States Close Prisons, CA Builds More

Californians United for a Balanced Budget  http://curbprisonspending.org/

13 States Closing Prisons While California Continues to Build

Press Contact:    Isaac Ontiveros
Communications Director, Critical Resistance
Phone:  510-517-6612
Oakland – A recent report by The Sentencing Project documents for the first time the growing trend of nationwide prison closures. The report, On the Chopping Block: State Prison Closings, notes that, to date, 13 states across the country have closed or are considering closing their correctional facilities, reversing a 40-year trend of prison expansion.  Meanwhile, California is pushing forward billions of dollars of prison and jail construction projects.
In a landmark decision, the US Supreme Court recently order California to dramatically reduce the state’s prison population. The states highlighted in the Sentencing Project report began closing prisons and investing in alternative to imprisonment without prompting by the courts.
“With the recent Court ruling on prison overcrowding, we have an opportunity to follow national trends and do things differently in California,” says Emily Harris, Statewide Coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget.  Harris continues “instead of continuing to push forward these unnecessary and costly prison and jail expansion projects, California should immediately stop all prison and jail construction, and construction plans. We have to learn from these other states that have safely reduced their prison populations by implementing smart parole and sentencing reform.”
States initiating prison closures include New York, Texas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Fiscal crises have fueled the trend, but reforms in sentencing and parole policies have resulted in less demand for prison space. “The trend of prison closings results from smart criminal justice policy combined with fiscal realities,” says Nicole D. Porter, State Advocacy Coordinator of The Sentencing Project and author of the report. “Too many low-level offenders have been incarcerated for excessive prison terms at great cost.”
Despite an ongoing fiscal crisis in California, there are currently 11 costly prison and jail expansion projects moving forward with AB900 funds, and more anticipated to roll out under phase II of the AB 900 legislation.  AB 900 allocates $12 billion in construction funds and marks the largest prison construction scheme in human history.
The full report, On the Chopping Block: State Prison Closings, can be found at:
http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/On_the_chopping_block_-_state_prison_closings_%282%29.pdf
The July 2011 Status Report on California Prison & Jail Construction can be found at:
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/CSA/CFC/Docs/AB900_Project_Status.pdf

Californians United for a Responsible Budget’s Budget for Humanity can be found at:
http://curbprisonspending.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Budget-for-Humanity.pdf

Why Prison Reality Shows are Crap

   I really can't stand all these so-called prison reality shows on TV now-a-days. What a bunch of crap. These shows are not reality. I know, I've spent 16+ years in jails/prisons after being falsely accused of rape in 1988. Sure the cops, prison guards, and all the others who profit off our so-called justice system love them because it makes it appear that prisons only hold crazy, out of control, violent cons who deserve their lot. These shows also makes it appear that the U.S. needs more and more prisons/jails and more and more laws to "protect" us. Here's some really good articles about all these for-profit, bullshit, exploitative prison reality shows:


Prison Reality TV: When You Can't Avert Your Eyes  http://news.change.org/stories/prison-reality-tv-when-you-cant-avert-your-eyes

Prison Porn  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/prison-porn/7906/

Beyond Scared Straight: Experts Alarmed by New Show and Impact on Kids 
http://jjie.org/scared-straight-story-2/8693

Are Most Grandfathers Child Molesters?

Taking the fun out of a first chocolate soda

 

By MICHAEL LAPOLLA
Published: 8/5/2011  1:59 AM
Last Modified: 8/5/2011  4:35 AM

July 25th was going to be a good day. I planned to take my 6-year-old grandson to his favorite park at 41st Street and Riverside Drive, then to a lunch counter for his first chocolate ice cream soda. We were both excited. I showered, shaved and dressed in freshly pressed khakis and shirt with a nice Italian leather belt.

We arrived at the park at 11:30 a.m. He played for 45 minutes while I watched. Then he asked me to play with him.

As I was helping him on the equipment, we were confronted by a woman who looked at my grandson and asked, "Where is your mother, honey?" She did not acknowledge my presence. The tone was off-putting. I explained to her who I was. Without looking at me she asked my grandson, "Is he really your grandfather?" He just stared at her. Then she started to interrogate me. I stopped the conversation and told her, "That's enough, get lost."

