Imagine that every day you wake up in an airport security line. Now imagine that the security check is taking place on the airplane itself, in coach, on a very full flight. The overhead bins are full, so just below the seat pocket in front of you, the soles of your feet are pressed against your carry-on bag and one personal item. Complete story, with many photos, available at Wired.

Your knees are bent as though you were about to spring from a high-dive. TSA employees work their way down the aisle, opening bags and swapping passengers’ shoes. You fidget in your seat, bumping your neighbor with every movement. His breath and body odor float over you –- aerosolized humanity wafting into a cabin full of sweaty smells.

It’s time for a distraction. The TV works, but the Feds have banned MP3 players on airplanes. Luckily, you came prepared with a DiscMan and Case Logic folder full of CDs. See, there was a reason why you never threw them away.

In California’s San Quentin State Prison, inmates spend most of their day on board this metaphorical 747. Their two-man cells are tiny, their personal belongings may take up just 6 cubic feet of space –- the equivalent of shoving your life’s possessions into four carry-on bags. Though they spend years waiting for takeoff, they are permitted to use approved electronic devices in the meantime.

As Lil’ Wayne recently learned, some electronic devices are definitely not approved. In his case, having unauthorized earphones and iPod in his cell landed him in trouble with the authorities at Riker’s Island, where he is serving a short stint for a weapons charge.

The California Department of Corrections allows inmates to have many different electronic entertainment gizmos, from TVs to radios to CD players, but every one must be ready for a close inspection at any time. The inspections are designed to ensure that inmates don’t open electronic devices and stash contraband, but also to prevent them from removing components that can be fashioned into weapons.

The inspection is so thorough, in fact, that the prisons only allow devices that have been repackaged in clear plastic cases to prevent stashing contraband within. There is a whole industry of consumer products made specifically for prisons, supplying unsharpenable toothbrushes along with cosmetic gels in transparent tubes.

Despite these precautions, inmates continue to make improvised weapons out of the most innocuous materials, including wetting newspaper and forming it into a lethal spear. Hard to believe, perhaps, but in 1985 a San Quentin inmate fatally stabbed a corrections officer with papier-mâché shiv.

Though CSI and other media portrayals often show immaculate, high-tech prisons, the reality is often much different. Cells at San Quentin can be cluttered with clothes, bedding, and personal property.

Electronics with clear casings are a fairly new phenomenon at California correctional institutions. They were introduced at San Quentin within the last decade, says Lt. Samuel Robinson, the prison’s public information officer.

The requirement is particularly valuable when it comes to inspecting televisions, which are easily damaged by X-rays and must be inspected manually. At present, inmates are allowed to keep electronics with standard black exteriors if they were purchased before the new transparent-housing rules went into effect.

TVs with standard nontransparent cases must be routinely disassembled, inspected, and put back together. Correctional officers place wax seals on each of the device’s exterior screws and regularly check to see if the seals are still intact. The system isn’t perfect, and inmates have found ways of breaking the seals and reapplying them.

Much more

jchev California, Inmate Property

The federal receiver in charge of prison medicine considers one facility the gold standard for inmate care. The Central Medical Facility looks and feels different than other state prisons. The halls are wider to ease the way for inmates in wheelchairs. Those halls are busier, too. The prison’s chief medical officer, Dr. Joseph Bick, says that’s because most of these prisoners pose little security risk. Report from Southern California Public Radio.

“Most of them move about the facility unescorted,” says Bick. “They have a little pass. They may be going to school, work or to a doctor’s appointment to get their blood drawn.”

Inmates chronically or terminally ill
Bick points into the prison’s gymnasium window. Most prisons have to use gyms as dorms. Here, the inmates use the gym to exercise. There’s no overcrowding, because to be in the Central Medical Facility, an inmate has to be chronically or terminally ill.

“The overwhelming majority of the 3000 prisoners here have some major medical problem, often multiple,” Bick says. “You see them walking around, they may be going to work or school. But they may have hepatitis, major mental illness, HIV disease, diabetes, asthma.”

Bick says most of the inmates at the Central Medical Facility can feed, dress and bathe themselves, but they need to be close to medical help.

The prison’s medical mandate inspires a professional tone between the staff and inmates. Bick says he treats inmates with respect, which earns their trust. He stops to talk to prisoners in the hallways. He calls by name to a passing inmate. They shake hands.

“Oh hey, Dr. Bick! How you doing?” the inmate says.

Not exactly ‘Cadillac care’
Prisons are typically noisy places. Bick tries to turn down the volume inside his medical clinics.

Prisons often treat inmates in converted cells, broom closets or storage rooms. Bick’s clinic is a real clinic. It’s clean, white and quiet. Bick says one of the biggest unexpected benefits of that clinic is that it changes the way his patients behave.

“They come into an environment that is clearly designated as a medical environment, their voices come down.”

Bick says his modern clinic also attracts a better staff. But he says it doesn’t administer “Cadillac care.” Ask Johntae Bailey.

He was waiting for a dental appointment when his bad tooth got so bad that it woke him up in the middle of the night. A guard told Bailey he couldn’t get an emergency appointment unless his jaw was swollen.

“And I told him how’s it not a medical emergency if my tooth is throbbing and it’s killing me and I cannot sleep?” says Bailey.

Bailey asked the guard to check his file; there they found his three-week-old request to see a dentist. Bailey says the prison’s dentists care about their inmate patients.

“It just takes a long time to get there – I want you to hear it: It takes a long time to get in there!” Bailey laughs.

But Bailey says he’s waited longer for medical care at other prisons. He should know – he’s cycled through a few for drug sales or parole violations.

“You can put in a medical slip, and three or four weeks will pass and you won’t get to see them until then,” Bailey says. “That’s why you hear the alarm go off a lot of times. Because people know they got a long wait, so they just go ‘man down’ so the medical will come to them.” When an inmate goes “man down” he collapses on the floor.

Inmates’ health a public health issue
Bick says there’s usually some truth to inmate complaints – and he investigates them. He also knows few Californians care about better inmate care. But most of these prisoners will get out one day. Bick says that makes inmates’ health a public health issue that concerns everyone.

“If we don’t do something to diagnose and treat the treatable diseases while they’re here,” Bick warns, “educate them about prevention of transmission of some of the illnesses they have, and then link them to services in the community when they get out – if prisons fail to do that, we’ve squandered a huge opportunity.”

Clark Kelso, the federal receiver in charge of prison medical care, considers Vacaville’s Central Medical Facility to be the best in the state prison system.

He wants a hub of similar places to cluster the sickest inmates together. The cost of sending sick inmates for care outside the prison has doubled since the receiver took over to $845 million in the most recent fiscal year. Kelso says treating them in prison facilities would save hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

In June, state lawmakers approved $2 billion to build Kelso’s medical hub. But it’ll take three years to complete the main building in Stockton and that medical facility will have only enough beds for half the number of inmates with chronic or serious conditions.

jchev California, Inmate Health Care

Today, California spends $1 billion more on medical care for inmates than it did in 2005 when a federal judge found that care so flawed that he seized control of the system and appointed a receiver to improve it. Prison officials say the problem’s now fixed – and it’s time to put them back in charge. But as KPCC reports, California’s prison medical system still lacks critical reforms. Story and links to resources from Southern California Public Radio.

To hear the secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Mathew Cate, tell it, California prisons now provide inmates with quality medical care.

“I invite you to go into any prison and walk into any of those medical facilities, and you tell me if it’s not just as good care as you’ll get at Blue Shield or Kaiser or anywhere else,” he said last year.

Blue Shield or Kaiser might not appreciate the comparison. Between 2003-2004, one inmate a week died as a result of poor medical care in state prisons.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson seized control of California’s prison medical care and appointed a receiver to fix it. In his order establishing the receivership, Henderson wrote, an “unconscionable degree of suffering and death is sure to continue if the system is not dramatically overhauled.”

The first receiver, Robert Sillen, went to work in 2006. On his second day on the job Sillen visited medical facilities at San Quentin—California’s oldest prison. What he found there appalled him.

“This isn’t medical care in any way, shape or form that anybody would recognize it,” Sillen said.

Medical conditions ‘worse than Third World’
Back then Sillen called the conditions “worse than Third World.” Medical staff treated prisoners in converted cells with no running water. Lab results didn’t reach doctors for weeks, sometimes months. At San Quentin, Sillen’s staff found unprocessed X-rays that showed inmates with active tuberculosis.

“Transcribed results were coming back and sitting in a pile on the floor – literally hundreds and hundreds of them – because there was only one person to deal with them,” Sillen said. “She happened to be out sick.”

