The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) found that punishing students for fighting or breaking rules was ineffective. As a result, schools in Oakland are implementing new methods for dealing with misbehavior, reported the Rockridge Patch.
Now students involved in fights or other disciplinary infractions go into a Restorative Justice program where they work to resolve their problems. The program emphasizes that violence is never a solution to conflict.
According to the OUSD website, Restorative Justice is a set of principles and practices employed to build community and respond to student misconduct, with the goals of repairing harm and restoring relationships between those impacted. Restorative Justice promotes dialogue in order to solve indifference and to avoid violence.
The pilot program in Oakland schools uses a three-tiered model of prevention, intervention and supported reentry in response to conflict or inflicted harm.
Edna Brewer Middle School is one school in the district using the program, according to a National Public Radio post late last year.
“Instead of throwing a punch, they’re asking for a circle, they’re backing off and asking to mediate it peacefully with words,” said Ta-Biti Gibson, the school’s Restorative Justice co-director. “And that’s a great thing.”
District Superintendent Antwan Wilson and other officials at Lakeview Elementary School said the Restorative Justice programs have had a measurable impact on school behavior and educational outcomes, reported the Rockridge Patch.
According to Wilson, keeping the students in class instead of sending them home as a disciplinary measure has increased graduation rates by 60 percent and has had a 128 percent increase in reading levels for students at schools that use Restorative Justice.
NPR said that the percentage of students suspended at OUSD schools that have fully adopted the Restorative Justice program “has dropped by half, from 34 percent in 2011-12 to just 14 percent the following two years.”
“Children involved with the program have been willing to resolve their differences with words,” NPR reported.
Schools throughout the U.S. are exercising the Restorative Justice program. The cities of Chicago, Minneapolis, Palm Beach County and Denver are among several implementing their versions of such a successful program.
Inmate Fire Crews’ Jobs Jeopardized After Prop. 47
By Antonio Alvarado
Officials in California counties are concerned that the passage of Proposition 47 will give the inmate fire crew programs uncertain futures, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Proposition 47 reduces penalties on drug possession and nonviolent crimes, which could sharply reduce the number of jail inmates qualified for fire camp duties.
San Bernardino County officials are sorting out how the law affects inmate fire crews as well as other programs, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller told the Times in a Nov. 12 story. “It could very well create an issue as far as having inmates eligible to be part of the inmate fire crew,” she said.
“The inmates who could now be released from custody would be the ones that have the criminal history that allows them to be part of that program.”
Fire crews are made up of nonviolent state prisoners. They have long been a major plus in helping protect California during fire season. About 4,000 offenders statewide participate, saving about $80 million in firefighting annually.
The newspaper story focused on three former fire crew fighters: William Winegardner, 34, of Hesperia; Tim Johnson, 49, of San Bernardino; and James Jones, 26, of Barstow.
They reported they have changed their views and attitude toward life in a positive way and become productive citizens, leaving their old ways of thinking behind and anticipating to live pro-social.
For Winegardner, the fire crew brought forth a transition in which he hopes will be a new life. “For me to even be considered to get on with them shows that I’ve done good here,” Winegardner said. “Last time I didn’t have a job to go to, I didn’t have any of that. Now, I’m more confident. I know I’m going to do good this time.”
Several inmates now are waiting on the list to join the crew, officials say. For many of the fire crew fighters, the community’s gratitude has given them a sense of pride.
“Instead of people saying, ‘Oh, here comes T.J., that drug dealer,’ they’re like, ‘Hey, here’s T.J., the hard worker,’” said Johnson. “They respect me.”
Jones has applied his free time to reading volumes of magazines and self-help books on long-term planning and overcoming addiction. He said being part of the fire crew has made him realize past mistakes, believing there is a second chance to capture.
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “This whole program gave me a whole different motivation and reason to pursue a better future.”
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Capt. Nina Jamson, the commander of Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center, said the inmate fire crew members “learn to remove themselves from what they used to do. And they’re changing their attitudes and look at life differently.”
Second-Striker Population Jumps, Causing Officials to Worry About Maintaining Cap
State officials are concerned about a flood of new inmates into California’s overcrowded prison and county jails systems, reports Rina Palta, crime and safety reporter for KPCC.
