A Germ of Goodness: The California State Prison System, 1851-1944 (Law in the American West, Vol 3) The Rise and Fall of California's Radical Prison Movement The Reproduction of Social Control: A Study of Prison Workers at San Quentin The Animal Factory The San Quentin Story Star Rover This Is San Quentin The Road to Hell: The True Story of George Jackson, Stephen Bingham and the San Quentin Massacre San Quentin Inside the Walls

• California State Prison Information .
• Current information affecting visitors to any of the 33 California State Prisons. ...

• Formal dedication held for California's 33rd state prison.
• A formal dedication was held August 28 for California's 33rd state prison where one Psych Tech is employed and more are expected in coming years. ...
• The Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran, in the Central Valley between Fresno and Bakersfield, houses the world's largest correctional substance abuse treatment center. ...
• Another 5,000 are in the prison's regular housing units. ...
• It is sometimes nicknamed "Corcoran 2" because it's adjacent to the maximum-security California State Prison, Corcoran.

• Judge halts planned construction of Delano Prison.
• A Bakersfield, California Judge struck a resounding blow to the plans of the California Department of Corrections' (CDC) to build yet another prison. In a decision issued in July 2001, Superior Court Judge Roger Randall concluded that the CDC's environmental review of the cumulative impacts of the proposed prison was inadequate. ...
• Randall's Order specifically bars the state from proceeding with plans to build a $335 million, 5,160 bed maximum-security prison slated for Delano, California. The trial court's decision is a big win for a lawsuit brought by Critical Resistance, a national organization opposing the expansion of the prison industrial complex. ...
• In a unique coalition, anti-prison activists, environmentalists and residents of Delano have waged an unceasing campaign questioning the need for the proposed prison and the purported economic benefits of prisons. ...
• These dramatic new projections confirm previous forecasts from both the Legislative Analyst's Office and the Governor in his 2001-02 State Budget," said Rose Braz, Director of Critical Resistance. "It is undisputed: The state's prison population is on the decline, growth is projected to continue to decline, and the state's prison population is below the CDC's current capacity. California simply does not need another prison. ...
• The lawsuit is allowed under the California Environmental Quality Act. Over two dozen organizations from across the state, including the Delano Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment and the Fresno and Los Angeles NAACP, signed on to a friend of the court brief in support of the lawsuit. ...
• "The CDC is again attempting to saddle a town with the infrastructure costs of hosting a prison. Delano schools, like schools in poor districts throughout the state, are desperately overcrowded, and the city needs a new high school. ... "This inadequate 'mitigation' will put a strain on city services and Delano's budget for years, hampering the city's ability to provide services or to promote other economic development that-unlike the prison-might provide significant job opportunities for Delano residents," continued Mr. ...
• "The state of California needs to focus on finding alternative models for positive growth in the rural and low income areas of the Central Valley. Another prison in Delano will only further depress the local economy and discourage other types of economic growth," said Cruz Phillips, Director of Community Organizing for the United Farm Workers in Delano. ... We view another prison, the fourth in the area, as a loss of jobs for the average citizen in Delano and a loss of way of life for many people," said William Carlisle, General Manager of the Southern San Joaquin Municipal Utility District in Delano. ...

• SDSU criminal justice students tour state prisons and meet inmates.
• Some 24 SDSU criminal justice students will depart next Monday, March 24, for a week-long tour of California's maximum security prisons. ...
• "The trip is designed to give students who will go into corrections exposure to the reality that they will deal with every day," said Paul Sutton, SDSU criminal justice professor who has been taking students on tours of the prison system since 1982. ... For most of the students this will be their first look into an actual prison. ...
• Their itinerary includes visits to San Quentin, home of California's death row and gas chamber; California Men's Colony, a prison with progressive educational and vocational programs; Central California Women's Facility, one of the largest women's prison in the world; Old Folsom, site of one of the largest cell blocks in the world; New Folsom, one of California's modern prisons; Soledad, a men's prison run by a female warden; and Salinas Valley, one of California's newest maximum security prisons. ...