Upon leaving the park a few minutes later, I walked up to her and said I'd like to speak to her privately. Her tensed body language suggested I was an escaped felon or a poisonous snake. I said something like, "Thank you for caring for the safety of my grandson, but I think you need to develop some better manners and kick up the social skills. You can do better than that."

As I walked to my car I was accosted by a second woman and questioned again. She was joined by a third and fourth who started to hector me. One shouted, "You can't leave the park - we called the police."

I saw where this was going. I immediately went past exasperated and irritated and became instantly angry.

It became clear to me that these women had whipped themselves into a near frenzy within some imaginary parallel universe. Adult conversation was not possible. It was clear I was being harassed and slow-danced until the police arrived. They apparently reported me to the police with no possible evidence other than their collective hyperactive imaginations.

I reluctantly agreed to wait in the park for 10 minutes for the police to arrive. The police arrived and the women provided an incoherent and implausible story - then rapidly disappeared.

The police assessed the situation. We had a quiet, civil and professional conversation. It was resolved in a matter of minutes. We agreed that to re-engage the accusers was to waste the time of the police and me.

I left the park and took my grandson for his chocolate ice cream soda. It wasn't as enjoyable as we would have liked. But I will never forget it and neither will he.

Here's what I want to know. Who the hell deputized these women to harass grandfathers in a public park with no evidence or provocation? How do I take my grandson to a public park in the future? Are there consequences for wildly false accusations, or am I the only one who gets tagged? If my 6-year-old grandson was not with me, how did he get to 41st and Riverside by himself?

I have a message for some of the Tulsa public. You know who you are. Be vigilant if you must, but let's not be maternal vigilantes. Don't let your imaginary demons overload your common sense.

Finally, I fear these women spent the day self-righteously congratulating themselves for "doing the right thing for the children," or worse, "it's better to be safe than sorry."

Sell that nonsense to my grandson who wants to know why the police were questioning him. One more thing: He doesn't want to go to that park anymore. Feel better, ladies?

---

Michael Lapolla is a longtime Tulsa resident who has recently retired; his grandson lives in Oklahoma City.

By MICHAEL LAPOLLA

Sex Offender Registry a Failure

From: http://www.thereporter.com/opinion/ci_18667566

Remedy an Injustice: Too many names on sex offender registry

By John Aspinwall

Posted: 08/12/2011 01:05:33 AM PDT

There should be little public doubt about the fallibility of the legal system.
Not only are laws enforced with wide disparity from place to place, they endure dramatic changes over time. With each fragmented, arbitrary addition, their purpose, strength and effectiveness disintegrates, just as a scattered army loses its force.

As the truth of the law is lost, we become increasingly susceptible to injustice. One injustice especially is in dire need of remedy. Its intentions were admirable, but the law has been an utter failure: the sex offender registry program.

An extreme minority of registrants are truly dangerous people who continue offending, showing no signs they've received adequate treatment. And some evidence indicates that registry programs exacerbate conditions that lead to reoffending.

But there are many nonviolent registrants who do not reoffend. In fact, the overall recidivism rate for sex offenders is the second-lowest for any crime.

Still, our protective system is overloaded with nonviolent offenders, and that drains funds that should go toward keeping tabs on the dangerous minority. These programs offer a negligible and dangerously false sense of security in our communities.

Those who make up the enormous chunk of the registry were primarily in their teens or 20s at the time of conviction and their "crimes" were an expression of natural behaviors. Their "crimes" involved no threat, no force, no coercion, manipulation or violence.
They had consensual sexual contact with someone who'd developed past puberty, but was still a minor.
Yet they are placed next to child molesters and rapists on the registry, branded alike for life.

They present no real danger. They might have incredible gifts that will never be shared, beautiful families that will never be formed. They might teach and inspire a future president or Army general.

But often they can't find jobs, let alone ones that suit their unique talents. They have great difficulty developing normal relationships for fear someone may think they are child molesters or serial rapists. Because the public is led to believe such things, these individuals are unjustly scarred and scandalized. They transgressed the law, but a scarlet letter does not belong on their chests.

I want to offer a different way of responding to sexual indiscretions and those who commit such offenses. I hope the benefits will be self-evident.

If those nonviolent people were removed from the registry, it would in no way endanger society. They pose no more a threat than would any random person plucked from a crowd. It may even relieve communities to see that there aren't, as they'd believed, pages and pages of dangerous, prowling sexual predators.

