea and life in prison

Critical Resistance fights to abolish prisons

Critical Resistance fights to abolish prisons
By Gloria Rubac
Oakland, Calif.

Published Oct 10, 2008 11:28 PM
At a massive, well-organized and politically radical conference
called CR10, some 3,000 prison abolitionists from coast to coast
gathered in Oakland, Calif., for three days of reflecting,
strategizing, collaborating and organizing around abolishing the
prison-industrial complex (PIC).

Soffiyah Elijah listens as Green
Party's presidential candidate
Cynthia McKinney speaks on
Cointelpro.
WW photos: Gloria Rubac
The conference was held on the 10th anniversary of the founding of
Critical Resistance, an organization formed in 1998 to launch a
movement to eliminate prisons, detention, policing and surveillance
used by the PIC to "solve" problems brought on by poverty, racism,
homelessness and sex and gender oppression.

CR10 included hundreds of workshops, a film series, performances,
meetings, strategy sessions, regional meetings and cultural
expressions from dance to drama, from spoken word to drumming.

The atmosphere in the opening plenary session was electric as it
opened with Native drumming. Then the Welfare Poets brought the house
down with their sharp-edged hip-hop dedicated to Hassan Shakur,
unjustly executed in Texas in 2006. From San Francisco 8 member Hank
Jones to former political prisoner Linda Evans to INCITE! Women of
Color Against Violence leader Andrea Smith to Palestinian- American
poet and activist Suheir Hammad, the speakers set the high political
tone for the weekend.

Second from left, Pam Africa, fourth
from left, Ramona Africa.
A standing ovation followed Miss Major, an elder, African American,
formerly incarcerated transgender activist of 35 years, who spoke of
her love and concern and activism for transgender women of color
locked in U.S. prisons.

The evening ended with Angela Davis igniting the crowd when she
called for an end to prisons in the United States. She was swarmed
afterward, particularly by youth of color who wanted photos and
autographs from a hero that they had read about and admired and were
now meeting in person.

During the entire conference the California Prison Focus and the
Prison Activist Resource Center had thousands of letters from
prisoners and a space where participants would read, answer and
process prisoners' mail.

A striking character of the conference was the large number of youth,
people of color and lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people who not only
attended CR10 in large numbers but who led and participated in
workshops, plenary sessions, security and entertainment.

At a workshop called "Live from Death Row," Barbara Becnel mesmerized
the large crowd by telling her story of friendship with California
death row prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams until she witnessed his
execution in 2005. She has just released a documentary on Williams
entitled "TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005."

A death row prisoner from San Quentin called in live via telephone to
the workshop and spoke to the crowd.

Family members, journalists and activists involved in the Jena Six
case did a workshop organized by Jesse Muhammad with the Final Call
newspaper.

The Jericho Movement, which is holding activities at the United
Nations in New York the weekend of October 10-12, ran a workshop on
political prisoners along with the National Boricua Human Rights
Network.

Actors read parts from a new and graphic drama called "Lucasville:
the Untold Story of a Prison Uprising," which exposed how the state
of Ohio framed up five innocent men and put them on death row after a
1993 prison uprising.

Ramona Africa of the Move Organization and Pam Africa of
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal held a
workshop on Abu-Jamal. They later held a community meeting at the New
Black World, a West Oakland social club, which featured Chairman Fred
Hampton Jr. of the Prisoners of Consciousness Committee and Julia
Wright, journalist, activist and daughter of author Richard Wright,
as well as music by the Welfare Poets.

There were several workshops on long-term isolation in prison, which
is usually referred to with expressions like solitary confinement,
Special Housing Units, supermaximum prisons, and supersegregation by
different departments of correction but which the men and women who
have to live under these conditions call "torture."

From the Angola 3 to the San Francisco 8, from Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Leonard Peltier to the Puerto Rican independentistas, political
prisoners were discussed all throughout the conference. A taped
message from political prisoner Sundiata Acoli, driven underground by
Cointelpro and one of the three Black Liberation Army members
ambushed by state police on the New Jersey turnpike in 1973, was part
of the closing plenary.

