San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

Oversight report assessed CDCR’s prison reform

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The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) produced its 10th independent oversight report after it evaluated prison reforms proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). State law mandates that the OIG periodically assess the state’s prison reforms.

The inspector general’s 55- page Blueprint Monitoring, Tenth Report, scrutinizes re- forms identified by the CDCR in its report titled “The Future of California Corrections.” Some of its many goals are to improve the state’s prison system, save taxpayers billions of dollars and end oversight by the federal court.

“The OIG sent staff to each of the department’s 35 adult institutions,” IG report said. “During which time they reviewed and reconciled departmental documents, inter- viewed staff, and observed departmental programs in operation.”

Matched with its July 2018 report, “the OIG’s review of rehabilitative programming found 92% of the academic education and 82% of the career technical education programs operating during our on-site visits,” IG reported. “This was a 2% point in- crease in academic education courses that were in operation.”

It was reported that there was no change in career technical education programs in operation.

In addition, the report noted, “The department is slowly transitioning its lower- level housing facilities (I and II) into Non-Designated Programming Facilities (NDPF), as inmates in these facilities are deemed “programming” inmates,” the IG reported. “The focus of the NDPF is to offer an environment that provides greater rehabilitative opportunities for in- mates demonstrating positive programming efforts.” The NDPF’s do not identify prisoners in them as being on a sensitive needs yard or general population yard.

The CDCR continues to develop its plan to create two options for housing its prison- ers as either “programming and non-programming sensitive needs yards (SNYs),” it was reported. It also continues to focus on the expansion of its NDPFs which are now at 33 of the 35 adult prisons.

The OIG noted that the CDCR continues to make changes to its population in sensitive needs yards (SNYs). It noted that SNYs are the fastest growing population in the prison system, with roughly 41,000 prisoners.

“These facilities (NDPFs) are designed to provide rehabilitative environments for offenders who have demonstrated positive programming efforts and a desire to refrain from violent behaviors,” the OIG reported.

Also, in fiscal year 2018-19, there was a “slight decrease” throughout the CDCR rehabilitative programming model in areas allocated for substance use disorder treatment. During this same period, however, there was an increase in the spaces for pre- employment transitions and cognitive-behavioral treatment.

In its summary, the OIG said the CDCR did not meet its goal of having 70% of prisoners in its population receive rehabilitative programming “consistent with their criminogenic needs prior to their release.”

“The department demonstrated that only 52% of of- fenders in its target population met this objective during fiscal year 2015–16, the last fiscal year the department tracked this benchmark,” the report said.

The inspector general concluded in its field work that 526 of the 572 academic positions in the CDCR were completely operational. That’s a 92% rate of compliance which reflected 2% growth in academic programs, which included 35 added positions since the 2018 review of the Blueprint.

“Our review identified that the California Institution for Men had the highest number of vacant academic education positions…”, the OIG reported.

“Our review of vacancy rates for academic education positions shows 23 of 35 prisons (66%) had a vacancy rate at 10% or below,” the OIG re- ported. “Three prisons, California Institution for Men, High Desert State Prison, and California State Prison, Solano, had vacancy rates be- tween 21 to 30%.”

In its career technical edu- cation, the CDCR recognized 304 career technical educa- tion positions that it budgeted for fiscal year 2018–19.

“Upon completion of field- work, the report “found 249 of the 304 positions were filled and fully operational,” An 82% rate of compliance. “Our review identified that California State Prison, Corcoran, had the highest percentage of career technical education programs not operational.”

“The review of vacancy rates statewide for career technical education showed that 22 of 35 prisons (63%) had a vacancy rate over 10%,” the OIG reported. “Two prisons had a vacancy rate exceeding 40%, California State Prison, Corcoran, and Valley State Prison.”

The OIG report said the CDCR describes pre-employment programs as a means to provide prisoners with employment skills to prepare them for successful reentry and transition back to society. Its staff reviewed the CDCR records and conducted visits to facilities to evaluate the status of pre-employment programs.

“The OIG found that 1,479 of the planned 2,536 daily slots were fully operational,” the report said, adding that it was a 58% rate of compliance. This was an increase of 8% in compliance since its 2018 Blueprint report.

The Blueprint also re- ported “4,669 of the planned 5,376 daily slots fully operational.” This was an 87% rate of compliance which reflected a “4% increase in the ratio of occupied to available daily program slots since (its) 2018 report…”

The inspector general found the CDCR had expanded its long-term offender program (LTOP) to 30 of its 35 prisons. LTOP is voluntary and provides treatment to prisoners who’ve been sentenced to a life term in prison, with the possibility of parole. These prisoners must appear before the Board of Parole Hearings to be found suitable for release.