The tax money used to track these nonviolent people might be put toward more treatment facilities that focus on individuals who do threaten our communities -- programs for people suffering from compulsions they are ashamed of, for which they want help without fearing social damnation.

If these plans were developed with genuine care, we could study these cases and derive the sort of qualitative results by which to make significant strides toward eliminating these serious crimes. Consider the potential victims who might be spared irreparable suffering by any small advance in the ability to prevent actual sexual abuse.

This doesn't take into account funds currently put toward welfare programs for those who have work skills but are denied jobs because they are on the registry. They often can't find housing, as few landlords will rent to them. This creates a drag on local government that can't be underestimated.

These are members of our communities who made a young mistake. They shouldn't continue to be isolated and cut off from society, their contributions unfairly shunned. They can't keep being heaped, so inhumanely, with burdens that aren't theirs.

Would we rather let them move on, trying to improve with a job and home, or have them living under bridges, forever disgraced, with the truly dangerous few whispering sickness in their ear?

- - -

The author, a former Solano County resident, resides in River Falls, Wis.

CA Prisons and Facebook

From: http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/08/10/california-prison-facebook/

 

California prison system cracks down on inmates through Facebook

Social networking is big, even from behind bars

by Mike Wehner | Last updated 7:13PM EDT on August 10, 2011

With gang violence and overcrowding a constant issue in the California prison system, you might not think of inmate Facebook use as a major problem. However, convicts logging on to the social network has become such a large concern that the California Department of Corrections has asked Facebook employees to help them crack down.

The state is now working closely with the California-based social network to delete inmate accounts that have been updated since that person was imprisoned. Convicts aren't allowed to have unmonitored contact with the outside world, and by utilizing Facebook and other social networks, law enforcement fears that criminal activity can still be carried out, even while the inmate remains behind bars.

California prisons have a problem with contraband. In just the first half of 2011, over 7,000 mobile phones were confiscated from inmates. It is against prison rules to have such a device, but it's not illegal, and once a phone makes it into the prison population it often changes hands among convicts. The inmates can use these unauthorized devices to log on to Facebook, where they can update their status, and contact friends and family. NBC reports that one prisoner, who had been convicted of child molestation, used Facebook to harass his former victim from inside prison walls.

By determining which prisoners have been regularly visiting the social network, prison officials can hopefully determine the owners of the illegal mobile devices, and squash the problem at its root. However, until the source of the contraband phones — which is often, surprisingly enough, prison employees — is taken care of, the problem is unlikely to go away.

(Source)

The Bullet with My Name on It

  Back in April of this year I went thru a Sex Offender Raid (Compliance Check) at the Hotel I am forced to live in due to residential restrictions in CA for RSO's on parole. It was an absolute nightmare. A literal army of State and Federal Law Enforcement Agents from The FBI, State Parole Agents, State Police, and local Police came in like Storm Troopers and searched dozens of rooms. They were kind enough to let the local TV News Stations in on their "raid" which they exploited for maximum effect. All 4 local news stations filmed the circus and aired It morning, noon, and night for 4 days. My face was on camera while I was handcuffed outside my room. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Sex_Predator_Bust_in_Santa_Clara_Bay_Area-120438359.html .Our neighbor's were in an uproar and wanted all us RSO's heads on a platter. After the news reports I was photographed by strangers as I left the hotel. Once I was in my car and another time while I was in the parking lot. It's very creepy to be filmed or photographed by strangers, especially when your neighbors want to run you out of town or have you shot. My room overlooks El Camino Real, one of the busiest streets in my county, and 3 of my 4 walls have windows. I wonder when that bullet with my name on It will come smashing thru the window or a Molotov Cocktail (bomb) thrown thru It? I'd move if I could, but I can't. 75% + of this county is off-limits to me to live in and the other 25% probably would not rent to me. So it is either the hotel I currently live in or the streets where my only daily concern is finding a place to charge up my GPS Shackle that has to be charged every 10 hours. I have done prison time in 2 states (CA and OR) after being falsely accused in 1985 and served 16+ years, so I am no wimp. I walked The Mainline in both states in about 10 joints and few things scare me now. However; thinking about having my head blow off or burning alive by some unknown enemy kinda freaks me out. Some people think I'm paranoid, but just check out this website - RSO Vigilantism at http://www.youtube.com/user/RSOVigilantism . I can't wait to get out of this state! My life may depend on it.