In a workshop on Cointelpro, Green Party presidential candidate
Cynthia McKinney told the standing-room- only crowd, "Our government
has been wrong since the founding of our country. ... This government
would stoop to the lowest level possible to achieve their goals.
Through Cointelpro, a heinous U.S. government program, they would
destroy families by locking people up, they would kill, they would
incarcerate. They do this with the help of the corporations and the
media, from the New York Times to the New Orleans Times Picayune.
This needs an open hearing!"

The three days invigorated, educated and inspired the thousands of
activists attending to carry on the struggle from county jails, to
ICE detention centers, to state and federal and military prisons.

As Ramona Africa told a crowd: "Do whatever you can for Mumia and for
all prisoners. Victory is never giving in. We must think strong and
be strong. We will win!"

Prop. 5 calls for expanding drug-crime rehabilitation

Prop. 5 calls for expanding drug-crime rehabilitation


By Don Thompson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

October 11, 2008

SACRAMENTO – Eight years ago, 61 percent of California voters passed a novel initiative requiring treatment instead of jail or prison for tens of thousands of drug offenders.



Supporters of that initiative are back with a follow-up measure that would require even greater leniency.
Billionaire investor and liberal activist George Soros is helping fund Proposition 5 on the Nov. 4 ballot. The measure would prohibit sending paroled drug offenders back to prison for parole violations unless they commit a new felony, have a violent or serious record or are considered high risk by prison officials.

The initiative would shorten parole for most drug and property crimes, while lengthening it for violent and serious felons. It also would require the state to put hundreds of millions of dollars into treatment and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent drug offenders and parolees.

To opponents, it's another step down a dangerous path that fails to make drug users accountable for their actions and lets drug dealers off the hook. Without the threat of jail or prison time, offenders won't get serious about true rehabilitation, opponents contend.

At issue:
Proposition 5
Requires treatment instead of prison or jail for most drug offenders, including those on parole or probation. Costs $610 million through mid-2010 followed by annual increases. Prohibits sending drug offenders back to prison for parole violations unless they commit a new felony, have a violent or serious record or are considered high risk by prison officials.

Pro: Rehabilitation is more effective than jail for getting nonviolent offenders off drugs. Relieves prison overcrowding and saves the state money.

Con: Fails to make drug users accountable for their actions and lets drug dealers off the hook. Without the threat of jail or prison time, offenders won't get serious about rehabilitation.


Actor Martin Sheen, whose son Charlie nearly died of a drug overdose in 1998 but received court-ordered rehabilitation, is the initiative's most prominent opponent.

Sheen argues that it would discourage drug treatment by steering most addicts away from jail, even if they keep using drugs or refuse to attend rehabilitation programs.

“You have to be given a stern proposition. The judge will say to you, 'You're either facing jail or you're facing rehab.' That's the program that we've found to work,” Sheen said in a telephone interview.

The star of “The West Wing” also opposed Proposition 36, the 2000 initiative that required treatment for nonviolent first-and second-time drug offenders.

Supporters of that initiative developed Proposition 5 after seeing money for drug rehabilitation programs dwindle, from $145 million in the 2006-07 fiscal year to $108 million this year.

Last year, a University of California Los Angeles study recommended that the state increase money for Proposition 36 programs to about $228 million a year.

Nearly 20 percent of California's 171,000 inmates are imprisoned for drug offenses, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“This is about treatment, and it's about breaking cycles of crime that are driven by a completely treatable condition,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy California director of the Drug Policy Alliance Network and a campaign manager for Yes on 5. “The fact that we provide so little treatment is unconscionable.”

Penny Sheridan of Sacramento has first-hand experience with rehabilitation programs and believes Proposition 5 is another step toward helping addicts. She cycled through county jail and prison for eight years because of a methamphetamine addiction she developed as a teenager.