The OIG noted the CDCR was under a court order to reduce overcrowding by reducing its prison population to 137.5% of design capacity, and that the department had met the court-ordered bench-mark.

“The department’s up- date noted that the court reaffirmed that the department would remain under the jurisdiction of the court for as long as necessary to continue compliance with this benchmark,” the OIG reported.

The OIG also continues to monitor the CDCR’s implementation of Proposition 57, the class action lawsuit Ashker v. Brown, the Step Down Program, Security Threat Groups and other legal actions.

The inspector general report concluded, in part, that the CDCR “has shown recent improvements in meeting the Blueprint goals regarding filling academic education positions, resulting in a vacancy rate of 8%.” The report did say, however, that “standardized staffing for career technical education positions remains problematic, with a relatively high vacancy rate of 18%.”

The Office of the Inspector General recommended the CDCR take the following steps to meet its staffing level goals for rehabilitative programming:

• Promptly advertise and recruit for all statewide vacant academic and career technical education teacher positions

• Prioritize its recruitment and filling of both the longest running (over one year, over six months, etc.) and the highest number of teacher vacancies.

• Establish an experienced worker program to identify a pool of experienced former teachers, who would be willing to come back to work as retired annuitants.

• Require monthly updates from each supervisor of correctional education programs (principal) of courses that are not operational for which a teacher is assigned, but unable to provide instruction.

“As of May 8, 2019, departmental figures show an in-state prison population of 114,471 inmates housed in the state’s 34 adult institutions,16 with a design capacity of 85,083, equaling 134.5% of design capacity,” the OIG reported.

Oklahoma initiates new parole reforms

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Oklahoma recently began a new way to parole inmates in its prison system.

In 2018, the Legislature approved House Bill 2286 among a host of criminal justice reform measures, reported the Oklahoma Watch.

They established it as what they called administrative parole, rather than the traditional way of paroling, according to the article.

“If you meet the five statutory requirements, we skip that part,” said Justin Wolfe, general counsel for the Pardon and Parole Board. Wolfe is referring to the process where inmates have had to appear in front of the board and then undergo a pre-review investigation before the board members approve them. The new “truncated” parole process cuts out those two parts, said the article.

Eligible inmates must have served one-quarter to one- third of their sentences, and they must be “substantially compliant” with Department of Corrections case plans, the Oklahoma Watch said.

Oklahoma has standard requirements that are similar to those implemented by California’s Proposition 57 in 2017. Proposition 57, which was passed by California voters in 2016, allows California inmates to earn good time credits that will shorten their prison or jail time by significant margins. Both nonviolent and violent offenders capitalize on the bills.

Oklahoma’s bill took effect on Nov. 1, 2018, and a list of eligible inmates was recommended to the board the following month. The initial list of 138 was eventually reduced to 74.

The board approved one- third of nonviolent offenders in Oklahoma in 2018, an increase from the 27% approved two years prior.

The new approach is draw- ing skepticism from criminal justice policy analysts on whether it will work or not. Damion Shade, an analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, is taking a “wait- and-see” approach, said the article.

“I think the biggest issue with the administrative pa- role part of the process is that it began in November of last year…Those individuals who came into the system before November 1 don’t have ac- cess to the remedy of administrative parole,” Shade said.

Wolfe disagrees. Unlike California’s Prop. 57, the administrative parole of Oklahoma is retroactive. This means that the time inmates served before the law went into effect would count toward eligibility, he said.

Popularity for capital punishment is on the decline in the US

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The popularity for and sentencing for the death penalty is declining in America, a research paper reports.

“The recent history of capital punishment in the U.S. has been marked by declining popularity and usage … Within the past 15 years, eight states have abandoned the death penalty through legislative repeal or judicial invalidation,” according to theconversation.com website.

“Capital punishment has been and continues to be controversial. … More than 2,700 men and women are under death sentence,” the website reported.

California has the nation’s largest Death Row: 737 men at San Quentin and more than 20 women at Chow- chilla.

“The number of new death sentences imposed annually nationwide has plummeted from more than 300 in the mid-1990s to a fraction of that – just 42 in 2018,” according to the National Death Penalty Archives in- formation.

There was a modern-day high number of 98 executions in 1999. Last year 25 people were executed in the United States.

Public approval for the killings is also declining. A 1995 Gallup Poll registered 80 percent public support for capital punishment. A similar poll in 2018 reflected only 56 percent support.

Texas leads the nation with more than five times as many executions as the next leading state, according to researchers.