• Waters To Introduce Protection of Women In Prison Bill.
• – In light of recent findings of General Accounting Office (GAO) studies that looked into the treatment of women in prison, Rep. ...
• The conclusions of the reports confirm what the California Coalition of Women Prisoners have alleged for the past five years," said Rep. ...
• Called The Protection Women in Prison Act, the bill will require that facilities receiving Federal funding improve their conditions to address the particular health needs of women; prohibit the practice of routine shackling and other restraints on pregnant women and women in labor; restrict the role of male staff with regard to female inmates; make available to staff and inmates the rights of inmates and the punishment to be levied upon offenders; and, last, provide additional protections to female inmates who report violations so as to insulate them from retaliation. ...
• Spurred on by two GAO reports that have uncovered disturbing facts regarding the treatment of women in prison, the bill seeks to address concerns found in the reports. Titled Women in Prison: Sexual Misconduct by Correctional Staff, the first GAO report – published in June 1999 – found that in four jurisdictions sexual misconduct persists.
• Those jurisdictions included Texas, California and the District of Columbia.
• The second report -- titled Women In Prison: Issues and Challenges Confronting U. ... This fact raises unprecedented issues for federal and state prison systems. Such issues as prison over crowding, inadequate parenting programs, insufficient treatment programs for substance abuse, mental health and HIV infection remain problematic throughout female prison populations.
• Specifically, the report found -- in regards to health issues -- that about 600 female inmates in Bureau of Prison facilities were on the waiting list for residential substance abuse treatment. ... Twenty-four percent of female inmates in state prisons reported a mental condition or an overnight stay in a mental hospital or treatment program, compared with 16 percent of male inmates in state prisons and 7 percent of male inmates in federal prisons, and about 16 percent of male inmates in state prisons.

• Prison industries have a positive ripple effect for California's economy, new UC Berkeley report finds .
• flags, license plates, and a nice cold glass of milk have in common? They are all produced through the California Prison Industry Authority, or PIA, and only hint at the variety of merchandise made by the state's inmates. ...
• According to a new report released today (Thursday, May 2) by a University of California, Berkeley economist, the products and services provided by state prisoners benefited Californians in fiscal year 1997-98 to the tune of $151 million in direct sales, leading to spinoff effects of $230. ...
• "People don't usually connect positive economic impacts with inmates, but this report shows how much the prison industry contributes to the state economy," said report author George Goldman, a cooperative extension economist at the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. ...
• "When the PIA purchases wood to make furniture or grain to feed the chickens on a farm, it has the ripple effect of generating sales, jobs and income in other industries in California," said Goldman, who used records of PIA farm and factory operational expenses in his calculations. ...
• Goldman pointed out that in terms of sales, the PIA is the largest state prison work program in the country. ...
• Prison industry officials say the work programs not only help inmates develop useful job skills, they provide a positive outlet for inmates who would otherwise be unable to make an economic contribution to the state, a factor the report's analysis takes into account. The programs have the added benefit of reducing prison violence by keeping inmates productively occupied, said Frank Losco, PIA spokesman. ...
• According to state law, the PIA may only sell its products and services to government agencies. The California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency is by far the PIA's biggest customer, buying about half of the goods made by the inmates every year. ...
• Goldman said that many of the products manufactured by the California PIA would probably otherwise come from out-of-state regions. ... "The PIA benefits California by keeping money in the state. ...
• Expanding upon a similar analysis of the state prison industry released in 1998, the new report for the first time examines specific impacts for eight economic regions in the state, including the counties in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. ...
• Of all the regions, the San Joaquin Valley felt the largest impacts from the prison industry with more than $49. ...
• On the other end of the spectrum lies the Northern California region, which includes the counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity. ...
• Southern California and the southern border regions, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside counties, had a combined impact of $24. ...

• Prison Building Blasted at Forum .
• California's demand for more prisons has come at the expense of schools and public services, those attending a conference Saturday agreed.
• programs for our children," said Juana Gutierrez, one of the speakers in the all-day, statewide gathering at California State University, Fresno, which brought together a coalition of anti-prison activists, farmworkers and environmentalists.
• Gutierrez, 68, is one of four women who in 1985 founded a group called Mothers of East Los Angeles that fought against a state prison in the heart of their neighborhood, eventually winning the battle in 1992.
• What the state wanted to do, she recalled during a break in the conference, was build a 700-bed maximum security prison at 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue.
• We told the state we didn't want the prison there. ...
• The state, she said, told them the prison would bring jobs to the community and lead to a better economy.
• "When the state wants something, they will promise you the sky and the stars," she said.
• The conference, the first of its kind in the state, was put together by the Oakland-based Critical Resistance, a national organization opposing prison expansion. It was co-sponsored by the California Prison Moratorium Project; the United Farm Workers; the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice; the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment; Fresno State MEChA; Fresno Women's International League for Peace; Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and Freedom; and the West County Toxics Coalition.
• The conference also brought up to date the legal battle against the construction of a new prison in Delano -- a proposed $335 million, 5,160-bed facility.
• The suit was filed under the California Environmental Quality Act, contending that it would be much more beneficial to the state and offenders if, instead of locking up people, authorities began fighting for treatment for those convicted of drug use and looking for ways to provide counseling and job opportunities for at-risk youths.
• Braz pointed out that in the last 20 years, California has built 23 new prisons and only one new university.
• Most of those prisons, she said, are in depressed rural communities that were promised an economic boom from the prison.
• Instead, she said, the number of people in poverty in nearly every Valley town with a prison has increased since the prisons were built.