The last time she tested positive for drugs, her parole officer sent her to inpatient rehabilitation for 90 days instead of back to prison. That was two years ago. Now she is off parole, has a steady job and is going back to college.

“I'm not a liability to society anymore,” said Sheridan, 34.

Proposition 5 would not come without a price to California taxpayers if voters approve it.

The initiative would trigger $610 million in new state spending for treatment through mid-2010, followed by annual increases that would track the state's population growth and cost of living. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office projected that state spending required by the measure eventually could top $1 billion a year.

Supporters say the cost would be offset by reducing the prison population 17 percent over four years because more drug offenders and parolees would be sent to diversion programs. The analysis says that could save $1 billion in annual prison costs and $2.5 billion for new prisons.

Former state corrections secretary Jeanne Woodford supports the initiative as a responsible way to ease prison crowding. At its core, the debate is over finding a balance between incarceration and treatment, she said.

Law enforcement officials say the initiative dangerously broadens diversion programs established under Proposition 36.

For example, those convicted of property crimes such as fraud, embezzlement, and auto and identity theft could get treatment instead of jail if they convince a judge that their crimes were related to drug use.

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, a former drug court judge who is now president of the state prosecutors' association, calls it the “drugs made me do it” defense.

Additionally, parole would be shortened from three years to six months for nonviolent drug or drug-related property offenders, including dealers caught with up to $50,000 worth of methamphetamine. Marijuana possession would be reduced from a misdemeanor to an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. Inmates could earn more time off their sentences by completing treatment programs.

Opponents also object that Proposition 5 would give drug users five tries at rehabilitation programs before they could be jailed, up from three in Proposition 36.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, president of the state chiefs' association, said the initiative amounts to a “drug dealers' bill of rights.”

Some former drug addicts aren't convinced the proposition would work.

Wesley Williams Jr. of Culver City said he never would have kicked a cocaine habit that cost him his home, his family and his law career had a Los Angeles judge not sent him to jail for a week for flunking out of a rehabilitation program.

“With addicts, unless there are consequences to their actions, they are going to continue to use,” said Williams, 55, now a business owner.

Report: 1 in 3 inmates will offend again

Back to web version Saturday, Oct 11, 2008

Report: 1 in 3 inmates will offend again

The Associated Press
A report to Kentucky lawmakers says one in three state prison inmates
will be back behind bars within two years.

The Lexington Herald-Leader said a report requested last year by the
legislature' s Program Review and Investigations Committee was
presented Thursday.

The committee wanted an examination of programs that teach prison
inmates how to find jobs and housing after their release.

The report also said the re-entry programs vary widely from prison to
prison and are nonexistent for state inmates held in county jails,
where about one-third of them are housed.

The report was prepared by the Legislative Research Commission.

Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky .com

Death penalty cases piling up

Death penalty cases piling up
Chief justice says it's time to open review process to lower courts.
By Crystal Carreon - ccarreon@sacbee. com
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, January 11, 2008
Despite legal challenges to the death penalty, California's chief justice on Thursday pressed ahead with plans to alter how courts will vet the largest number of capital cases in the country.
Citing decades-long appeals and a backlog that threatens to overwhelm the high court, Chief Justice Ronald George told state commissioners that now is the time to relinquish the state Supreme Court's exclusive review of death penalty cases and open the process to the lower courts.
George, who addressed the Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice at a Capitol hearing, proposes amending the state Constitution to help fix a process he calls "dysfunctional. " He hopes to have the proposal on the 2008 general ballot or to find a legislator to sponsor the measure.
"The existing system for handing capital appeals in California is dysfunctional and needs reform," the chief justice told commissioners. "…(T)he current system is not functioning effectively. "
But skeptics suggested that spreading out capital cases to the appellate courts could add another layer to an already notoriously slow appeals process. A law professor at Thursday's hearing likened George's proposal to just "rearranging furniture."
With a surge in the death row population over the years – currently more than 660 inmates are awaiting execution – George told commissioners that death penalty reviews alone consume about 20 percent to 25 percent of the high court's caseload, up from about 5 percent to 10 percent about two decades ago.
He pointed out that the number of Supreme Court justices – seven – has remained the same since 1879, while there are 105 state Court of Appeal justices.
George said the state Supreme Court – even if it devoted itself exclusively to capital cases – would take about three to four years to chip away and process the existing backlog. About 400 death penalty appeals are pending in the Supreme Court.
He used words such as "peril," "critical" and "disadvantage" to describe how the high court's responsibility to litigate and set case law in crucial civil and criminal matters could be compromised by the massive death penalty caseload.
"If the Supreme Court cannot fulfill that role, California – its people, its government, its economy, its public safety – all would suffer," George said.
But Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Marshall later told commissioners that the proposal could, in effect, just add another tier of lengthy legal review.
"I understand the impetus," the professor said. "But, on some level, they are rearranging the furniture … ."
Under the current system, after a death sentence is handed down, an automatic appeal process begins in the state Supreme Court. If the court denies all relief, as it almost always does, the case then moves to the federal system.
The appeal then goes to the U.S. Supreme Court with a request for review. The constitutional case, known as "habeas corpus," goes to federal district court, then the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, before making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Under the proposal, George said the high court will continue to be "hands-on" and will ultimately review the lower court's opinion. He recommended sending 30 capital cases to the lower courts initially.
Marshall, who had been influential in commuting death sentences in Illinois, said the state's unprecedented backlog stems from its breadth of more than 30 death penalty offenses, a range of special circumstances that include killing an officer in the line of duty to lying in wait.
Marshall proposed narrowing the scope of death penalty cases to only the "worst of the worst." That, he said, would greatly diminish the number of inmates at San Quentin's death row.
Earlier versions of capital punishment in California had fewer special circumstances, but voters in 1978 changed that, according to Sacramento attorney Donald H. Heller, who drafted the state's death penalty initiative.
"It's something the people wanted," Heller said. "The initiative was very broad in its scope."
Heller said at the time, he believed the Supreme Court's careful review of death penalty appeals would take about 10 years – not the 17 1/2-year average cited by legal scholars, the slowest process in the country.
He called George's proposal reasonable, saying it would not undermine rights to due process and fair hearings. Although Heller has since become a critic of capital punishment, he said if the state is to continue its practice, it needs to diminish the backlog.
"If you believe in the law, then you need to take into account what is clearly an unreasonable delay between sentence of death and a final decision of the California Supreme Court," he said after the hearing. "It's a process fraught with delay because no one wants to make a decision that could result in the death of an innocent person."
For the mother of Terri Lynn Winchell, a Lodi teen murdered in 1981, the time afforded to inmates is a luxury.
"It just wears you out; you want justice," said Barbara Christian, whose daughter's body was found in a vineyard 27 years ago this week. "Knowing that he's alive and well just keeps the pain alive."
Jurors convicted Michael Angelo Morales of the murder in 1983, and his execution was to be carried out in February 2006 before a last-minute legal challenge plucked Morales from the death chamber. The state's death penalty has been in limbo since then, pending legal challenges.
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice will hold two more public hearings on the death penalty over the next two months. The commission was created by the state Senate to examine what leads to wrongful convictions.

http://www.sacbee. com/111/story/ 626308.html

Inmates have a right to protest at Solano?

Inmates exercising rights
Strike follows change in CSP, Solano yard scheduling
By Kimberly K. Fu/The Reporter

An estimated 2,200 inmates at California State Prison, Solano are exercising their right to peaceful protest and sitting out work-related and other duties...The strike, initiated Monday...reportedly is linked to a recent change in yard scheduling.

"They're not happy about it, but at least they're doing something nonviolent in protest," said Lt. Tim Wamble, prison spokesman. "We're hoping and trying to get it to end any minute."

