By Nelson T. Butler San Mateo County has joined a growing movement to no longer detain jailed individuals for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, except in unusual circumstances. In a statement made in June, Sheriff’s Deputy Rebecca Rosenblatt said San Mateo County would stop detaining persons for ICE once they have been cleared for […]
Read MoreBy Nelson T. Butler The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that law enforcement officers can legally search a residence after one person living there initially denies them consent to conduct the search if another legal occupant afterward does give them consent to search. In a 6-3 ruling, the court decided against a 28-year-old California […]
Read MoreBy Nelson T. Butler A civil rights organization is suing to halt the forced pregnancy testing of women when they are booked into the Alameda County jail. This amounts to an invasion of the women’s privacy, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in the lawsuit filed in June against Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern. […]
Read MoreBy N.T. Butler A campaign is underway to curb truancy in California, termed a crisis that frequently leads to dropouts, crime and prison. “We take this matter very seriously,” Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a March news conference to endorse a series of bills in the Legislature to combat truancy. She said more than […]
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By N.T. Butler A ballot measure meant to speed up the review process for prisoners sentenced to death did not qualify for the November election, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The proposed initiative would have limited appeals by death row inmates, eased the qualifying standards for death penalty defense lawyers and done away with […]
Read MoreBy Nelson Butler The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Gov. Jerry Brown of a lower court’s order that the state is responsible for monitoring the care of approximately 2,000 disabled prisoners being held in county jails under Realignment. The high court declined to comment when it refused in June to hear the […]
Read MoreBy Nelson T. Butler Immigration officials have illegally denied bail hearings to hundreds of immigrants, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in May that the government must allow bail hearings for some immigrants who have been released from prison. Federal law Judge Rodgers ruled the U.S. Immigration and Customs […]
Read MoreBy Nelson Butler More than 3,300 federal prisoners have applied for clemency under new government guidelines announced in April. That is almost five times the 702 who applied during the same period last year, The Associated Press reports. Clemency The U.S. Justice Department has changed its regulations to increase the number of federal prisoners eligible […]
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By Nelson T. Butler David Johns, executive director of the President’s Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, recently visited Oakland High School to talk with teachers and students and learn lessons from the programs the city has implemented to help black and Hispanic young people. Earlier this year President Obama began a $200 million […]
Read MoreBy N. T. “Noble” Butler U.S. immigration officials and lawyers representing detainees settled a lawsuit concerning the use of shackles during immigration hearings. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the settlement reached was in response to a suit filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of detainees in Northern […]
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