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WitnessLA's Best of the Week
An Epidemic of Questionable Arrests by School Police in San Bernardino County: In recent years California school districts like Los Angeles Unified have hammered out agreements with their school police only to arrest students in cases involving public safety, not for behavior infractions that can be better handled by school administrators. But, despite the current trend for reform, in San Bernardino County, arrests by school police in two of that county’s districts—San Bernardino and Fontana—have remained shockingly high. WitnessLA
Multiple Videos Tell Unfolding Story of Gun-Wielding Father of 3 Shot to Death in Lynwood by LA Sheriff’s Deputies on Saturday Morning: Two videos show two deputies firing 33 shots at 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson in Lynwood. Robertson was armed, and from the stills distributed by the LASD, appeared to be pointing his gun into a populated ARCO station, even after he was shot down in the first volley of bullets. The LASD responded quickly to the shooting, with a string of press releases, a news conference, and by reaching out to community leaders and clergy. Department investigators are working with the District Attorney’s office, the Office of Inspector General (members of which came to the scene), and the coroner on the investigation. WitnessLA
Agreement Appears to Be Reached for Access to Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Records: At next Tuesday’s meeting, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to finally vote on a long-time-coming Memorandum of Agreement that sets down a plan to govern what kind confidential information the LA County Sheriff’s Department will share with the two watchdog entities tasked with overseeing the department. WitnessLA
Saving Lives Through Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Essential teen pregnancy prevention services are missing from a recently released draft list of recommendations from a national commission created to develop strategies for reducing abuse and neglect-related deaths of children, according to Marie Cohen, a former social worker and policy researcher. WitnessLA
Sexual Assault at the Hands of Kern County Deputies: Part three of the Guardian’s five-part series on Kern County, home to the nation’s deadliest cops, looks at the culture of sexual abuse and coverups plaguing the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, and the lack of gender diversity in both the sheriff’s department and the Bakersfield Police Department. WitnessLA
Reopened LA Urgent Care Will Give Officers a Place Other Than Jail to Take People Suffering From a Mental Health Crisis: A newly reopened Westside Mental Health Urgent Care Clinic has begun providing emergency psychiatric care to people suffering from a mental health crisis. These centers serve as places law enforcement officers can bring people in crisis, rather than waiting 6-8 hours at a hospital emergency room (or booking the person on a minor charge and getting back to work within an hour). WitnessLA
...And from Around the Web
SoCal
Op-Ed -Author Joe Domanick Calls on LAPD Chief Charlie Beck to Be a "Chief for His Time": Author of Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing and West Coast bureau chief of The Crime Report, Joe Domanick, says LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who is facing criticism for his handling of officer-involved shootings, must cast off his status quo of "opaque" responses, assuring "full, fair" investigations when his troops kill. Acknowledging Beck is balancing the conflicting desires of the union, the police commission, minority communities, and the media, Domanick says the chief must face a "deep public desire for a revolution in the way we are all policed," or else risk "the department's carefully rebuilt reputation." LA Times
Parts Four and Five of the Guardian's Series Investigating Kern County's "Rough Justice": In part four, the Guardian investigators take a look at who polices Kern County's deadly law enforcement officers. Nearly all of the investigators at the Kern County District Attorney's Office were former officers at either the Kern County Sheriff's Office or the Bakersfield Police Department, and the ties between the DA's office and the law enforcement agencies have additional deep and messy ties. The GuardianPart five introduces the families seeking justice after their loved ones' fatal encounters with Kern's law enforcement. The Guardian
Orange County Supervisors Give Office of Independent Review Oversight of DA's Office (and More): Last week, acknowledging the possibility of US Department of Justice intervention in the Orange County District Attorney's Office jail informant scandal, the OC Board of Supervisors voted to expand the reach of the Office of Independent Review beyond its oversight of the OC Sheriff's Department, to include oversight of the DA's office, the OC Probation Department, the Office of the Public Defender, and the Social Services Agency. Orange County Register
NorCal
San Luis Obispo Is Using Its Realignment Money on Customized Supervision: San Luis Obispo County is putting millions in funds from California's Public Safety Realignment into risk-assessment-based probation for post-release offenders. The probation program is individually tailored to each person's needs and provides much-needed assistance with housing, rehabilitation, employment, and other services. San Luis Obispo Tribune
