Category: Prisons

Defining “Violent”

by · Aug 31, 2023 3:44 pm

One would not think that defining “violent crime” is all that difficult. Yet in both federal law and California law, there are definitions of “violent” that are excessively narrow, excluding crimes that everyone with sense would consider violent. Dan Walters has this column at CalMatters, titled “California law treats some violent crimes as nonviolent, letting offenders off the hook.” He has an extended quote from this column by Emily Hoeven at the SF Chronicle (behind a paywall).

From Walters’ column:

Hoeven noted that earlier this year, the Assembly’s (perhaps misnamed) Public Safety Committee rejected a Republican bill to classify domestic violence as a violent crime, thereby making it easier to keep offenders behind bars.

This outrageous situation results from a 2016 ballot measure, sponsored principally by then-Gov. Jerry Brown and passed by voters, that purported to give those who commit nonviolent crimes chances to earn their way out of prison.

However, it was deceptive. Proposition 57’s indirect definition of a nonviolent crime was that it did not appear on a specific Penal Code list of 23 violent crimes.

That list only referred to particularly heinous crimes and omitted many offenses that ordinary folks would consider violent, including some forms of rape and domestic violence. The result is that those who commit some unspeakable crimes, including battering one’s spouse, are given kid gloves treatment in the penal system.

How did the definition get so screwed up? The problem in California is, in substantial part, the result of lazy drafting. (The federal problem is a topic for another post.) Continue reading . . .

The Pillowcase Rapist and the Folly of Current Cal. Policies

by · Jun 28, 2023 3:01 pm

A post earlier today described the case of the “pillowcase rapist” and his arrest for a new violent crime at the age of 71, following release after only half his sentence. Further research has determined that this appalling result comes from an old, misguided law that has since been fixed, not the current misguided policy. Even so, the case illustrates the folly of the current policies. It is yet one more example of the maxim that those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it. Continue reading . . .

Calls for Audit of Cal. Prison Credits

by · Jun 23, 2023 3:19 pm

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been handing out sentence reduction credits like Halloween candy. However, Julie Watts of Sacramento’s CBS-13 reports:

For more than a year, CBS Sacramento has been working to answer the question: “Are prison reform laws in California leading to more rehabilitation and fewer felons reoffending after release?” Unfortunately, we still don’t know because, as we’ve learned, the state isn’t analyzing, or won’t release, crucial data.

In an interview with CBS-13, the chairman of the California Assembly Public Safety Committee said he would submit a state audit request to get the data that CDCR won’t even give the Legislature, and he will include the station’s unanswered questions.

The Placer County District Attorney is joining the call for an audit, the Sierra Sun reports: Continue reading . . .

California leniency kills 5 young women in Minnesota

by · Jun 21, 2023 11:18 am

Present California policy shaves large amounts of time off prison sentences, even for violent crimes. We are fighting these policies because of the danger they present to law-abiding Californians. But crime knows no boundaries, and these policies also endanger people in other states, as was tragically demonstrated last Friday according to this report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune by Paul Walsh

Derrick John Thompson, 27, of Brooklyn Park, remains jailed Tuesday with charges pending on suspicion of murder in connection with the crash late Friday after he sped off an Interstate 35W exit ramp in his full-size Cadillac Escalade SUV and struck a car going through an E. Lake Street intersection….

Killed in the crash were Sabiriin Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Salma Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sagal Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis; and Siham Adam, 19, of Minneapolis.

The crash occurred three years after Thompson was sentenced to eight years in California prison, the story reports. How is that possible? Continue reading . . .

Recidivism of Violent Women

by · Apr 28, 2023 12:48 pm

Say “violent criminal” and most people will picture a man, for the obvious and valid reason that the rate of violent crime is much higher for men than women. But there are violent women as well. Today the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report, Recidivism of Females Released from State Prison, 2012–2017. The press release is here. Using a five-year follow-up period, the recidivism rate for violent women was somewhat lower than the corresponding rate for violent men, but still high — 55% versus 66% for men. Continue reading . . .

Grasping at Statistical Straws

by · Apr 18, 2023 2:11 pm

Graph of California Recidivism Rates

Cal. 3-Year Recidivism Rates for Cohorts Released in 2-Year Periods 2003-2018

This graph shows data on recidivism from the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s most recent report. Each cohort released in a 2-year period is tracked for three years for arrests, convictions, and returns to prison. The blue line is convictions, which CDCR regards as its primary measure. This rate was 44.6% for the 2015-16 cohort. It rose to 47.6% for the 2016-17 cohort. Then for 2017-18 it fell back to where it was for 2015-16. CDCR’s Secretary is crowing that this represents confirmation that post-Prop. 57 “credit-earning opportunities … is [sic] having a positive impact to improve public safety.”

Seriously? Continue reading . . .

San Quentin to be Converted Into Scandinavian Rehab Campus

by · Mar 27, 2023 11:43 am

Earlier this month Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the oldest prison in California, and the most expensive to maintain, will be transformed into a rehabilitation center.  Nigel Duara of Cal Matters reports that the Governor’s vision is to copy the rehabilitation campuses in Norway, where inmates can wear their own clothes and cook their own food while attending classes to get college degrees and licenses in trades like plumbing and truck driving.  A bill to allow similar programs in other, more modern prisons was vetoed by Newsom last year because it was too expensive.  According to the Governor, the price tag for this transformation will be $20 million.  In 2021 the state spent $1.6 billion just for maintenance of San Quentin.  This follows the Governor’s plan to close three other California prisons and his decision to allow the early release of over 70,000 violent and serious inmates, some after serving less than half of their sentences.   Two of those inmates were arrested for raping teen-aged girls in an El Cajon motel last week.

Continue reading . . .

Political Violence

by · Oct 28, 2022 10:01 am

The WSJ has this report on the break-in of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi. It appears at this time that the attack was politically motivated.  “The intruder shouted, ‘Where is Nancy?’ before attacking her husband, one of the officials said.” Continue reading . . .

USCA9 Strikes Down Cal. Ban of Federal Private Prisons

by · Sep 27, 2022 10:59 am

State laws interfering with federal government operations within the state present a constitutional problem that goes back to the early days of the republic. In the early nineteenth century, the Bank of the United States was very controversial, and the State of Maryland tried to kill it with a discriminatory tax. The Supreme Court declared the tax unconstitutional in a landmark decision by Chief Justice Marshall, M’Culloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819).

Within California, immigration enforcement efforts are highly controversial, particularly in the prior Administration. Privately operated prisons are also very controversial. The state can, of course, choose not to use such prisons itself. However, the California Legislature in 2019 enacted AB 32, barring any person from operating a private prison. In essence, they barred federal contractors from continuing to provide services they had long provided to the federal government. Continue reading . . .

California’s Prison Credit Mess, Explained

by · Apr 25, 2022 2:20 pm

Retired Deputy Director of California State Parole Douglas Eckenrod explains the present mess with excessive early release credits being handed out to prisoners in this interview with California Insider on Epoch TV.

The credits are presently being challenged in two lawsuits where CJLF is representing the plaintiffs and a third being conducted by the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office on behalf of dozens of California district attorneys.