As California deeply cut spending for public schools, social services and health programs in recent years, state leaders also found themselves grappling with a court order to reduce the prison population by tens of thousands of inmates.
Some civil rights groups and criminal justice experts are now seizing on this perfect storm of chronic deficits and crowded prisons to push for wide-ranging changes to the state's sentencing laws that would transform California's handling of crime and punishment. The California chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups want the state to reduce drug possession and low-level, nonviolent property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and they want more community-based alternatives to incarceration. Read more...
Friday, June 17, 2011
Field Poll: California Voters Favor Re-Vamping "Three-Strikes Law"
Most California voters see a court order to reduce the state's prison population by 30,000 inmates as a serious problem, and nearly three out of four say it is time to revamp the state's "three-strikes" law, a Field Poll out today finds.
The poll comes on the heels of last month's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ordering California to address its prison overcrowding problem, and 79 percent of those surveyed said the matter is serious. Read more...
The poll comes on the heels of last month's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ordering California to address its prison overcrowding problem, and 79 percent of those surveyed said the matter is serious. Read more...
High Court: Judges Can't Lengthen Prison Terms to Promote Rehab
Federal law bars judges from imposing or lengthening prison terms to promote a criminal defendant's rehabilitation, the Supreme Court ruled today. In a unanimous opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, the high court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco. The case involved defendant Alejandra Tapia, who was convicted of smuggling unauthorized aliens into the country.
A judge imposed a 51-month prison term, referring to Tapia's need for drug treatment in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons' Residential Drug Abuse Program. Kagan said a lower court judge "did nothing wrong-and probably something very right-intrying to get Tapia into an effective drug treatment program. But the record indicates that the court may have done more-that it may have selected the length of the sentence to ensure that Tapia could complete the 500 Hour Drug Program." Read more of the ruling...
A judge imposed a 51-month prison term, referring to Tapia's need for drug treatment in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons' Residential Drug Abuse Program. Kagan said a lower court judge "did nothing wrong-and probably something very right-intrying to get Tapia into an effective drug treatment program. But the record indicates that the court may have done more-that it may have selected the length of the sentence to ensure that Tapia could complete the 500 Hour Drug Program." Read more of the ruling...
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
APAI Election Results
APAI would like to congratulate Jeffrey Peterson of Minnesota, who will take office as Vice President of APAI beginning July 1, and Jeralia "Jeri" Costa from Washington who will continue in her role as Secretary of APAI.
Thank you to everyone who voted in the election.
Thank you to everyone who voted in the election.
The Role of Parole in Texas: Achieving Public Safety & Efficiency
Introduction
Texas recently earned national acclaim for avoiding what was expected to be a catastrophic prison overcrowding crisis. In 2005, in anticipation of overcrowding, the Legislative Budget Board recommended building more than 17,000 new prison beds. Texas did not build the beds, however, and it still managed to reduce crime throughout the state. Part of the credit for this impressive accomplishment must go to the state’s parole system. In 2009, out of 76,607 parole-eligible cases considered, 23,182 Texas inmates were placed on some kind of parole supervision. More importantly, the number of parolees revoked to prison has sharply declined from 11,311 in 2004 to 6,678 in 2010, reflecting a drop in both new crimes and technical violations serious enough to warrant revocation. Read more...
Texas recently earned national acclaim for avoiding what was expected to be a catastrophic prison overcrowding crisis. In 2005, in anticipation of overcrowding, the Legislative Budget Board recommended building more than 17,000 new prison beds. Texas did not build the beds, however, and it still managed to reduce crime throughout the state. Part of the credit for this impressive accomplishment must go to the state’s parole system. In 2009, out of 76,607 parole-eligible cases considered, 23,182 Texas inmates were placed on some kind of parole supervision. More importantly, the number of parolees revoked to prison has sharply declined from 11,311 in 2004 to 6,678 in 2010, reflecting a drop in both new crimes and technical violations serious enough to warrant revocation. Read more...
In 1st CA medical parole case, inmate rejected
A state board on Tuesday denied medical parole to a convicted rapist who has been a quadriplegic since he was attacked in prison 10 years ago, arguing that the inmate's verbal threats in prison to female staffers proves he would still pose a threat to public safety if he were to be released.
Steven Martinez, 42, was the first California inmate to be considered for medical parole under a law that took effect this year and is aimed at saving taxpayers the expense of providing medical care and security to incapacitated inmates. Under the law, inmates who are "permanently medically incapacitated with a medical condition" that makes them "unable to perform activities of basic daily living" may be released if they do not pose a threat to public safety. Read more...
Steven Martinez, 42, was the first California inmate to be considered for medical parole under a law that took effect this year and is aimed at saving taxpayers the expense of providing medical care and security to incapacitated inmates. Under the law, inmates who are "permanently medically incapacitated with a medical condition" that makes them "unable to perform activities of basic daily living" may be released if they do not pose a threat to public safety. Read more...
No easy fix for California's prison crisis
By Jack Dolan and Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- California's effort to shift tens of thousands of inmates out of its chronically overcrowded prisons to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order could be undone by the state's tough sentencing laws, persistent recidivism and recurring budget crises, analysts say.
More than 33,000 offenders must be moved out of the prisons under the high court's Monday decision, which upheld an earlier ruling that conditions in the teeming facilities cause preventable deaths and amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Read more...
Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- California's effort to shift tens of thousands of inmates out of its chronically overcrowded prisons to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order could be undone by the state's tough sentencing laws, persistent recidivism and recurring budget crises, analysts say.
More than 33,000 offenders must be moved out of the prisons under the high court's Monday decision, which upheld an earlier ruling that conditions in the teeming facilities cause preventable deaths and amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Read more...
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