• California Home.
• Hickman was sworn in as Secretary of the California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency on the first day of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Administration, November 17, 2003. ...
• When named to the post, Hickman was serving as Chief Deputy Director, Field Operations, for the California Department of Corrections (CDC). ... Hickman previously was the Northern Regional Administrator for the Institutions Division, and was Warden of Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County.
• Hickman began his CDC career in June 1979 as a Correctional Officer at the California Institution for Men in Chino, promoting to Correctional Sergeant in 1984 at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco. ... McGee Correctional Training Center in Galt, he was promoted to Correctional Lieutenant at Folsom State Prison in 1987. ...
• In 1992, he was promoted to Correctional Captain at Calipatria State Prison, Imperial County. The following year, he transferred to the California Medical Facility and was promoted to Program Administrator (now Facility Captain) in 1994. ...
• Hickman was promoted to Chief Deputy Warden at Mule Creek State Prison in 1996 and became the Acting Warden from December 1997 to August 1998. ...
• Hickman completed course work in public administration and political science at California State University, Long Beach, and obtained a lifetime Community College Teaching Credential through the University of California, Berkeley, extension program. He also graduated from the Leadership Institutes at California State University, Chico, the University of Southern California, and the Internal Affairs Investigation Training program at San Jose State University.
• © 2003 State of California. ...

• Voices | Heresies | Vectors | Pacific Pulse | The Americas | California | Movements | Civil Conflicts | YO! .
• Prison Chief Quits Scandal-Ridden Department--.
• California's prison chief James Gomez has quietly moved into a new administrative job with the state retirement system, despite court findings of serious abuse of power in the state's prisons during his tenure. ... PNS correspondent Corey Weinstein is a medical doctor and a board member of California Prison Focus. ...
• The director of the California Department of Corrections, the state's "prison chief" James Gomez, has moved on.
• Gomez is not being pushed or even "resigning in disgrace" -- despite court findings of consistent abuse of power in the state's prisons on his watch. Rather he is moving sideways in the state civil service, and will become an administrator at the Public Employees Retirement System with a six-figure salary.
• During his tenure in office the federal courts found that operation of the state prison at Pelican Bay was "maliciously cruel and neglectful. " Such practices were evidently not restricted to one institution: women at Valley State Prison have testified that guards who abused and harassed them said "Valley State is the Pelican Bay for women. ...
• All this comes as no surprise to those such as the prisoner advocacy group California Prison Focus. Visits to California high-security units on 16 occasions make it clear the agency runs more like an old boys network than an efficient modern bureaucracy. Staffers in the prison system feel they are doing tough work that people on the outside want but know little about. ...
• Certainly, the legislature has provided little oversight in the past seven years, when more prison inmates were shot and killed by guards in California than in all other prisons in the United States combined.
• Most will be worse off in every way than they were when they were sent to prison -- and coming back to families with few resources and to communities already facing more social and economic problems than they can handle.
• The state should provide meaningful restitution to communities that receive prisoners damaged by abuses in the state's prison system stem. ...
• If citizens were truly concerned with the criminal justice system, California would not have to endure the likes of James Gomez. ...