Are All Internet Users Child Pornographers?

From: Lubbock Online  http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/bert-knabe/2011-08-03/hr-1981-presumes-we-are-all-child-pornographers

H.R. 1981 presumes we are all child pornographers

Submitted by Bert Knabe on August 3, 2011 - 4:26am

In her "Pulp Tech" blog at ZDNet Violet Blue reported that the House Judiciary Committee has passed the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011," a bill that is supposedly designed to protect children from Internet pornographers. Violet has several concerns with this bill, ranging from the fact that it seems to confuse pornographers - people engaged in a legal, if unsavory to some, activity - with pedophiles, who are among the most despicable people on the planet.
That is a big problem, but it surpassed by the specifics of the bill itself. Section 4 requires "A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least 18 months the temporarily assigned network addresses the service assigns to each account." That makes it a requirement for ISP's to keep complete records of everywhere you surf for at least 18 months. Further into the bill (Section 11) it modifies Section 3486(a)(1) of title 18 regarding administrative subpoenas.
A lot of people have been complaining about this bill. It is a privacy nightmare, requiring ISPs to keep records of everything you do online for a year and a half and allowing the records to be requested by just about anyone for any purpose. Violet Blue quotes Representative John Conyers:

“The bill is mislabeled,” said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the panel. “This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It’s creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes.”

From small ISPs (most large ISPs folded to government pressure years ago), privacy groups like the EFF and EPIC to congressmen, the concern over this bill is widespread. But if we don't get involved it will pass. The next step will be to make technologies like TOR illegal so you can't hide what you are doing from the government. The next likely step would be to outlaw open wifi. As long as people can go to Starbucks and surf this law will be easily circumvented, so open wifi will have to go. And there might be another attempt to outlaw encryption technologies. That was unsuccessfully attempted before, but the steady erosion of rights and civil liberties since 9/11 make it's passage more likely now, especially if bills like "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011" pass and are not overturned by the courts.
Contact your senators and representatives and let them know that this bill serves only one purpose, and that is to make it easier for government agencies to spy on law abiding citizens.
The text of the H.R. 1981 is here (PDF).

TAGS:  

• HR 1981
• pedophile
• presumed guilty

Host of To Catch a Predator Busted with STRIPPER !!!

To Catch a Predator host busted cheating on his wife 'had a SECOND mistress - a Vegas stripper'

By Paul Bentley
To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, who was caught a month ago cheating on his wife with a young blonde television reporter, has also secretly been dating a Las Vegas stripper, it has been reported.
The married NBC anchor, 52, who made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts, was secretly filmed on an illicit date with 30-year-old Kristyn Caddell in late June.
And now it appears he was also cheating on his mistress, with revelations that Hansen was also for six months secretly dating petite blonde Kathleen Collins, a stripper and aspiring country singer.

Affair: Married NBC anchor Chris Hansen allegedly had an affair with Vegas stripper and aspiring country singer Kathleen Collins

Miss Collins was said to have been shocked when she found out - through the press - that her married lover, who lives with his wife Mary, 53, and their sons in Connecticut, had also been sleeping with another woman.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021968/To-Catch-Predator-host-Chris-Hansen-cheated-MISTRESS-stripper.html#ixzz1UAxTYNe8

RSO Families - New Facebook Group

New Facebook Group RSOFAMILIES

I want to promote a New Facebook Group which is Forming. I get emails every day of people telling me their husband, father, or son has been put on the Public Shaming Registry.. they tell me how they cannot get a job..how all of society has branded them and they are rejected.. how many are reporting they are homeless.. innocent children telling how their Daddy is so depressed because he is on the registry and how they have no friends, how the other children are picking on them becaues their daddy is a pervert... how they do not want to go to school...how the wives of an RSO have nobody to talk to...
The lady who runs the new FACEBOOK GROUP contacted me via email and asked I help her to reach out to those who fit the group.
She sent me today, her new profile information:

I am the wife of an RSO. RSO= Registered Sex Offender

You can call me Jane Doe I am going to stay anonymous.

Facebook has banned RSOs from being on Facebook.. but not the Family Members or Children.

This Facebook group is going to be a private community just for those who fit in the group we are forming.

This Facebook Group is for Wives, Husbands and Family Members of Anyone who has been placed upon the Public Sex Offender Registry and has been branded an RSO.

