Blog Jun 16, 2011
Court, Probation, and Community Leaders Meet at Same Table to Discuss Plan for Juveniles Without DJF
Members from CJCJ’s Sentencing Service Program recently had the opportunity to attend San Francisco and Alameda counties’ discussions on realignment. Key players in juvenile justice, from the courts, probation and the community sat down together to discuss how the realignment will affect their counties’ youth at the May 17th San Francisco Reentry Council meeting and the June 9th panel sponsored by the National Council on Crime and Deliquency on, “Keeping our Children Home: How Realigning…
Blog Jun 14, 2011
Release the Real Low Risk Prisoners
As the state of California responds to the recent Supreme Court decision ordering the release of 30,000 or more prisoners, there needs to be an awareness of what kinds of prisoners pose the greatest risk of returning to crime. It always seems to be the conventional wisdom that those serving time for property, drug and other non-violent offenders, plus parole violators, are considered to be “low-risk” offenders. Thus any discussion of what kinds of prisoners that ought to be released tends…
Blog Jun 10, 2011
Goodbye Preston
In 1894, the Preston School of Industry opened its doors and begun a 119-year legacy of maltreatment. Located in Ione, Amador County, this archaic institution was built based on a 19th Century model of congregate reform schools. It soon developed a reputation for appalling physical conditions and extreme brutality by staff members. By 1895, allegations arose of ill-treatment, malnourishment and overworking of youth. In the early-1900’s, several newspapers reported foul and degrading…
After eight years of ongoing attempts to bring California’s Department of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) up to constitutional requirements, the “DJJ continues to deprive youth of fundamental rights guaranteed them by State law and this Court’s orders.” The most recent document from the Farrell Litigation emphasizes that there are no longer viable excuses as to why these reforms have still not occurred. The Prison Law Office is set to hold the defendant [Matthew Cate, CDCR Secretary] in contempt…
Blog May 31, 2011
Corporate Tax Cheaters, Part II
My last blog concerned the subject of how corporations and the super-rich are constantly finding enough loopholes to avoid paying taxes. As I noted, I was barely scratching the surface for there is a lot more to the subject. Now it is time to dig a little deeper. In a recent commentary Chris Hedges wrote that: “A fourth of the country’s largest corporations – including General Electric, ExxonMobil and Bank of America – paid no federal income taxes in 2010. But at the same time these…