• A prison’s dilemma.
• As one of many of the part-solutions to California’s still massive budget crisis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed in his most recent budget a downsizing of the Inspector General’s office. The state needs to save money to close the budget hole, and the agency, which acts as an independent oversight for the state’s prisons, was seen as a another expendable agency.
• However, Schwarzenegger released his budget before the state legislature began conducting hearings into the bloody April 2002 riots at Folsom State Prison and the subsequent cover-up by prison officials there. Indeed, the investigation was so corrupt a guard at the prison committed suicide because of the harassment he received at work after he blew the whistle on the problems.
• It would seem in this instance that the state’s need to save money and improve operations clash irreparably. However, there is a solution that would both save the state money by eradicating inefficiency and needless expenses while improving prison safety and quality.
• Like most government-run operations, inefficiency and waste are rampant throughout the prison system. Guards, because of strong union representation and a state unwilling to bargain toughly, receive quite a high salary. This contributes to the incredible cost incurred by the government to tend to a single prisoner – more than $28,000 per year in California. The state annually spends over $5. ...
• In a situation where a prison is either understaffed or overstaffed, the government does not have the flexibility to quickly remedy the situation. Last year alone, prison guards made more than $200 million in overtime alone, with some guards working more than 1,000 hours overtime.
• Part of this problem lies in the new prison guard union contract, which allows guards to claim sickness without having to provide simple proof, like a note from a doctor. ... Fourteen out of twenty-three states and counties that tried prison privatization programs had savings of at least 10%, with some saving upwards of 25%. ...
• Ever since private prisons were first used in 1985, there have been only a small handful of instances where a private prison’s contract was revoked for a failure to meet standards. ... Also, no private prison has ever been placed under a court order to improve its conditions, and private prisons have in fact been used to bail out government facilities that could not meet basic legal standards in various areas.

• Features anti-war arts + action central valley drug war elections environment en español globalization indymedia international labor lgbti / queer police state poverty race student womyn make media get involved archives links chat --> Listen Live stream from Enemy Combatant Radio. ...
• printable version - email this article Corruption in California's Prison Industry by JH (repost) Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004 at 12:43 PM Sacramento -- Whistleblowers leveled allegations of corruption, coverup and an omnipresent code of silence within California penitentiaries at a legislative hearing Tuesday as corrections officials announced changes at embattled Folsom State Prison and pledged to clean up a department characterized by two lawmakers as morally bankrupt. ...
• Sacramento -- Whistleblowers leveled allegations of corruption, coverup and an omnipresent code of silence within California penitentiaries at a legislative hearing Tuesday as corrections officials announced changes at embattled Folsom State Prison and pledged to clean up a department characterized by two lawmakers as morally bankrupt. But that pledge came on a day when dramatic testimony brought stark problems within prison walls into public view. ... State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, one of two senators probing prison issues, told a room full of reporters she had received a death threat related to her work on prison reform. Romero called on Tuesday for the firing of the former director of the Department of Corrections, Edward Alameida, who still works for the department, and another high-ranking prison official. ...

• The Prison Situation in California.
• In 1989 Pelican Bay State Prison opened. ... Finally, in January 1995 the Federal District Court ruled that conditions in California's largest Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison were unconstitutional. But the California Department of Corrections(CDoC) continues to defy the courts through its code of silence, good old boys network and legal staff. ...
• California Prison Focus (CPF) grew out of a five year effort by the Pelican Bay Information Project to fight against the torture of prisoners at the Pelican Bay State Prison SHU. ...
• While every prison in California degrades and brutalizes some of its prisoners, it is in the SHUs that prisoners are most often abused. California has three such units - two for men and one for women - holding more than 2700 people. At Pelican Bay State Prison prisoners are kept in their windowless cells for a minimum of 22 1/2 a day. ... The other two SHUs - Valley State Prison for Women and California State Prison at Corcoran - offer similar accommodations. ...
• Other prisoners have run afoul of the rules because they are mentally or psychologically disabled and denied effective treatment in prison. ...
• A large percentage of men are in the SHU because they have been labeled as prison gang members in a cruel game called "Snitch, Parole or Die. " Under the "snitch" policy prisoners are assigned to the SHU as gang members through confidential information, and can only be released from the SHU by informing on the alleged gang members, reaching their parole date or dying in prison. ...
• Comments or questions E-mail California Prison Focus.

• by the California Taxpayers' Association.
• Privatization: Viable Solution to California's Prison Crisis.
• California is facing a crisis in its state prisons. ... The State Department of Corrections estimates that unless we find more beds, California's prisons will run out of space in the year 2000.
• Despite that reality, no new money is currently allocated toward prison construction and no new facilities are on the drawing board. A major crisis faces our state unless the Legislature finds more prison beds.
• State lawmakers are currently examining alternative solutions to address the severe overcrowding without increasing costs to the state. One option that should not be eliminated is prison privatization. ... California is one of those states. The California Department of Corrections already partners with private prison companies to operate nine community correctional facilities. ...
• However, Senate Constitutional Amendment 30 (Lockyer) - legislation that would prohibit privatization of public safety services - threatens to stymie lawmakers' efforts to keep prison privatization as an option to address the state's prison crisis.
• Prison privatization is no longer a vague concept. ... Private prison companies design, finance and build their own facilities, indemnify the state against legal action, and train personnel to meet all state and/or federal standards. ...
• Some say that private prison companies are beholden to Wall Street and their shareholders. ...
• Private prison companies have enjoyed such success because they provide quality services. ...
• If the state takes advantage of the private prison option, that's money saved, and general fund revenues are available for other critical state needs. Many legislators already recognize this benefit and rightly believe that prison privatization works.