Sillen found similar delays in lab results, and delayed diagnosis and treatment, at all of California’s 33 adult prisons. He also found that Corrections had failed to pay outside doctors and hospitals for services going back months and in some cases years. Those facilities were refusing to treat California’s inmates because of it.

Sillen, the former medical director for Santa Clara County, found the problems in prison medical care so numerous that there was no way to tackle them all at once. So he concentrated on what he described as the best and quickest way to improve conditions: he would bring in quality doctors to lead prison medical teams and force out incompetent ones.

In his two years as receiver Sillen dismissed dozens of incompetent doctors. He also raised prison doctors’ salaries to attract better qualified staff.

Inmates missed medical appointments about half the time
Today, roughly half the doctors working in California’s prisons are board certified. About 10 percent of physician positions are still vacant. But it used to be 30 percent.

Still, even the best doctors and nurses can’t provide better care to inmates if they don’t see them. That’s why Sillen hired Joe McGrath, a former deputy secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“My job really was to try to put together a custody support team that was part of the healthcare side of the house,” McGrath recounted.

McGrath visited all 33 of California’s prisons to identify systemic problems in the delivery of medical care. One problem emerged in every prison: inmates missed medical appointments about half the time.

McGrath said that prison administrators were already juggling staff to get inmates to meals, classes and work. Getting them to prison medical clinics required extra guards they couldn’t afford.

“They have to be escorted outside of security areas over to these medical facilities,” McGrath said.

And since many prisons lack the doctors or equipment to treat inmates, “They have to be put in cars and taken downtown to doctors or to the hospital.”

McGrath said prisons have to orchestrate the movement of inmates all day long.

“Unless you have dedicated staff to the health care piece, it just falls by the wayside,” McGrath said.

Doctor cops assigned to get inmates to medical appointments
McGrath recalled one inmate who fell by the wayside at San Quentin’s reception center. Reception centers are where CDCR processes inmates entering the prison system to determine which facility to send them to serve their terms.

McGrath said the inmate was awaiting transfer to another prison to serve a drug sentence of less than two years.

“While in reception, he gets an abscessed tooth,” McGrath said. “Through a series of events and mishaps, he didn’t get the antibiotics that he needed. The abscess got into his blood. He was septic and he died.”

McGrath’s team of corrections consultants decided to address inmates’ access problem with what he calls the creation of “doctor’s cops” – a squad of 2,400 correctional officers whose sole purpose is to get inmates to medical appointments. Every prison in the state has some now and inmates now make their appointments 88 percent of the time.

Recession stymies improvements
In 2009, CDCR was poised to add 350 more “doctor’s cops” when the current receiver, Clark Kelso, froze hiring.

“I don’t have a bottomless checkbook here,” Kelso later explained. “I do have to account for how those funds are being spent. They’re taxpayer dollars.”

Kelso took over as the receiver two years ago – just as California was slipping into the worst recession since World War II.

In his order replacing Sillen, Henderson said he wanted to usher in a new phase of the receivership – one in which control of prison medical care would begin to transition back to the state.

Kelso, a professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, fit the bill. Kelso had earned a reputation in Sacramento as a fixer. He did that by sweeping up after former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush who resigned in 2000 amid allegations of corruption. Kelso most recently turned around the state’s information technology department.

Kelso’s first public action as the receiver of prison medical care was to scale back his predecessor’s improvement plan. But even so, lawmakers balked at the cost. Kelso wanted $8 billion to construct seven new prison hospitals and renovate medical facilities at all the prisons.

But the timing was bad. California lawmakers faced a multibillion-dollar deficit and still do.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get funding, Kelso worked closely with the secretary of Corrections to lessen the costs. But the Schwarzenegger administration – which had backed the smaller, $2 billion plan – pulled its support at the last minute.

After a couple more years of wrangling, state lawmakers finally approved the receiver’s construction funds in June – but they simultaneously cut his budget for on-going medical care in half.

jchev California, Inmate Health Care

Now just two steps away from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk, Chelsea’s Law could transform California’s approach to sex offenders through a balance of longer sentences, tougher parole conditions and targeted treatment. “We’ve stayed focused on the worst of the worst,” said Brent King, father of the slain Poway teenager whose name on the bill serves as a lasting memorial. News and additional key elements from Sign On San Diego.

Beyond the immediate policy change, the law could spawn a national movement driven by Chelsea’s parents to implement similar reforms in other states.

And its apparent success already has encouraged lawmakers to begin laying the groundwork for introducing legislation next year to attack an issue involving sex offenders: residency restrictions that have driven many into homelessness or underground.

But some experts express caution, noting that some past efforts to crack down on sex offenders — such as lifetime GPS tracking for those on parole — have fallen short.

“Overall, the intent of this legislation is laudable,” said professor Sheldon Zhang, the chairman of the sociology department at San Diego State University who specializes in criminology.

“Like so many other crime-fighting (measures),” he added, “politicians as well as the public may feel some vindication of their moral outrage, but rarely think through the consequences of passing a legal mandate without the necessary resources. Unenforced or unenforceable laws cause cynicism and public distrust of our legal and political system.”

The state Senate is expected to pass Chelsea’s Law in the coming days, moving it to the Assembly for a final vote next week. Schwarzenegger has vowed to sign it, likely at a ceremony in San Diego just after Labor Day.

When that day arrives, the Kings said they will appear with Schwarzenegger, feeling a measure of satisfaction knowing they have accomplished a goal to help prevent future tragedies. But it will not heal their broken hearts.

“One will be a feeling of immense pride and gratitude,” said Kelly King, Chelsea’s mother. “The other will be profound sadness and grief that we even got to this place.”

Added Brent King, “This is what she would have wanted.”

Chelsea, 17, was raped and murdered in February by convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III who had violated parole numerous times. Gardner pleaded guilty to murdering Chelsea and Amber Dubois, 14, of Escondido. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But even before the confession, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, began pursuing reforms. Fletcher methodically crafted the bill and the Kings were consulted on each word. And, in an unusual but ultimately bill-saving move, Fletcher immediately approached the chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee. The personal meetings and weekend phone calls with Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, ultimately paid dividends.

Together, growing from adversaries to teammates, they negotiated the final deal that took Assembly Bill 1844 beyond penalties to include significant reforms and cost-cutting so the state could afford locking up more offenders for life.

“It’s a better bill than it was when it was introduced,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said he was able to protect his priorities, mostly an automatic life-sentence without the possibility of parole for those convicted of serious violent sexual crimes against children. He also kept most penalty enhancements intact, including lifetime GPS monitoring for many parolees, while abandoning other smaller penalty increases to reduce costs.

Leno was able to secure parole changes, particularly a “containment model” approach that experts say will reduce recidivism by targeting the most dangerous with more scrutiny, polygraph tests and specialized treatment.

But there have been worries about adding to the state’s budget deficit. Precise numbers could not be determined, but one analysis suggested the bill would be “significant,” probably in the millions. The prison agency suggested that parole costs alone would increase $3 million per year.

In response, the legislation shifts to county jails hundreds of lower-level criminals not convicted of sex-related crimes. The savings could amount to $32 million a year starting in 2012. Fletcher also believes that the state will save money as fewer offenders strike again,

Leno explained the goal: “We wanted a bill to lock up the worst of the worst — to find a way to make room for them in our overcrowded prison system and implement (reforms) so we could effectively prevent these horrific crimes in the future. We did that.”

Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, endorsed the bill early and helped clear a path.

“They have put together a thoughtful, aggressive bill to correct systemic failures that led to a horrible tragedy,” Perez said.

The Kings say this is just the beginning. They are in the early stages of launching state-by-state campaigns to take Chelsea’s Law national, and are working with California’s two Democratic U.S. senators on a potential federal measure.

“I can hear Chelsea saying, ‘That was a great first step. Come on, let’s go,’ ” said Brent King, reflecting on the road ahead after her law is signed.

jchev California, Legislation, Sex Offenders

Using federal and state funds, Madera County opened the Madera County Core Day Reporting Program on Aug. 9 for medium- to high-risk probationers released to community supervision. The Core Day Reporting Program includes an affordable and collaborative approach to holding offenders accountable when they are released to community supervision, classes to change criminal behavior, and links to other services in an effort to reduce costly recidivism and overcrowding at local and state facilities. Press release on PR Web.

The program is managed by the Madera Probation Department’s Adult Services Division. The department selected BI Incorporated, a national community corrections firm, to operate the Core Day Reporting Program. BI has worked with the county for years to supply electronic monitoring equipment and services, and BI operates day reporting programs throughout California. Officials say they selected BI because it has a good history working with the Probation Department and because BI operates similar day reporting programs successfully in other jurisdictions. The Probation Department has dedicated one officer to work collaboratively with the BI Case Manager to assist with the supervision and implementation of rehabilitative strategies to help probationers succeed in the Day Reporting Program.

