Inmates must rely on one another in dangerous, life-threatening conditions
Inmate fire teams are doing a lot more than work behind the fire lines. They are working off prison time, reports the Auburn Journal.
The first permanent conservation camp was established in 1946 for low-level offenders who “have been volunteering to learn the trade of wildland firefighting and a host of other skills they can use upon release.”
Some of these skills such as woodworking, metalwork and welding are not recreational activities. They are a way to maintain equipment and earn money. Examples are making park benches and custom-inlaid tables.
Part of the August story was based on Growlersburg Camp 33, just outside Georgetown. This is where the inmates live and work as part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to become firefighters.
In this camp, the report talks about Daniel O’Connor, 26, who is serving his fourth year of a five-year sentence for a DUI with great bodily injury. If he were not in this camp, he would be doing his time in prison.
O’Connor said fighting large fires “feels like you’re in a war zone sometimes. Just planes everywhere, flames are right there.” He also said, “You don’t know whether the flames are going to overtake you. It gets kind of scary.”
The report talked about the assistant camp commander, Sgt. Gerald Hoff. Before transferring to the camp, he worked at Pelican Bay State Prison. Hoff says the atmosphere at the camp is much different from that of a California state prison.
Hoff also said that gang violence or racial tension have no place in the camp — “they sleep together, they eat together,” Hoff said. Like other firefighters, they can also save lives, he added.
The Journal reported that fighting wildfires requires cohesive teamwork. Inmates have to rely on one another in very dangerous life-threatening conditions.
The Growlersburg camp has 112 inmates but can support 132. All inmate volunteer fire teams are trained at CAL FIRE facilities. The volunteers must pass a battery of physical fitness tests.
The department has 44 fire camps, which saves the state an enormous amount of money, the newspaper noted.
L.A. Times Reports Surge in Early Releases From Overcrowded County Jails
California’s prison Realignment has surged early releases from overcrowded county jails, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
“It changes criminal justice in California,” the Times reported, quoting Monterey County Chief Deputy Edward Laverone. “The ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ is gone,” says Laverone, who supervises the jail.
Realignment shifted responsibility for low-level offenders from prisons to county jails, beginning in 2011. It was in response to federal court orders to reduce prison overcrowding. Overcrowding stems from more than four decades of increasing harsh sentencing passed during the war on drugs and three strikes law.
A Times investigation showed a large shift in who is being released out of jails. The change has increased from an average of 9,700 a month in 2011 to 13,500 this year, according to state jail commission figures. Records show 17,000 released from county jails last October.
Los Angeles, which has 25 percent of California’s jail population, often releases male prisoners after serving just 10 percent of their sentences; women are often freed after serving 5 percent of their sentence, the Aug. 18 story reported.
To make sure there is very little danger to the public, both state and local officials are letting out the ones they believed to be the least risky inmates, such as parole violators and those convicted of misdemeanors, said the Times.
Sidney DeAvila, a convicted sex offender, was jailed 11 times between 2012 and 2013 and freed nearly every time within 24 hours. Days after he got out in February 2013, he raped and killed his 76-year-old grandmother, chopped her body into pieces and was found later that day wearing her jewelry around his neck. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
“Leopoldo Arellano, 39, was in and out of custody at least 18 times from 2012 to 2014 for violating parole, criminal threats and at least four incidents of domestic battery, according to Los Angeles County jail logs,” the newspaper reported.
“It’s justice by Nerf ball. We designed a system that doesn’t work,” said Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton.
“Shifting the location of incarceration” from prisons to jails doesn’t change much, said Barry Krisberg, a University of California at Berkeley law professor.
An independent state policy agency, the Little Hoover Commission, recommended last year that California reform its complex sentencing laws, which have overwhelmed prisons with many long-term inmates, said the Times.
“We actually have a de facto sentencing commission in our sheriffs,” said Carle D’Elia, the acting executive director of the Little Hoover Commission. “You have a crazy system of ‘Is the jail full today?’”
Superior Court Judge Richard A. Viavianos of San Joaquin County said allowing jailers to override judges “does nothing but undercut integrity … it loses public confidence. You lose integrity with the defendants. All the way around, it is a bad thing,” he told the Times.
