Eastern District of California Blog

Steinberg Seeks Expanded Mental Health & Drug Treatment And Three More Years To Reduce Prison Population

California would get three more years to reduce its prison population to court-mandated levels while counties would get $200 million a year to expand drug treatment and mental health care for criminal offenders under a proposal Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg unveiled today that calls for settling a long-standing lawsuit against the state over its crowded prisons.

Steinberg presented the plan a day after Gov. Jerry Brown introduced legislation that calls for spending $315 million on additional prison beds to meet a federal court order to reduce crowding in the state's prisons by the end of this year. Brown's plan has the support of Republican leaders in the Legislature, Sen. Bob Huff and Assemblywoman Connie Conway, as well as Democratic Assembly Speaker John A. Perez.

But Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, is advancing a counter proposal that seeks to address the problem of crowded prisons without paying for more prison space or the early release of inmates. More than a dozen Democratic state senators stood behind Steinberg as he presented his plan to the media this morning, including a spectrum of liberal and moderate Democrats.

Sacramento Bee, 8/28/13

Gov. Brown Announces Plan to Ease Prison Overcrowding Without Early Releases

Gov. Jerry Brown and top lawmakers pledged Tuesday to ease prison crowding without releasing inmates early, laying out a plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for alternate housing.

The proposal, which has divided Democratic leaders, would pay for enough beds in privately owned prisons and other facilities to shed more than 9,600 inmates from state lockups by the end of the year, as federal judges have ordered.

"This is the sensible, prudent way to proceed," Brown said at a Capitol news conference. "The plan is to find as many cells as needed."

Paying for the extra housing would drain $315 million from the state's $1.1-billion reserve over the next year. The price tag is expected to increase to $415 million for each of the following two years.

The proposal would avoid inmate releases while Brown continues fighting the order to reduce the population in state prisons, which the judges say are unconstitutionally crowded. 

LA Times, 8/27/13

Shasta County Court Recalls 3-Strikes Life Sentence Under Prop 36

We criminal defense attorneys need rebranding.  In these financially troubled times, maybe we should be calling ourselves "budget cutters," "deficit fighters," or "taxpayer advocates." 

Case in point.  Last week, the Shasta County Superior Court recalled the 3-strikes, 25-years-to-life sentence for my client Robert Burlew under Prop 36 and resentenced him to the non-3 strikes maximum for receiving stolen property, or time served.  People v. Burlew, Shasta County No. 03F1651. 

All in all, his release probably saved California taxpayers upwards of a half-million dollars.  And he was punished severely.  Before his sentence was recalled, Mr. Burlew served more than nine years in custody for his third-strike conviction of receiving stolen property for items found in the trunk of a vehicle during a traffic stop.  His prior strike offenses were more than 20 years old.

To paraphrase Attorney General Eric Holder, our country sentences too many people to too much time for no good reason. 

On the topic of second chances, today's New York Times has a piece on Shon Hopwood, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for bank robbery.  After success as a "jailhouse" prison lawyer, Hopwood went to law school, passed the bar, and will soon start a stint as a law clerk for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.   

President Ford Video Testimony From "Squeaky" Fromme Trial Released

Today's Sacramento Bee has a piece by Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton on the EDCA's recent order releasing the video of President Ford's 1975 testimony in the Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme assassination attempt federal trial upon the request of the EDCA historical society. 

The video of President Ford's testimony is available here.

EDCA Court Rules Water Can Be Released To Protect Salmon

"A U.S. District judge ruled late Thursday that water can be released from Northern California's Trinity Reservoir to prevent a salmon kill in the lower Klamath River, but the amount of water involved will be far less than the federal government initially asked for."  Fresno Bee, 8/22/13.

Ninth Circuit Rules Atheist Parolee Entitled To Monetary Damages

An atheist parolee who was sent back to prison after he balked at participating in a religious-oriented drug treatment program must receive monetary compensation, a federal appellate court ruled Friday.

The ruling overturned the verdict of a Sacramento jury, which decided that Barry A. Hazle Jr. was not entitled to monetary damages, even though his constitutional rights had been violated.

Sacramento Bee, 8/24/13; see [Hazle v. Crofoot, 11-15354 (9th Cir. Aug. 23, 2013].

$774,000 Settlement For Former Student Injured In Pepper Ball Shooting

After more than eight years of legal infighting, the University of California and the city of Davis have paid a former student $774,000 for damage to his eye from a pepper ball fired by police.

Timothy C. Nelson's 2005 lawsuit in Sacramento federal court stemmed from UC Davis and city officers' actions the year before that cost him a big part of the vision in his left eye and his football scholarship at the university.

Sacramento Bee, 8/22/13

Norcal Tribe Members Protest Water Districts' Suit To Stop Water Release To Protect Salmon

Members of two Northern California tribes Tuesday demonstrated at Westlands Water District, asking district officials to drop their lawsuit against water releases that would protect a large run of salmon.

The Hoopa and Yurok members are in Fresno this week for U.S. District Court hearings in the case, which begin Wednesday. They arrived Tuesday to protest and attend Westlands' board meeting.

Fresno Bee, 8/20/13

Fresno Bee's Watchdog Report: Locked In Terror: Mental Health Care In The Fresno County Jail

The Fresno Bee's live chat on its watchdog report on the care of the mentally ill in Fresno County jail,  "Locked in Terror."

Attorney Convicted Of Attempted Tax Evasion After Bench Trial

Today, Judge Mueller found an attorney guilty of attempted tax evasion and subscribing to a false tax document after a 5-day bench trial.  khsltv.com, 8/21/13