A key component of the program is the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is administered by BI staff. In addition, BI oversees additional services through partner organizations in the community. Up to 30 probationers will participate in the program at one time, and each will move through three phases:

• An assessment and planning phase that includes reviewing criminogenic risk and needs and developing a behavior change plan for each participant.
• A treatment phase that includes weekly cognitive skills training classes that focus on changing criminal behavior, one-on-one case management, and referrals to community-based resources for issues such as substance abuse.
• An Aftercare component that includes relapse prevention elements, periodic check-ins with the case manager, and a long-term plan for succeeding in the community.

The program is located at 14241 Road 28 in Madera. Offenders attend this program for up to 180 days. Failure to comply with rules and guidelines of the program results in increased sanctions such as restricted curfews, additional classes, more frequent reporting, house arrest or re-incarceration.

Initial funding for this program is supplied by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Additional funding for the program comes from the California Community Corrections Performance Incentives Act of 2009, which encourages county probation departments to establish evidence-based programs—those proven to work in correctional settings—to reduce prison incarceration levels. The BI day reporting model includes use of Moral Reconation Therapy, a cognitive behavioral therapy program proven effective in more than 100 studies.

jchev CA Madera County, Community Corrections

The new death row complex at San Quentin State Prison will feature 768 cells, 1,152 beds, six guard towers, a hospital and two fences, one of them electrified. That is, of course, if the complex is built at all.

The state this week began soliciting bids from contractors to build the $356 million expansion to California’s only holding facility for prisoners condemned to death. Story from the Mercury News.

In announcing his call for bidders Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the first year of work on the project would be paid for through a loan from the state’s general fund – a loan that would be paid for next spring, should state Treasurer Bill Lockyer agree to issue bonds to cover the overall cost of the project.

Lockyer has been unwilling to issue those bonds so far because of a lawsuit filed against Schwarzenegger by members of the state Legislature. Those legislators, including San Rafael Assemblyman Jared Huffman, say the governor acted outside the law when he vetoed a bill that would have required the state to answer several questions about the new death row complex before approving the funds to build it.

“What the governor is really trying to do is get the state a little bit pregnant with this terrible project, so the next governor has no choice but to finish it,” Huffman said. “The fact that the governor is thumbing his nose at pending litigation over the legality of his ability to pursue this project is something to be considered. We hope the governor will come to his senses.”

Spokesmen for the governor have argued that Schwarzenegger was well within his rights both to veto the Huffman bill and to launch the death row construction project Thursday, lawsuit or no lawsuit.

“We believe it’s a clear-cut issue,” spokesman H.D. Palmer said Wednesday. “The California Supreme Court has affirmed that the executive branch has the authority to reduce items of appropriation in the manner that the governor did last year.”

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is seeking bids on two phases of the project. The first, due at 2 p.m. Oct. 5, would include demolishing existing buildings and installing utilities.

The second, due Aug. 30, 2011, would include installation of an emergency generator, improvements to the Interstate 580 off-ramp, and construction of three stacked housing units and six guard towers. Each housing unit would include 180 cells, showers, counseling rooms and a kitchen.

Work on the first phase of the project would begin Nov. 5. The entire project is scheduled for completion on June 25, 2013. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections said she had no estimate as to the number of bids the department expects to receive.

“We’ve never built a condemned inmate complex before,” spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

The Department of Corrections estimates construction of the new complex would employ about 6,000 workers, while the complex itself would employ 570 to 648 people upon completion.

jchev California, Death Penalty, Jail and Prison Construction

State government has promised to chip in $26 million for a new jail in Calaveras County and $80 million for a jail expansion in San Joaquin County. So what could go wrong?

Well, for one thing, state budget cuts to the prison system.

The state plans to come up with money for projects authorized under AB900, a law passed in 2008, by selling lease revenue bonds. Unlike traditional lease revenue bonds where the property financed is a money maker, the “lease” in this case involves a rent payment of tax dollars from one state agency to another.

The State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is supposed to pay rent to the State Public Works Board for use of the jail facilities. If it doesn’t, the Public Works Board is obligated to find someone else to pay the rent. In the event of a state default on particular bonds, the county that built the jail would be given the first opportunity to pay the rent. If the county government couldn’t or wouldn’t pay it, then it would face the prospect of having a building in the middle of its law enforcement complex leased to some other entity, possibly a private company in the prison business.

The lease-revenue arrangement, and its potential pitfalls, have come as news to some county officials.

“I thought these were general obligation bonds of the state,” Calaveras County Supervisor Tom Tryon said during a July 27 meeting of the Board of Supervisors. “If they come to foreclose on the jail, what happens to our $32 million?” Tryon asked, referring to the money from a local bond measure county voters approved in 2007.

The local money in Calaveras is going to an 80-bed jail dormitory and to a Sheriff’s Department administrative building next to the planned main 160-bed jail building. A specially carved parcel that includes only the main 160-bed jail serves as security for the lease-revenue bonds. So the county would keep the administration building and the dormitory even in the event of a default.

Calaveras County Counsel Jim Jones said county officials were concerned enough about the possibility of a state default jeopardizing the main jail that county officials tried to negotiate changes in the language of the jail funding contract with the state.

He said state officials were unwilling to make the changes because they believe the lease-revenue arrangement is necessary to attract investors willing to buy the bonds.

There are significant differences between general obligation bonds and lease-revenue bonds. General obligation bonds in California must get a two-thirds approval from voters. They cost the least in interest because they are backed by the full faith of the state government.

Lease-revenue bonds were traditionally used to finance things such as electric utility plants, water treatment plants or toll bridges that would generate the money needed to pay the debt. By using lease-revenue financing, state officials avoid the need to ask voter approval but will have to pay higher interest rates, and therefore more tax dollars, for the state’s $7.4 billion in borrowing for AB900. That program is building both prison and jail capacity around the state.

Another danger to the jail financing is that California’s battered credit rating and budget deadlock could make it difficult to sell AB900 bonds.

Yet state officials remain confident that they will be able to both sell the bonds and pay them off.

“You can’t say with any certainty there is no risk,” said Robert Takeshita, deputy director of the California Corrections Standards Authority. “But then you have to look at the history. There has never been a default in the state of California.”

And county officials are for the most part resigned to the fact that they need the state funding if they are to build a bigger jail.

“We do have concerns, and we hope it doesn’t happen,” San Joaquin County Director of Facilities Management Gabe Karam said of the risk the state could default on the bonds. “But there is too much at stake here. It is $80 million from the state to build the jail here. How can you say no to that?”

Al Segalla, president of the Calaveras County Taxpayers Association, said that if the general public hasn’t objected so far to the funding mechanism, its high costs, and its risks, that’s because few people understand it.

“This multilayered leasing is really confusing to the public and to me. It is almost like a fraud or a scheme to avoid public accountability,” Segalla said.

Calaveras County has finished its design for the jail and is scheduled to begin construction late this year, finishing the job by December 2012.

San Joaquin County is going slower, Karam said, and doesn’t anticipate starting construction on its expansion until mid-2012. By then, he said, local officials may know more about whether investors are willing to buy AB900 bonds and whether California’s elected leaders can stabilize state finances.

“We have two years to know more about the state of the economy in California,” Karam said.

jchev Budgets, California, Jail and Prison Construction

A self-described former gang member in a silver and black Bo Jackson Raiders jersey and Nike high tops strutted into an Oakland parole office Thursday morning to get a new GPS unit strapped around his ankle. Sergio, 43, said he wasn’t happy to represent one of the new frontiers of state corrections. The anklet he has worn 24 hours a day for the past two months, he said, made him feel like a dog on a leash. Story, with additional photos, in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Like in the cartoons,” said Sergio, who declined to give his last name, “where the dog gets shocked if he crosses the line.”

For corrections officials, that’s the whole point. Sergio is one of 40 paroled gang members in Alameda County, and one of 800 statewide, that agents began tracking in January – marking a major expansion of a GPS program first used on paroled sex offenders.

The program aims to monitor 1,000 parolees by year’s end, officials said, at roughly $9,500 each annually.

Officials touted the program Thursday in the midst of Operation Gangbusters, a multiagency sweep. By the late afternoon, parole agents and police officers had arrested 48 people, seized two guns and two machetes, and picked up four parolees who had allegedly absconded from supervision.
Protest was off-limits

The officials made clear how strict the GPS monitoring can be. Sergio’s parole agent can see his every move. And the agent can punish him if, for example, he crosses into old stomping grounds in San Leandro, or congregates with other GPS-strapped parolees.

