SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Alex Padilla says he will introduce legislation to make it a misdemeanor for prison guards and visitors to smuggle cell phones into prisons. Conviction would mean a maximum $5,000 fine. Inmates caught with a cell phone would have two to five years added to their sentence.
WASHINGTON – A lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration wants a federal judge to block imports of sodium thiopental, a drug use to execute inmates on Death Row. According to Brad Berenson, the attorney for the condemned inmates in California, Arizona, and Tennessee, FDA has knowingly allowed state corrections officials to import the drugs into the country even though it violates federal law.
MODESTO – County district attorneys, probation officials, police chiefs, sheriffs, and advocates for young criminals all have concerns about Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for juvenile justice. Brown wants counties to take over the state’s entire juvenile justice system. He claims the state would pay the cost of the change.
SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Anthony Portantino of La Canada/Flintridge introduced AB219, asking the Department Of Correction and Rehabilitation to enact a plan that will lower the number of recidivism, prison population, and the crime rate.
