OKLAHOMA-Sixteen of the 46 California prisoners housed at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Oklahoma were hospitalized after a riot broke out recently, Lt. Ralph Jackson of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported. The facility’s medical staff checked out 30 prisoners while the CDCR sent a team of special agents to investigate the incident. As of Oct. 12, eight inmates remain hospitalized, and three inmates were in critical condition.
SACRAMENTO- At least nine California mayors are trying to get money for what they call the “brewing public safety crisis” of Gov. Jerry Brown’s realignment plan. The mayors expressed fears that the plan will boost police cost and other public safety elements.
Sacramento’s Mayor Kevin Johnson and Los Angeles’ Antonio Villaraigosa called the program “political malpractice” and asked Brown to implement an “immediate guaranteed funding stream for city-related realignment cost.” The June state budget provision that reallocated $130 million in vehicle taxes from cities to counties will help pay for the realignment plan, according to Brown.
SAN FRANCISCO- San Francisco is proposing a plan for hiring ex-felons similar to a program in Monterey County. San Francisco’s program is aimed at giving tax incentives to businesses that hire these ex-convicts, whereas Monterey’s program does not. Loyanne Flinn of Monterey County’s Workforce Investment Board suggests, “If we don’t help them find a legal way to make a living, they’re likely to go back doing the illegal way which gets them back in trouble and creates issues for our community.”
WASCO–Michael Thomas Graham was found dead in his cell at the Wasco State Prison Reception Center Oct. 10. The 50-year-old inmate was described as being beaten to death, according to an autopsy conducted by the Kern County Coroner’s Office. The District Attorney’s Office reporting it is investigating and the suspect is Graham’s cellmate. Graham was sentenced in San Luis Obispo County to two years for failure to register as a sex offender. He was an actor in the “Austin Powers” film.
SACRAMENTO- Sheriff Scott Jones and Chief Probation Officer Don Meyer argued over how to spend $6 million in the new AB 109 “realignment” plan. Meyer said he wants to spend the money on programs such as mental health treatment. He would hold off on spending the money on additional space in county jails.
The Community Corrections Partnership Committee voted to spend the $6 million to reopen the Roger Bauman Facility at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, which holds an additional 275 beds. The Board of Supervisors was scheduled to consider the issue Nov 1.
BOSTON – A new trial has been ordered for a man sentenced to death for killing three people in+ Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 2010. A federal judge ruled that Gary Sampson was denied his constitutional right to have his sentence set by an impartial jury.
MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Filipe Calderon has accused the United States of dumping a record number of criminals at the border to save money.

SACRAMENTO – Some 3,300 California state workers have been notified that their jobs may soon be eliminated. The layoffs would take place over the next few years. The notices include 2,100 of the 63,000 prison workers and parole system. The 840 parole agents and parole support staff were not included in the plan to shed government jobs by September 2013.
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed Robert Barton as the new inspector general to oversee the state prison system. Barton is a Republican from Bakersfield. During his 17-year tenure as a Kern County deputy district attorney, he oversaw the inspector general’s branch and employee discipline in the southern Central Valley prisons. He also maintained jurisdiction over internal affairs.
SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is now providing a new website that will keep track of the “2011 Public Safety Realignment” plan. The website will allow those questions to be answered such as the Assembly Bills 109 and 117, and the Assembly budget committee measures that cut CDCR cost from the shift of responsibilities for things like juvenile incarceration to local entities.
BAKERSFIELD – Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood says he needs to hire 33 new deputies to accommodate the additional prisoners he will need to house under the state’s inmate realignment plan.
He said he need an additional $5.2 million to hire the deputies and upgrade the Lerdo Jail plus handle in-home monitoring, day reporting and fire camps.
Counties will now be asking for more money to hire new deputies to help the flux of inmates they expect to receive after the October 1,. So why are these counties asking for more money to hire more deputies when they can’t seem to come up with the money they already need for the flux of inmates they are already expecting.
Kern County supervisors said if the money requested is not given then the department will scale back on receiving the flux of inmates.
WASHINGTON– The Government Accountability Office released a report which recommends that the Bureau of Prisons’ Security Technology develop cell phone detection plans and reinforce plans to deploy cell phone detection in prisons. The report also condemned jamming cell phone signals, which can cause disruption to service outside of prison in violation of the Communications Act.
SACRAMENTO–An attack on a nurse at Folsom State Prison is being investigated. Prison spokesman Lt. Paul Baker said the nurse was transported to a hospital for treatment. “They are actively investigating a possible sexual assault,” Baker said.
SAN FRANCISCO-The vast majority of prisoners serving time in California’s state prisons are the less-noticed second strikers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Twenty percent of the states prison populations are the 32,390 inmates that are serving a doubled sentence for a second strike, the newspaper reported. According to Jeanne Woodford, second-strike inmates are serving 60 and 70 years in prison, which is potentially more time than the 25 years to life for three strikers.
SACRAMENTO-California has been ordered to reduce its prison population by 10,000 inmates by November 2011 and 33,000 over the next two years. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is working on plans regarding how to comply with the court order. Polls conducted by the LA. Times and the University of Southern California suggested that 62 percent of registered voters are in favor of reducing the life sentence for nonviolent three strikers and 69 percent are in favor of early release for low-level, nonviolent offenders. The state is also working to keep low-level offenders in county jails rather than sending them to prison.