Execution history includes the case of 14-year- old George Junius Stinney Jr., put to death in 1944 by South Carolina. Seventy years later his sentence was vacated when a judge ruled he did not get a fair trial.

The Stinney story and many others can be found at the National Death Penalty Archive. These archives house the court records, newspaper and magazine articles, bulletins, photographs and index cards for each of nearly 16,000 executions. These records have been assembled by M. Watt Espy Jr. over the past three decades for the project.

Texas warden demoted after instituting quotas

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A Texas warden was demoted and transferred following the discovery of a disciplinary quota scheme used in the Ramsey Unit of the Texas prison system, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice terminated more than 500 disciplinary cases after an investigation revealed that four state facilities implemented a disciplinary quota in which officers were required to write up a certain number of inmates or potentially face punishment themselves. The discovery of these quotas has led to a statewide audit and multiple demotions of prison officials. The officers involved could face criminal charges, according to officials.
The investigation was sparked by the Chronicle after it obtained leaked emails from Capt. Reginald Gilbert of the Ramsey Unit. Gilbert wrote, “Effective March 10, 2018, each sergeant will be required to turn in at least two (2) cases written by officers for a Level 2 Code 35 ‘Unauthorized Storage of Property.’ Two each day is my requirement. Remember this is to be done each work- day without exception.”
This situation came on the heels of a separate investigation at the Ramsey Unit, in which officers allegedly planted evidence in an inmate’s cell. Four officers were fired, and one resigned as a result, according to the Chronicle.

Texas prisons are making efforts to reform the disciplinary system and prevent similar situations in the future, according to prison spokesperson Jeremy Desel.
“The agency is review- ing all disciplinary training and considering new state- wide training for all those involved in the disciplinary process. The agency is also working to make changes to policy to include explicit language that forbids any type of quota system or mandatory case writing activity,” he told The Chronicle. “This will make it crystal clear to all that nothing even resembling mandated disciplinary activity will be tolerated.”
Authorities are taking a closer look at the disciplinary process by increasing training and examining the system for defending in- mates accused of disciplinary infractions.
“In the current system, there are individuals who operate as counsel substitutes, essentially counsel for the offenders accused of disciplinary cases, the formerly
reported to unit wardens,” Desel told the Chronicle. “Now those individuals will receive enhanced training and report to the Division of Administrative Review and Risk Management, which will increase the independence of these positions and allow them to potentially see any unusual trends.”
Possible changes in policy bring hope to advocates. Jennifer Erschabek of the Texas Inmate Families Association said in the article, “It’s very encouraging.”
Doug Smith, a policy analyst with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, believes changes can improve defense for inmates facing disciplinary infractions and increase prison safety.
“When you do mass punishment like that, you put people in danger because it invites retaliation,” Smith told the Chronicle. “I’m thrilled that this reporting has uncovered some dangerous and ineffective policies, and I’m thrilled that people are going to be treated justly and fairly because that’s how you foster rehabilitation.”

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Oklahoma has highest incarceration rate in U.S.

San Quentin News & Wall City Merchandise

INMATES BILLED FOR SERVICES

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Men who received treatment from hospitals outside the prison were surprised to receive medical bills along with a notice that they had to pay for those services.

A 2006 federal court order put California prisoners’ medical care in the hands of the California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS). CCHCS’s budget includes more than $350 million for services inmates cannot get in prison hospitals.

Surgical Tools

By mistake, the bills went via the U.S. Postal service directly to the inmates.

Stephan Wilson received an ECG Recording and Review bill for $127.98. He said that he is concerned that the parole board might use an unpaid bill against him.

Vahan Nazarian’s bill was $295 for a bladder stone treatment. Two weeks later, he received a second bill for $500. He additionally got a bill for $600 for the service that came from an out-of-state medical provider.

“I spoke with medical staff right after I got the first statement months ago,” Nazarian said. “I was told to send it to them in a U-Sav-Envelope.”

After Nazarian sent medical staff the bill, the following month he received another billing statement. Last December, he received notification that the bill was sent to a collection agency in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ossie Giles received anesthesia services last February and a got bill for $1,440.

“I know there is no way for me to pay this bill,” Giles said. “I’m in custody and under the control of the CDCR. I shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

Stanley Baer requires heart valve replacement. He was charged $141.25 for a severe aortic stenosis diagnosis. He told his daughter to notify his lawyer because if “I don’t get this heart valve replaced in the next two years, there is s 50-50 chance I could die in prison.”

Liz Gransee, Public Information Officer II for CCHCS, said it isn’t normal for inmates to get bills from medical service providers, but it has happened on occasion.

