Before the hospice program started by prison chaplain Lorie Adolff, dying prisoners in California’s state prison in San Luis Obsipo (California Men’s Colony) just expired alone in their cells, with prison nurses looking in periodically until their vital signs ceased. Adolff’s project, Supportive Care Services, trains other prisoners, most of them lifers, to sit with … Continue reading »
Brown v. Plata
Beard must go: California needs a fresh start in corrections, not a cover-up for business as usual
When Governor Brown appointed Jeffrey Beard to be the new Secretary of Corrections in California last year, it was supposed to signal a new era. After decades of Correctional leaders who were insiders, brought up in a system that had normalized a state of permanent crisis and systemic inhumanity, Mr. Beard looked to be reason … Continue reading »
Prosecution complex: Persecuting Aaron Swartz and degrading the Constitution
There should be a difference between prosecution and persecution. The long “War on Crime,” America’s longest, has gone on a lot longer (’67 to now), and done a lot more damage to American law and society, than most people reckon (at least those who missed my 2007 tome, Governing through Crime: How the War on … Continue reading »
‘Mass incarceration now, tomorrow, forever’: Gov. Jerry Brown and the politics of court bashing
Just about two years ago, in May 2011, the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Plata 131 S.Ct. 1910 (2011) upheld what Justice Scalia called the “most radical court injunction in our nation’s history.” The injunction imposed by a special 3-Judge federal court in August 2009, required California to reduce its prison population by some 40,000 prisoners, … Continue reading »
Correctional madness: Realignment on the right track in L.A.
“The California Report” and the Center for Investigative Reporting posted another excellent report on realignment this morning (broadcast on many NPR stations and available online after a delay here — this one focused on the vital issue of how counties, which get both resources and discretion over post-prison supervision for many California prisoners, are working … Continue reading »