Sacramento — For the first time since 2006, California has regained full control of the inmate healthcare system in one of its prisons, The Associated Press reports. J. Clark Kelso, the overseer of prison medical care and spending, returned responsibility for the health of some 2,400 inmates at Folsom State Prison on June 8, to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Sacramento — Dean Borg, 52, has been appointed deputy director of the Division of Facility Planning, Construction and Management at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where he has served as acting deputy director of the division since 2013 and was associate director from 2007 to 2013.
Sacramento — Eric Arnold, 54, has been appointed warden at California State Prison, Solano, where he has served as acting warden since 2014 and was chief deputy warden from 2013 to 2014.
California Rehabilitation Center, Norco — Medical care at this prison has been deemed adequate despite claims that the facility is unsafe, The Associated Press reports. Democratic Sen. Loni Hancock, D- Berkeley, says the prison is so dilapidated that it threatens the health and safety of inmates as well as employees. Hancock has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to close the prison.
Boise, Idaho — Inmates claim that the state officials are deliberately misleading a court-appointed examiner on prison health care by tampering with medical records and hiding problem inmates, The Associated Press reports. Prison officials contend the inmates’ claims are without merit and little more than exaggerations based on unsubstantiated hearsay.
Colorado — Nine current and former immigrant detainees are allowed to file a lawsuit against a private prison contractor that paid them $1 a day for forced labor at a detention center owed by GEO Group, The Associated Press reports. The lawsuit claims GEO randomly picked six detainees and forced them to clean rooms at the Aurora Detention Facility.
Albuquerque, N.M. — The state’s “three strikes” law is weak and doesn’t do enough to take violent criminals off the streets, The Associated Press reports Gov. Susana Martinez said. “We have one. But as a prosecutor for 25 years, I was never able to prosecute anyone who had committed three different violent crimes” under the law’s set timetable.
Oklahoma City — The Department of Corrections is misinterpreting state law by prohibiting thousands of inmates from qualifying for earned credits that could allow them to be released from prison earlier, Gov. Mary Fallin wrote in an executive memorandum publicly released by The Associated Press. The change would affect about 6,000 inmates and result in savings of about $2.3 million in the first 18 months.
Austin, Texas — Prison officials are looking for emergency capacity to handle 4,000 more inmates at the same time they are trying to cut spending, UPI reports. The prison population is at nearly 98 percent of current capacity with 147,565 inmates.
Angola, La. — Forty-nine students boarded school buses for a 172-mile round trip to and from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. “You see it on TV,” said Marvin Richard Jr., 18, “but when you see it in real life, it’s an eye-opener,” The Associated Press reported.