This is a support group for those men, women and children who are looking for others to talk to about how all this is harming them.

People do stupid things in their youth.. once they pay the penalty for their stupid actions, they should have a chance to begin life again. I am the wife of an RSO and I am sick of my life, and the lives of my innocent children being ruined by all the insane sex offender laws.

This is the BRANDING of  Human Beings....

Wives, Children.. of RSOs can get on facebook all they want.. they can talk to each other, tell the horror stories of what it is like to be branded an out cast.. tell of the abuse of law enforcement, probation, parole.. or just talk about what it is like to be a wife, husband, child of a person who has been branded by the courts and the media as a LEPER, AN OUTCAST, UNTOUCHABLE.

I encourage all who fit this group to participate… 

They put up groups to BAN SEX OFFENDERS FROM FACEBOOK..AND THOUSANDS JOIN.. SO, Show your support of CHANGING THESE LAWS.. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ANGRY SPOUSES, MOTHERS, BROTHERS, CHILDREN OF EX OFFENDERS, OF RSOs.. come join this facebook group and LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

Contact me personally: rsofamilies@yahoo.com

If you fit into the group of people, Wives, Husbands or Children or Relatives of Registered Sex Offenders, then I offer this new group to you. Mind you, not everone who is on the Public Sex Offender Registry has raped or molested a baby. 

People need to be protected from abuse... That includes being abused by insane laws. Not everyone who is on the registry is a baby raper or child molester. Placing the name, photogaph and all information about a person on a Public Sex Offender registry harms men, women and children and does not protect society. The public sex offender registry needs to come down. If a person is dangerous, they need to be in prison or a mental health facility.. not out in society and branded for life on the public sex offender registry. The way to solve all this is to have BETTER SENTENCING LAWS.. and to have All who are convicted of crimes to be evaluated by professionals to see if they have a PROPENSITY TO RE-COMMIT CRIME.... if not, then they need support to do better after they serve out their sentence.. if they are found to be dangerous to society.. then they do NOT need to be turned free on society.. THEN THEIR would be NO reason to brand people and mark them.. prevent them from getting jobs, prevent them from having a home.. preventing them from friends.. prevent them from caring for their children, being good fathers, mothers, husbands or wives.. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

-CFCAMERICA

Dad Gets 7 Years for "Wanted" Posters

Father Posts ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ Posters for Daughter’s Boyfriend, Gets 7 Years in Jail

By Matt Kiebus Wednesday, August 03, 2011

What would you do if your 20 year-old daughter was dating a 33 year-old registered sex offender?

Dads are naturally protective of their kids. They attempt to instill qualities and morals that they should value and teach them responsibility. Sons are typically given a longer leash to stay out late and get in trouble, whether that is with friends, girls or the law. Their misdeeds are met with finger wag and a hard stare. Daughters, on the other hand, are an entirely different story.
Most dads are predetermined to be overprotective of their little girl, sometimes to a blinding fault. The majority of dads dread seeing their angel grow up for one reason — guys. Once a man becomes a father their memory of exactly how their gender functions, especially during the high school and college years, immediately refreshes in their mind. I imagine this moment is the one of the top 5 most anxiety-ridden in a man’s life.
A father’s worst nightmare is a daughter with bad taste in men, and/or slutty taste in clothes. And worst nightmares always come true.
Normally, fathers eventually learn how to contain the overprotective gene, stop overreacting and begin to trust their daughters.
That is, unless their 20 year-old daughter starts banging a 33 year-old registered sex offender. If that’s the case, then it’s perfectly okay to react with the rage of a WWE wrestler. That is to say it’s not exactly street legal.

“Domingos Jose Oliveira, 49, hung the posters around Grossmont College in El Cajon after his daughter brought home new beau Sean Kirk, 33. The posters offered a $3,000 bounty for the death of his daughter’s boyfriend.”

Okay, well, that might be taking things a bit too far.
Prosecutors charged Oliveira with solicitation of murder, hate crimes, and making threats against his daughter. Oliveira was convicted on two counts and has been sentences to 7 years in prison.
The defense unsuccessfully argued that Oliveira was doing what any other protective father would do. I don’t think there is a father anywhere who is a-okay with their daughter dating a sex offender 13 years her elder, but where is the line?
According to the poll on the New York Daily News website only 7 percent of voters think Oliveria is a criminal, while a whopping 65 percent voted Oliveira “a protective dad. I wouldn’t want my daughter dating a 33-year-old sex offender either.” The other 28 percent thought he was a little of both.