• A Germ of Goodness: The California State Prison System, 1851-1944. ...
• Parker, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, San Diego State University, author of Native American Estate and several articles on ethnicity and crime in California. ...
• This small but informative book examines the institutional development of the California prison system. ... Some older volumes and more local prison histories exist but none examine the growth of the state penal system. The book adds to a growing list of state prison histories nationwide. ...
• Following the lead of other newly created frontier states, California implemented a system leasing convicts "to a private contractor who would provide for their security and care in return for the use of their labor. " Although the system was successful in a number of southern states, California's attempt at leasing prison labor lasted less than ten years. The author probes the conflicts between state officials and lessees that led to dreadful prisoner treatment, numerous escapes, and eventually a public outcry. In its determination to follow eastern models of penal reform the state in 1858 assumed control of the newly created San Quentin facility and forever abandoned the contract system. ...
• In the latter nineteenth century, reformers, supported by a few state officials, promoted the "Auburn" system of solitary confinement, hard work and enforced silence. However, state officials found little industry the convicts could undertake without encountering protests from private companies who did not wish to compete with cheap prison labor. ... It was not until 1878, when the 444-cell San Quentin was overflowing with more than 1400 inmates, that the state opened a branch prison at Folsom. ... Remarking, "You want a clubhouse instead of a prison," the governor, on his own authority, set about building a fortified prison. ...
• Always comprising a small minority, the "fallen women" were housed in a structure separate from the men and were generally ignored by prison officials. ... " These and other revelations inspired women's groups to pressure state officials for better conditions at San Quentin and for a separate prison for women. When the women finally received their new facility at Tehachapi in 1933 the warden and prison doctor were elated because, "Separated as they were from the men. ...

• OAC: State Prison, San Quentin, Marin Co. , Cal California . ...
• 1900 State Prison, San Quentin, Marin Co. , Cal California . ...
• State Prison, San Quentin, Marin Co. , Cal California . ...
• State Prison, San Quentin, Marin Co. , Cal California . ...
• University of California, Berkeley.
• Berkeley, California 94720-6000.
• University of California, Berkeley. ...
• The Online Archive of California (OAC) is an initiative of the California Digital Library .
• © 2003 by The Regents of The University of California .

• NATION'S STATE PRISON POPULATION FALLS IN SECOND HALF OF 2000 FIRST SUCH DECLINE SINCE 1972.
• - During the last six months of 2000, the nation's state prison population declined by more than 6,200 inmates - the first measured decline since 1972, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today.
• Although for the entire year the state and federal prison population grew by 1. ...
• During 2000, the federal prison system added 10,170 inmates - the equivalent of almost 200 additional inmates each week. Since 1990 the number of federal prisoners has more than doubled (up 122 percent), while the number of state inmates had increased 75 percent. ...
• the nation's prison population increased by 18,191 inmates during the year, which was the smallest annual increase in 20 years. ...
• California (163,001 inmates), Texas (157,997) and the federal system (145,416) together held one-third of all prisoners in the country.
• 8 percent of state inmates and 10. ... Local jails housed 63,140 state and federal prisoners (4. 6 percent of state and federal prisoners).
• State and federal prisons - 1,312,354*.
• *Number excludes state and federal prisoners in local jails.
• 7 percent of all black males between 25 and 29 years old were in prison, compared to 2. ...
• There were 91,612 women in state and federal prisons at the end of last year - 6. 6 percent of all prison inmates. ...
• At the end of 2000 about 1 in every 109 men and 1 in every 1,695 women in the United States were incarcerated in a state or federal prison. Louisiana had the highest prison incarceration rate (801 inmates per 100,000 state residents, followed by Texas (730), Mississippi (688) and Oklahoma (685). ...