Mark Morris, 22, who also had his GPS unit updated Thursday, said the plastic device served as a constant visual reminder to stay out of trouble. “It helps me think more about what I’m doing,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing.”

In early July, said Robert Ambroselli, director of adult parole for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, gang members wearing the units were prohibited from entering Oakland’s downtown area during the protests that followed the verdict in the trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle.

A violation can mean a return to prison.

“Now they know my every move,” complained Sergio, who said he was no longer a gang member. “Now I just stay to myself and my female friends and whatnot.”

Corrections officials are under pressure to achieve success in their growing GPS venture, which some critics have called too pricey given the state’s budget crunch.

Agents’ use of the technology was criticized after the arrest of Phillip Craig Garrido, the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and imprisoning her in his backyard near Antioch.

Garrido, a paroled sex offender, was outfitted with a GPS anklet in April 2008 but was not closely watched. The case showed that the devices are often only as effective as the human beings who use them.

While Garrido was under “passive monitoring,” the parolee gang members are watched more closely. Their movements are not viewed in real time, but agents often look back at and scrutinize a full day of GPS “tracks.”
Tracking ‘worst of worst’

Ambroselli said the device serves as a “scarlet letter,” letting others know that a parolee is being monitored by police. At any time, an agent can flip open a laptop computer and watch as a screen of blinking dots and arrows shows them where their gang members are located.

“It isolates them from their network,” Ambroselli said. “It sends a message to gang members and their associates: ‘We’re watching you.’ ”

Officials are also intrigued by the potential for making arrests through “crime scene correlation,” comparing GPS tracks with crime reports to see if a gang member was at a scene – a shooting or robbery, for example – at a specific time.

According to state corrections officials, about 20,000 parolees in California are validated as gang members. But “only the most dangerous guys get anklets,” said John Bent, a supervisor parole agent in Alameda County. “They’re the worst of the worst.”
Electronic eye on parolees

For one of Bent’s agents, Brett Everidge, the technology is another tool to confirm whether a parolee is living within the law.

“It’s easy for them to say they’re doing the right thing, not hanging out with the wrong crowd, or hanging out in places where they shouldn’t,” Everidge said. “But this technology helps prove it.”

Sergio said he had served two years in Corcoran State Prison in Kings County for discharging a firearm in public. He said he was a gang member in his youth.

Sergio said friends who visited him often made fun of his GPS unit, prompting him to consider decorating an item that is becoming an increasingly common accessory.

“I asked my (parole officer) if I could put some bling on it,” Sergio said. “He said it was OK, as long as it still worked. Maybe I’ll put a Raiders sticker on it.”

jchev California, Electronic Monitoring, GPS, Parole

California parole officials, stung by recent high-profile failures in the system, said Tuesday they are beginning to test more intensive monitoring of parolees in four counties as the first step in a five-year plan to improve supervision of high-risk offenders. News from the Orange County Register.

Selected parole agents in Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Sonoma counties this week began supervising 48 parolees, down from the usual 70 offenders, said Robert Ambroselli, director of adult parole for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The lower caseloads will increase the amount of attention agents can devote to each parolee, he said.

The new policy being tested in the four counties requires agents to meet with parolees and their family members, drug counselors and prospective employers or job-training agencies to develop individual goals.

Parolees who meet their goals may be rewarded by having to undergo drug tests, searches of their homes and intensive interviews with relatives once every other month instead of at least monthly, Ambroselli said in an interview. They can also qualify to end their parole after a year instead of the typical three years.

Experts had recommended the state dump its old system in which overworked agents often conducted cursory home visits, drug tests or brief conversations with parolees or family members.

Agents and their supervisors will also get more training. The department is hiring nearly 440 new agents, and hiring more supervisors to reduce the number of agents each must oversee.

The change is one benefit from a law that took effect in January that ended parole supervision for ex-convicts who were convicted of lesser crimes or are considered to be less dangerous.

The law was projected to save $200 million in its first year in part by reducing the number of parolees returned to prison for violations. Half the savings is going back into increased supervision of parolees considered to be higher risk, and to catch parole violators.

Sex offenders will not be included in the new policy until a task force makes its recommendations later this year. The task force was convened after agents failed to discover that a convicted sex offender was allegedly keeping Jaycee Dugard hidden at his Contra Costa County home for 18 years. They also elected not to revoke the parole of a convicted child molester who later pleaded guilty to killing two San Diego County teenagers.

jchev California, Community Corrections, Parole

As a child, Troy Williams grew calloused to the South Central Los Angeles street ethos: Gangs, violence, drugs and firearms. But Williams, now barrel-chested and 43-years-old, didn’t have the confidence to speak up in a classroom until he became a resident of San Quentin State Prison. Story  from KALW News.

“In the past, I never even felt adequate in a classroom,” Williams said. “Now, I can come in, I can learn and be comfortable.”

Each weekday in this ancient, cinematic citadel – perched on the shores of San Francisco Bay since the mid-19th century – teams of educated volunteers try to provide convicted felons a college-level education.

Williams, along with about 300 inmates at the prison, qualify for enrollment in the Prison University Project, a nonprofit program that offers inmates basic education and even an associate of arts degree through Patten University, an accredited university in Oakland.

The program at San Quentin is a rare bright spot in a dismal era for California’s overcrowded prisons, which consume more than $8 billion annually. State budget crunches and tough sentencing laws have deteriorated the once model system to the point that in recent years federal courts have declared conditions in the state’s prisons unconstitutional.

Started in 1996 with just two classes and no budget, the project has incorporated as a nonprofit and runs on a budget of nearly $400,000 and a staff of about 60 unpaid volunteers, said Jody Lewen, the project’s executive director.

“One of the core commitments that we’ve been able accomplish is providing a real high-quality level education, not just a diploma mill,” Lewen said. “We’re preparing students so that they can succeed.”

Lewen said the budget is built entirely from private donations, which fund three full-time administrators. About 30 of the volunteers serve as math tutors, Lewen said, while the backbone of the program is the more than 20 volunteer teachers, all of whom have at least a master’s degree in the field they teach.

Kelly Jane Rosenblatt has taught English for three years at the prison, while working toward a doctoral degree in English Literature at the University of Oregon.

For Rosenblatt, 31, the work is personal.

“My father was incarcerated, and I realized when I was corresponding with him that there’s not a lot of opportunities in prison,” Rosenblatt said. “When I became a grad student, and eligible to volunteer, I felt like I needed to help.”

During her English 101 course, Rosenblatt guides nearly 20 students – men of all colors ranging in age from the mid-20s to the mid-60s – through an eclectic mix of short stories and novels. During a class in early June, the discourse meandered from urban farming to agricultural corporations, probing Roald Dahl’s “Pig” for insight and even touching on Upton Sinclair’s classic, “The Jungle.”

Rosenblatt challenged her students to identify complex strains of symbolism and allegory in with a rigor on par with a university-level curriculum.

The students engaged, sometimes clumsily, but with enthusiasm.

“I look forward to coming to this class a lot,” said Juan Haines, a graying, soft-spoken 53-year-old who has been in prison for 14 years. He is serving a life sentence for bank robbery. “To get into a classroom environment and to talk on an intellectual basis, with other human beings, is different than being out on the yard.”

The waitlist to enroll in classes at San Quentin is about 100 inmates, Rosenblatt said.

While the nonprofit education program is on the rise, rehabilitative and educational opportunities in California prisons have been steadily slashed over the years.

In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act barred people incarcerated in the U.S. from receiving Pell Grants, a shift that decimated higher education in U.S. prisons.

In California, the decline has been particularly tragic, said Robert Perkinson, as associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii and the author of “Texas Tough: The rise of America’s prison empire,” a book published last year.

“At mid-century, California was the model for professional, treatment-oriented, research-supported incarceration with an aim toward smooth reintegration,” Perkinson said. “The fall of this system into the waste that it is today is maybe the greatest tragedy in American prison history.”

Perkinson attributes the decline in rehabilitative and education programs to a triumph of politics over sound practices. As politicians realized they could score popularity with tough-talk against felons and cuts to programming in a system whose consumers don’t vote, Perkinson said, corrections policies have taken several steps back.

Now, nonprofits like the Prison University Project have stepped into the breach.

Lewen hopes the program doesn’t just give felons a better chance to succeed the next time they are released, but also raises awareness about the conditions in which more than 160,000 California prisoners live.

“We’re educating the inmates, but really what we’re also doing is bringing all these folks in from the (educational) academy,” Lewen said. “And they’re becoming educated about the prison system and the criminal justice system in a way they never would have been before.”

But the focus remains providing education in prison, bringing light into a place synonymous with darkness, despair and punishment, with an eye on reducing the numbers of parolees who re-offend.

