1) SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has ended contracts with three private prisons in the state. The CDCR cited a drop in the number of minimum security inmates as a reason for the move, which is expected to save the state about $15 million a year.
1) SACRAMENTO – Gov. Schwarzenegger announced plans to immediately ship an additional 2,300 inmates to private prisons out-of-state as a means of reducing overcrowding in California’s prisons. No word on what this plan will cost the state.
2) OKLAHOMA CITY – Prosecutors are investigating claims that both the former chief groundskeeper and the head chef at the governor’s mansion raped three female inmates assigned to work on the mansion’s grounds. No charges have yet been filed against either man, though both were fired Sept. 29 for violating policies.
3) CORCORAN – An attorney for the assassin of Senator Robert F. Kennedy has protested the transfer of Sirhan Sirhan from the high security prison where he has been housed to a lower security prison at Pleasant Valley in Coalinga (Fresno County). Attorney William Pepper says the move could endanger the life of his client.