Despite medical parole law, hospitalized prisoners are costing California taxpayers millions

With California mired in a budget crisis, guarding incapacitated prisoners at outside hospitals continues to cost taxpayers millions as the state figures out how to implement a new medical parole law.

Reporting from Vacaville, Calif. — A degenerative nerve disease has left 57-year-old California inmate Edward Ortiz semi-paralyzed in a private Bay Area hospital for the last year. The breathing tube in his throat tethers him to a ventilator at one end of the bed; steel bracelets shackle his ankles to safety rails at the other.

Still, California taxpayers are shelling out roughly $800,000 a year to prevent his escape. The guards watching Ortiz one day last week said department policy requires one corrections officer at the foot of his bed around the clock and another guard at the door. A sergeant also has to be there, to supervise.  Read more...

Report: Prison cuts could cause bed shortage in 2 years

In the latest sign that Texas' budget woes could prove even tougher than expected, a new study warned Tuesday that the state could face a shortage of as many as 12,000 prison beds within two years if it whacks corrections programs as planned.

Cuts of up to $600 million over the next two years would hobble rehabilitation, probation and treatment programs that have saved taxpayers almost that much in the past four years, the report said, and the resulting flood of Texans that would be sent to prison would quickly overwhelm the current capacity of state-run lockups.  Read more...

What realignment means for California corrections

Gov. Jerry Brown's ambitious plan for balancing his state's budget includes moving parole services to county control and dismantling the DJJ

The current buzzword in California government fiscal circles is “Realignment.” This is what Governor Brown wants to do to many state services. Chief among these, at least for CorrectionsOne readers, is the idea of turning parole services over the county governments, along with a theoretically adequate funding level for these services. An important secondary consideration is the complete dismantling of DJJ (Division of Juvenile Justice) and turning it over to local control also.  Read more...

NH bill would let parole board decide on release

State parole board officials should have the power to keep inmates behind bars longer, reversing part of last year's prison reform law that said violators could be recommitted for a maximum of 90 days, witnesses told a Senate committee Thursday.

While there was some agreement on changing the recommitment limit, witnesses did not agree whether to change the mandatory release of all inmates nine months before they complete their sentences to they can be placed under intense supervision.  Read more...