1. RIVERSIDE—The nonprofit Prison Law Office, which successfully sued the state over inadequate prison medical care, says it’s worried that the same problem is cropping up in county jails. Referring to realignment of prisoners from state to county lockups, PLO Director Don Specter told the San Francisco Chronicle: “It’s not that these jails were doing well before; it’s just worse with realignment. In some ways, counties are worse than [state prisons]…and certainly the harm on prisoners who stay there longer is going to be greater.”
2. WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted to change its recommendations to employers on how to assess job applicants’ criminal histories. The new guidelines state that employers cannot deny an applicant based on his or her criminal history unless it is “job-related and consistent with business necessity.” McClatchy Newspapers reported about 65 million Americans have some type of criminal record, which research has found cuts in half chances for finding employment.
3. Arizona—A man convicted of killing a college student for $200 was executed April 25. “I regret nothing,” said Thomas Arnold Kemp, 63, with his final words.
4. SACRAMENTO—The CDCR population has reached the federal court benchmark of 155 percent of design capacity two months early, according to population reports. The population of in-state adult prisons was 123,287, or 154.5 percent of design capacity, as of April 25, 2012. The federal court set the benchmark for June 27, 2012.
5. WASHINGTON, D.C.—Charles Colson, special counsel to President Richard Nixon who went to prison for his role in a Watergate-related case and became a Christian evangelical, died April 21. He was 80. Colson created the Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976 to minister to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families. It provided work-release programs, marriage seminars and classes to help former prisoners. An international offshoot established chapters around the world. He wrote more than 20 books, including “Born Again: What Really Happened to the White House Hatchet Man.” That book was the basis of a movie. The Associated Press reported royalties from all his books went to his ministry programs, as did the $1 million Templeton Prize, which he won in 1993.
6. SACRAMENTO—Supporters of a proposition that will allow a court to review some of California’s three-strike sentences have apparently submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in November. Over 830,000 signatures of registered voters were turned into the Secretary of State’s office with 504,760 needed to qualify for the ballot.
7. WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the U.S. Congress continue to cut discretionary spending, state and local juvenile justice programs will most likely take significant cuts, The Crime Report says. In fiscal year 2010, juvenile justice funding was $424 million. The proposed amount for this fiscal year is $209 million, wrote Ted Gest, president of Criminal Justice Journalists.
8. PASADENA—A new trial has been granted to Frank O’Connell, who spent 27 years behind bars for a murder he insists he didn’t commit. A Superior Court judge tossed out the conviction after ruling detectives did not disclose information indicating another person committed the crime. In addition, one of the witnesses to the murder said that he never got a good look at the killer and felt pressure to make a positive identification in a lineup. O’Connell was released on $75,000 bail, pending a prosecution decision on whether to hold a new trial.
9. DALLAS—Three men have been exonerated for a 1994 purse-snatching case at the request of Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins. Watkins said Darryl Washington, Marcus Lashun Smith and Shakara Robertson were convicted even though the victim could not identify them. Their conviction was based on faulty witness identifications and evidence prosecutors did not give to the defense attorneys, Watkins said. Washington received a 99-year sentence, while Smith and Robertson accepted plea deals and were sentenced to probation. Washington and Robertson remained imprisoned for other convictions. Smith is an ordained minister who has been free for years. The district attorney recently called for a review of Texas capital punishment after launching a Conviction Integrity Unit to investigate wrongful convictions. “We have a responsibility, and that’s to seek justice,” Watkins told the Los Angeles Times.
10. SACRAMENTO—Shirley Ree Smith’s conviction for shaking her baby grandson to death was commuted by Gov. Jerry Brown, who agreed with an appeals court decision saying that her second-degree murder conviction was a likely miscarriage of justice.
11. SAN FRANCISCO—A man who spent 21 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned is suing San Francisco and police for violating his civil rights. Maurice Caldwell’s federal civil rights lawsuit claims police fabricated a 1990 drug-related murder charge against him based on an unreliable witness.