Prison System Mistakenly Adds to Inmate Firefighter Sentences
The good conduct system California recently implemented is mistakenly adding time to inmate firefighters’ sentences. Officials have fixed the malfunction and are working to recalculate the sentences.
July 13, 2021 • (TNS) California prison officials created new good conduct credits in May designed to speed up the releases of more than 76,000 inmates, but one segment of the prison inmate population inmate firefighters are seeing the length of their sentences increased, at least on paper, inmate advocates and family members say. We ve been receiving lots of complaints from people whose loved ones had their release dates lengthened by significant periods of time, sometimes months, if not a year or more, said Don Specter, executive director of the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office that advocates for inmates.
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His answer was crystal clear: “No. Never will.” That’s how a prison guard at California Rehabilitation Center in Norco feels about taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and he’s not alone.
There’s the Sacramento-area correctional officer with more than 15 years on the job who “doesn’t believe in” vaccinations. A sergeant from Northern California with eight years of experience who “appreciates” prisons offering employees the vaccine, but still doesn’t feel comfortable taking it. A prison psychologist from Southern California who feels protected because of having had a prior case of COVID.
Most Prison Staff Refuse COVID Vaccine Should California Let Them?
His answer was crystal clear: “No. Never will.” That’s how a prison guard at California Rehabilitation Center in Norco feels about taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and he’s not alone.
There’s the Sacramento-area correctional officer with more than 15 years on the job who “doesn’t believe in” vaccinations. A sergeant from Northern California with eight years on the job who “appreciates” prisons offering employees the vaccine, but still doesn’t feel comfortable taking it. A prison psychologist from Southern California who feels protected because of having had a prior case of COVID.
Damon Arthur, Record Searchlight, Don Thompson, Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Two state representatives for Susanville said Wednesday they were appalled that state officials did not notify them ahead of time that a state prison inmate training with more than 1,000 employees is closing in their districts.
California Department of Corrections officials said a shrinking prisoner population is forcing the closure of the California Correctional Center in Susanville by July 22, the second prison closure in recent months.
But the closure apparently caught off-guard state Assemblywoman Megan Dahle and her husband, state Sen. Brian Dahle.
The two sent out a joint press release Wednesday slamming the California Department of Corrections and Gov. Gavin Newsom for not giving them and the community advance notice of the closure.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
A decade after prison crowding forced California to realign its criminal justice system, the population in what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system has shrunk to the point where officials announced Tuesday they will close one of two inmate firefighter training centers.
The California Correctional Center in Susanville will close by July 2022, officials said, the second such prison closure announced in recent months. The changes have inmates’ attorneys worrying that crowding could eventually again become a problem.
The 58-year old prison, one of two in rural Lassen County in northeastern California, trains inmate firefighters who staff 14 firefighting camps in Northern California.