As a 24-year-old who knows absolutely nothing about being a father and has always been petrified of the prospect of having daughters, I can’t fault the man too much. However, his anger was seriously misplaced. California isn’t the Wild West anymore—putting a bounty on someone’s head with flyers on a college campus isn’t looked upon kindly by authority-type figures — even if it’s for a sex offender.
Taking a bat to his Camero or locking your daughter in the basement for a year or two just seem like more fail safe plans.
[New York Daily News]

CA Prison System Funded Better Than CA's Education System

"The California prison system is funded higher than both the University of California and the California State University taken together," said Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University system. "Now that is outrageous."

Read the Entire Article at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/03/eveningnews/main20087786.shtml

Santa Clara County Braces for 3,000 More Inmates

Santa Clara County is hastily drawing up plans to accommodate about 3,000 new inmates and parolees slated to move to county supervision from the state's control this fall under a major shake-up of the California prison system.
Gov. Jerry Brown last month signed into law a bill that calls for jailing offenders who commit low-level crimes in county lockups instead of state prisons. The law, which also requires counties, rather than the state, to supervise newly released low-level inmates, was prodded by a Supreme Court ruling in May ordering California to sharply reduce prison overcrowding.
While all California counties face the mandate starting in October, Santa Clara sends more inmates to the state prison system than the Bay Area's other counties—and thus will see more inmates move to its jurisdiction from the state. The shift means Santa Clara will now play a far larger role in housing and supervising offenders.
The mandate will tax the county's jail and parole system, sending costs higher, officials say. As other Bay Area penal agencies scramble to plan for their own influx of new offenders many will be watching how Santa Clara copes with the shift.
"It's really going to change how we do things," says Laurie Smith, Santa Clara County sheriff.
Santa Clara's system currently houses nearly 3,600 inmates in lockups designed for 3,900. But under the new plan the county will need to retain about 700 inmate spots that in the past would have been sent to state prisons, requiring it to find some 400 additional beds. And the mixture of light-, medium- and maximum-security offenders in the county jails—each requiring separate facilities—will change.
Officials say they will need to reconfigure the county's lockups to handle the new load, a move likely to require early releases or lighter sentences for some inmates convicted of minor crimes. The state plans to give the county $13 million in the first year to fund the change, but county officials say they are unsure if that amount is adequate.
"We don't know if the state's plans are fully funded or not, but what's very clear is that more prisoners are coming and we have to do something about it," said Sheila Mitchell, probation chief for Santa Clara, who will be overseeing the transition.
She said as the county takes on greater responsibility for its inmates some sentencing policies are likely to change. Such changes, including trimming some of Santa Clara's sentencing terms for drug offenses, are being discussed by a recently created county oversight committee, Ms. Mitchell said.
In addition, Santa Clara County will take over from the state about 2,300 parolees, on top of its existing case load. That also is expected to raise costs. To contend with the influx the county plans to expand electronic-monitoring programs, which track offenders through global positioning devices.
Santa Clara officials also are discussing how to expand social-service, employment and health programs for newly released offenders to reduce the likelihood they will end up behind bars again. The county plans to assign a case manager to each new offender slated to come under county supervision.
California currently supervises about 161,000 inmates and 100,000 current parolees. But starting in October, people newly convicted of low-level crimes will enter county jails—an estimated 75,000 people over the next few years, according to California's Department of Corrections. Meanwhile, about 26,500 newly released low-level offenders will be supervised by county officials.
Each of the state's 58 counties must craft a strategy to tackle the governor's plan. The approach has some criminal-justice experts concerned about possible differences in inmate treatment between affluent counties and those that have struggled to house offenders.
"As every county makes up its own rules—who goes on probation, who goes to state prison, who goes to jail and for how long—you will likely see big disparities between some counties," says Barry Krisberg, director of research and policy at the Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at University of California, Berkeley.
While the Oct. 1 deadline isn't far away, Ms. Mitchell said Santa Clara's planning remains in its early stages. The county won't know until September the names of parolees that will shift to county supervision, a lag that could hold up connecting inmates with services and programs.
"We think we can do a better job than what the state is doing, but it's not going to be a seamless transition," she said. "There will be some bumps in the road."
Write to Bobby White at bobby.white@wsj.com

How Soon Will RSO's Photos of RSO's Homes Published?