Williams is one student who pledges his life has been changed forever. He has been in prison for 14 years, and is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for his role in a violent robbery.

Williams is known among his teachers as a quick study who enthusiastically participates in class discussions and always does his homework.

He said his favorite class is ethics.

If he is ever released, Williams vows to work with troubled youth.

“When I was 10-years-old, my older brother told me what a Crip and a Blood was,” Williams said. “That was where we grew up, that environment. I want to save other kids from going down the paths we went down.”

jchev California, Inmate Education

The Pomona Sheriff’s Department studies cost of taking over policing. The city, which is trying to trim a $14.2-million deficit, sought the analysis. But rank-and-file officers feel their commitment to the city isn’t being considered. Voters could decide the issue. Reported in the LA Times.

In the calm of a warm spring evening, a man in uniform stood alone at Pomona’s civic center, gathering his thoughts. Police Chief Dave Keetle stared for a few moments at a plaque dedicated to his father, a former council member, before heading into a meeting. Lately, the younger Keetle has thought about his own legacy and whether he will be asked to dismantle a Police Department his late father passionately supported.

At the city’s request, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has completed a preliminary study on the cost of taking over police services. The ultimate decision — if it comes to that — would be left to the voters, possibly as early as this fall.

Pomona, with a population of more than 155,000, would be the largest city in the county to turn to the Sheriff’s Department to save money. Hiring deputies could save the city millions — and chip away at a $14.2-million deficit.

Pomona council members say that the proposal is only in the exploratory stage, but, nonetheless, a funk has descended on the rank and file in a department that is nearing its 100th anniversary and that believes it deserves credit for turning the tide on years of violent crime and gang activity.

“There’s people who have put in 20 to 30 years here,” Keetle said. “They’ve dedicated their lives to this city.”

Pomona is hardly the first L.A. County city to look at disbanding its police department. Tiny Sierra Madre considered doing away with its force, but ultimately rejected the idea. Maywood pulled the plug on its police force and virtually every other City Hall job earlier this month. Cudahy, which had been policed by Maywood, is now patrolled by sheriff’s deputies.

The city has an operating budget of about $90 million, half of which goes to the Police Department.

“The fact that Pomona, which has a long-standing Police Department, has approached us is pretty interesting,” Sheriff’s Capt. Bruce Fogarty said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear from other cities in these economic times.”

The city is home to the 12th Street gang, which has about 1,000 members and deep ties in the community. Pomona was once described by authorities as “a hotbed of gang activity.” In 1989, the city reported 45 murders, the highest recorded in any San Gabriel Valley city at the time.

Police have since zeroed in on the gang and the murder rate has dropped. Last year there were 17 homicides, and residents say the streets seem safer.

“It tends to have a bad rap, but I’ve never felt unsafe,” said Deb Mashek, a psychology professor at Harvey Mudd College who moved to Pomona five years ago.

Mashek, 35, was among the hundreds of sign-waving residents and city employees who flooded council chambers earlier this year to protest the possibility of shutting down the Police Department.

The department’s future has been up for debate before. In 1986, Pomona was having money trouble and explored contracting out police, fire and library services. The issue was abandoned, although the county took over the Fire Department soon after. In 1990, council members talked openly about getting rid of the police force but then abruptly dropped the idea.

This time, the mere request to explore shutting down the Police Department has spurred a debate that reaches deep inside Pomona’s neighborhoods.

The Pomona police force has a long history of controversy, including accusations of racial profiling, police brutality and a code of silence among officers. In 1996, an officer sued the city, alleging that his colleagues harassed him after he reported that officers were stealing money and planting drugs on suspects. More recently, the department was accused of targeting Latinos by setting up traffic checkpoints during holidays like Cinco de Mayo and using what Councilwoman Cristina Carrizosa called “Gestapo”-like tactics.

Hank Fung, a 28-year-old civil engineer, said he takes issue with the “instantaneous support” some residents have showered on police.

“To put all the options on the table is something that’s fiscally responsible when you have a city that has a huge budget deficit,” Fung said.

Other residents say more thought should have been given to the effect on officers’ attitudes. “Who wants to go all out if you think you’re going to be canned the next day?” said Tamara Fair, 51, a Neighborhood Watch block captain of five years. “I just think we’re throwing our Police Department under the bus.”

The evaluation, which was finished in June, is being reviewed by city staff and an outside consultant. A more comprehensive study will be conducted at a cost of about $25,000 if the city decides to press forward.

Councilman Stephen Atchley doubts that it will get that far. “It appears that public sentiment is ‘hell no,’ and that’s to be expected,” he said. “Most people don’t really get the seriousness of the issue. It just doesn’t dawn on people how city finances work, where the money comes from and goes to.”

Meanwhile, the Pomona Police Officers Assn. has attempted to rally the city around the issue. A Save Pomona PD website was created, e-mails have been blasted, and red signs reading “Our Safety. Our Police” were printed and distributed. They have even reached out to leaders in Compton, which turned its law enforcement over to the county a decade ago but is pushing for its return.

At the same time, officers can’t shake the feeling that they have been betrayed by the city they serve.

“I had a discussion with the city manager, and we talked about loyalty one day, and she said her loyalty was to the community, not to the employees,” said Sgt. Rob Baker, president of the officers’ association. “I was crushed. Are you kidding me? I’ve been hurt; I’ve been shot at; I’ve had to use legal force; and I’m a workaholic. And you don’t consider me part of your community?”

Association members say they were caught off-guard by the recent proposal and have accused City Manager Linda Lowry of deliberately keeping them in the dark. Lowry said she was upfront with the officers and has grown tired of the personal attacks.

“You can’t continue to degrade the level of services in every other sector without finally addressing significant cuts in public safety,” she said.

jchev California, Personnel Issues

The long-awaited federal prison in Mendota now has an award-winning warden, a growing staff and an opening date that’s coming within sight. After a stop-and-start history, the medium-security facility in western Fresno County is on track to open “early next year,” Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce said Thursday. News from the Modesto Bee.

For approximately 1,152 inmates, Federal Correctional Institution Mendota will be a new home. For those willing to work inside prison walls, including newly named Warden Paul Copenhaver, the 960-acre facility will present fresh opportunities.

“The activation process has begun, which includes the hiring and training of staff and the purchasing of equipment and supplies,” Ponce said.

The Bureau of Prisons anticipates needing approximately 360 staffers for FCI Mendota, ranging from correctional officers and physician assistants to secretaries and laundry plant managers.

Some have been appointed, including Copenhaver. Until recently, Copenhaver was warden of Federal Correctional Institution Dublin. The Dublin facility is a low-security prison for women.

Last year, Copenhaver won the attorney general’s Award for Excellence from the Justice Department. Officials cited his “high expectations of staff and inmates” as well as his ability to cut overtime costs by one-third.

To lure additional career workers, the bureau has been offering relocation bonuses amounting to 17 percent of annual salary.

Still other Mendota staffers have yet to be hired. Web sites serving career correctional officers are buzzing with questions about the new Mendota prison, while the Bureau of Prisons has been posting online job notices and inducements.

“A federal prison is much like a small city surrounded by the security of a fence,” the Bureau of Prison states in one online job recruitment pitch.

Ponce added that “we an- ticipate inmates beginning to arrive early next year,” although a specific opening date has not yet been established.

“Inmates typically arrive in slow, steady increments over an extended period of time until a facility is nearly full,” Ponce explained.

At the Fresno Regional Workforce Investment Board, marketing and communications director Janis Parker said a number of potential Mendota prison employees have expressed in- terest.

Interest anticipated
Once the prison announces a firm starting date, the Workforce Investment Board will help screen and evaluate potential workers.

“The San Joaquin Valley has double-digit unemployment, and I’m sure there will be a lot of people interested in those positions,” Parker said.

Federal correctional officers typically start at salaries of $36,500 to $48,000 a year.

Completed at a cost of roughly $250 million, the Mendota prison grew more expensive than original estimates in part because of construction interruptions. In addition to the main medium- security facility, construction of an adjacent minimum security camp holding about 130 inmates is expected to be completed by April, Ponce said.

Work on the prison began in February 2005, but the scheduled 2008 completion date fell by the wayside when funding temporarily dried up. As late as March 2010, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, had to request help from fellow lawmakers in securing the funding necessary to open the Mendota prison.

Last week, Costa noted, San Joaquin Valley officials were “impressed” by what they saw when they were brought in for a tour of the facility.

jchev California, Jail and Prison Construction

Dr. Ricki Barnett, chief medical officer for California Prison Health Care Services, has in front of her a list of two dozen of the most expensive patients under her watch. Their names and medical histories are highlighted in yellow. Complete story, additional photos and statistics in the Ventura County Star.