Vera Report Says a Better Approach Is Needed for Juvenile Truants, Runaways
America needs to move the handling of juvenile truants and runaways from the courts to community-based organizations, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Vera Institute of Justice reports.
“Despite the noncriminal nature of these behaviors, youth in approximately 10,400 cases spent time in detention,” the institute’s December 2013 report said.
“A new paradigm has emerged: Connect families with social services in their communities, instead of turning to the courts,” the report noted. This saves millions of dollars, Vera said.
This status offense response is needed when a juvenile runs away from home or routinely skips school, possibly engaging in bad behavior because of his or her age. A study showed around 137,000 status offense cases were reported in 2010.Nearly 50,000, or 36 percent, were going to court for allegations of truancy, said Vera.
In one case, Teresa, a 14-year-old Florida girl, lost her mother and was overwhelmed with the loss, her father grieving in his own way. She began sneaking out at night to be with her 20-year-old boyfriend. When the father found out, he disciplined her harshly, which made matters worse, and one day she went to school and did not come back home, the report said.
Her father called the police. When the police found her, they took her to the respite shelter to be safe. In a very short time, a crisis counselor started working with her and she was back with her father in three days.
“Despite the noncriminal nature of
these behaviors, youth in approximately
10,400 cases spent time in detention”
If she had been in a state without status offense response, the father might have had to file a status offense complaint, as his daughter had run away. She might have gone to court and then to a corrections facility for juveniles, said the institute.
The change is cost-effective and helps children morally and ethically to be at home rather than in juvenile detention, which could make the problem worse, Vera concluded.
Most courts are not suited for status offense cases, as such juvenile cases are called, the report said. Most courts are overloaded, which causes slow response time. Even a few days can be a crisis and put the youths at risk and make it harder for them to come back to their parents, Vera said.
“Families require a faster response and a different kind of response than courts and the juvenile justice system as a whole can offer,” the report said.
The Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) in Calcasieu Parish, La., has a centralized point for intake for families. Since this agency started, the number of status offense cases petitioned in court has decreased to only 1 percent of all referrals. “The delay between seeking help and receiving help has dropped dramatically, from 50 days or more to roughly two hours,” said the institute.
Does the community-based programming work? Yes, says the Vera Institute. The state of Florida has a network of nonprofit organizations that run 24 hours a day and seven days a week to assist families in crisis. A 2011 cost-benefit study estimated the state saved more than $160 million in juvenile justice out-of-home placement costs.
Judge Tells Santa Clara to Expand Its Residential Treatment Centers
Last September, a Superior Court judge ordered the county of Santa Clara to expand its residential treatment centers to accommodate newly released offenders from its jails, reported Jennifer Wadsworth in San Jose Inside.
The county Board of Supervisors considered allocating $526,000 of Assembly Bill 109 funds to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Services to add up to 130 treatment beds in order to comply with the Superior Court order.
The need for the extra beds results from a federal court order capping California’s prison population at 137.5 percent of designed capacity in 2011. The state responded to the order by shifting the responsibility for low-level offenders to county governments.
“The department determined that the current residential capacity was not adequate to meet the needs of the criminal justice system,” according to a memo presented to the supervisors, San Jose Inside reported. “Offering more inpatient drug treatment would reduce the jail population and improve outcomes of defendants,” the memo continued.
The outcomes for residential treatment are better than for outpatient services, Wadsworth reported. Of the 171 patients released from county-contracted residential rehab last year, 70 percent completed treatment and 18 percent left with satisfactory progress. For outpatient clients, 39 percent left with satisfactory progress while fewer completed treatment.
Wadsworth noted that it takes more time for someone in jail to get into residential rehab (25-day waiting list) than someone off the streets (16 days).
The States Leading the Federal System In Rethinking Drug Sentencing Laws
The federal government may be rethinking drug sentencing laws, but many states have done it already, according to a report by the Pew Research Center.
“Federal drug policy is in the midst of a major conceptual shift away from the long, automatic prison sentences and zero-tolerance policies of the ‘War on Drugs’ era,” the April 2 report says. “But it’s the states, whose prisons house the vast bulk of U.S. convicts, that have been leading the way in changing drug laws.