Photos of Sex offenders Homes in CA

I’m from California, which, like many states, has a sex offender registry. It’s called Megan’s Law, and it allows users to enter their address and find the homes of nearby sex offenders. It even displays a picture of the offender, their crime, and any other pertinent information (tattoos, DOB, etc.). The way it works is not dissimilar from Yelp. These programs are fairly uncontroversial (no one wants to say things like “Hey, I think sex offenders should have an easier time!”), and they’re popular among voters. Still they creep me out/raise sort of unnerving questions about crime and punishment and recidivism and debts to society and haven’t you guys read The Scarlet Letter?
Anyway, one day I was visiting my parents in Southern California and I heard something about the registry and thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be weird if someone went around and took pictures of these guys’ houses, and then captioned them with their crimes?” And then I said to myself: “You could be that someone.”
Most people I told about the project seemed simultaneously bored (because the pictures are of houses) and creeped out (because of everything else). Except my dad - he seemed pretty into it.
I like the pictures because they look like the worst real estate listings ever.

-Hanson O’Haver

Two-Strikers Fill CA's Prisons

Two-strike offenders fill prisons, 20 percent of incarcerated fall under provision

By MARISA LAGOS
San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 08/01/2011 01:32:57 AM PDT

California's "three strikes" law is best known for locking up career criminals for life, but the vast majority of offenders serving prison time under the sentencing mandate were actually charged under the less-noticed second strike provision.
These 32,390 inmates are serving sentences that were doubled as a strike-two penalty, and they account for nearly 20 percent of the state's prison population. Yet most efforts to reform the law have focused exclusively on the third strike provision, which carries with it a mandatory 25-year to life sentence.
As prison costs in California continue to grow, and the state faces a Supreme Court order to reduce its inmate population by more than 30,000 over the next two years, the tens of thousands of second strikers appear to pose a bigger challenge to state officials attempting to rein in prison costs than the 8,700 people serving time for a third strike.
"We're missing the significance of the second strike," said UC Berkeley's Barry Krisberg, director of research and policy at the school's institute on law and social policy. "It is having an enormous impact on our prison population, and many second strikers are serving more time than third strikers, but when people talk about the policy of reforming three strikes, nobody wants to touch the second strike."
Under the three strikes law, approved by the Legislature and voters in 1994, anyone who was convicted of a serious or violent felony in the past can be charged with a strike
if they commit a new felony. Someone charged with a second strike under the law will face double the prison time, regardless of whether the new offense is serious or violent; those charged with a third strike automatically are eligible for a 25-year to life sentence. San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the law means that someone convicted of petty theft or burglary who had a prior felony could face four to six years in prison instead of two to three years; and someone convicted of armed robbery would spend at least a decade behind bars instead of five years -- or perhaps longer if prosecutors added on sentencing enhancements for using a gun.
"The problem with strike sentences is that it's not based on an individual determination of protecting the public and ensuring that the personal characteristics of the accused are taken into consideration," he said. "The rationale for second strike cases really is arbitrary because you're not making a determination as to whether this person needs to be locked up. It's a mathematical equation that you're up against."
Most past reform efforts have focused on limiting when someone can be convicted of a third strike. Krisberg, however, said the tens of thousands of inmates serving sentences for second strikes demonstrate that piecemeal reform of three strikes will not solve the state's larger prison problem: "stiff, determinate sentencing."
Critics of the law, seen as the harshest in the nation, often focus their complaints on the most egregious cases, such as people serving life sentences for shoplifting, drug possession and other nonviolent offenses. But the costs of the second strike are significant as well.

