State Prison

California risks repeating past mistakes as it doles out hundreds of millions of dollars to help county jails house inmates who once would have ended up in state prisons, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released Wednesday. The report highlights a recurring concern of advocates: Rather than pursuing cheaper ways of protecting public safety, the state is shifting the problem of prison overcrowding to the local level. "Left unchecked, these counties will build larger jail systems that will cost more tax dollars than they do now and hold more people than they do now," the report said.

Lawmakers created the California Youth Authority in 1941, making in the process a bold statement of purpose and conviction: Juvenile delinquents are redeemable. They should no longer be imprisoned with adults but instead given a chance at basic education and job training. Rehabilitation, not punishment, is the proper goal of an enlightened and effective juvenile justice system. But by the late 1990s the California Youth Authority had become a network of grim and violent youth prisons that were so abusive and so destructive to their mission that all but a few were shut down.

Beginning Oct. 1, inmates from 33 California prisons who are released on parole will begin reporting to county probation officers rather than state parole agents. The new local authority over "post-release community supervision" will apply only to those whose convictions were for non-serious, nonviolent, non-sex-related offenses. On the same date, newly convicted "non-non-non" offenders will be remitted to county custody — to jail, or to community programs or other sentencing alternatives — instead of being sent to state prison.

California risks repeating past mistakes as it doles out hundreds of millions of dollars to help county jails house inmates who once would have ended up in state prisons, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released Wednesday. The report highlights a recurring concern of advocates: Rather than pursuing cheaper ways of protecting public safety, the state is shifting the problem of prison overcrowding to the local level. "Left unchecked, these counties will build larger jail systems that will cost more tax dollars than they do now and hold more people than they do now," the report said.

Five inmates were killed in a state prison disturbance Sunday, apparently by other inmates, a prison official said. Five guards taken hostage were freed unharmed when a tactical unit stormed the maximum-security cellblock. Prison Warden Jack McCormick, who confirmed the casualty toll, said it had not been determined how the prisoners died, but that no weapons were found in the cellblock. He said inmates were seen and heard beating other inmates.

Lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to a plan to cut the state's giant prisons budget, passing a hard-fought measure that would reduce the inmate population by thousands but stop far short of solving the overcrowding crisis. It would also leave California's budget with $200 million in red ink. Administration officials said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to sign the measure nonetheless. But as the lawmaking calendar drew to a close, the only other major legislation heading toward the governor appeared to be destined for a veto.

State parole officials missed many chances to capture convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and find Jaycee Dugard, whom he is accused of kidnapping 18 years ago and harboring in his Antioch backyard, a prison watchdog has concluded in a highly critical report to be released today. Inspector General David R. Shaw said a two-month investigation found that the state parole division supervising Garrido for the past decade could have discovered Dugard, and her two children fathered by him, much earlier than August, when he was arrested.

For the first time since the nation's prison boom began, the state prison population declined for a six-month period last year, the Justice Department said Sunday. Thirteen states--including Texas and New York--housed fewer prisoners on Dec. 31 than they did when the year began. The combined population of state and federal prisons grew slightly when calculated for the entire year, but the 1.3% increase was the smallest since 1972.

An electric fence being built around the state prison here--the first so-called death fence installed at a California state prison--will be switched on within a few weeks. And similar fences are planned for 18 other medium- and maximum-security state prisons, from Crescent City to Otay Mesa, over the next two years.

Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) publicly threw in the towel this week on his efforts to see a state prison built in Compton. Murray conceded that his efforts to place a prison in the city were "fruitless" after Compton voters overwhelmingly rejected an advisory ballot measure on the issue. Murray announced plans to drop his prison-building campaign in a letter Monday to Compton Mayor Omar Bradley and the City Council, all of whom had opposed the idea. He noted that Gov.

Former New York Mets star and financial guru Lenny Dykstra was sentenced Monday to three years in state prison after a judge rejected a last-ditch effort to change his no contest plea and fight the charges. He had pleaded no contest to grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement in connection with a scheme to use somebody else's paperwork to steal or lease several new cars, according to court records. He was immediately taken into custody after the sentencing. Dykstra, who faced up to a four-year sentence, must serve his time in state prison.

Los Angeles County supervisors violated the law last fall when they held a closed-door meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss a controversial plan to give local governments responsibility for nonviolent prisoners and probationers, according to the district attorney's office. Under the new mandate, dubbed realignment, prisoners convicted of nonviolent and non-sex-related crimes, such as low-level drug offenders or thieves, are to be kept in county jails instead of state prison.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Federal oversight of prison healthcare in California is nearing an end, a judge said Tuesday, six years after he ruled that abysmal medical conditions were contributing to an inmate death every week. U.S. District Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson said Tuesday that healthcare in state lockups has improved significantly since he seized control of the system, a move that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars. "While some critical work remains outstanding — most notably on construction issues — it is clear that many of the goals of the receivership have been accomplished," Henderson wrote in a three-page order.

The former Los Angeles school police officer who staged his own shooting in a bizarre hoax was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail, although he will probably spend only a fraction of that time behind bars if he meets the terms of his probation. Convicted in September of planting false evidence, insurance fraud and other crimes, Jeffrey Stenroos, 31, appeared to receive little mercy from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard H. Kirschner, who handed down the toughest sentence allowed under state guidelines.

The early release of inmates in some parts of California is accelerating as officials at county jails struggle to accommodate state prisoners flowing into their facilities. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department planned to begin releasing about 150 inmates Friday because of overcrowding in county jails. Sheriff Rod Hoops has decided to release the inmates, mostly parole violators or those convicted of nonviolent crimes, over the next five days. The inmates must have served at least half of their sentence, and have less than 30 days remaining on their sentence.

The death of a male inmate at the state prison in Lancaster on Sunday is being investigated as a homicide, and his cellmate is the main suspect, authorities said. The dead man had been serving a sentence for a second-degree robbery committed in Los Angeles County. Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the suspect passed a note to guards at breakfast time saying his cellmate appeared to be dead. Guards found the dead man "in his bunk, under the blanket," and emergency efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, Thornton said.

Foes of a state prison planned for Lancaster said Thursday that the city should file suit to block construction of the facility, which cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle this week despite community protests. The state Department of Corrections has approved an environmental report on the prison, to be near Avenue J and 60th Street West, a department spokeswoman said.

Records on notorious gangster John Dillinger have been discovered in a state prison, including a confession and early mug shots. "This material is extremely valuable," state archivist Jerry Handfield Jr. said Tuesday. "There are some unique items that to my knowledge have not been researched." The documents include Dillinger's confession to a botched robbery in Mooresville that first landed him in the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton in 1924, and his initial prison mug shots.

A San Quentin inmate on death row for the 1978 murder of three USC film students was found dead in his cell, state prison officials said Wednesday. David Leslie Murtishaw, 54, died Tuesday night of an apparent heart attack in his single-person cell, said officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The former Santa Fe Springs resident was convicted in the fatal shootings of film students James Lee Henderson, Martha Bernice Soto and Ingrid M. Etayo.

Struggling with an $80-million budget shortfall and an influx of thousands of felons to local jails, Riverside County is turning to a captive audience to raise some much-needed cash: Convicts. Criminals in county lockups will be billed up to $142 a day starting in December — fees to reimburse the county for food, clothing, healthcare, security and other jail expenses. To collect, the county will garnish wages and slap liens on homes once inmates are free. County Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Temecula pharmacist who proposed the measure, acknowledges that the vast majority of convicted criminals will not be able to pay, since many are indigent and will not collect paychecks behind bars.