“Much of the current rethinking of America’s drug war speaks to today’s environment: Violent crime has fallen, attitudes toward drugs have shifted and the Great Recession has squeezed public budgets.”
A main factor has been the increased cost of keeping people locked in prisons, from $14,603 per prisoner in Kentucky to a high of $60,076 in New York, based on 2010 data reported by the Vera Institute. The average cost in 2014 for California is $60,000 per prisoner per year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said sentence reduction for low-level drug offenses would reduce the federal prison population.
The Pew research shows 67 percent of the public want drug offenders treated instead of imprisoned. Also, 63 percent say states should do away with mandatory prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders.
Holder points out that about half of the 200,000 federal inmates have been convicted of a drug offense.
Many states have made lowered penalties for possession and use of illegal drugs. They have cut mandatory sentence enhancements and have jurisdiction of drug courts outside the regular criminal justice system, according to the Pew report.
A March survey by Pew Research found that 72 percent of Americans believe efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than it is worth. Sixty percent said federal anti-marijuana laws should not be enforced in states where marijuana is legal.
Mentally Ill Population in Jails and Prisons Is Increasing
Jails and prisons have become America’s “new asylums” for the seriously mentally ill, a new survey concludes.
This situation was caused by the closing of mental hospitals and the failure to provide adequate community support, according to a joint survey by the Treatment Advocacy Center.
“The number of individuals with serious mental illness in prisons and jails now exceeds the number in state psychiatric hospitals tenfold,” the center’s April 2014 report stated.
The Los Angeles County Jail is de facto the largest “mental institution” in California and most of the time is in the running for the dubious honor of being the largest psychiatric institution in the nation, the center said.
The survey reported the increase of inmates with mental illness in California state prisons “from 19 percent in 2007 to 25 percent in 2012,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“From the 1830s to the 1960s, we confined such individuals in hospitals, in large part because there were no effective treatments available. Now that we have effective treatment available, we continue to confine these individuals but in prisons and jails where the treatments are largely not available,” the report says.
“We characterize seriously mentally ill individuals as having a thinking disorder, but surely it is no worse than our own.”
The report cited a 2013 New York Times story saying the suicide rate in California prisons is twice the national average.
On a recent visit to San Quentin’s mental health unit, the researcher reported he had to wear a protective suit and full mask to protect him from body fluids that might be thrown at him.
The survey cautioned that when released from jail, mentally ill inmates receive no aftercare.
One thing the survey cited that would improve the situation is the widespread use of assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), known as Laura’s Law, which has the potential to decrease the number of mentally ill people who end up in jails.
State law requires a judge’s approval before involuntary treatment is initiated. Such treatment requires that the inmate “is gravely disabled and lacks the capacity to consent to or refuse treatment with psychiatric medications” or “is a danger to self or others if not medicated.”
The Advocacy Center strongly recommends appropriate treatment be provided for prison and jail inmates with serious mental illness.
New Japanese Prison Is a Model for U.S. Institutions
‘It helps inmates take responsibility for their actions and encourages giving back to society’
Japan has opened a new model prison designed to enhance rehabilitation and reduce recidivism.
The Shimane Asahi prison is an important case study for the United States because it represents an additional and less frequently considered path, according to researcher Paul Leighton.
This creation is an experimental space for a new model of incarceration, Leighton wrote in the Justice Policy Journal. He is a professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at Eastern Michigan University.
Leighton visited the new prison called the Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center in Japan.
Experiment
His report provides a background on the prison and Japan’s experiment with privatizing “social infrastructure.”
The United States was once a destination country for anyone interested in penal innovation, Leighton said. Now it is a country with the largest per capita incarcerated population, he added.
The philosophy behind Shimane Asahi is based on three pillars. The first is public-private cooperation. This is expected to bring cost savings and innovation. The second is preventing recidivism with various educational, vocational and rehabilitative activities. For example, it has a program to train guide dogs for the blind. The third is a facility that is “co-built” with the local community and places a great importance on “building together” with the local region.
The report says the three pillars create a therapeutic community that connects people and teaches “humanity.” It helps inmates take responsibility for their actions and encourages giving back to society, while making them aware of values and patterns that lead to crime and fostering change.