Patient A, she says, is a man in his 40s who suffered a head injury as a result of “institutional trauma,” likely a prison fight. He has never regained consciousness, has no cognitive function, suffered respiratory failure and survives through breathing and feeding tubes. He’s been this way for 2,600 days, or more than seven years.

Patient B, a 62-year-old man, suffers from AMS, a neurological condition similar to Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He’s paralyzed, has severe lung damage and breathes via a ventilator. “He’s a pretty sick guy, but he’s stabilized,” Barnett says. “I would anticipate he’ll be with us for a good deal longer.”

Patient C underwent surgery for a benign brain tumor. “The gray matter in his brain has been pressured out of existence. He’s vegetative.”

Barnett starts to read on, looks up and shakes her head. “They all start to sound the same.”

These are the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s $2 million-a-year-patients. All are men, most in their 40s and 50s, many with no known family members who could, if they chose, sign end-of-life directives that could hasten their deaths. They are housed in isolated wings in two long-term, acute care community hospitals, cuffed to their beds and guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by two armed prison guards, one in each room and another in the hallway outside the door.

If the patients were to be placed on medical parole, their guards could go back to doing more useful work, the cuffs could be replaced with electronic monitoring devices, the cost of their medical care would be partly paid by federal tax dollars, and the state prison system would save $42 million.

These inmate-patients, Barnett said, would never know the difference. “They have no capacity to realize where they are.”

Next month, California lawmakers will decide whether to create a medical parole classification that would give the state’s Board of Parole Hearings authority to free the state prison system from direct responsibility for these patients and potentially hundreds more medically incapacitated inmates.

Those sentenced to death or to life in prison without possibility of parole would not be eligible.

If the proposal were to pass in the Legislature and be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California would become at least the 18th state to adopt some form of parole or release program for old, infirm or incapacitated inmates.

The terms under consideration in California require that eligible inmates be “physically or cognitively incapacitated,” which, Barnett said, means they would be unable to perform any of the functions of daily living or, as would be the case with inmates with advanced Alzheimer’s disease, have severely limited brain functions.

The proposed conditions would be among the most restrictive in the nation, said Tina Chiu, who wrote a report in April on geriatric release programs for the New York-based VERA Institute of Justice.

Chiu identified 17 states with such programs, and said the California proposal would be among the most rigorous. “The threshold for being incapacitated seems very high,” she said.

Even at that, the California proposal, embodied in SB 1399, is politically controversial. It passed the Senate in June with the minimum votes required and received no Republican support. It will be heard by the Assembly Appropriations Committee early next month, and the bill’s author said he expects it will receive some measure of bipartisan support in the Assembly.

The measure is opposed by Crime Victims United, a victims’ rights organization closely allied with the state’s prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

In a letter to lawmakers last month, Crime Victims United Chairwoman Harriet Salarno argued the definition of what conditions would qualify inmates for medical parole consideration is too vague.

“This criterion is incredibly broad and would apply to illnesses that are not life-threatening,” Salarno wrote.

Since that time, supporters have agreed to tighten the definition. It now says an individual must be “physically or cognitively debilitated or incapacitated.” Joyce Hayhoe, legislative director for California Prison Health Care Services, said supporters have agreed to delete the word “debilitated” before the bill is considered by the Assembly.

The change, Hayhoe said, would eliminate from consideration inmates who suffer from chronic, debilitating conditions such as diabetes, hypertension or kidney disease, whose medical conditions can be managed without rendering them incapacitated.

Prison Health Care Services is overseen by federal court receiver J. Clark Kelso, who was given authority to run prison healthcare operations by a federal judge after he determined the state was making insufficient progress in correcting medical services the court had found to be unconstitutionally deficient.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which runs the entire prison system, has not taken a position on the bill. A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, noting the governor’s budget calls for an $811 million reduction in prison healthcare spending, said the administration “is working closely with the receiver in reviewing his proposal, with public safety being the governor’s top priority.”

Supporters believe they have addressed all legitimate public safety concerns. Medical parole would be subject to conditions, such as a requirement that parolee-patients be electronically monitored with GPS tracking devices, and could be revoked if a parolee’s medical condition improved and he or she became healthy enough to be deemed a threat to public safety.

Crime Victims United argues the revocation provision is not mandatory and its inclusion in the bill, in Salarno’s view, “raises concern about what offenders would be eligible.”

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, the author of SB 1399, said the receiver’s office has identified about 700 inmate-patients it believes would be eligible, but the decisions would be left in the hands of a parole board that has historically been extremely selective in granting paroles.

“All this bill does is give authority to the board. It doesn’t release a soul,” Leno said. “If anything, the parole board may err on the side of caution. This is a parole board that doesn’t release very many.”

Indeed, the experience in other states has been that very few inmates have been released or paroled on medical grounds.

The VERA Institute study found a large “gap between intent and impact” of state medical and geriatric release programs. Over a seven-year period, Colorado released only three individuals, the study found. Virginia released four over six years. Only in Missouri, where 235 have been released over the last decade, does it seem the program is having a significant impact, the study found.

Because Missouri has only about one-sixth the inmates in its prisons as California, the proportional equivalent of that release rate here would be about 1,400 inmates.

The motivation for the proposal in California, as it has been elsewhere, is to reduce state costs for prison operations. “When you see these programs discussed, it usually comes at a time when there are a lot of budgetary pressures,” Chiu said.

With California struggling to close a $20 billion budget shortfall, the pressure is intense to bring prison spending, the fastest-growing segment of the state budget, under control.

The medical parole proposal deals with a small, but financially significant, slice of California’s inmate population of 166,000. The cost of providing medical care to all inmates has soared in recent years, more than doubling, to $2.5 billion from 2006 to 2009. The rising costs are partly the result of staffing improvements ordered by the receiver.

On average last year, the state spent $16,000 per inmate on prison healthcare.

As in the general population, however, healthcare costs are not evenly spread, but rather heavily concentrated in a small percentage of the sickest individuals.

A major contributing factor to the prison system’s soaring healthcare costs has been the cost of providing specialty care that is contracted out to hospitals and doctors outside of the prison system. That cost has jumped from $394 million in 2005 to $845 million last year.

An analysis done in May by the California State Auditor found that 39 percent of specialty healthcare expenses was spent on just 1,175 inmates, the sickest 2 percent of those who required specialty care.

Based on those statistics, Leno said, he believes the state could save up to $200 million annually in prison costs once a medical parole system becomes firmly established.

“We have limited resources,” he said. “They’re not coming back tomorrow or the next day, or next year. In these desperate times, and they are desperate, we have to conserve our resources. Justice is best served when we spend our limited resources on education, not incapacitated inmates.”

jchev CA Ventura County, Inmate Health Care, Mental Health Issues

A legal move by the state Department of Corrections to speed up the conversion of the Stark prison into an adult prison and an inmate mental health center has provoked a counter maneuver from city attorneys. News from the Daily Bulletin.

Attorneys for the city of Chino have filed a motion against a corrections plan to substantially shorten the environmental review process that would prevent public hearings and prevent the city from weighing in on environmental concerns.

After being prompted by a federal court order in June to speed up the conversion work at the former Herman G. Stark facility by a year, the state filed a recommendation that proposes construction be completed in 2013, one year earlier than originally planned.

The accelerated schedule would eliminate the 45-day public review time period, eliminate a 10-day time frame for providing responses to public comments, and eliminate the 30-day period in which the city, or any other party, could file litigation, according to Chino spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden.

“Corrections in turn came back to the judge with an expedited plan that more or less eliminates the need for the (environmental review) document and town hall (public review) meetings,” said Chino Mayor Dennis Yates.

Chino’s motion, filed Friday, would allow city representatives to comment on the recently proposed accelerated plan at Stark. The motion is set to be heard by a federal district judge on Aug. 9. Opposition to the city’s motion is due on July 26, which would allow the city the opportunity to reply before the scheduled hearing.

Local officials are concerned that the plan to shorten the lengthy environmental review process could deprive them and residents the chance to air public safety and environmental concerns. The city’s motion would allow the city to participate as an active party in a federal case that has resulted in the expansion of mental health facility construction throughout the state, Van Der Linden said.

The Stark conversion plan is part of corrections’ compliance with a federal Ninth Circuit appellate court ruling ordering state prison officials to reduce overcrowding and provide more mental health and medical services to inmates.

Bob Sleppy, deputy director of the Environmental Service Branch for Corrections, said that despite the new proposal, the state still would collect local public comment on the conversion prior to release of an environmental impact review document.

