State S Prison

Over the objections of law-enforcement organizations and Republican legislators, the state Senate this afternoon approved a plan to reduce the state's prison population by 37,000 inmates over two years. The proposal, supported by Democrats and the governor, now heads to the state Assembly for a vote planned for later today. The controversial proposal would reduce the prison population through such measures as allowing thousands of inmates to serve their time under house arrest during the last year of their sentence, easing penalties for some nonviolent crimes and expanding opportunities for inmates who complete rehabilitation programs to reduce their time in prison.

Rioting inmates in Chino recently torched a dormitory, ravaged five other dorms and destroyed 1,200 beds. Roughly 1,300 convicts participated and 175 were injured. The state caught a break. No guard was hurt. And no prisoner was killed. "It turned out better than we thought," says Matthew Cate, the state's prison boss as secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "Officers were able to retreat to a place of relative safety near the administration office.

Rioting inmates in Chino recently torched a dormitory, ravaged five other dorms and destroyed 1,200 beds. Roughly 1,300 convicts participated and 175 were injured. The state caught a break. No guard was hurt. And no prisoner was killed. "It turned out better than we thought," says Matthew Cate, the state's prison boss as secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "Officers were able to retreat to a place of relative safety near the administration office.

Over the objections of law-enforcement organizations and Republican legislators, the state Senate this afternoon approved a plan to reduce the state's prison population by 37,000 inmates over two years. The proposal, supported by Democrats and the governor, now heads to the state Assembly for a vote planned for later today. The controversial proposal would reduce the prison population through such measures as allowing thousands of inmates to serve their time under house arrest during the last year of their sentence, easing penalties for some nonviolent crimes and expanding opportunities for inmates who complete rehabilitation programs to reduce their time in prison.

A murderer who escaped two weeks ago has sent a letter of apology to the head of the state's prison system, but he said he has no plans to return. "I'd rather get the apology face to face," said Correction Commissioner Michael V. Fair, who had arranged for the inmate to be transferred to a minimum-security prison.

I never thought I would become a single-issue voter. However, Gov. Gray Davis' granting an indefensible pay increase to correctional officers after their union gave him the largest single check he has received since taking office pushes me to the edge. I am a retired employee of the Department of Corrections with over 30 years of service, so I should be glad for my former brothers. But this is too much. As a taxpayer I object to giving such a gigantic increase to a single group of employees when the rest of the state departments are being asked to take cuts.

Re "An 'old' prison solution," Opinion, Oct. 7 I agree with much of Jonathan Turley's position regarding the warehousing of elderly offenders in California prisons. Another major problem that adds to prison overcrowding and the high cost of corrections in California is related to prisoner reentry policies. After their release, most prisoners are under supervision in their respective communities. The supervision since the declared "war on drugs" has become increasingly strict without providing more resources to help to integrate offenders into the community.

Despite the objections of Eastside residents and activists, a three-member state panel Thursday approved an environmental impact report for a proposed 1,450-bed state prison in the southeast corner of downtown Los Angeles. The 2-1 vote by the EIR certification panel of the state Department of Corrections was the last major administrative hurdle in the 4 1/2-year struggle to put the controversial facility on a 20-acre site just west of the concrete-paved Los Angeles River.

The first state prison built in Los Angeles County, a $207-million complex in west Lancaster, opened its razor-wire-topped gates Monday to receive its first group of inmates, quietly climaxing six years of political and legal quarreling over the site. A bus carrying 22 minimum-security inmates pulled into the Lancaster prison's yard at 9:10 a.m., the first of up to 4,000 prisoners expected to be housed at the 252-acre facility. The 1.

