Category: Prisons

Gov. Brown Tricked Voters on Prop. 57

by · Apr 18, 2022 2:57 pm

Veteran California political commentator Dan Walters has this column at CalMatters.  The headline is, “Gov. Brown pushed for softer treatment of violent felons.” The “tricked” allegation comes farther down in the text. Here is the summary:

Fingers of blame are being pointed about the early prison release of a man accused of being one of the shooters in a downtown Sacramento gang shootout. But the politician most responsible is former Gov. Jerry Brown.

Brown may well be “most responsible,” but that should not let the present governor off the hook. Gov. Newsom has taken powers that Brown left him and adopted measures for the benefit of violent criminals that go considerably beyond what Brown adopted. Continue reading . . .

Regulating Away Justice

by · Mar 23, 2022 2:07 pm

For almost a year now, the administration of California Governor Gavin Newsom has been promulgating and enforcing “emergency” regulations that expand the “good behavior” credits of violent felons. A California “truth in sentencing” statute, like many in the country, limits such credits to 15%. Newsom’s regulations hand them out at more than double this rate, 33.3%.

The administration claims that they are authorized to ignore the law by Proposition 57, an initiative that was sold to the people on the promise that it would remove nonviolent felons from prisons cells to ensure they remained available for the violent ones. CJLF and many others disagree that the proposition gives them this authority. See prior posts here and here.

The latest outrage in the series is the third adoption of substantially the same regulation as an “emergency.” Continue reading . . .

CA Law Banning Private Prisons Overturned

by · Oct 11, 2021 2:28 pm

In a 2-1 decision last week a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a California law phasing out private detention facilities.  Josh Gerstein of Politico reports that the divided panel held that AB 32, signed into law by Gavin Newsom in 2019, unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government’s exclusive authority to enforce immigration law.  California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who authored AB 32 while serving in the state Assembly, vowed to continue the fight to uphold the law, presumably with an appeal of the panel’s decision to the full Ninth Circuit.

Continue reading . . .

Victims’ Groups Join Lawsuit to Block Cal. Inmate Releases

by · Aug 18, 2021 11:52 am

In a court filing today (August 18), two victims’ groups, Crime Victims United and Citizens Against Homicide, joined a lawsuit by district attorneys to block new regulations announced on May 1 by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) making 76,000 inmates eligible for early release.  A video of the press conference is here.  The new regulations would allow the early release of criminals convicted of both violent and non-violent crimes, including murderers and sex offenders. Inmates that prison officials determine have behaved well or participated in rehabilitation programs would be eligible for release after serving one-half of their sentences.

Continue reading . . .

Early Releases, Crime, and Evidence

by · Aug 13, 2021 3:16 pm

In May, the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation put into effect regulations that greatly increased the credits that violent criminals can earn to shorten their sentences. Sam Stanton of the Sacramento Bee has this article on a lawsuit by 45 district attorneys (out of 58 in the state) to invalidate these regulations.

I will have more to say about this suit later, but right now I want to focus on a statement by a supporter of the regulations that illustrates the kind of pseudoscientific posturing that is rampant in policy debates today. Continue reading . . .

The “Incarceration Nation” Narrative Is Pure Baloney

by · Jun 8, 2021 1:18 pm

One of the most unfortunate features of the national discussion about criminal justice is that the vocabulary in which it’s conducted has been hijacked and tortured beyond recognition by the “reform” forces.  How many of their articles start out by blasting the United States as “incarceration nation” and then go on to heap yet more scorn on America, the “carcereal state”?  You can’t look through “reform” literature for five minutes without getting beaten over the head with this stuff.

Only one problem.  It’s bunk.

Continue reading . . .

Governor Newsom Releases More Violent Criminals

by · Jun 4, 2021 12:01 pm

Katy Grimes from The California Globe has this story covering Newsom’s announcement on May 28th, “[He} granted 14 pardons, 13 commutations and 8 medical reprieves – for murderers, bank robbers, armed robbers, kidnappers, killers for hire, drivers of get-away-cars for murderers, and assaulters with firearms.” Yet again we are looking at the release of criminals who have been convicted of heinous, violent crimes that would lead any reasonable person to believe pose a threat to the safety and security of the community in which they are released into. 

Continue reading . . .

The Perfect Storm for Crime to Flourish in San Francisco

by · May 25, 2021 11:35 am

In San Francisco fear has become part of life for many of its residents. According to this article by Kenny Choi of CBS San Francisco:

Residents in San Francisco say they don’t feel safe amid an alarming rise in the number of burglaries across the city. Residents say the initial response form San Francisco police went nowhere. So after someone broke into her complex in the middle of the night, [Iryna] Gorb started sleuthing, obsessively collecting evidence on her own from neighbors’ cameras.  

 

Continue reading . . .

California District Attorneys Petition to Repeal Release of 76,000 Inmates

by · May 14, 2021 10:57 am

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, joined by 40 other elected DAs,  submitted this petition to the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to, “…repeal the temporary emergency regulations contained in the Minimum Security Credit and Inmate Credit Earning rule making action filed with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) on April 8, 2021.”   The regulations give 76,000 criminals in state prisons eligibility for early release. 

Continue reading . . .