At issue is inmate access to the outdoors. At present, anywhere from 800 to 1,000 inmates can be on the yard at one time. The numbers pose a safety risk for both inmates and staff...prison officials implemented a plan which has no more than 600 inmates on the yard at one time...Inmates, however, apparently disagree and, since Monday, have refused to attend scheduled classes and programs or go to work.(TheReporter. com)


Gee. Paco could have sworn inmates are prohibited from demonstrations, strikes and protests. Now, according to the idiots at CSP Solano, inmates have a right to disrupt operations?

"They're not happy...at least they are doing something non-violent. ..we're hoping and trying to get it to end?"

Now, THERE'S some 'public information' that should REALLY inspire confidence among the populace. The casual, almost whimsical statement conjures up the image of Lt. Wamble, sitting barefooted on a porch swing with a straw protruding from his tobacco-juice moistened lips.

Insofar as Solano officials have decided to let the population strike, Paco wonders how their time cards will be documented. Under the law, each and every one of those 'stikers' must be assessed an unexcused absence and be docked 1 day (not to mention the disciplinary assessments they SHOULD receive for conducting an illegal strike). And yet, it is a forgone conclusion NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

Paco recommends the immediate termination of Solano's warden for GROSS INCOMPETENCE. Lt. Wamble (see also Wamble), who apparently lateraled from CalTrans a hot second ago, should be reassigned to a position where he may benefit from some actual custody experience.
Posted by pacovilla at 04:59
http://ccpoa. blogspot. com

Valley Fever

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/contaminated-in-california-valley-fever-at-pvsp

Pleasant Valley State prison is located in rural Coalinga, California. The State Prison provides long-term housing and services for minimum, medium and maximum custody inmates.

PVSP was opened in November 1994, and covers  640 acres. Number of custody staff =730; total number of prisoners=5188. With an annual operating budget of $173 million.  The soil that this prison was built on is contaminated  with the fungus known as Coccidiodomycosis.

The technical name for Valley Fever is Coccidioidomycosis, or "Cocci" for short. It is caused by Coddidioides immitis, a fungus somewhat like yeast or mildew which lives in the soil. The tiny seeds, or spores, become wind-borne and are inhaled into the lungs, where the infection starts. Valley Fever is not contagious from person to person. It appears that after one exposure, the body develops immunity.

Valley Fever is a sickness of degree. About 60 percent of the people who breathe the spores do not get sick at all. For some, it may feel like a cold or flu. For those sick enough to go to the doctor, it can be serious, with pneumonia-like symtoms, requiring medication and bed rest.

Of all the people infected with Valley Fever, one or more out of 200 will develop the disseminated form, which is devastating, and can be fatal. These are the cases in which the disease spreads beyond the lungs through the bloodstream - typically to the skin, bones, and the membranes surrounding the brain, causing meningitis.

I have numerous reports/medical records that indicate several state prisoners have been infected with Valley Fever and they are NOT getting proper treatment. Somehave died due to suffering complications from this disease. The state of California has done nothing to remedy this very serious and life threatening situation. I feel it is my responsibility to call attention to this. Please help me and others to spread the word in regards to whats going on there. 

I have  been working on this issue now for over a year. In that time, I personally know of two men who have died due to Valley Fever, which can be prevented and treated.  There are more that have been infected as everytime the soil is disturbed, the fungus becomes airborne.  Here is a letter from a prisoner dated August 2006- 