• rotten > Library > Crime > Prison > San Quentin.
• Johnny Cash sang this about San Quentin prison: "I hate every stone of you. ...
• San Quentin Prison is the oldest prison in California. Located north of San Francisco, in the heart of one of the state's most affluent areas, San Quentin Prison is California's only death row with a Gas Chamber. ... The prison opened in 1852 and was built mostly by convicts, who slept on a ship at night until the job was completed.
• The prison itself has an appropriate nickname given to it by inmates: "The Arena".
• From 1893 to 1942, California's preferred method of execution was hanging. ...
• The remaining gasses are evacuated and the state is left with a corpse that must be scrubbed with bleach before it can be handled. ...
• Lethal gas is one of many efforts on the part of the state to kill people in a more humane fashion. Since 1960, California has executed 192 men and 4 women by gassing at San. Quentin prison. In 1996, William G Bonin became the first person in California to be executed by lethal injection. ...
• These numbers, dated Winter 2003 from California's Department of Corrections web page, show that the prison was only designed to hold 3,317 prisoners. The annual operating budget of San Quentin State Prison? $120,000,000. ...
• Considering that the prison's location is very desirable property, with views of the San Francisco Bay Area and convenient access to Silicon Valley, it is likely inmates will be shipped off to other prisons around California within the decade. ...
• Doreen Lioy marries death row inmate Richard Ramirez ("The Night Stalker") in a ceremony in the visiting room at San Quentin Prison. ...

• State Bar Denies Attorney Misconduct (Moxon escapes prison again some how) .
• State Bar Denies Attorney Misconduct (Moxon escapes prison again some how) .
• " (The State Bar had for at least two months. ...
• It is nice to know that such acts are on the approved list for the State Bar instead of getting you several years in the slammer. ...
• THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA .
• 1149 SOUTH HILL STREET, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90015-2299 .
• Los Angeles, California 90066 .
• This is to acknowledge receipt of, and respond to, your letter dated March 29, 2001, addressed to Palmer Madden, President of the State Bar of California, with copies to the Board of Governors, various employees of the State Bar of California, and State Bar Court Hearing Judge Michael Marcus, in which you raise concerns regarding the investigation and prosecution of the above referenced case against you. ...
• The specific legal issues in your case may ultimately become the proper subject of a hearing before a Judge of the State Bar Court to determine culpability and the nature and extent of discipline to be imposed, if any. ... However, the Notice has not been filed with the State Bar Court as an Early Neutral Evaluation Conference is currently pending with Judge Marcus. ...
• The State Bar of California has gone to great lengths to formalize rules of procedure and practice that insure that all attorneys are provided with a "level playing field" and afforded ample due process in their dealings with the Office of the Chief Trial Counsel and the State Bar Court from the time that the initial complaint is received, through and including, a final decision entered by the California Supreme Court. ...
• I also encourage you to consult with legal counsel familiar with State Bar disciplinary proceedings to determine the various options which may be available to you with regard to your underlying disciplinary matter. ...

• State Party News Release.
• Home | Press | State Press.
• Green Party of California Outraged at Supreme Court Decision.
• Green Party of California .
• " SACRAMENTO - The Green Party of California (GPCA) expressed shock over this week's US Supreme Court ruling saying a sentence of 50 years to life for petty theft is not "cruel and unusual punishment" under the 8th amendment to the Constitution. The GPCA vows to work with legislators and Families to Amend California's Three Strikes (FACTS), to limit such sentences to violent felonies. The decision follows California charging Leandro Andrade with two felony counts of petty theft with a prior conviction for stealing $150 in videotapes, and Gary Ewing with one felony count for attempting to take three golf clubs from a golf course. Under California's three strikes law, any felony can constitute the third strike, imposing a prison term of 25 years to life. ... California Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) and Governor Gray Davis (D), a recipient of millions of dollars from the Correctional Officers of California, appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. Davis, a staunch supporter of the three-strikes law, has proposed cutting an average 9 percent from nearly every state department except for the prison system's $5. ... " Outside California, a 25-year prison term is more the norm for someone convicted of first-degree murder, not shoplifting, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent. The GPCA calls on all California legislators to act in non-partisan collaboration to submit legislation amending Three Strikes. ... Governor Cruz Bustamante and State Senator Bruce McPherson for the office lieutenant governor on the radio (in October 2002). ... If our lieutenant governor and a State Senator think an amendment is needed, when do they plan to present the legislation?" asks Warren. With California's worst budget crisis ever, the Governor continues to choose a "Tough on Crime" platform, rather than address the systemic problems that send the poor and people of color to prison under the Three Strikes law.
• State Party News Release.

