SAN QUENTIN – David Leslie Murtishaw, convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 murders of three University of Southern California film students, was found dead in his cell on Nov. 27. Murtishaw died of natural causes, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
VACAVILLE – This medical facility celebrated its 18th annual World AIDS Day. A mixture of about 150 prisoners, staff members and outside guests were entertained by musical selections that included, “House of the Rising Sun,” “Ring of Fire,” and a gospel choir performing “I’m on my Journey Now,” and “The Prayer.” Warden, Vimal J. Singh, Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Joseph Bick, motivational speaker Robin Keeble, and prisoner Keith Thompson, who is a peer educator, gave encouragement to the prisoners.
SACRAMENTO – Nearly $1.2 million has been raised for a 2012 ballot measure to repeal California’s death penalty. Major donors listed in the report include several California branches of the American Civil Liberties Union ($41,770), Google executive Robert Alan Eustace ($125,000), Hyatt Development Corporation CEO Nicholas Pritzker ($500,000), and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ($125,000).
SACRAMENTO – Jeffrey Callison, has been selected for the press secretary of media relations position for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation – a $102,015-per-year position. Callison, 50, has hosted the daily public affairs program on the Sacramento National Public Radio affiliate since 2004. He started at the station as a reporter in 1996 and became its news director in 2000.
SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) confirmed that it would renovate Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) in Chowchilla to a facility that will house low-to medium-security adult male prisoners. The conversion is intended to alleviate the adult male prisoner-overcrowding problem and avoid staff layoffs at the institution.
SACRAMENTO – California prisons have paid some $8.7 million since 2006 to doctors and mental health experts barred from working, state records show. The medical professionals were facing pending malpractice allegations. At least 30 medical professionals have collected their six-figure salaries for a collective 37 years after their colleagues determined they were too dangerous to treat prisoners but before the state’s lengthy discipline appeals process made a final decision on whether they should be fired.
SACRAMENTO – So far this year, the Legislature allocated $354 million for counties to accommodate realignment.
SACRAMENTO – Because of realignment, 34 of California’s 58 counties have indicated plans for expensive jail expansions.
SACRAMENTO – State officials say that as many as 8,000 offenders who would have gone to prison for crimes like involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse are now serving their time in county jails.
CHILE – Government officials are looking to open four new prisons, using California’s Solano State Prison as a model. The Minister of Justice, Teodoro Ribera, submitted a proposal for the new prison system to President Sebastián Piñera on the one-year anniversary of a fire at San Miguel Prison where 81 prisoners died and 14 others were injured, emphasising the poor state of Chile’s penal system.
LOS ANGELES – By the end of this year, officials expect that more than 22,000 jail beds will be filled.
LOS ANGELES – About half of the newly realigned offenders with serious mental illnesses refuse treatment, said county officials.
ORANGE COUNTY – In December, more than 60 detainees had to sleep on the jail floor until beds could be made available.