San Jose Bike Shop Helps Former Foster Kids Through "Transportation for Transformation": At Good Karma Bikes in San Jose, former foster youth Dontae Lartigue, once gang-involved and dealing drugs, now mentors foster kids who are aging out of the system, helping them stay out of trouble and off the streets. San Jose Mercury News
Head of the Youth Law Center, Jennifer Rodriguez, Discusses Her Personal Experiences in the Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems: Jennifer Rodriguez, executive director of the non-profit Youth Law Center and former foster youth, talks on KQED's Forum about what she's learned from her own childhood, during which she was put on antipsychotic medication, sexually exploited, and locked-up, and how she applies those lessons to the YLC's work to protect kids from abuse and neglect, and to reduce out-of-home placements and justice system-involvement. KQED
SF Police Chief Wants Tasers, Shields for Officers: Following the high-profile and controversial officer-involved shooting of Mario Woods, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr is seeking to arm officers with shields, tasers, and (more) bean bag launchers to reduce cops' use of lethal force. SF Chronicle
Statewide
Entire US to Track Foster Kids' Educational Outcomes, Following California's Example: The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed by President Barack Obama last week, requires states to separately track achievement scores and graduation rates for students in foster care, following in the footsteps of California's Local Control Funding Formula. The law also allows foster kids to stay in the same school if they change homes, developing a transportation plan, if needed. Every education agency will be required to designate a foster youth liaison. EdSource
California's Prop 47 Has Eliminated the Need for Early Release: Following the 2014 passage of Proposition 47, California counties, including San Diego saw considerable drops in jail populations. San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore says that thanks to the law---which reduced six low-level felonies to misdemeanors---the county has been able to do away with early releases (caused by jail overcrowding). The vacant jail beds have also allowed the county to book people for misdemeanor offenses, rather than handing out citations to people accused of misdemeanors. (Note: Los Angeles has had a much different reaction to Prop. 47. In LA, officers have stopped booking people on these reduced offenses, instead handing out citations. In a series of video op-eds, LASD Sheriff Jim McDonnell says the low-level offenders are receiving the citations because Prop. 47 did away with consequences for those crimes.) But as more offenders are serving their whole sentences, and more misdemeanor offenders are booked into the jails, there has also been an uptick in the number of inmates in need of mental health services. San Diego Union-Tribune
Op-Ed - Nation Should Follow California's Example of Prosecutorial Reform and Eliminate Use of Grand Juries In Police Homicide Cases: Former federal prosecutor and criminal procedure professor Caren Morrisson says grand jury secrecy and lack of oversight over prosecutors, who decide whether a fatal officer use-of-force case even moves forward, is cause for alarm. Morrisson points to California as having taken an important first step toward reforming the way police homicide cases are handled. The state eliminated the controversial use of grand juries, instead forcing prosecutors to proceed through public preliminary hearing. Huffington Post
Nationwide
Antipsychotics for Babies: Doctors across the US are increasingly prescribing dangerous antipsychotic drugs to babies and toddlers displaying aggressive or withdrawn behavior, despite the absence of research into the health risks and benefits of giving the drugs to young children. In 2014, nearly 20,000 prescriptions for antipsychotic meds (and more than 80,000 prescriptions for Prozac) were written for children under the age of two. NY Times
The Fact That Firearm-Related Deaths Are Dropping Doesn't Mean Gun Violence Rates Are Also on the Decline: Gun violence has not been on the decline in the US. The fact that there have been fewer fatal shootings, but more hospitalizations for gunshot wounds, means that hospitals are getting better at saving people who have been shot. Vice
Scott Budnick on Prison Reform: In an interview, former "Hangover" series producer Scott Budnick talks about the Anti-Recidivism Coalition he founded in 2013, what drew him into the world of juvenile and criminal justice reform advocacy, and what he's learned from his time working with inmates. Huffington Post
The Marshall Project's Criminal Justice Holiday Gift Guide: The Marshall Project has you covered for those on your gift list who care about criminal justice and rehabilitation, with one-of-a-kind gifts like prisoner-trained rescue dogs, personal training sessions from former offenders, and prisoner-built license-plate clocks and motorcycles. Marshall Project
Cleveland Officers Were Winning Reverse Racism Lawsuits...Until Now: Last week, federal Judge James Gwin tossed out nine Cleveland cops' "reverse discrimination" lawsuit alleging unfair punishment after the officers killed an unarmed black man and woman, shooting nearly 140 bullets into their car. None of the 13 officers involved were fired or suspended, just placed on desk duty during a state investigation into the shooting. But the officers argued that their desk duty was longer than that of black officers who killed black suspects. Before Judge Gwin's decision last week, Cleveland cops received settlements from the city in at least three reverse racism cases. Mother Jones