On these occasions, if CCHCS is notified Gransee will contact the billing group immediately and have them follow the claim submission processes.

If an inmate receives a bill for medical services while incarcerated in a California state prison, they should mail it to:

Healthcare Invoicing Section

Prison reform could free 30,000 inmates says CSJ


 

America’s aging prison population

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Old friends, Edwin “Fuzzy” Marquis and Louis “Wookie” Calvin on the San Quentin Lower Yard

Old friends, Edwin “Fuzzy” Marquis and Louis “Wookie” Calvin on the San Quentin Lower Yard

America is facing problems as its prison population is aging, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report.

“Nearly every state is seeing that upward tick in elderly state prisoners,” Pew reports. “For state prisons, the consequence of that aging is money, more and more of it every year.”

Many state prisons are forced to make choices between housing elderly prisoners or letting them go due to huge medical expenses, according to Pew.

Healthcare

Health care for the elderly prisoner costs between four and eight times what it costs younger prisoners, the report said.

“It was the push for mandatory sentences and Three Strikes You’re Out. So, we’re seeing people who came to prison in their 30s and 40s and 50s in their 50s and 60s and 70s today,” reported Linda Redford. She studies health issues related to elderly prisoners and directs aging and geriatrics programs at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Louisiana, Ohio and Virginia are among the several states that have a mechanism for elderly release, a “geriatric conditional release” law that makes old age grounds for consideration of early release.

In Virginia, for example, prisoners are automatically considered for release if they are 60 and have served 13 years or if they are 65 and have served five years, reported the article.

“Either you figure out ways to get them out of the prison system and on to Medicare or you choose to take a firm line that those patients have to do their time, and you need to fund those facilities and care services that are necessary,” said Owen Murray, chief physician for Correctional Managed Care, University of Texas Medical Branch, which oversees health care for most of Texas’ prisons.

For elderly prisoners, prison is a particularly treacherous place. Forced to climb to top bunks and up and down stairs, elderly prisoners become a weak link in a chain of younger, stronger prisoners. Conditions such as hearing loss, dementia and frailty can make it difficult to obey prison rules.

“If there’s an old lion or gazelle, the young ones are going to take advantage,” said Phillip Wheatley, a prison caregiver.

Median Age

The graying of American prisons reflects a spike in the median age of American prisons since 1970. But this does not fully explain the steep increase in elderly prisoners. Corrections officials point to two factors: 1) the steady increase of elderly adults entering prison and 2) the radical changes sparked by the get-tough-on-crime mentality of the 1990s that resulted in longer sentences.

“Prisons weren’t designed for patients who are getting older. They were designed for people 18 to 55” and who were able to walk, said Murray.

Decisions about aging prisoners and the risk they would pose to the outside world should better reflect their medical conditions, said Brie Williams, an associate professor of geriatric medicine at University of California, San Francisco, who studies aging in prison. “Health care professionals and criminal justice administrators should be coming together…to evaluate people for release.

“We need to develop different approaches to their parole that are informed by their medical state,” she concluded.

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Releasing Older Prisoners Would Save Money


 

New Tool to Analyzing Criminal Justice Policy

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Incarceration rates are not the entire story of the criminal justice system. For reformers seeking to rationalize our criminal justice policies, the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) has created a significant new tool for analyzing the complicated issue of developing proposals for reform.
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
The scope of correction control includes federal prisons, 50 state prison systems, thousands of county and local jails, juvenile incarceration, civil commitment, Indian country jails, parole and, most importantly, probation.
According to PPI, “the criminal justice system’s reach in this country is far more expansive than usually assumed.” The national average is 2,111 people under correctional control per 100,000 (pht) residents. California’s rate is 1,582 pht. Georgia is over double the California rate, and Maine has the lowest rate at 858 pht.
The report has identified a tremendous variation between states that is largely driven by differing uses of probation. Fifty-six percent of the people under correctional control in America are on probation. Georgia has 78 percent of the people under its control on probation, while Nevada has 31 percent. Parole (conditional release from prison) makes up 11 percent of the total.
With this new tool, policy makers and reformers can identify the disproportionate use of any given criminal justice policy tool by comparing their local system to other states. For example, Georgia’s probation population pht residents is “greater than every other states’ total rates of correctional control,” according to the PPI press release issued in conjunction with the report.
Of particular concern to the PPI is the need to assess whether the community supervision mechanisms of probation and parole are being used as alternatives to incarceration or “as a net-widener that unnecessarily expands the criminal justice system’s reach to low-level crimes.”
Use of this tool can aid in the objective valuation of existing criminal justice policy mechanisms and identify areas of potential reform.
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/

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