• AT CORCORAN STATE PRISON IN CALIFORNIA .
• -- Eight California correctional officers and supervisors have been indicted on federal criminal civil rights charges in connection with inmate fights that occurred at Corcoran State Prison in 1994, the Justice Department announced today. ...
• District Court in Fresno, charges two sergeants, one lieutenant, and five officers employed by the California Department of Corrections with conspiring to deprive inmates of their civil rights under color of law. ...
• According to the Fresno indictment, the defendants all worked in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Corcoran State Prison. Inmates being disciplined for prison conduct violations are held in the SHU. Many of those inmates are members of rival prison gangs or factions. ...
• The indictment specifies that on February 23, 1994, four of the defendants (Jennings, Gipson, Dickerson, and Taverez) purposely released an African-American inmate into the prison yard with two Southern Mexican inmates from a rival faction. ...
• That this activity could be allowed to occur, and did occur, with the knowledge and participation of prison management personnel is particularly troubling. ...
• Additionally, Officer Taverez is charged with lying to the grand jury when he denied ever viewing an inmate fight while working at the prison. ...
• Each conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Each count of deprivation of civil rights under color of law carries a maximum prison sentence of ten years and a $250,000 fine, unless death results, which could result in a life sentence. ...

• Welcome to the online home for California Prison Focus, its committees and the community of groups working to stop human rights violations, improve medical care and end long-term isolation in California's prisons. ...
• Find local organizations doing prison work.
• Discuss prison issues with activists and others.
• HIV/HCV in Prison Committee: Advocacy for prisoners with life-threatening diseases, information about the growing HIV and hepatitis C epidemics in prison.
• Human Rights Committee: Working to end human rights abuses and brutal prison policies.
• Litigation Project: Legal advocacy and litigation dealing with abusive conditions, especially for those living in California's Security Housing Units.
• Trans/Gender Variant in Prison (TIP) Committee: Advocating for the rights of transgender and gender variant prisoners in prison.
• Valley State Prison Committee: Working to end abuse and psychological torture of prisoners in the only SHU for women.
• The San Francisco Chronicle recently documented corruption and abuse in California's prison system:.
• 1/24/04: "Promises to Fix State Prison System Have Been Heard Before" .
• 1/21/04: "Tales of Threats at State Prison Hearing" .
• 1/20/04: "State Prisons Overseer is Fired".
• 1/17/04: "Anguished Prison Guard: 'My Job Has Killed Me'".
• 1/16/04: "Ex-Prison Chief Could Face Charges".
• California Prison Focus is on the air! KPOO radio features our program Thursdays at 11:00 AM. ...
•  Now Available! CPF's report on our two year investigation of CSP-Corcoran, a brutal maximum security prison. ...

• LINKS TO STATE SITES.
• Attorney General Lockyer Obtains Longest Prison Sentence for Medi-Cal Fraud in California History.
• (SANTA ANA) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced the head of a massive health care fraud ring responsible for defrauding California's Medi-Cal system of more than $20 million was sentenced to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay $2. 5 million in restitution to the state and $124,000 in back taxes to the Franchise Tax Board (FTB). The sentence is the longest in California history for Medi-Cal fraud. ...
• "This organized crime ring operated a sophisticated scam in which they stole patient identity information and illegally trafficked human blood on the streets of southern California in order to fleece the Medi-Cal program out of millions of dollars," Lockyer said. ... This unprecedented sentence sends a message that we will use the full force of the law to prosecute those who defraud our state. ...
• The criminal complaint was filed in 2002 after a two-year investigation into Medi-Cal fraud and money laundering by the California Attorney General's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, in partnership with the FTB, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and the U. ...
• Checks issued by the California State Controller, many in excess of $100,000, were paid to the labs for fraudulent services, then taken cross-country to Pacific Variety, where they were cashed using fake identification. ...
• Panshi has been in the custody of California and New Jersey authorities since his arrest on June 25, 2002. The New Jersey Attorney General's office prosecuted eight of the California defendants on money laundering charges. Panshi was sentenced in New Jersey in June to18 years, the longest term for money laundering in that state. He is expected to serve his sentence in California and then be returned to New Jersey to serve the remainder of his New Jersey sentence. ...
• He was sentenced in absentia to three years in state prison for illegally transmitting money, and ordered to pay $60,000 in fines. ...
• Muhammad Yasin, 30, of New Jersey, was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care benefits fraud and failing to file a tax return. ...
• Also, co-defendant Ron Martin, 44, of Arizona, who evaded apprehension for 10 months, was recently arrested in Arizona and extradited back to California. ...

