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WitnessLA's Best of the Week
A Brand New LA County Sheriff's Jail Inmate Abuse Trial Begins Tuesday: Jury selection begins Tuesday in the latest federal trial involving members of the LA County Sheriff’s Department accused of abusing jail inmates. The incident in question, which occurred in 2010 at the county’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility, involves an LASD training officer and two young deputies under his supervision, whom the T.O. allegedly ordered to assault an inmate named for “verbally disrespecting” a custody assistant, then to falsify reports in order to portray the inmate as the aggressor. WitnessLA
LA County Supervisors Ban Solitary for Kids (And, Yes, This is a Big Deal): On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion that bans the use of solitary confinement—in all but the most exceptional circumstances---in any and all of the county’s juvenile detention facilities. Supes ordered the change to be accomplished by the end of September of this year. LA County oversees the largest juvenile justice system in the nation. Thus this decision could, with any luck, have a contagious effect on other counties and their juvenile justice systems, in California and beyond. WitnessLA
LA County Board of Supes to Consider Funding Homeboy Industries to Do the Job It’s Been Doing for Free for the County for Years: Last Tuesday, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved an unusual motion, which proposes to offer Homeboy Industries a yearlong, $1.5 million contract to do the work that they’ve been doing anyway for the county, namely helping formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women in LA County by giving them the tools and support to allow them to redirect their lives—instead of cycling in and out of jail or prison or both. WitnessLA
President Obama Grants 58 More Commutations: On Thursday, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 58 federal prisoners serving time behind bars under outdated drug sentencing laws---including two people from Los Angeles and one from Richmond, CA. WitnessLA
Editorial - Why Did It Take So Long to Get Rid of Tom Angel?: It took four days for Tom Angel, the chief of staff for LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell to tender his resignation after news broke about racist, sexist, and anti-Muslim emails that Angel forwarded while he worked for the Burbank Police Department. The LA Daily News editorial board wants to know: what took so long for McDonnell to dump Angel? WitnessLARead the backstory: WitnessLA
The Criminal Justice Reform History of CA District Attorney (and US Senate Hopeful) Kamala Harris: When Kamala Harris was elected California’s Attorney General in 2010, her past achievements as San Francisco’s District Attorney, and the ideas in her 2009 book, Smart on Crime, led many to believe she would use her position as top prosecutor to make “bold” steps toward reforming the state’s criminal justice system. But critics say that as Attorney General, Harris---who is favored to win outgoing US Senator Barbara Boxer’s seat---hasn’t stepped far enough outside of her comfort zone to make the hoped-for changes to California’s justice system. WitnessLA
Supervisor Candidates on Foster Care and Juvie Justice: A series of interviews with the top contenders for LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s fifth district seat reveal the candidates' thoughts on improving the juvenile justice and foster care systems in LA County—both the largest in the nation. WitnessLA
...And from Around the Web
SoCal
Former LAPD Officer Traded Arrestee Info to Bail Bond Business for Kickbacks: Leonard Ramirez, a former civilian employee of the Los Angeles Police Department allegedly gave recent arrestees' emergency contact information to bail bond company owners in exchange for cash. Ramirez and the business owners, William Aroutounian and Iryna McCormick, are each charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit bail solicitation, and Ramirez is charged with a separate felony count of accepting a bribe. City News Service
Questions Linger After Tom Angel's Resignation: Tom Angel left the LASD four days after news broke about the discriminatory emails he forwarded (see above WLA story) while at the Burbank Police Department. But after learning that city officials found out about the emails in 2014, while Angel was still the second in command of the department, many are asking why Burbank officials did not sack Angel back then. LA Times
The Problem with Bite Mark (Junk) Science: San Bernardino man Bill Richards was sentenced to life in prison for his wife's murder based on bite-mark evidence analyzed by a forensic dental expert. But bite-mark science suggests, wrongly, that humans' teeth are as unique as DNA and that skin can accurately record the unique tooth-marks. Now, the California Supreme Court is considering Richards' case again, and if the court decides to vacate Richards' conviction, it could cause a ripple effect in other states. The Intercept
NorCal
"Get on the Bus" Brings Mother's Day to Prison: Twelve buses took kids from across the state to visit their incarcerated mothers at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla on Sunday. The program, called "Get on the Bus" break down travel and finance barriers to help families stay connected when parents are locked up far from their children. Merced Sun-Star
New Jail in San Mateo Missing In-Person Visiting Area: The new Maple Street jail in San Mateo County has soothing nature scenes covering the walls, radiant heated floors, and a computer lab, all in the name of "compassionate corrections." But there are two problems with this state-of-the-art jail, says architect Raphael Sperry. The first is that there is no in-person visiting area. The jail only allows video visitation, even though, statistically, in-person visits give inmates a better chance of successfully returning to their communities. The second problem, says Sperry, is that the jail shouldn't have been built in the first place. San Jose Mercury News
San Francisco Lawsuit Takes Aim at Cash Bail Industry: This week, a federal judge will hear arguments against San Francisco's punishment-until-proven-innocent cash bail system that disproportionately affects poor and minority defendants without improving public safety. KQED
Statewide
Bill Would Bring Suicide Prevention Policies & Training to CA Schools: A proposed California bill would require school districts to implement suicide prevention policies and provide mental health training to junior high and high school teachers. New America Media
California Has 6th Highest Annual Cost Per Inmate: California's 47,421 dollars spent per inmate annually is the sixth highest annual cost per inmate among all the states, according to the Vera Institute of Justice. New York is number one with a yearly price tag of 60,076 per inmate. San Jose Mercury News
Bill to Help CA's Pregnant and Parenting Foster Youth: Assembly member Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) joined forces with First Place for Youth, the Children's Law Center of California, and the John Burton Foundation to author AB 1838, which would boost the monthly payment to foster youth who are parents by almost 70%, and would make those payments available to pregnant foster youth in hopes of increasing access to prenatal care. San Francisco Bay Times
Nationwide
Higher Standards for Public Defenders Representing Kids: Over the years, juvenile court has been viewed as a training ground for new lawyers before they graduate to adult court, despite the fact that juvenile defense is often more complex than defending adults. States (including California) are finally starting to shift toward requiring specialized training for attorneys representing kids. In Massachusetts, lawyers must undergo extensive training and spend time representing defendants in adult court before they are allowed to represent kids. Pew Charitable Trusts
A Series of Visual Death Row Stories: Editorial cartoonist Patrick Chappatte's graphic journalism series brings life on death row into focus through the personal stories inmates told Chappatte and his wife during more that a dozen interviews at maximum security prisons. NY Times
Opinion - The Death Penalty's Indelible Racism: It's impossible to separate the capital punishment from racism, says Robert Smith, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School. "Even in 2016, its use remains inextricably, hopelessly intertwined with our national legacy of racial bias and exclusion," says Smith. Unchecked prosecutorial misconduct and the practice of excluding jurors based on the color of their skin prove that "the only way to eradicate race from the death penalty is to eradicate the death penalty." Slate
Republican Criminal Justice Reform Leaders Call on Congress to Follow Red State Reforms: The huge (and successful) criminal justice reform movements in states like Texas have become models for red and blue states alike, and are worthy of emulation at the federal level, according to republican justice reform leaders. Congress follow suit and bring reform to the federal level by supporting the Sentencing Reform Act and the Recidivism Reduction Act, say FreedomWorks' Adam Brandon, Faith and Freedom Coalition's Timothy Head, Right on Crime's Marc Levin, and Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist. National Review