I am currently being housed at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, CA. I guess I don't make enough money to live in a luxurious cell suite so I am one of many stuck on the E-beds. Living on the E-beds really sucks but it's much better than living in the gym day-care center. We have had our hands full with our shower program as well as staff. Staff hates us so bad, most of us just want to do our time and go home but there are a few kunckleheads here who don't belong here and staff knows that.
We have been reading in the newspapers statewide that the prison system is under investigation. I am so glad somebody has finally taken an interest in our well being. Since this has all been happening we are getting less and less program and showers are harder to come by. It almost makes no sense to go to school or vocation because getting a shower right away is a thing of the past. The quality of food is at its all time low. I really doubt it has any if at all nutritional value. Our lunches are ridiculous.
We have a warden who was run off at Corcoran state prison for corrupt activities and now he is allowing it over here. How the hell do they get away with this? We have a tower Corrections Officer who has been run off everywhere he has been and now he is doing the same things here. This man is a real idiot. Everything they can possibly do to us to mentally abuse us they do. The Green Wall is alive here. These people are criminals and they get paid to be.
Many people here have got Valley Fever, some have died from it, it's in the soil and they know it. We have tried to contact people on the outside but everybody is afraid of CCPOA. This is a mafia that needs to be stopped.
- a California prison, August 2006

 I want the public and media to know whats going on at Pleasant Valley State Prison and I would like to see some action to prevent the spread of Valley Fever.

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Prison releases 'DOA,' foe says

Prison releases 'DOA,' foe says
Dems, Republicans blast governor's inmate budget cut.
By Andy Furillo - _afuri...@sacbee.com_ (mailto:afuri...@sacbee.com)
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, December 22, 2007

A Democratic legislative leader and a firebrand Republican promised tough
going Friday for a Schwarzenegger administration proposal to cut the state's
prison population by 28,000 over the next two years.
Early releases are "DOA" with Assembly Republicans, said Jose Solorio,
D-Santa Ana, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. He said Democrats'
reaction would range from raising questions to outright opposition of the
administration's budget proposal.
"Many of us are going to have some very strong concerns about whether it's
the direction we want to begin taking," Solorio said.
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, one of his party's leaders on
criminal justice issues, said the proposal to release the so-called
nonviolent, nonserious, non-sex offenders in the final 20 months of their terms would
undermine Assembly Bill 900. The $7.9 billion measure was enacted this year
to add 53,000 prison and jail beds and more fully establish rehabilitation as
the philosophical underpinning of California's correctional system.
"By letting people out 20 months early, which is supposed to be when they get
their re-entry skills, they're not going to get them at all, so recidivism
is going to get worse," Spitzer said. "This budget plan is a forfeiture of AB
900 principles, which was supposed to change how we treat criminality in
California."
Gubernatorial spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said Friday that the administration
still has not made a final decision on the budget proposal that would save the
state $1.112 billion over the next two fiscal years. The governor has called
for 10 percent spending cuts in every agency, which in the $9.9 billion
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, almost certainly would require
substantial reductions in the inmate population of about 172,000 and the parolee
population of 127,000, and in a labor force of 64,000.
Mendelsohn said that, with the state facing a $14 billion deficit, the
governor faces difficult decisions as he prepares to unveil his budget proposal
Jan. 10.
"With raising taxes not being an option," Mendelsohn said, "you have to look
at very severe cuts."
Schwarzenegger was re-elected to office last year on a campaign that included
a no-new-taxes pledge. Republicans in the Legislature have vowed – and have
the numbers – to block any tax increases, which require two-thirds support of
lawmakers.
Also on Friday, Schwarzenegger's office announced that the state is $3.3
billion in the hole in the current fiscal year and that the governor is calling
for a special legislative session to begin Jan. 10 to address what he has
declared a "fiscal emergency."
According to details of the corrections budget proposal made available to The
Bee, the administration's plan calls for the release of lower-risk offenders
in the final 20 months of their terms to reduce the prison population by
22,159 in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Schwarzenegger's budget writers also are proposing a shift to a "summary"
parole system that would result in far fewer offenders being sent back to prison
on technical violations and criminal infractions, but still would subject
them to searches by local police. That plan would reduce the prison population
by another 6,249 inmates.
Combined, the two proposals would reduce the payroll in the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation by 5,854 employees. The two proposals
would require legislative approval. The budget bill requires a two-thirds
vote.
Under the state Penal Code, about 35 crimes are listed as "serious" or
"violent" for the purposes of the state's "three-strikes" law. Those offenders –
convicted on charges ranging from murder to rape, robbery, burglary or sex or
firearm offenses – would be excluded from the early releases.
Victims' advocates say that the exclusions aren't wide enough and that other
convicts serving time for elder, child and spousal abuse, stalking, false
imprisonment, weapons and other charges could still get out before their
statutory time is up.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said local law
enforcement leaders have demanded that the administration "add exclusions" to the
definition of a lower-risk offender. As for early releases, Ramos said they
"won't happen without a fight" from county sheriffs and district attorneys.
Republican political consultant Ray McNally said that if the proposals go
through, Schwarzenegger's political career will be all but over.
"It's pretty clear, the governor has decided not to run for U.S. Senate or
other political office," said McNally, whose clients include the California
Correctional Peace Officers Association. "You can't release 22,000 people from
prison and expect to ever get elected to another office again. I think he's
made his decision to retire from politics."
The budget proposal came amid motions filed in two federal class-action cases
to cap the prison population because overcrowding is hindering the state's
effort to provide inmates with constitutionally adequate medical and mental
health care.
Inmates' rights lawyer Don Specter of the Prison Law Office, who is
representing plaintiffs in both suits, said the proposed early releases amount to
"nothing" as far as the federal cases are concerned.
"If and when it's part of the budget, we'll deal with it at that point,"
Specter said.
Trial on the motions had been scheduled for February, but the date was
vacated last week by a three-judge court that first must decide whether to order
the state to turn over thousands of documents to the plaintiffs.