The Three Strikes Law, enacted in 1994, increased California’s prison population over time, according to Palta.
The law changed sentencing in two ways:
Anyone having two previous convictions for a serious or violent felony crime would be sentenced to 25 years to life upon their third felony conviction. Anyone having a felony conviction while previously convicted of a serious or violent crime – known as “second strikers” – would have their sentence automatically doubled.
State officials worry that the increase of “second strike” admissions would make it difficult for California to comply with a federal court order to reduce its prison population over the next two years, Palta reported.
According to prison officials’ population projections, “there were 5,492 second strike admissions in fiscal year 2012-2013, which is 32.6 percent higher than the previous fiscal year” – the highest number of second strikers sent to prison since 1998-1999.
California has approximately 35,000 second strikers; 24,000 are in prison on a non-violent second-strike conviction, prison numbers show. This is proving to be a major obstacle in reducing the prison population down to 137.5 percent of its capacity, according to Palta’s report.
“We’re certainly concerned that if this trend in increased admissions continues, it is going to make it harder for the state to comply. The state will have to figure out some kind of way to accommodate them,” said Aaron Edwards, senior analyst at the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Edwards said no one can quite explain the recent increase, but that it is likely the result of many factors, one guess being the consequence of the state’s shifting “low-level” offenders and parolees from serving time in state prisons to local county jail facilities.
“Prior to realignment, individuals who were on parole could be sent back to prison for a parole violation,” Edwards said. Now parole violations either get jail time or are prosecuted as new crimes — sometimes resulting in second-strike convictions.
According to Palta, another possibility is county prosecutors, dealing with overcrowded jails, could be deciding to charge more offenders with strikes to make sure they go to prison instead of jail or probation.
Palta reports that in granting the state a two-year extension for lowering its prison population, state officials have agreed to increase its good-time credits for second strikers currently in prison. The state has also agreed to create a parole process for second strikers convicted of non-violent offenses who have served at least half of their sentence.
Santa Clara County Expresses Concern About Security and Health Care After Realignment
Realignment has Santa Clara County officials concerned about security and health care improvements in its jails, reports Correctional News.
Realignment is the state’s response to a federal order for California to cap its prisons to levels where adequate health care could be delivered to its inmates. One component is keeping low-level offenders in county jails instead of sending them to a state prison.
An assessment made last November placed the county’s jail population at just over 4,000 inmates, nearly 700 of which were diverted from state facilities as part of the realignment plan. “Acts of violence against facility staff have increased noticeably since Realignment, up from 10 over a six-month period in 2012 to 17 in the same time frame in 2013,” Correctional News reported. In addition, the report says there is an increase in gang activity, which caused jailers to keep rival gangs separated.
There is an older population entering the jail system, according to the report—increasing the need for medical attention to chronic illnesses.
Adding to the problems in the jails is as more inmates are shifted to its system, the number of high-security inmate rises. According to the report, the number of high-security inmates is 43 percent higher than just over a year ago, including a 30 percent increase in inmates convicted of murder.
Jail staff is also tasked with “managing a sharp increase in aging and mentally ill inmates,” Correctional News shows. “Roughly 25 percent more inmates are requiring daily medication to manage their various conditions.”
In 1997, Abel Esparza, 60, was convicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court under the Three-Strikes law. He was sentence to 25 years to life.
Last November, California voters changed the law so that three-strikers who were convicted of non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual felonies could ask the court for a reduced sentence.
Esparza qualified for a re-sentencing hearing and was brought to Santa Clara County jail to await his court appearance.
Esparza said the jail conditions were “terrible. It resembled CDCR, before Plata and Coleman.”
The Plata v. Brown and Coleman v. Brown are the lawsuits where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that CDCR’s health care and mental health services are inadequate, thus violating the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
Esparza said, “I could hardly wait to return back to San Quentin, because the jail has highly increased in gang activities.”
Correctional News reports that the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors approved the allocation of $500,000 — made available through a state trust — for an assessment that “will review the jails’ current capabilities and future needs.”