1. CORCORAN — Last fiscal year, the California State Prison’s Visions Adult School graduated a record number of 125 students, who earned General Education Development certificates, reports CDCR News.
2. SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — The county and U.S. Justice Department signed an agreement intended to keep low-level offenders out of jails and prisons, and instead send them to rehabilitation programs closer to their homes. “We’re hoping our agreement will serve as a template for other jurisdictions,” said Tom Perez, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department.
3. LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kerry Porter was exonerated of murder after serving 14 years in prison. Porter was released in 2012. He has filed a lawsuit claiming that Metro Louisville and eight police officers fabricated evidence, used improper identification procedures, and hid evidence that would have cleared him. He was convicted of a 1996 murder, reports The Associated Press.
4. WASHINGTON — Santae Tribble was granted a certificate of innocence after spending 28 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, reports The Associated Press. Tribble, 51, was convicted in 1978 when an FBI agent testified his hair matched one on a stocking mask used by the killer of a taxi driver. The judge’s order read there is “clear and convincing evidence” Tribble did not commit the murder.
5. TEXAS — In 2011 the state began to change its Juvenile Justice Department in an attempt to keep juvenile offenders closer to home for treatment. Since then, the juvenile prison population dropped from 5,000 to just over 2,000.
6. MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A U.S. District Court judge is deliberating whether the state’s policy of isolating prisoners who have tested positive for HIV is legal. South Carolina is the only other state to segregated HIV-positive prisoners.
7. HOUSTON, Texas. — Anthony Pierce, 53, spent the last 34 years on Death Row. He was convicted and sentenced to death three times for the August 1977 killing of Fred Johnson during a robbery, reports The Associated Press. An appeals court subsequently overturned his sentence. Prosecutors say they will not seek another death sentence. Pierce is innocent of the charges, according to Robert Loper, his attorney.
8. MARIN COUNTY — State officials are giving county officials high marks for how they are handling low-level offenders diverted from the state’s prison system to county facilities. The county program coordinates the probation department, sheriff, district attorney, public defender, court and health department staffs as well as Novato police. Officials have developed ways to help offenders, assisting them with housing and jobs and providing in-custody treatment for mental health and drug dependency, reports the Marin Independent Journal.
9. SACRAMENTO — The rate of prisoners committing new crimes after release has continued to drop, reports state corrections officials. The three-year recidivism rate peaked at 67.5 percent in 2008. The new report shows a recidivism rate of 63.7 percent in 2011. The report shows that there is still a problem with the issue of “revolving-door criminals” in California as the recidivism rate among those with two or more prison stays is more than 75 percent.
10. COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. John Kasich commuted the death sentence of Ronald Post to life without the possibility of parole, according to The Associated Press. Post was convicted of the 1983 shooting death of a motel clerk during a robbery. Kasich’s decision relied on a recommendation by the state parole board, which said it did not question Post’s guilt, but says there were too many problems with how his lawyers handled the case, the AP reports.
11. SACRAMENTO — California prison officials plan to cut health care workers in early 2013. Notices went out to 2,200 workers with the intent of cutting 829 jobs beginning March 31, 2013. The layoffs are the result of a reduced prison population brought on by realignment.
12. MENDOCINO COUNTY — Realignment of non-violent offenders to the state’s county jail system shrunk the amount of prisoners available for fire crews. The California legislative analyst has suggested the state assign higher risk prisoners to fire crews to relieve prison overcrowding. Fire camps are currently operating 16 percent below capacity.
13. HARRISBURG, Pa. — Thanks to bipartisan legislation, the state’s prison system has been reformed by moving prisoners out of “state prisons where cost are the highest, and help them become productive members of society,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s about time we started thinking a little smarter about how we incarcerate people,” Gov. Corbett said at a news conference. “The answer isn’t always building new prisons.” Over the last 30 years, prison costs have tripled, and the number of inmates has ballooned from 10,000 to 51,000, according to state figures. It now costs taxpayers an average of $34,000 a year to house an inmate in one of the 26 state prisons.
14. VATICAN CITY — The Pope told participants of European prison conference to educate prisoners, not just punish them, reports The Associated Press. The Pope advised prison administrators to respect the dignity and rights of offenders. He said society and prisoners would benefit from better treatment.
15. SANTA CRUZ — Since realignment, about 88 people have been sentenced to the county jail who would have gone to prison, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel. County probation is monitoring 128 more people who would have been on state parole. The county is adding at least eight more probation officers, bringing the department total to 51 officers. The average stay in county jail increased by a month to more than 13 months.
16. SANTA RITA — Disabled detainees are confined in cells without wheelchair access to toilets and showers, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. A lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court claimed the conditions are unconstitutional. The lawsuit also alleged that wheelchairs and canes were taken away from people who need them and that detainees with certain conditions, such as sleep apnea, are restricted from rehabilitation programs that can shorten their sentence.