Schwarzenegger proposes to release 22,000 prisoners

Schwarzenegger proposes to release 22,000 prisoners
By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee.com
Published 6:22 pm PST Thursday, December 20, 2007

In what may be the largest early release of inmates in United States history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is proposing to open the prison gates next year to some 22,000 low-risk offenders.

According to details of a budget proposal made available to The Bee, the administration will ask the Legislature to authorize the release of certain non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offenders who have less than 20 months to go on their terms.

The proposal would cut the prison population by 22,159 inmates and save the cash-strapped state $256 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and more than $780 million through June 30, 2010. Besides reducing the inmate population, the proposal also calls for a reduction in more than 4,000 prison jobs, most of which would involve correctional officers.

A gubernatorial spokesman said no final decisions have been made.

The administration, which is looking at across the board budget cuts to stem a budget deficit pegged as high as $14 billion, is looking for more savings in prison spending by shifting all lower-risk parolees into what officials are describing as a "summary" system. The shift also would require legislative approval.

Under "summary" parole, offenders would remain on supervised release and still be subject to searches by local law enforcement at any time, but they would not be returned to prison on a technical violation. It would take a new crime prosecuted by local law enforcement officials to return the offenders to prison.

A summary parole system would cut the daily average population of released offenders by 18,522 in the next fiscal year and result in a further prison population reduction of 6,249, according to the proposal. It would save the state $98 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year and $329 million through 2009-10. The number of job cuts in the parole proposal will hit 1,660.

Gubernatorial spokesman Adam Mendelsohn declined to confirm the proposal outlined to The Bee, but reaffirmed the administration's belief that all departments need to cut spending across the board by 10 percent next year. Schwarzenegger "has not made any decisions" on where the cuts will take place, Mendelsohn said, including whether they will involve the early release of inmates or staff cuts.

"He has not made any final determination on what his January budget will look like, but there are many, many scenarios that have been presented to the governor, and he is working extremely hard to figure out how we manage this budget situation through cuts and reduced spending," Mendelsohn.

The corrections budget proposal outlined Thursday would not cut any of the prison department's bond funding, including the recently enacted, $7.9 billion Assembly Bill 900 spending, nor would it affect the expenditures of the federal medical receiver, who is in charge of $1.5 billion of the agency's total portfolio. The Corrections Standards Authority and the Division of Juvenile Justice would also be excluded from the proposed cuts.