Transcripts For KQED KQED Newsroom 20160227 : comparemela.co

Transcripts For KQED KQED Newsroom 20160227

Shelter at pier 80. No, i dont want to go to pier 80. I dont think its even feasible. Why the ultimatum to go to jail or pier 80 . We have rights. As long as theres no violation in society or doing anything inappropria inappropriate, we shouldnt have tof to go. As long as were people getting off the streets, if were not doing anything to the public, they shouldnt bug us. Dont put me in the category as those who do stuff wrong. Id rather be on the streets. It would give me the opportunity try to maneuver and take care of business rather than living under someone elses rug until i get our place. Its too difficult to be living under some circumstances, and their regulations will keep you from taking care of business. Especially those that want to get off the streets, that have the drive to get off the streets and do something more with their lives than they already have. Joining me now is kqeds Stephanie Martin taylor who has been following the story. Thanks for coming in. Thank you, thuy. The deadline is today. That tent city on division street is one of several around the city. Why theyve been around for months actually. Why is the city doing this now . The city says its gotten too dangerous for public health. There are needles on the ground, feces, theyve round rats. Theres an public outcry from bo Business Owners and residents who Say Something need to be done about the tents that show no signs of leaving. Where would the homeless move to . The city has a temporary shelter at pier 80, south of the ballpark. 3. 5 miles from the city center. Its capacity is 150, although Supervisor Malia Cohen who represents the area says that there is potential for more beds to be put in. But a lot of the homeless people, like we saw, dont want to go. So thats been the citys challenge is coaxing these people to to take whats offered, and even if everyone did take whats offered, there arent enough beds available. Also, they can only stay there temporarily. Its not a permanent solution, pier 80. Its not. Its only a night or two. And then theyre on to other options, other shelters around the city. So yeah, so a lot of the people i spoke with today have been in the shelter system before. They dont like this constantly coming and going and being displaced and moved around to other parts of the city. They prefer to stay in their tents. And so critics have made that very point. This is simply moving the problem around. And advocates for the homeless said this is criminalizing homelessness. What happens at this point . What about those who refuse to go . What happens to them . I think the city is trying very hard to avoid a Public Relations nightmare where we see images of the Police Coming in and arresting people. They are trying a soft approach and putting Homeless Outreach into the field, trying to coax people into services. Thats the big question is ultimately how long if people refuse to leave or they just continue moving on to other neighborhoods, how long can this go on. How long can San Francisco oo sustain a city of little tent that pop up . Will Police Arrest them if they dont move on . Its illegal to camp. Yes, they could. We havent heard a strong point of view from the police department, police chief greg surr. He has his own Public Relations issues and has not said forcefully, yes, we will arrest people who stay. You mention public outcry has been growing, especially over the sanitary conditions, declining sanitary conditions. Mayor lees poll numbers have been dropping. Does politics play into this . Absolutely. Mayor lee has had a tough time around the super bowl. He was quoted as saying that the homeless would have to leave the streets. He would say that that was misinterpreted, thieves talking about the area around that he was talking about the area around the super bowl city, the embarcadero. That was widely interpreted as meaning he wanted to sweep everyone off the streets, out of view of visitors and tourist. Now hes got to deal with the tent city which many say is a symbol of everything that is wrong with San Franciscos homeless policies, and its inable to serve all these people inability to serve all these people who need help. The city spends hundreds of millions a year on services for the homeless. Nearly 250 million this fiscal year alone. Any reason to think that the homeless dilemma will be solved this time . Maybe mayors have tried. Yeah, they have. I think a lot of that hinges on mayor lees proposal which is being acted on, to create a department of homeless services, putting all the services that the city currently has under one roof. Philadelphias done it, new york has done it, salt lake citys done it with with success. And a Strong Department is whats needed. All right. Well see how that goes. Stephanie martin taylor, thank you. Thank you. A new report on santa clara countys troubled jails has some alarming findings. Widespread inmate complaints of excessive force, filthy living conditions, and inadequate medical care. The analysis found a broken grievance system that allows complaints to be hidden or ignored. Calls for reform intensify after mentally ill Michael Tyree was allegedly beaten to death by three Correctional Officers last year. Last month, a former inmate filed a lawsuit contending he was beaten by guards. A a Blue Ribbon Commission has been formed. And joining us, the chair, judge cordell. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Your commission made the report. Your response to the findings . First of all, i want to make clear that people understand that jails are a place for people to go, one, to be punished, so theyre not meant to be a place where you can go and have a good time. Also, half the population, more than half are there, not convicted of any crimes. Theyre pretrial waiting to to trial because either they did not get bail or denied bail. That said, we asked our consultant to go the jails and speak with whomever the consultants could speak with. A total of 11 attorneys went into the jails. Theres the main jail, north, south, and elmwood in milpitas. A womens facility and the mens facility and a minimum camp. It was stunning at how many inmates were willing to talk to these lawyers. And most of them wanted anonymity because they were concerned about retaliation from the custodial officers, the guards. They talked to 944 inmates and talked to some Correctional Officers and some family members. And so these arent really findings. Theyre really just reporting back and saying, this is what the inmates are saying, what theyre experiencing in the jails. What was your reaction upon hearing what the inmates were saying about the jails . I think i can speak for all of our Commission Members to say that we were stunned. We were really taken aback by the kinds of things that were being said. For example, some of the worst medical care was given to women, at the womens facility in elms wood. And we heard talk about miscarriages which according to the inmates could have been avoided and should have been avoided had they been given the proper care. We heard concerns about the lack of psychiatric services, inmates not getting their meds when they should. And then we heard about the grievance process. We heard about sanitation in the jails, where inmates get one change of underwear a week, and during the process that this commission has met, the sheriff actually has ordered that inmates get their underwear more frequently during the week. We want to point out that we did ask sheriff lori smith to come on the show. Her department did not respond to us. The sheriff has released a statement in the past on this issue. Earlier this week, she said her departments already working on making changes. She said in part, we are installing locked grievance collection boxes in our facilities so that inmates feel safe in making a complaint. We will implement a tracking process to ensure those complaints dont fall on deaf ears. We have reinstituted preshift squad meetings so our custody deputies hear directly about issues and concerns from the previous shift. Are you satisfied with her response . Its certainly not bad. But no, it doesnt go nearly far enough. So let me take one example. The grievance boxes. So if youre an inmate, you have a complaint, theres a form that you can get. Youre given. You fill it out, and it might be a complaint again a specific guard. So before there were no grievance boxes, you had to hand it in. Sometimes it would go to the person about whom you were complaining. Now, there are books. Im not sure how many there are, and so the idea is theyre locked so the inmate can put the complaint in. Then somebody has to open the boxes. The hope is someone higher up in the chain of command, not your average, the guard can actually get access to it. I recently received information in the last 48 hours that at least one sergeant, and thats a step up from being an officer, has gotten open opened the box, taken out a complaint, read it, shown it to the particular officer who was being complained about. The problem still exist. So more has to be done than just putting some boxes throughout the jail. A number of scandals that happened under sheriff smiths watch, this issue but also the Michael Tyree case we mentioned, also two guards accused of beating a shackled inmate so severely that his jaw was permanently disfigured. How would you assess sheriff smiths Job Performance . The jails came under the sheriffs purview in 2010. Theres been five years in which theyre under the supervision of the sheriffs department. And just looking at what we have found so far, i have some very serious concerns about what has happened in the jails under her leadership. Its not personal. I know the sheriff, i dont dislike her at all. If were talking about business here and about what the responsibility is to run the jails and to see that guards behave correctly and inmates are treated in a humane fashion, clearly what we have found so far raises all kinds of red flags. Should she step down . Im not going to say anything at this point when whether or not she should step down, but i tell you that the issue of leadership is certainly going to be a topic of discussion among Commission Members when we determine what recommendations were going bring forward. Your commission is set to make your final recommendations on april 12th, and then after that, you will be disbanded. Do you think that there is additional review needed after that . Should there be an independent Oversight Committee . Some kind of entity set up . So, i will make a report on behalf of the commission to the board of supervisors on april 12th at their supervisors meeting, on a tuesday. Its my view that there has to be an ongoing look at everything thats happened, especially if the board adopts the recommendation for the commission. Somebody has to see that theyre implemented. I will tell you that im personally in favor of independent, civilian oversight. A sort of monitor of the jails in santa clara county. Thats just me. I dont know how the commission will feel about it. But absolutely, there has to be oversight independent of the sheriffs department, to hold that department accountable and to hold leadership accountable. And just real quickly, at one point you had threatened to quit the commission because the county had hired a Consulting Firm to review the jail system but produce a report that would not be public. Youre satisfied that thats been resolved . No, it hasnt. That consultants there. Theyre doing a secret report. Were covering information that the consultant