In the latest twist in six years of wrangling over the state's prison labor program, a judge decided Thursday not to order the California Department of Corrections to seek back wages for prisoners from a company that employed them. Superior Court Judge William Pate agreed with the department that it lacks the authority to file a lawsuit on behalf of prisoners at Calipatria State Prison in Imperial County who were hired to make wire racks.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, after touring the site where a major prison riot occurred 10 days ago, said this morning that the state's prison system is "collapsing under its own weight" and called on lawmakers to make changes that could reduce overcrowding and spending on inmates. The governor and his corrections chief, Matt Cate, walked through the destruction at a housing unit for prisoners at the California Institution for Men in Chino, where 1,300 inmates rioted on the evening of Aug. 8. The prison housed nearly 6,000 prisoners, twice the number for which it was designed.

Re "An 'old' prison solution," Opinion, Oct. 7 I agree with much of Jonathan Turley's position regarding the warehousing of elderly offenders in California prisons. Another major problem that adds to prison overcrowding and the high cost of corrections in California is related to prisoner reentry policies. After their release, most prisoners are under supervision in their respective communities. The supervision since the declared "war on drugs" has become increasingly strict without providing more resources to help to integrate offenders into the community.

Managers of California's beleaguered prison system received a double dose of bad news Thursday as a federal judge ordered them to pay tens of millions of dollars owed to doctors who treat inmates, and the state launched an audit of their agency. Some of the doctors have not been paid in four years. Some of their contracts have lapsed. And some who deliver cardiology, radiology, oncology and a wide range of other services to prisoners are no longer responding when called. U.S.

In the latest twist in six years of wrangling over the state's prison labor program, a judge decided Thursday not to order the California Department of Corrections to seek back wages for prisoners from a company that employed them. Superior Court Judge William Pate agreed with the department that it lacks the authority to file a lawsuit on behalf of prisoners at Calipatria State Prison in Imperial County who were hired to make wire racks.

California inmates will continue to die from neglect and incompetence unless the state immediately raises doctors' salaries and takes other steps to recruit and retain prison medical workers, a report to a federal judge concluded Monday. The report also suggested that leaders of the state's foundering correctional healthcare system are incapable of reversing the "meltdown" and said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must appoint a strike team to do the job.

I never thought I would become a single-issue voter. However, Gov. Gray Davis' granting an indefensible pay increase to correctional officers after their union gave him the largest single check he has received since taking office pushes me to the edge. I am a retired employee of the Department of Corrections with over 30 years of service, so I should be glad for my former brothers. But this is too much. As a taxpayer I object to giving such a gigantic increase to a single group of employees when the rest of the state departments are being asked to take cuts.

I am a Los Angeles resident who owns a small manufacturing plant located in North Hollywood. We employ approximately 100 other residents. Recently we bid on manufacturing custom binders for the city. We were notified that we lost the bids to an organization called Oak Park Industries, which is in reality the Minnesota state prison system. Setting aside the obvious unfairness of private business competing against another state's prison system during an economic crisis as severe as the current one, Los Angeles should be promoting growth and business within the city limits, not exporting it!

California inmates will continue to die from neglect and incompetence unless the state immediately raises doctors' salaries and takes other steps to recruit and retain prison medical workers, a report to a federal judge concluded Monday. The report also suggested that leaders of the state's foundering correctional healthcare system are incapable of reversing the "meltdown" and said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must appoint a strike team to do the job.

I am a Los Angeles resident who owns a small manufacturing plant located in North Hollywood. We employ approximately 100 other residents. Recently we bid on manufacturing custom binders for the city. We were notified that we lost the bids to an organization called Oak Park Industries, which is in reality the Minnesota state prison system. Setting aside the obvious unfairness of private business competing against another state's prison system during an economic crisis as severe as the current one, Los Angeles should be promoting growth and business within the city limits, not exporting it!

The first state prison built in Los Angeles County, a $207-million complex in west Lancaster, opened its razor-wire-topped gates Monday to receive its first group of inmates, quietly climaxing six years of political and legal quarreling over the site. A bus carrying 22 minimum-security inmates pulled into the Lancaster prison's yard at 9:10 a.m., the first of up to 4,000 prisoners expected to be housed at the 252-acre facility. The 1.