SANTA MONICA COLLEGE STUDENTS PROTESTING RATE HIKES PEPPER SPRAYED
(NOTE: Taylor Walker contributed to the following stories.)
Angry over a new system of pricey courses, around 30 not-very-dangerous looking Santa Monica College students tried to enter the trustees meeting on Tuesday night, and got lit up with pepper spray for their trouble.
Stay classy SMC cops. Stay classy.
The LA Times has more on the story as does the AP
SUPERVISORS GET SERIOUS ABOUT REHABILITATION
At Tuesday’s board meeting the LA County Supervisors demanded accountability and clear goals from Probation officials regarding the county’s realignment program instituted this past October. The Supes criticized Probation for failing to insure that the recently released inmates actually turned up at the rehabilitation programs to which they were assigned. (These are the non-violent, non-serious, non-sexual offender releasees now overseen by the county, rather than the state, as part of the AB106 “realignment” plan). They noted that, of the 60% of the realignment parolees who have been referred to services like substance abuse and mental health counseling, only 15% have actually been treated.
With a unanimously adopted a motion by Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Supes called for Probation to establish a feasibility plan to explore how to better (and more quickly) get those percentages up. Probation’s deputy chief, Cal Remington, assured the Supes that progress was already being made, that as of now 48% of those in need of mental health services are actually receiving them.
Representatives from several community-based organizations spoke in favor of the motion, however, some urged the county to resist creating a structure of mandates and resulting probation violations that could lead to the re-incarceration of returning prisoners. (A strategy called “flash incarceration”—short, immediate jail terms, such as those being used successfully in Hawaii—was one of those being tossed around.)
Kim McGill of the Youth Justice Coalition praised the motion as a “positive step,” but pointed out that many of those returning are hindered in their efforts to comply. The lack of a valid or government-issued identification card, without which they often cannot access educational, housing and health care services, said McGill. (Simple obstacles like having the money to buy a bus pass to get to rehab programs can, for some of the newly released, seem insurmountable.)
Ridley-Thomas emphasized the importance of addressing the problem now, not later.
“The matter is urgent,” He said. “If we do not see substantially more people receiving the treatment and services they need, no one will be well served; public safety will be undermined and the cycle of recidivism will continue unabated.”
Indeed. For years, California’s recidivism rate has been stuck at abysmal levels, with approximately 65% of parolees passing through the revolving door back in prison within three years of release.
Good that the realignment issue is getting attention early.
Nice story from the LA Times’ Jenny Deam on how Colorado is managing to close a $184M prison facility built in 2010 thanks to a steadily declining prison population—thanks, in part, to a enlightened attitude toward rehab and alternative sentencing . Here’s an excerpt:
The 316-bed prison, called Colorado State Penitentiary II, is the fourth correctional facility in Colorado ordered closed in the last three years because of a dwindling prison population. At its peak in July 2009, the state’s inmate population was 23,220. As of February, it had dropped to 21,562. A decrease of 900 more inmates is expected by June 2013.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently reported that the overall prison population in the U.S. had declined for the first time in four decades.
Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, said the state was part of a seismic shift in attitudes in the U.S. about the wisdom of locking up nonviolent offenders for long periods.
In some states, decades of get-tough sentencing have given way to alternatives to prison. They include probation and parole, mandatory drug treatment, mental health care and community supervision such as halfway houses, GPS ankle bracelets and regular drug testing.Research has shown that if alternatives are well implemented and include good supervision, repeat offenses can be cut by 30% and the cost is about one-tenth of the $30,000-a-year average for housing a prisoner, Gelb said.
“This is not about being soft on crime or being hard on crime,” Clements said. “This is about being smart on crime.”
THE EXTRAORDINARY MEANNESS OF “HOLIDAY ON ICE”
This is a story from last week, but in case you missed it: Displaying a bout of shocking callousness, the Republicans in the House Judiciary committee dubbed the hearings on the new guidelines for immigration detention issued last month…as Holiday on Ice, implying that being locked up in ICE detention is a vacation.
This after novelist and essayist Edwidge Danticat wrote an scathing OpEd for the NY Times with regard to this flip title and callous attitude.
Here’s a clip:
The flippant title of the hearing shows a blatant disregard for the more than 110 people who have died in immigration custody since 2003. One of them was my uncle Joseph, an 81-year-old throat cancer survivor who spoke with an artificial voice box. He arrived in Miami in October 2004 after fleeing an uprising in Haiti. He had a valid passport and visa, but when he requested political asylum, he was arrested and taken to the Krome detention center in Miami. His medications for high blood pressure and an inflamed prostate were taken away, and when he fell ill during a hearing, a Krome nurse accused him of faking his illness. When he was finally transported, in leg chains, to the prison ward of a nearby hospital, it was already too late. He died the next day.