“The court ordered us to identify anything that would allow us to gain some time and that’s what we did,” Sleppy said. “We identified those periods to substantially reduce the time frame, but we still intend to do a legal environmental review document with substantial front-end involvement of the community, so we know what their concerns are.”

Chris Meyers, senior chief for facility planning and construction management for the Department of Corrections, said the Stark conversion will turn the former youth prison into an adult prison for reception center inmates and inmates in need of mental health services.

Existing prison buildings at Stark will be converted into a reception center for about 1,800 adult inmates and an additional 384 beds for permanent work crew inmates.

Construction will also bring 575 more beds to a new four-building mental health facility. Two more new buildings planned include a 60-bed correctional treatment center for the temporary treatment of inmates in need of medical and mental health care, and a central health services building for all of the inmates, Meyers said.

State prison officials estimate the total projected budget for the Stark conversion to an adult facility is about $521 million, though corrections is awaiting formal authorization of the project’s scope, budget and schedule by the state Budget Works Board after the plan is reviewed by the Department of Finance and considered by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

jchev California, Jail and Prison Construction

The McFarland Community Correctional Facility is going to reopen as a 200-bed, privately run female prison later this year, company and state corrections officials announced Thursday. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has awarded the GEO Group a five-year contract with an option to renew for another five years, according to GEO. GEO expects to begin accepting female inmates in the third quarter of this year, following minor renovations. News from Bakersfield.com.

Corrections officials weren’t sure how many jobs the project will create and GEO did not return a message seeking more information about its plans. McFarland’s unemployment rate was 31.3 percent in May.

McFarland City Manager Bob Wilburn said about 120 people worked at the facility before it closed but a majority lived outside of McFarland. Still the reopening is good for the small town, he said.

“We were disappointed when it closed,” Wilburn said. “We’re glad to see they’re gearing up to reopen.”

The corrections department ordered the McFarland facility and Mesa Verde Community Correctional Facility in Bakersfield closed late last year because there weren’t enough low-level male inmates to fill them. Mesa Verde also bid on the contract to house female prisoners but was rejected for not meeting the state’s criteria, said Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Cassandra Hockenson.

She said the state wants more of these smaller, low-risk facilities for women as a way to “move toward rehabilitation over mere incarceration.”

“Female inmates are very receptive to rehabilitation and enrichment opportunities, and these types of facilities and programs allow us to focus on that goal,” Hockenson said.

When fully up and running, the facility is expected to generate $4.75 million annually.

“We look forward to furthering our long-standing partnership with CDCR and helping the State of California meet its ongoing correctional bed needs with the reactivation of our company-owned McFarland Community Correctional Facility,” GEO Chairman and CEO George C. Zoley said in a statement on its website.

jchev California, GEO, Private Prisons

California’s inmate labor program, a self-sufficient system that doesn’t rely on the state’s deficit-riddled General Fund, has adopted a balanced budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year – one of the few solvent pieces of state government. News reported in the Capitol Weekly.

The governing board of the California Prison Industry Authority (CalPIA) approved the $180 million budget as part of its annual plan at its June 29 meeting. The profit margin is down, but still in the black.

“In these tough economic times the CalPIA has been able to maintain profitability through increased efficiencies, thereby continuing its self sufficiency,” said the Authority’s general manager, Chuck Pattillo. “CalPIA is the CDCR’s (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) most successful rehabilitative program, and as a self sufficient program, CalPIA business operations help reduce prison violence, reimburse victims, save taxpayer dollars, and develop work skills.”

“I am proud of the hard work of the dedicated staff at CALPIA,” continued Pattillo. “In this atmosphere of layoffs and fiscal uncertainty, the CALPIA staff has been resilient and unwavering in their commitment to our mission.”

The annual plan represents the Authority’s projection of revenues and expenditures. It takes into consideration changes in the economy, legislation, the state budget, and inmate populations.

The proposed Annual Plan includes revenues of $180.4 million and fully funds all CALPIA operations and expenses, including $2.3 million to finance the Career Technical Education (CTE) programs, “while providing a minimal net profit,” the agency said. The CalPIA projects an average of 6,333 inmate positions, a reduction of 198 positions – about 3 percent – from 2009-10. The agency also anticipates funding 621 civil service positions, a reduction of 29 positions, or 4 percent from the mid-year review.

Under state law, CALPIA is required to operate a self-sufficient work program for prisoners by generating sufficient funds from the sale of products and services to pay for its expenses. The goods and services are used by the Department of Corrections to reduce its operational costs. The budget estimates a net profit level of $1.6 million, a 63 percent decrease – about $2.7 million – under the $4.3 million estimated for the current year.

jchev California, Inmate Programs

Buried among statewide budget-cutting plans is a relatively short paragraph. The gist: Instead of sending low-level felons to prison, keep them in county jails. Story in the North County Times.

The size and placement of the idea —- a few lines in the middle of a 34-page summary of new budget-slashing ideas —- belies the significance of how big a change it would be.

It’s a plan that could see the lowest-level criminals released from local jails to make room for a larger crowd of felons, about 2,100 a year.

“It’s going to be a severe problem,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said at a public safety forum in June.

Here’s how it works now: Criminals sentenced to less than a year in custody stay in a local jail, while those who get longer sentences are sent to state prison.

Here’s the way it would work under the change: Certain criminals with a sentence of three years or less stay put in county jail.

People who violate their parole, something that normally would draw prison time, also would stay local. Felons who might be housed locally would include those whose crimes are not serious or violent. Sex offenders would still be sent to state prison.

The daily population of San Diego County’s jails on Friday hovered below 4,700 people. The local jails can hold about 5,500 people —- but no more than that, the courts have ordered.

The proposal is part of the state’s budget package under negotiations in Sacramento.

If the budget passes as proposed, with this plan still in it, the county jails would house hundreds more felons each year.

‘Creative alternatives’ to jail
In 2009, San Diego County sent 1,428 people to prison for nonviolent, non-sex offense crimes, as well as 715 people who violated parole, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which runs the state’s prisons.

On the surface, those 2,100 or so inmates appear to fit the criteria for prisoners who would avoid prison and stay in local jails under the plan. And those are the sort of numbers that would leave local jails jammed to capacity inside of just a few months, Gore said.

“It’s going to force (the Sheriff’s Department) to come up with some creative alternatives to incarceration,” Gore said at the forum. “We are exploring a lot of different areas.”

Among the ideas, he said, is the possibility of GPS monitoring or house arrest. San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said at the forum that the plan brings some challenges.

“It’s shifting the burden to the local taxpayers and the local county,” Dumanis said.

Under the plan, the state could save $243.8 million this fiscal year if certain prisoners stay in county jails. The proposal was part of suggestions laid out by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office in May when it updated the proposed state budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Even though the fiscal year started Thursday, the budget talks are still under way in Sacramento. Among those at the table is Assembly Republican leader Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad. His spokesman, Seth Unger, said Friday that the proposal to shift more criminals to local jails “is part of the ongoing discussions” in closing a $19 billion budget gap.

“Republicans want to make sure that anything done with inmates and shifting responsibility locally (to county jails) is done in collaboration with counties and sheriffs across the state,” Unger said, adding that such talks would include a look at the concerns of overcrowding the jails.

“We do not want to see inmates being granted early release due to a new housing arrangement with the state. But we do believe that there could be a cost savings we need to explore,” Unger said.

Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, said the state has been looking at ways to reduce prison populations for years, but she said this proposal is “impractical” and “unlikely to be accepted by the local counties because of the expenses involved.”

“It is not likely to happen,” Kehoe said.

A number of law enforcement groups, including the California Peace Officers Association, the California Police Chiefs Association and the California State Sheriffs Association, all asked that the proposal as shaped be taken off the table.

Easing overcrowded prisons has been a high priority in California in recent years, and officials have taken a number of steps toward that end. Another plan on the table is part of Chelsea’s Law, named for slain Poway teen Chelsea King, who was raped and murdered in February by registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, who confessed to the crimes.

Among the provisions of Chelsea’s Law, which is working its way through the Legislature, is a plan to recategorize certain felonies, such as petty theft, as misdemeanors.

The idea behind that is to open up prison beds by keeping small-timer thieves in county jails —- thus freeing up money to better monitor sex offenders.

Funding problems
It’s unclear how much money the county would get from the state to house additional inmates each year.

One suggestion is to raise vehicle license fees —- the cost to register a car —- to pay for the shift in housing. Aside from housing, the proposal says the state would give the county about $11,500 per prisoner shipped back to local custody.

It appears the money would not go to the Sheriff’s Department for housing. Instead, it probably would go to probation departments to pay for programming to address education, employment and other problem areas for people who find themselves in trouble with the law.

The money would also help fund drug courts and “alternative custody,” the proposal states.

