LAUSD Prison Policy Reentry Zero Tolerance and School Discipline

Unusual Bedfellows for CA Realignment Reform….The Homeboy 5K….The Anti-Suspension School…..& More


UNLIKELY NEW BFFs UNITE OVER PUSH FOR BETTER REENTRY PROGRAMS & NO NEW JAILS IN CA REALIGNMENT

No labor union in California has been more obstructive when it comes to criminal justice reform than the CCPOA—the prison guards’ union.

And few foundations have been more progressive and reform minded on the topic of criminal justice and prison and parole policy than the Rosenberg foundation.

That’s why it’s very cheering to see the prez of the CCPOA, Mike Jimanez, and the prez of Rosenberg Timothy Silard collaborating on a push for reform as evidenced in this Sacramento Bee Op Ed written jointly by the two men..

May it be a sign of things to come

Here’s a clip:

In polls and with their votes, Californians are sending a strong message that they are ready for the state to move in a new direction when it comes to public safety.

With realignment, local law enforcement has an unrivaled opportunity to lead us in this new direction, but the jury is still out on whether local officials will take up this challenge by adopting strategies that will make neighborhoods safer while maximizing scarce resources.

It’s been more than a year since the state – prompted by a major corrections crisis and a directive from the U.S. Supreme Court to reduce prison overcrowding – instituted realignment. In doing so, the state finally acknowledged that simply putting more people in prison was not the answer to its public safety woes. In fact, the Legislature recognized that California must reduce prison overcrowding and invest its limited resources to support programs and practices proven to keep people safe.

The state also gave local law enforcement and county officials the power to solve a problem that has plagued California for decades – how to keep our communities safe by stopping the revolving door of recidivism. Unfortunately, so far, many counties seem to be choosing to replicate the decisions that left the state’s criminal justice system broken in the first place.

Today, more than half of California’s counties are investing funding they received from the state to build or expand their local jails. Only a few are making real investments in proven crime-fighting strategies, such as re-entry centers, supervised pretrial release, rehabilitation and alternatives to incarceration – evidence-based practices that would lessen jail overcrowding and increase safety for California communities…..


THE HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES 5K IS THIS SATURDAY: WHERE YOU CAN….STAY IN SHAPE, HELP SAVE LIVES, GET A COOL T-SHIRT!

Honestly, this is a great event!. However, if you really, really don’t want to run, you can sponsor runners, or just donate to one of So Cal’s most important and life-saving organizations.

It’s on Saturday, December 15, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. (runners check in at 6 a.m,), at Los Angeles State Historic Park

You can find the rest of the info here.


BEFORE THE NEW PRINCIPAL ARRIVED, GARFIELD HIGH HAD 100 SUSPENSIONS A YEAR. LAST YEAR THEY HAD ONE

When Principal Jose Heurta came to big, historically gang-troubled Garfield High School in 2010, his first move was to get rid of school suspensions.

Heurta mandated that, instead of tossing a misbehaving student out of school for a day or a week, thereby causing the student to fall even farther behind in his or her classwork, instead the staff would reach out to the kid and spend time with him or her.

Now So Cal Connected has done a terrific story on the exceptionally sane approach that is getting very heartening results. Brian Rooney reports with Karen Foshay producing.

Here’s a clip from the show’s transcript:

Last school year there were just over 700,000 suspensions throughout the California public schools. Kids sent home as punishment about one for every nine registered students. So you might be surprised to hear that at Garfield it was one. Just one suspension last year.

Rooney [to Huerta]: You came here mid-year and there were more than a hundred suspensions, and immediately you said, “No more suspensions?”

Huerta: Right. I talked to my team. And that’s off the table. I know what it’s about. These kids need to be in school. For us to help a kid, we need them in school.

Rooney: The vast majority of suspended students in California are Black and Latino. This school is 99 percent Latino.

[HUGE SNIP]

Rooney: Last year, Garfield’s academic performance score jumped 75 points. The graduation rate last spring was just over 79 percent, three points better than the state average, and eight points better than the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.

Huerta: There’s gotta be trust in there with the teachers, the parents, and the students that everybody’s on the same team, that everybody has the same focus, which is students’ achievement.

Go Principal Huerta! Go Garfield!


RESOLUTION PROPOSES HANDCUFFING LAUSD’S SUP’T DEASY WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING OUTSIDE FUNDING TO HELP THE BUDGET-STRAPPED DISTRICT. (THE HORROR!)

Samantha Ottman at the LASchoolReport has the story:

A controversial item on the LAUSD School Board agenda this week proposes drastically limiting Superintendent John Deasy’s ability to seek funding for the district by applying for public or private grants.

The resolution, initiated by School Board Members Richard Vladovic, Bennett Kayser, and Marguerite LaMotte, aims to give the school board veto power over grant applications made by the school superintendent in amounts over $750,000.

According to a source with knowledge about LAUSD grant applications, Supt. Deasy has been awarded about $120 million dollars for the district through grants so far.

Because of the split on the school board between union-backed board members and supporters of reform-minded Deasy, the effect would be to severely limit the district’s ability to attract foundation and federal money.

Really, LAUSD board? You’re really are going to be that power-grabby and control freaky?

This questionable resolution will come before the board on Tuesday.

(You can read it here on the board’s meeting agenda, at Item 35.)


2 Comments

  • Liberals are SO naive when it comes to “public safety.” This moonbeam talk about re-entry centers, rehabilitation and feel good programs for career criminals are so pathetically misguided. The concept is simply a liberal pipe dream and will be another boondoggle of epic per portions that will cost California billions of wasted dollars, create huge bureaucracies of government spending and worthless jobs AND more importantly, it will absolutely result in the loss of innocent lives. Oh yes, innocent people will be slaughtered in crime sprees. I have seen this cycle of public safety liberal intervention a couple of times over my 35 year career in law enforcement. Liberals just can’t get it through their soft head, there are some people, many people, most people in State Prison that cannot be saved because they don’t want to be saved. They are who they are and NOTHING will change them.

    For your average run of the mill thug, they are in and out of County jails because of their drug addiction (their choice) or involvement in gangs (their choice). The courts do all they can to keep them out of prison through supervised probation, drug counseling (mandated by State law) and minimal County jail time (give a guy 180 days and he is out in 180 minutes). But then the asshole crosses the line and hurts or kills someone during their crime and then it is off to the joint. Remember the horrible case of Polly Klass? The little girl who was kidnapped, sexual assaulted and murdered in Northern California? The crime was committed by a career criminal who if I remember correctly, was on parole. And these are the very people the liberals want to take home and cook dinner for. They will NEVER change, they are who they are and the prisons are filled with them.

    California continues to go to hell in a hand basket and it is mostly by the hands of the liberal community who thinks they can regulate, tax, spend our state into some type of utopia. And in that utopia, they think career criminals are going to be released from prison and become CEO’s of major corporations. No, what they will do is continue to break into your homes, rape your daughters and kill your family members during their petty crimes because, they are who they are and they will never change. The blood will be on your hands, not mine. And it will mean nothing to the liberal politicians (too bad, what a shame, oh well lets go have lunch) unless……………. it happens to one of their family members. “Oh well.”

  • Cut to the chase: Most importantly, you forgot–or maybe you didn’t know–the fact that there’s a 15 point downward difference in I.Q. between the inmate & general(regular folks) populations. Personally, I don’t think this difference can be breached, and I don’t think efforts should be wasted on trying, except

    A Community College in an isolated area of California, like up in the High Sierras. inmates who don’t do well, academically or behaviourally, are rolled up & sent back to The Joint.

    That’s the way the Fire Camps work, and outcomes there seem to be pretty good.

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