My uncle’s brief and deadly stay in the United States immigration system was no holiday. Detention was no holiday for Rosa Isela Contreras-Dominguez, who was 35 years old and pregnant when she died in immigration custody in Texas in 2007. She had a history of blood clots, and said her complaints regarding leg pains were ignored. It was no holiday for Mayra Soto, a California woman who was raped by an immigration officer. It was no holiday for Hiu Lui Ng, a 34-year-old Chinese immigrant with a fractured spine who was dragged on the floor and refused the use of a wheelchair in an ICE detention center in Rhode Island….
Then here’re are the letters to the editor in response to what Danticat has written.
A sweeping plan to make local officials responsible for supervising thousands of released prisoners previously monitored by the state has gotten off to a bumpy start in Los Angeles County.
(You can put the entire blame on the County Supervisors for allowing Sheriff Lee Baca to make an unprecedented attempt to stick his money hungry claws into millions of dollars and even make a ridiculous move to take over the LA CO Probation Department’s supervision function. Look at all the millions that were given to him that are now being used up on overtime via the Tanaka Juice Crew COPS Division. This was the only county in the entire State of California to have dumb County Supervisors allow a Sheriff Chief to delay implementation of AB109, allowing a Chief to make an all mighty Hitler Nazi chess move eyeballing millions. Maybe he wanted to outfit more helicopters)
Many of the ex-criminals are not showing up for counseling appointments, some care centers are not being paid and county bureaucrats are scrambling to correct foul-ups that have caused delays.
(Its unconstitutional to force anyone to do anything in America, on Parole or Probation period. Please learn to read the Law before publishing articles out of your arse. Even if you have a court order, you are not allowed to force a person to do any action that violates their freedom of choice or movement. This is America remember. That’s why we have so many homeless people with mental health issues roaming around Downtown LA which will never be resolved or fixed on the same grounds. You can refer everyone and everything, even refer your mother to a rehab, and you wont be able to have anyone comply to your orders – Court or no Court. You would have to handcuff a person and place them in a closed detention facility to force them to participate in a program – even then they can deny participation. Prior to writing a lousy article, it seems that the LA Times really needs some serious legal advice from a constitutional lawyer.)
About 6,000 prisoners were shifted to county supervision under a realignment law signed last April by Gov. Jerry Brown. The intent was to cut state costs and reduce severe prison overcrowding by keeping nonviolent felons in local jails instead of transferring them to the state system. As part of the plan, the supervision of probationers was also shifted to counties.
(These are not County Probationers – They are Post Released or Parolees that are now supervised by Probation.)
To help pay for the local oversight, state lawmakers provided $112 million to the county — by far the largest recipient of prisoners on probation — and promised more in the future.
(They promised more millions but it was all on a pending Tax hike Initiative that has yet to pass by voters.)
But most Los Angeles County supervisors have been critical of realignment from the beginning, saying the state was trying to pass costs to local government and fearing that a rise in crime would occur once prisoners started getting released.
(The buffoons over at Probation will play and manipulate the numbers to satisfy whatever the County Supervisors are requesting and want to see. They ask for less arrests – they will get less arrests. They ask for numbers on murders, rapes, re-arrests …etc. They will get manipulated results by a bunch of incompetent managers that were placed in AB109 positions – selected through a process of corruption, favoritism, and not on “what you know” – its more of “who you blowed”. A department that allows an employee to push around an soon to be retired executive in a wheelchair then promotes him at a position right under a Chief – what a great parting retirement gift. The Probation makes Tanaka Cigar Club look like amateur night at the big top circus.)
In the six months since, about a quarter of the probationers have been arrested for allegedly committing new crimes, which is below the previous state average for probationers. But some politicians and community activists worry that the numbers could climb further, especially since about 10% of released convicts are not attending meetings or have gone missing, according to the most recent county statistics.
(Again, they are not probationers, they are Post Release Offenders or Parolees. You are dealing with a group of career criminals. Its their lifestyle and character to lie, cheat, steal, and find the easiest route from point A to B. Of course they are not going to attend and of course they are going to go missing, they wish for you not to find them because they are breaking the law. They are selling drugs, using drugs, shooting people, dealing guns, prostituting, lying, cheating, not supporting all their 8 kids and 3 baby mamas- thats their way of life and they love it. Its called being “gangster”)
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said last week that it is too early to draw conclusions. “We have to get data which we can rely on,” he said. “I’m not sure we have that at this point.”
