Sacramento—Death penalty support is at its lowest point in nearly 50 years in California, The Sacramento Bee reported. However, 56 percent of the state’s registered voters still believe the death penalty should be kept as a possible punishment for serious crimes, with 34 percent opposed and 10 percent undecided, a new Field Poll shows.
Sacramento—Chuck Supple, 56, of Sacramento, has been appointed to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Board of Parole Hearings, Juvenile Division. Supple has a master of public administration degree from Harvard University. This position requires Senate confirmation and the annual compensation is $117,504. Supple is a Democrat.
Stanford— Professor Jennifer Eberhardt recently received portion of a $625,000 MacArthur fellowship. The fellowship is “to encourage creative development into fresh new fields,” reports San Jose Mercury News. Eberhardt’s research conducted at Stanford University discovered that the perceptions of jurors, police officers and ordinary students make them more likely to mistrust and severely punish black people than those with lighter skin color. Eberhardt currently studies footage from Oakland police officers’ “body camera” videos for continued research.
San Antonio, Texas—Federal immigration officials are planning to open a 2,400-bed detention center to hold illegal immigrant families. If plans go through, the facility will be located 70 miles outside of San Antonio. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to hire Corrections Corporation of America to operate the facility, reports AllGov.com.
Dallas — County officials in Texas presented a measure to city officials that would have eliminate face-to-face meetings between inmates and their visitors. The measure would have also charged their visitors for the video access, reports the Dallas Observer. In addition, the contract would have given management of the jail telephone to the company. The county’s commissioners voted down the measure 4-1. The commission reopened the bidding process to all original bidders. Any new bids are required to eliminate commissions for any paid video visits and to continue to allow in-person face-to-face visits.
Oklahoma City — Richard Glossip, 51, will be the second person executed under new procedures for lethal injections and in a newly renovated chamber at Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Glossip, whose execution has been set for later this year, is concerned that the facility is so new that prison officials are not yet prepared to use it, CNHI News Service reports. In a July letter to a reporter, he wrote, “They have moved the execution table … so that they could put a window in the door where the person administering the drugs, so that if an inmate starts flopping they can give them a little more muscle (relaxant) to stop it.”
Portland, Maine— A program that helps keep drug addicts out of jail will remain open, after Gov. Paul LePage intervened to solve a dispute between the Department of Corrections and court officials, The Associated Press reports. The disagreement centered on how to enforce violations in Cumberland County Drug Court, which led to a freeze on new cases.
New York — A 21-member panel pushed for the decriminalization of drugs such as marijuana, the end of incarceration for drug use and possession, and heightened focus on protecting public health in a report published this fall, ABC News reports.
New York — The nation’s second-largest jail system, Rikers Island, will stop sending teenage inmates to solitary confinement by the end of the year, reports The Associated Press.
Frankfort, Ky. — Felons lobbying for the right to vote are turning to the Kentucky General Assembly for support. The assembly, which convenes in January, will vote on constitutional amendments that would automatically restore the voting rights for felons not convicted of sex offenses, homicide, treason, or bribery. The amendments require the support of 60 percent of legislators and ratification by voters.
Nashville, Tenn.— Tennessee must turn over the names of pharmacists and others involved in the execution procedures of death row inmates, following a state appeals court ruling, reports The Associated Press. Death Row inmates are suing over the state’s lethal injection and electrocution procedures, claiming they are unconstitutional. Attorneys think that having the names will help them check the qualifications of the executioners.
Philadelphia — In order to prevent another in a series of recently botched executions nationwide, the American Civil Liberties Union and four Pennsylvania newspapers have filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to find out where corrections officials are purchasing execution drugs. The lawsuit aims to shed light on the process by which these drugs are obtained, reports Nation Now.
Montpelier, Vt. — The Vermont Corrections Department says it has received a $1 million federal grant to help reduce recidivism. Vermont is one of five states to receive the grant under The Second Chance Act, which is designed to help offenders re-enter society after leaving prison.
Florida — Thirty-two guards with the Florida Department of Corrections were fired for criminal wrongdoing or misconduct in connection with the deaths of inmates, reports the Miami Herald. The deaths, some of which happened due to what the DOC is calling “inappropriate use of force” by the guards, occurred at four state prisons over a 14-year period. The U.S. Department of Justice is now investigating one of the deaths.
Jackson, Miss. — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit alleging that one Mississippi county illegally held inmates in jail for as long as a year without appointing counsel or presenting cases to a grand jury, The Associated Press reports.
