Archives for July 2012

1. SACRAMENTO—The state Senate approved AB2127, which allow county jail offenders to receive credits toward a work release program if they are enrolled in educational, vocational, drug treatment and other specified programs.
2. LOS ANGELES—The county court system is implementing reductions that will affect 431 court employees and 56 courtrooms, according to the Los Angeles Times.
3. Los Angeles—More than a quarter of the county’s homeless adults are infected with the hepatitis C virus, and nearly half of them don’t know it, the Los Angeles Times reported, quoting UCLA researchers.
4. RANCHO MIRAGE—“We know from scientific research conducted by some of the world’s leading neuroscientists that drug addiction is not a moral failing on the part of the individual. It’s a chronic disease of the brain that can be treated,” said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy since 2009 in a Los Angeles Times interview.
5. POCATELLO, Idaho—Richard Leavitt became the second inmate on Idaho’s Death Row to be executed this year. Leavitt, a 53-year-old former auto mechanic, insisted to the end that he was not guilty of the crime, reported the Los Angeles Times.
6. SACRAMENTO—About 8,500 parolees were taken off supervision since realignment went into effect, the Los Angeles Times reported. Law officials are trying to figure out how to deal with a sudden increase in ex-felons with reduced supervision, the newspaper added.
7. DALLAS, Texas—The Prison Entrepreneurship Program held its 17th annual graduation in June at the Cleveland Correctional Center. PEP is a six-month program that teaches prisoners real-world business skills so they may become productive members of the business community upon their release. Sixty-four men received graduation certificates in a cap and gown ceremony.
8. WASHINGTON— Violent crime was down four percent nationwide last year, according to reports law enforcement agencies across the country voluntarily submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Violent crime includes murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, said the FBI. In the same period, property crimes dropped 0.8 percent, the FBI said.
9. SAN FRANCISCO—There were fewer major crimes reported last year than in 2010 in the 13 most-populous cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to figures released by the FBI. The major crimes included murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Declines of more than 20 percent were reported for Fremont, Concord and Daly City.
10. SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—The governor’s office has confirmed plans to close the super-maximum prison near Tamms in southern Illinois, the Dwight Correctional Center in central Illinois, along with juvenile justice centers in Joliet and Murphysboro. Three transitional centers for prisoners, including one on Chicago’s West Side, are also being shut down.
11. SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—Gov. Pat Quinn approved resumption of the early release of inmates from the state’s overcrowded prisons, according to the Associated Press. However, the offender must be nonviolent, display good behavior and serve at least 60 days in the Corrections Department, the AP reports.
12. SAN DIEGO—Last year’s new law that shifted low-level offenders to do their time in county jails has caused San Diego County jails to become overcrowded, county officials report. They said they responded by releasing about 300 low-level offenders, putting them on home detention and keeping track of them with electronic monitors.
13. AUSTIN, Texas—Prison officials made known that their supply of execution injection drugs (Nembutal, a trade name for pentobarbital) were obtained legally and in the U.S, according to the United Press International.
14. Washington—The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a Maryland law counting inmates as residents of their legal home addresses for redistricting purposes. The legislation is the state’s solution to how inmates are counted as residents of the prison location, even though they cannot vote and remain residents of their home communities for virtually all other legal purposes, according to a report by Prison Policy Initiative.
15. IOWA CITY, Iowa—The state’s process for restoring voting rights for ex-felons is one of the most stringent in the nation, according to a review by the Associated Press. Iowa is one of four states where ex-felons must apply to the governor to regain their rights. Nearly 8,000 ex-offenders have applied for restoration of their rights after completing their prison sentences or were released from community supervision; however, less than a dozen were approved, according to public records obtained by the AP.
16. TUPELO, Miss. – A grocery store butcher was executed June 20 for murdering a man he owed money for drugs, Reuters reported. Gary Carl Simmons, 49, was the 22nd person executed in the United States this year. He was the third person executed in Mississippi in June and the sixth in 2012.
17. SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown has announced the appointment of wardens for two California prisons. Paul Brazelton, 49, of Coalinga, was appointed warden at Pleasant Valley State Prison. He has also worked at Calipatria State Prison and Deuel Vocational Institution. Daniel Paramo, 51, of San Diego, was appointed warden at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. He worked previously at Centinela State Prison and Calipatria State Prison. The positions do not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $130,668. Paramo is a Democrat and Brazelton is a Republican.
ENGLAND—A new study has found that men confined behind bars are less likely to be obese than people in the general population. Female prisoners, however, were more likely to be obese than other women — at least, in the U.S. and Australia, the study found.