(If the real data was provided to you, your not going to like what your going to get pal.)
Ridley-Thomas also said the county was partly to blame for its slow progress on realignment. Supervisors took two months to approve a $4-million housing and transportation contract with the prominent San Francisco-based provider Haight Ashbury Free Clinics-Walden House, in part because the sheriff’s and probation departments were arguing over who would oversee the newly released prisoners.
(Here is where you got it wrong my friend. It was your fault and the rest of your buddies at the County Board of Dupervisors, for allowing numbnuts Lee Baca and his high school diploma Undersheriffs a chance at a half ass power point presentation and time on the Mic. You allow that lying Sheriff Chief of yours to stall valuable time delaying implementation of a better prepared program.
In the interim, various county agencies offered help to probationers directly.
“There’s no denying there was a lot of time lost and possibly wasted,” Ridley-Thomas said.
Haight Ashbury did not start providing services to the former prisoners until February and referred only 157 of them to places where they could receive job training and housing as of March 12, according to county statistics. Probation officials say the pace of referrals has picked up since then, and Haight Ashbury officials say they have made 401 referrals in all.
(They got more referrals because more Post Release prisoners got out on AB109.)
Ridley-Thomas has proposed that probation officials consider consolidating services at central locations, making it easier for probationers to make appointments, undergo examinations and obtain housing without having to travel.
(Who is going to pay for the extra room at these central locations? They cant even properly service the high numbers on regular juvenile and adult probationers. The Courts are about to close their doors and have approximately 300 layoffs. The County is broke!!! How are you going to house three agencies in one building? The second issue goes back to an individual choice of a post release offender refusing to accept county services. Put all these agencies together, spent valuable time, energy, a lot of money, make a referral to a few AB109 offender with an ending result that he/she not attend a program and then absconding – a total waste of County money and time.)
As of now, ex-offenders must sometimes travel far to get services because not all are in the same location.
(County services were not created exclusively to service Post release Offender. They were created to help all County Citizens. Why are the County Supervisor placing a urgent request to service a group of criminals when services should be provided to those who are non-crminals first. Moreover, we are not here to hold the hands of criminals and babysit them all.)
Because other local groups had services to offer, county probation officials also tried to offer contracts to additional providers. But the application was so bulky and confusing, it was quickly recalled.
(Goes back to the County Probation Baffoons!)
“I know a number of you had already been working” on the application, said Reaver Bingham, a deputy chief with the Probation Department, said at a recent public meeting. “I know there may be a measure of frustration … but I beseech your patience.”
(Number one on the Baffoon List)
Some smaller community groups also began helping recently released prisoners, even though it was unclear if they would be reimbursed.
(NO YOUR NOT GETTING $$$$)
Probation officials said the new application will be ready within 60 days. Many community groups say that will not be fast enough, especially because many of them have been helping ex-prisoners since realignment began and before the county had a contract to provide services.
(Your not going to get paid. County Departments and Supervisors have Manipulated and played favoritism to selected Community Outreach programs in every County District for numerous years)
The Watts Healthcare Corp.-House of Uhuru, a residential treatment facility in Watts, took in 15 extra patients who were recently released from jail, including Terrell Barrow, who was released in mid-October after serving three and a half years for drug dealing.
Barrow said that during his time at the center, he’s learned to better manage his anger and cope with his drug cravings by attending group and individual meetings.
“You’ve come a long way. You really have,” James Croom, Barrow’s counselor, told the former prisoner during one of their weekly sessions.
(Good for you Barrow, now go get a 9 to 5 job, learn how to get up early everyday, make it to work on time, and dont beat up your boss because he instructed you to do something. While your at it, support your kids and pay taxes like the rest of us.)
The cost of Barrow’s rehabilitation is more than $17,000, none of which is covered by the county. Overall, the House of Uhuru is nearly $280,000 in the red, said Wendell Carmichael, the facility’s director of social health programs.
“I’m clear that I can’t go down this road much longer,” he said.
The Watts Healthcare Corp. normally treats patients on a first-come, first-served basis, but Carmichael said the organization will soon have to stop accepting new clients.
“I’m not sure what the other people will do,” Carmichael said.
(You are getting paid a lot of money to sit there and listen to these Criminals. You have the choice of not taking anymore clients – so dont take anymore.)
The real reality is that the state has screwed la county. the county has all these people and no funding, along with unarmed people being told to do home calls on these people. just wait