California Prisons

SACRAMENTO - A panel of federal judges Thursday threatened to hold Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials in contempt of court if they do not quickly produce a plan to remove thousands of convicts from California's packed prisons. In a blistering 71-page ruling, the jurists rejected Brown's bid to end restrictions they imposed on crowding in the lockups. The state cannot maintain inmate numbers that violate orders intended to eliminate dangerous conditions behind bars, they said.

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration disputes complaints that the governor's vocal legal challenges to orders to improve prison conditions has brought progress to a halt. The federal court-appointed medical receiver in charge of prison healthcare filed a progress report Wednesday that said the result of remarks by top state officials that California has spent "too many resources and too much money" on prisons "has been to freeze and ossify" his own progress with the state. Corrections officials responded late Wednesday with their own public statement.

It's true that many people find romance at work. After all, most of us spend a lot of time at work, and the people at work often share our interests and desires. But who knew that was also true at California prisons? As my colleague Jack Dolan reported Sunday: Twenty California prison employees suspected of smuggling cellphones to inmates have resigned or were fired in recent months, according to a report from the state's prison watchdog agency. Most of those employees were accused of taking the phones in for cash, while others were suspected of doing it for love or something like it, according to the report.

State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) on Tuesday proposed a plan to significantly increase mental health services in California with the goal of reducing the number of people ending up in prison, jail and emergency rooms. Steinberg said the plan is in response to the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, in which a gunman killed 20 students and six adults, as well as a scandal involving a Nevada hospital dumping patients in other states, and the recent order by a federal court to further cut the number of inmates in California prisons “It's time for action,” he told reporters at the Capitol.

SACRAMENTO — Officials Monday announced an overhaul of California prisons that would cut spending by billions of dollars, cancel some construction projects, close one lockup and bring back 9,500 inmates housed in other states — all while meeting court orders to reduce crowding and improve medical care. If state lawmakers and federal judges sign off on the proposals, California's long-troubled prison system would look significantly different by 2016 — smaller, cheaper and more autonomous.

SACRAMENTO - A federal judge Friday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown's claim that California has improved its mental healthcare for inmates enough to end 17 years of court oversight, a victory for prisoners' lawyers who say they will use it to seek further sanctions against the state. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton's 68-page decision is a blow to Brown's larger ambition to halt court control of California's entire prison medical program and to remove court limits on the prison population.

Re "Gov. Calls for New Spending on Prisons," June 27 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals are not about prison expansion, they are about solving overcrowding and providing for the real treatment needs of offenders. California's prison population has reached an all-time high with more than 171,500 inmates, double the capacity that these facilities were designed to hold. New construction would reduce overcrowding and provide room to deliver and expand rehabilitative options and services.

The California Department of Corrections began planning its own prison labor program, called Joint Venture, immediately after approval of Proposition 139 in November, 1991. Many of the procedures of Redwood Outdoors--an independent Washington contractor that hires inmates behind prison walls--will eventually be used in California as well.

In the middle ages, captives were often tossed into dark holes called "oubliettes," a term derived from the French word for "forget": Once you were sent to an oubliette, you were out of sight and quickly forgotten. We have the same thing today in California, only we call them "prisons." Times staff writer Michael Rothfeld's story Dec.

State prison officials have confiscated 4,130 contraband cellphones this year, more than all those seized in the previous three years combined, according to an internal report released Thursday. The findings sparked concern among legislators that the proliferation of cellphones in state lockups is a growing security problem. More than 100 illegal phones were discovered at the California Institution for Men in Chino, including 10 in August, according to the report from Matthew Cate, head of the state prisons system.

Gov. Jerry Brown has made it clear how unhappy he is about having to produce a plan to reduce the inmate population of California's prisons by another 9,000. Under the 2011 realignment law, the state has already lowered the prisoner count by 43,000 by diverting many would-be new prisoners to county jails and many would-be parole violators to county supervision. Besides, the governor has argued, the whole point of the court-imposed population cap - 137.5% of capacity - is to resolve serious problems with inmate medical and mental health care, and hasn't that already been done with an enormous new commitment of resources and treatment?

Under threat of contempt of court, Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a plan to ease prison crowding by releasing certain inmates early, sending others to county jails and relocating some to state fire camps -- but added that he doesn't support it. Although the plan would remove thousands of inmates from California's packed prisons, it would not meet court requirements to lower the population by more than 9,000. The jurists could order more inmates freed if they find the governor's plan unacceptable.

Within 24 hours of giving federal judges a plan to further reduce prison crowding, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday appealed for relief from court orders over prison conditions. The governor asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overrule U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton's orders leading up to and including denying the state's bid to end oversight of mental healthcare delivered to about 33,000 inmates. The appeal was expected. Brown has said he intends to challenge federal oversight of the state's prisons all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court , the same body that two years ago deemed time in California prisons akin to cruel and unusual punishment.

SACRAMENTO - The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped in to investigate outbreaks of valley fever in two California prisons where more than three dozen inmates have died after contracting the fungal disease. Staff from the Atlanta-based CDC met with state prison health officials Tuesday and another meeting is planned Thursday. California's health department formally asked for the assistance last week on behalf of a court-appointed monitor, who had previously requested repeatedly that state officials seek federal help.

California prisons chief Jeffrey Beard says he is concerned more reductions of the state prison population would overwhelm counties already struggling with the state's 2011 realignment program. The state achieved a 25,000 reduction in its prison population by requiring counties to take on criminals from three fronts: County jails must house lower-level offenders and state parole violators, and those released from prison now go through county probation. Even so, California prisons continue to exceed population caps set by federal courts.

Even as California makes preparations to appeal federal court rulings on the quality of care and crowding of conditions in state prisons, new orders are in the making. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton on Tuesday dusted off a pending August 2012 order for the state to produce a plan to improve the quality of inmate mental health care, and gave it a new July 1 deadline. The judge's order notes that compliance was interrupted by the state's bid in January to end court oversight of prison mental health care.

It would be easy to underestimate Don Novey. It would also be dangerous. Once an amateur boxer, Novey now moves through life at a shuffle, slowed by gimpy legs. In conversation, he veers and rambles, sometimes winking, often leaving cryptic holes in the stories he tells. Barrel-chested and never without a hat, he's like the eccentric uncle you whisper about at family reunions. But when Novey calls, California governors and lawmakers carve out time in their schedules.

It may come as a disappointment to Gov. Jerry Brown - but it certainly should not come as a surprise - that a panel of federal judges rejected his request that they return control of California's still-overcrowded prison system to the state. The network of 33 state prisons continues to hold more than 9,000 inmates beyond the court's mandated cap, and Brown's administration has not presented a realistic plan to eliminate that excess, even though the court has extended the deadline for compliance from June 30 to the end of the year.

A condemned man on California's death row for murdering five people, including the daughter of blues guitarist Elvin Bishop, is dead in what prison officials say they are investigating as a suicide. Justin Helzer, 41, was found dead Sunday in his cell, where he was housed alone at San Quentin State Prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His brother, also condemned, is incarcerated at the same prison. He and his older brother, Glenn Helzer, and roomate Dawn Godman were convicted in 2005 for a robbery and killing rampage that prosecutors said started with an attempt to extort $100,000 from an elderly Concord couple.

It may come as a disappointment to Gov. Jerry Brown - but it certainly should not come as a surprise - that a panel of federal judges rejected his request that they return control of California's still-overcrowded prison system to the state. The network of 33 state prisons continues to hold more than 9,000 inmates beyond the court's mandated cap, and Brown's administration has not presented a realistic plan to eliminate that excess, even though the court has extended the deadline for compliance from June 30 to the end of the year.