LASD Civilian Oversight Rejected, Thousands of Clemency Candidates Have No Right to Counsel, LAUSD Supt. Deasy Urges Staff to Reduce Dropouts…and More

LA COUNTY SUPES VOTE AGAINST LASD CIVILIAN OVERSIGHT

With a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, the LA County Board of Supervisors rejected a motion to form a civilian panel to oversee the sheriff’s department. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said that such a commission would have no real authority over the department, and that the access of the Inspector General should be figured out before the Supes create more oversight. It should be noted that both candidates to replace Yaroslavsky in November have said they are in favor of establishing a citizen’s commission.

KPCC’s Rina Palta has more on the decision. Here’s a clip:

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who along with Supervisor Gloria Molina proposed a civilian commission, said rejecting the idea was tantamount to accepting the “status quo.”

The board itself, as one of the primary bodies that has some power and a pulpit to bring issues at the sheriff’s department to light, “cannot pay enough attention” to the department, Ridley-Thomas said.

“We need help,” he said.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the board should make the time. He also said the newly created Office of the Inspector General — whose powers the board considered in an ordinance Tuesday — should have time to take shape before the county creates a whole new commission.

“When everyone’s in charge, no one’s in charge,” Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky further predicted that the U.S. Department of Justice, which brought criminal indictments against 21 current and former sheriff’s employees over the past two years, may end up seeking court oversight of the department.

“It’s becoming abundantly clear that the justice department will compel the sheriff’s department and this county to be accountable for constitutional policing, either through a consent decree or a memorandum of agreement,” Yaroslavsky said.

Unlike a civilian commission — which would lack formal authority — such an intervention would have real teeth, he said.

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THOUSANDS OF FEDERAL PRISONERS FITTING NEW CLEMENCY CRITERIA HAVE NO RIGHT TO AN ATTORNEY

In April, the Department of Justice announced new clemency criteria that widened the pool of federal prisoners that could apply for a presidential pardon—namely non-violent drug offenders sentenced under outdated laws.

Late last week, the Administrative Office of the Courts issued a memo saying that federal prisoners seeking clemency in non-capital cases do not have a constitutional right to counsel from a public defenders or court-appointed attorneys. The original initiative announced by the Justice Department affects thousands of inmates.

Aljazeera America’s Alia Malek and Evan Hill have the story. Here’s a clip:

In a memo circulated to federal defenders and the chief judges of all U.S. district and appellate courts on Thursday, General Counsel Robert Loesche wrote: “There is no Sixth Amendment right to counsel for purposes of seeking executive clemency and no statutory right, except in capital cases … there is no authority under the CJA [Criminal Justice Act] or other law to appoint counsel in non-capital clemency proceedings.”

Under that interpretation, federal defenders, whose salaries are paid by the government, and court-appointed private attorneys, who receive federal reimbursement when they are called in for service, could not legally be paid for representing clemency candidates.

The decision is a considerable setback for a coalition of legal and advocacy groups that has stepped in at the Justice Department’s behest to lead the clemency effort, which the department has heralded as a cornerstone of the administration’s criminal justice reform agenda.

It would sideline many lawyers who have come to know their clients’ cases intimately over years of work, requiring them to turn over the task of filing clemency petitions — which draw on a prisoner’s personal and legal history — to new attorneys.

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LAUSD SUPT. DEASY ASKS SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS TO PUSH TO END DROP OUTS, ASSIGNS THEM EACH A STRUGGLING STUDENT

During a speech to kick off the new school year, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy called upon school administrators to make a personal effort to lower the drop out rate. Deasy distributed 1,500 names of struggling students entering the 10th grade across the district. Deasy asked each administrator to reach out to one kid at risk of dropping out, and help them graduate in three years.

The LA Times Howard Blume has the story. Here’s a clip:

Much of Deasy’s talk at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles celebrated progress in the nation’s second-largest school system, including rising graduation rates. The most recent rate was 82%, Deasy said, including students who stayed enrolled longer than four years.

He quickly turned to another figure: 6,950, the number of dropouts from that same class. Deasy said that number could be brought down to zero and implored his audience to “reach out to one youth at a time, every single one of us.”

To that end, 1,500 sealed envelopes, each containing a student’s name, were placed on seats in the recently rebuilt Garfield High auditorium. The superintendent asked administrators to reach out to the students — all were freshmen last year who are at risk of dropping out. They had problems with attendance, discipline, failed classes or low test scores — or a variety of these, district spokeswoman Ellen Morgan said. Some are in foster care, some are learning English and some are disabled.

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RECOMMENDED WATCHING: PBS’ “15 TO LIFE”

On Monday, PBS aired a documentary, “15 to Life: Kenneth’s Story,” about Kenneth Young, a man who was sentenced as a teenager whose armed robbery landed him four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. (We linked to it here.) You can now watch the entire documentary on the PBS website for the next month, in case you missed it.