• Home > News > Regional > Governor struggling with California prison crisis.
• Governor struggling with California prison crisis.
• ERIC PAUL ZAMORA/APThree guard towers line the western perimeter of Corcoran Sate Prison in Corcoran, Calif. ... Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to fix the state's major budget problems, the nation's largest prison system has exploded into his biggest and most unexpected policy crisis since he took office in November. ... -- While prison guards allegedly watched the Super Bowl and ignored his screams for hours, an inmate on dialysis died as most of his blood drained from his body. The death this month was just the latest horror story to come out of the California prison system and confront Gov. ...
• Among other things, two teenagers hanged themselves last month at a juvenile prison. And in a recent series of scathing reports and hearings, legislators, outside experts and whistleblowers have charged that the nation's biggest prison system is plagued by out-of-control spending, inhumane disciplinary practices, and outright brutality on the part of guards. "Most people in California aren't sent to prisons on death sentences," said state Sen. Gloria Romero, a Democrat from Los Angeles who is co-chairing legislative hearings now under way on the 160,000-inmate prison system. ... "Last month, sobbing witnesses at Senate hearings told of a systemwide "code of silence" among guards and accused top Folsom State Prison officials of covering up their mishandling of a 2002 riot. ... Twenty-five inmates and one guard were injured, and a second guard committed suicide months later, complaining of his treatment by prison officials in the riot's aftermath. In recent weeks, a federal monitor said the state's former corrections director and chief investigator should be charged with contempt for blocking a probe of whether Pelican Bay State Prison guards lied to protect co-workers convicted of soliciting inmates to attack child molesters and others they disliked. ... The California Youth Authority, which is responsible for 4,600 juvenile offenders, came under fire recently from state-funded experts who said authorities overuse Mace, drugs, physical restraints and wire-mesh cages on misbehaving youths while ignoring or delaying mental or physical health treatment. Last month, Deon Whitfield, 17, and Durrell Tadon Feaster, 18, used bed sheets to hang themselves in their cells at a juvenile prison in Ione. ... 1 in his cell at Corcoran State Prison. The Los Angeles Times quoted unidentified prison officials as saying guards were busy watching the game and ignored his cries for help.

• California State Prison-Los Angeles County (Lancaster).
• Source: California Dept. ...
• California Department of Corrections Inmate Locator: (916) 445-6713.

• Irreverent Commentary on the State of Education in America Today.
• Commentary of the Day - May 14, 2003:  It's Cheaper to Send Someone to Penn State Than to State Pen! .
• For years prisons were a growth industry in California.   Thanks to a "three strikes" law that failed to distinguish between violent and nonviolent offenders as well as a number of changes in state laws that raised minimum sentences for a many offenses, the prison population in California is now the third largest in the world -- just behind the U. ... federal prison population and the prison population of the People's Republic of China.   With more than 30 "campuses" the California state prison system is larger than either the California State University system or the University of California system.   Recently, California voters passed an initiative that provided for alternative treatment for many narcotics offenders who were arrested only for possession of contraband substances.   Since then there has been some leveling off in the growth of the prison population. ...
• Two trends that have accompanied the growth in California's prison population are a sharp rise in clout of the prison guards union (the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA)), and a sharp decline in the number and type of educational opportunities available inside the walls. ...
•   They have accomplished this by applying punitive levels of campaign contribution pressure to both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature.   According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, although CCPOA has only about one-tenth the membership of the California Teachers Association (CTA) it has outspent CTA in recent election cycles by a margin of two to one. ...
• Recently, the guards union has been waging a campaign against the only remaining program in the state prison system that allows inmates to earn degrees from a California community college.   According to an article by Jenifer Warren in the May 10, 2003 edition of The Los Angeles Times, Kelly Breshears, president of the union local that represents guards at Ironwood State Prison at Blythe, CA in the remote desert reaches of eastern Riverside County, is campaigning for the elimination of the program at Ironwood that allows inmates to take courses from Palo Verde Community College. ...
•   It enrolls about 280 inmates who attend class by viewing videotapes of the Palo Verde courses and taking exams inside the prison under the supervision of proctors. ...
• The union was successful in eliminating a similar program at nearby Chuckawalla Valley State Prison earlier in the year. ...   Indeed, many of the folks who end up in the state's prisons are not going to win any awards for good citizenship, and a fairly large number are both evil and dangerous. ...   Ironwood State Prison houses minimum and medium security prisoners many of whom are incarcerated for less violent offenses. ...

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