New Technology
The facility uses new technology for tracking, scanners and automated food delivery. It also uses “sniffer” or “puffer” machines like those airports use to detect explosives but modified to search for drugs. A full-body scanner allows staff to screen for contraband without touching the inmates and avoids strip searches or invasive body cavity searches.
They also tag inmates clothing so a “location info system” reveals where an inmate is at all times. It’s intended to eliminate the need for guards to escort prisoners.
Leighton concludes the Japanese facility should not be blindly copied, but it should bring attention to problems with warehouse prisons and should inspire American plans for the future.
California Department of Corrections Searches For 7,000 Future Officers
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is looking to hire 7,000 people in the next couple of years.
Lt. Chad Hester told KCRA-TV that qualified applicants are needed because of inmate overcrowding and 1,800 corrections officers retiring a year at the 34 prisons. Hester said the physical agility test disqualifies candidates as do the written test and background checks.
Only 2 to 5 percent of applicants actually become officers, Hester said.
Recruits have to run about a half-mile while carrying 45 pounds of weight in both hands in less than five minutes and five seconds. They must be honest when filling out their application, as lying is a sure way to be disqualified.
In an interview Oct. 12, applicant Kamyla Fauntleroy told KCRA she dreams of wearing a badge and having a good career in the prison system.
All applicants will have to wait nine months to see if they qualify to become a cadet.
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis Wants New Division Stopping Recidivating Offenders
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis joined California Attorney General Kamala Harris in announcing plans to create a new unit to curb recidivism.
The new Division of Recidivism and Re-Entry will use innovate technology, such as the California SmartJustice program led by the state attorney general.
This will help prosecutors to have accurate data and help to determine prison realignment on public safety, using the latest art of technology, Dumanis said in a news release. The system analyzes offenders’ recidivism risk factors. It also tracks repeat offenders and offense trends to provide counties more effective options of developing anti-recidivism initiatives.
“San Diego County has been a statewide leader in working to reduce recidivism through innovative prisoner re-entry programs,” Dumanis said. “We welcome the attorney general’s leadership and commitment of resources in this area as our county continues to protect public safety while dealing with the ongoing challenges brought on by prisoner realignment.”
Dumanis said the goal is to continue working with law enforcement to try and stop the revolving door to prison and protect public safety. Since 2007, the prisoner re-entry program has lowered the recidivism rate to 34 percent and resulted in $10 million in savings.
The San Diego DA’s office participates in other programs such as four drug courts, behavioral health court, and veterans’ court. The county also expanded re-entry court and created a mandatory supervision court—the first of its kind in the state.
The county also has re-entry programming with the Probation Department to make a Community Transitional Center that provides transitional housing for returning state prisoners.
New Proposed Sentencing Law Hopes To Solve Realignment Problems
A sentencing commission is being proposed to help solve a variety of problems in California’s criminal justice system.
Supporters say such a commission would allow the state to revisit the purpose of sentencing in this post-Realignment era where the state prisons remain overcrowded. The commission could provide an informed and structured decision-making approach, which already exists in at least 20 other states.
Sentencing Reform
California is in an urgent need of sentencing reform, but the road to get there may be long and arduous, said Kate McCracken of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. She was appointed in 2012 to the new San Francisco Sentencing Commission.
Would a sentencing commission do the job? McCracken asked. Since 1976, a state sentencing commission has been recommended at least nine times.
“During the past 30 years, over 1,000 sentencing enhancement bills passed in the Legislature,” McCracken wrote in a CJCJ blog last year. “The complexity of these bills, as well as their punitive nature, has increased the number of individuals committed to state prison with a trend for longer sentences.”
Justice Reform
McCracken noted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is joining the movement toward criminal justice reform. In a speech, Holder decried the system as broken, ineffective and unsustainable.
“It’s time, in fact it’s well past time, to address persistent needs and unwarranted disparities by considering a fundamentally new approach,” Holder said.
McCracken pointed out that the system varies among California’s 58 counties. He noted that four percent of felony drug convictions result in a commitment to prison statewide. But the figures range from 17 percent in Kings County to half of a percent in Contra Costa County.
With this type percent range, it is time for California’s justice system to progress into the 21st century and have fair, equitable and efficient, McCracken said.