In San Diego County, the Sheriff’s Department and the Probation Department have separate budgets. Mack Jenkins is chief of the county’s Probation Department, and he said the proposal is “a big deal” that “has been on our radar” since it was announced.

The county Probation Department monitors low-level criminals after their release from jail. The role of monitoring people released from prison falls to state parole officers. But if the would-be state prisoners are moved to county jails, that means more people for county probation officers to monitor.

“We are really concerned about the workload impact,” Jenkins said last week. “I don’t have numbers yet, I haven’t seen how many offenders we are talking about, but already, we don’t have enough probation officers to supervise everybody on probation.”

His department has only 78 officers to keep tabs on the approximately 14,000 people on probation. As it is, not everybody gets a close eye. The department pays most attention to the 2,100 people determined to be at highest risk to commit new crimes.

Jenkins said the proposed $11,500 per inmate probably is not nearly enough to cover the cost of providing effective programming and the cost of paying for probation officers to monitor former inmates.

The idea of shifting state prisoners to county jails, he said, is not surprising. He said it could work —- if there is enough money to cover housing and programming costs.

That, Jenkins said, is because a well-funded probation department can provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment and address other problems for low-level criminals before they commit a crime serious enough to land them in prison.

“If you fund probation upfront, you can adequately reduce the prison population over time,” Jenkins said. “We can increase the success rate (for low-level offenders) and thus reduce the prison population and reserve the prison beds for the most dangerous criminals.”

jchev CA San Diego County, California, County-State Issues

Officials at Deuel Vocational Institution admit the outrage factor. They acknowledge that they have built a $32 million plant to provide prisoners with the purest drinking water for miles around. News from The Record.

What’s more, less than a year after they finished construction and powered up the state-of-the-art plant, it malfunctioned. For now, the 85-foot-tall glimmering tower built by Carollo Engineers does little more than look like a NASA rocket awaiting liftoff.

“We know what the problem is and how to address it,” said Matt Cordua, Deuel’s water plant supervisor. He added that he is working with engineers to get the parts to return the plant to operation.

Cordua explained that the highly efficient plant turns Deuel’s brackish well water pristine through a multistage process. Pointing to hunks of machinery, Cordua uses words such as “vapor compressor,” “reverse osmosis” and “brine concentrator” to describe how it operates.

When it’s running, its 4,000-volt, 1,500-horsepower motor pumps out more than 600,000 gallons a day. Asked to explain that to a lay person, Cordua pauses.

“This is the biggest electric generator I’ve ever seen,” he said, comparing it to those at the bottom of Nevada’s massive Hoover Dam.

It is the only licensed purification plant of its type in California that produces drinking water. But along with new technology comes glitches, said Cordua, who called the plant’s idle status “growing pains.”

Don’t be confused, said Deuel spokesman Lt. Gilbert Valenzuela. The plant is anything but a luxury item for the prison’s 3,890 inmates, he said, despite what they might believe. For years, he heard inmates complain about the well water, which looks bad and tastes bad.

During the 10-month period when the plant was running, one inmate became so elated that he wrote prison officials a note, Valenzuela said.

“Thanks for listening to us,” Valenzuela recounted. “It’s about time.”

But the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation didn’t build it to appease inmates. The purification plant – and a companion sewer-treatment facility at Deuel – came in response to hefty fines from state water oversight agencies that fined the state prison for its poor water quality dumped into a nearby river, said Deuel’s plant manager, Jeffrey Palumbo.

Deuel pipes its treated wastewater into tributaries of the San Joaquin Delta. To end up with wastewater that meets state standards, you have to begin with clean water, prison officials said.

Since 2004, Deuel has had to pay $525,000 in fines to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board because the treated water contained high levels of heavy metals, Palumbo said. Deuel, a state prison, has been its paying fines to another state agency. Despite the glitches, the plant won Carollo Engineers’ statewide recognition for the project’s design, Palumbo said.

He estimated that the plant should be running again within the next three months.

“What it comes down to is state requirement,” Palumbo said. “It has nothing to do with the inmates.”

jchev California, Environment and Energy

Some might assume that there are few opportunities to dance, laugh or speak in iambic pentameter at San Quentin State Prison. But on Monday evening, 10 inmates will prove them wrong by performing “Romeo and Juliet” in the prison’s Presbyterian Chapel, which will be the culmination of seventh months preparation in their Shakespeare class led by members of the Marin Shakespeare Company. Reported by Bay City News.

Monday’s 5:30 p.m. performance, directed by the company’s Suraya Keating, will be the third full show in the class’s seven-year history, a company director said.

Acting is “completely foreign” to some of the men who come into the program, managing director Lesley Currier said, adding that the challenge is often daunting for the students.

Preparation for the performance began in September, when the actors read through three different Shakespearian plays and ultimately selected this year’s work, she said.

Safety precautions at the prison mean that outsiders, including the actresses playing the parts of the Nurse, Lady Capulet and Juliet, aren’t allowed to make physical contact with inmates.

So how does one perform “Romeo and Juliet” when actors playing the star-crossed lovers aren’t allowed to press palms, let alone kiss?

With creative acting, of course.

“It has been a great learning experience for them,” Currier said. “They’ve done a great job of stepping up to the plate.”

It’s a tough crowd too, she said, as the bulk of the 400 expected audience members are men with life sentences and the prison workers who discipline them.

“It takes a lot of guts for 1/8the actors 3/8 to stand up and perform in front of their peers,” she said.

But Currier said the audience responds with respect. San Quentin is one of the few state correctional facilities to have an arts program.

When actors deliver their lines, “gasps of recognition” can sometimes be heard from the responsive audience, she said, because the tragic play’s themes of murder, forgiveness, hatred and regret are resonant with the actors and audience.

The men gathered in the yard to rehearse their lines, often drawing curiosity from neighbors. But their eventual success and experiences with the arts program have inspired others to give Elizabethan theater a go.

“They’ve become spokesmen within the prison system,” she said. “They are very articulate about how getting involved in a program like this is a benefit for all the men at the prison.”

Despite frustration from the surrounding community that the company is wasting resources on its prison arts program, Currier said the company prides itself on its outreach work, which includes programs for low-income youth around the county.

“It’s part of our community,” Currier said. “And we can do something that enhances that community. Shakespeare can help them be better people and feel better about themselves. They may never leave San Quentin, but they’re still becoming more educated and responsible human beings.”

The performances have not been without their own drama, she said. Last year, during the performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” one of the actors had to miss the first 20 minutes of the show when his attorney appeared at the prison before curtain time.

This is the second year the performance will take place in the chapel. Two years ago, “Macbeth” was acted out in the prison art room in front of a cramped audience of 30, Currier said.

Actors will perform for two hours without intermission because inmates are required to be back in their cells by 7:45 p.m., she said.

“We were worried they’d have to leave before the show was over, and then they wouldn’t know what happens to Romeo and Juliet,” she said.

jchev CA Marin County, Inmate Programs

Construction has started on a mental health facility at the California Institution for Women. The stand-alone 53,000-square-foot, 45-bed facility will serve the mental health care needs of female inmates and is intended to help mitigate a shortage of mental health beds. News from the Contra Costa Times.

The $34 million project includes housing, treatment, support and administrative services. Completion is expected in December 2011.

Funding for the project is part of Assembly Bill 900, which authorizes up to 32,000 new state prison beds to help relieve the state’s severe inmate crowding issue.

“We are very pleased to being construction of our second A.B. 900 project (last) week,” said Matthew Cate, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation secretary.

A 64-bed project also recently broke ground at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. As many as 200 construction jobs will be created over the 540-day duration of the Chino project, corrections spokeswoman Peggy Bengs said. The center is expected to create up to 238 positions, including custody, clinical, administrative and support staff.

“These projects will provide significant economic stimulus for California and for their respective communities at a time when the state desperately needs new employment opportunities,” said Chris Meyer, senior chief of corrections facility planning, construction and management.

The Chino facility has been in the planning process since mid-2000 when plans were made to expand in-patient mental health services for female inmates, Bengs said.

The new facility will be outside the secure perimeter on the northwest side of the institution, Bengs said. Temporary fencing and a guard tower will be used during construction. The double perimeter will then be extended to encompass the new facility.

The project will also add two new guard towers and 180 parking spaces for new staff. The facility will be staffed by employees of the California Department of Mental Health. The corrections agency awarded the project to Soltek Pacific Construction of San Diego.

Chino Mayor Dennis Yates said there should be no cause for concern regarding the CIW project, which only has 45 beds and is strictly for mental patients.

Yates said he expects the new facility’s work force to bring in some revenue to the city from gasoline, food and retail ancillary sales.

jchev California, Female Inmates, Mental Health Issues