For one, offenders sentenced in the future under three strikes won't be eligible to be diverted to local jails -- even if their most recent crime is nonviolent -- under Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment plan, which calls for keeping more low-level inmates in the community. Those sentenced under the law also stay in prison longer, because they are only eligible to earn a fraction of the "good-time" credits that other inmates may accrue.
"That's (one) big difference with strike cases -- even if it's a nonserious felony, they have to do 85 percent of their sentence," Adachi said.
Additionally, anyone sentenced under three strikes is likely more expensive to house, because under state prison policies, their long prison sentence automatically classifies them as a higher security inmate, even if their latest offense was not violent.
Jeanne Woodford, a former Corrections Department chief who spent most of her career as a correctional officer then warden at San Quentin Prison, said the three strikes law has unquestionably helped drive the state's prison crowding and spending problems, in part because higher security inmates must be housed in cells, rather than dormitory-style situations. She said those sentenced under the second strike provision are a bigger issue for state officials than those in prison for a third strike.
"Some of these guys are literally serving 60, 70 years -- more time than three strikers," she said. "The bottom line is that we really do need to look at our sentences. They are just so all over the place that people could commit a very serious crime and get less time than a second striker who did something far less serious. To be a deterrent, the sentencing system has to be consistent."
Krisberg agreed, pointing to a report he authored in 2008, which concluded that the biggest driver of California's growing prison population isn't the number of criminals behind bars, but the amount of time they spend there. He calls three strikes the coup de grace of the determinate sentencing movement, which began in the 1970s and grew over the years to include not just tougher penalties but also fewer opportunities for early release if inmates behave well.
Longer sentences are especially troublesome when it comes to second strikers, he said, because they are often eligible for sentencing enhancements on top of an automatically-doubled sentence.
"If you get enhancements then a double penalty, you could end up serving 40 years and it's not subject to (appeal) -- they have to serve all their time," he said. "It comes back to the issue: What's enough time? Sometime along the way we've changed the assumption about what's proportionate, what's fair, what people deserve."
Second strikers also have the potential to drive up prison costs in future years, because they tend to come to prison in their 30s and 40s, and often have decades-long sentences -- setting the stage for growing medical costs as they age. A 2010 report by state auditor Elaine Howle concluded that on average, people sentenced under the law receive a sentence nine years longer than they would have without three strikes, at a cost of $19.2 billion to taxpayers. Nearly half of that additional cost, $7.5 billion, is spent on people whose most recent strike is for a nonviolent felony.
The report also found that a small, severely ill portion of the prison population accounts for 25 percent of the approximately $2 billion the state spends on inmate health care every year.
Aging inmates tend to cost more, said Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver in charge of medical care in state prisons. And, she said, those who are severely ill often have to be treated at hospitals outside prison walls -- at an even higher cost to taxpayers.

The Monterey Herald  http://www.montereyherald.com/state/ci_18592894?nclick_check=1

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Jessica's Law boosts number of sexual predators considered for mental hospitals

July 12, 2011 | 

The number of convicts referred to mental health officials for possible confinement in a state hospital as sexually violent predators has skyrocketed since California voters passed Jessica’s Law, a state audit said Tuesday.
The audit said part of the increase is attributable to prison officials not complying with requirements for thoroughly screening offenders before they are referred to the Department of Mental Health.
That has resulted in the state performing "unnecessary work’’ and has created a burden for the department, which conducts the evaluations, the audit found.
Despite the increased number of referrals, the department did not significantly increase the number of sex offenders it recommended to prosecutors for commitment to a mental facility.
The audit indicated that the department’s screening of sex offenders leaving prison appears to have been effective.
Of the 13,512 sex offenders released since 2005 which screening determined did not require further confinement, 59% later violated their parole, but only one person was convicted of a sexually violent offense.
"Although higher numbers of offenders were subsequently convicted of felonies that were not sexually violent offenses, even those numbers were relatively low,’’ the audit found. It said 134 of the offenders, about 1%, committed new felonies that were not sexually violent offenses.

The audit looked at a state program created in 1996 that evaluates sex offenders who complete their prison sentences and allows the courts to commit them for at least two years to a mental facility if they are found by the Department of Mental Health to be a continuing danger to the public as a sexually violent predator.
The audit said voter passage of Jessica’s Law in 2006 added more crimes to the list of sexually violent offenses and reduced the number of victims required for a sexually violent predator designation. The number of sex offenders referred by prison officials to a mental health evaluation went from 1,850 in 2006 to 8,871 a year later, the audit said.
Auditors also said that prison and parole officials referred all offenders convicted of sexually violent offenses "without assessing whether those offenses or any others committed by the offender were predatory in nature’’ and without considering other information required by law to be part of the evaluation.
Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation indicated they agree that improvements can be made in streamlining the referral process.
The department, wrote corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan, "is committed to adhering to the statutory law governing this program and will always err on the side of caution in regards to public safety when making sex offender referrals to the Department of Mental Health.’’