is not covering. All right. Judge cordell, always good to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. California democrats kick off their statewide Convention Today in san jose. Its expected to set the stage for key races, including the contest to replace longtime u. S. Senator Barbara Boxer who is retiring. The top democratic con toernds take her seat are contenders to take her house are the topic of our discussion. And scott schaefer, Senior Editor of kqed politics. Thanks for joining us. What else is on the agenda because democrats control just about every statewide office from the governor on down. Theres still work to do . This is the last big meeting before the primary in june. Theres a lot of organizing that goes on. Theres all these caucuses, every image nibbinable group ta. Its talking about becoming a delegate for the National Convention in july for the president ial campaign. And people getting trained and organizing volunteers, those kinds of things. Gearing up for the june primary and then the big event in november. What about Party Endorsements . Are those up for grabs . They are. That is probably the most important thing thats going to be happening this weekend. You mentioned in the senate race, Barbara Boxer retiring after 24 years. Its tough to get a Party Endorsement in a contested race where there is no incumbent which is what this is. You have to get 60 of the delegates plus one. If anyone can do that this weekend, it will be camela harris. Shes been traveling, trying to lock down votes from delegates. Her people are downplaying, lowering expectations. There is a chance she could do that, and it will be probably a victory for Loretta Sanchez if she can just block harris from the endorsement. Its tough because you can vote no endorsement. Therefore, its tougher to get the 50 threshold. No incumbent in that race. But in san jose, there is a race where there is an incumbent, mike honda. Squaring off again against ro qana. Its a bitter fight. And honda did not get the early endorsement. You need 70 , and he did not get that. If he can just get 50 of the delegates this weekend, he will get that endorsement. He probably will. But just the fact that hes struggling even to get that endorsement for an incumbent is not a good sign for him. Hes running an aggressive campaign. Hes raced more than honduras arch hes lining up honda. Hes lining up endorsements. Obama is not going to get involved. Last time he endorsed honda, that was a boost. This time hes going to sit it out. Theres an investigation of mike honda in the house, and i think thats giving people cold feet. What about amiberra . Hes not running contested. Hes the congressman from the sacramento area. Hes taken conservative positions on things like the pacific trade agreement which he supports. That makes organized labor very unhappy. He also was denied that early endorsement. And hell probably get it again just 50 plus one, i think theyre making him sweat it out because theyre not happy with him. Theres also a president ial primary in june. Will Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders show up . No. They will not be there. Theyve got something going on tomorrow in South Carolina. Just a little thing called the super tuesday i think. Thats tuesday, then South Carolina is tomorrow, saturday. Theyre very busy. But the Vice President will be there. You know, hes a big favorite of the rank and file democrats. Hell be there. No. No bernie. No hillary. Joe biden is having an interesting week. He was at ucsf, then the convention and the oscars the convention is a warmup. Hes going to be at the oscar ceremony in los angeles. Hes introducing lady gaga, whos going to be singing a song from a nominated best original song from a film about Sexual Assault on campus which is a big issue for joe biden as it was going all the way back to his days in the senate. Now, in addition to the Democratic Convention, another big issue in state politics this week, Governor Brown is now appealing a superior court ruling against his initiative to make certain nonviolent felons eligible for early parole. Take us through this battle quickly. The governor made that announcement in january, and it was immediately opposed by the District Attorneys. They then filed a lawsuit saying that what the governor did was he took a pending ballot measure on juvenile justice, added this stuff about sentencing, and then for adults. For adults. And so paired it with the juvenile stuff, but didnt give any time for the public to comment on this new version. Now brown says this was just a an amendment to an existing ballot measure. The d. A. S saying no, this is a whole new thing. You got to start at the beginning. You cant jump in in the middle. And this judge in sacramento this week agreed with the District Attorney. Now the governor and the attorney general are appealing to the state Supreme Court. It was really a slap of the hand, also of the a. G. , camela harris. The judge said she should not have accepted the changes because it was a whole new ballot measure. Now it goes to the state Supreme Court where brown has three of the seven appointees. It will be interesting to see what they do. Former state senator lee sentenced to five years in prison. Of course, he was caught up in the fbi sting of raymond chow. He was sentenced for exchanging political favors for campaign contributions. Do you think this finally puts a lid on that one chapter . And how has it changed the Democratic Party . Well, leland ye was never a favorite among democrats in sacramento. He was always regarded a showboat and lone wolf on certain issues. I dont think there were a lot of tears shed. That said, his getting caught up in the sting happened when other controversies and scandals were happening up

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