California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Smoked Out: Will Puffing Pot at Concerts Get You in Trouble?

Gov. Brown Won't Let Reporters Have Easy Access to Prison Inmates

Assembly Bill 1270, passed by both chambers of the state legislature, would have allowed journalists to set up interviews with specific inmates in state prisons. Eight times over the past two decades a similar bill had passed through to the governor's desk, and all eight times it was vetoed.The stre ... More >>

New Bill to Allow Reporters to Interview Prisoners

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Public Safety passed a bill allowing journalists greater access to California's prison inmates. For the last 16 years, media representatives have been unable to interview specific inmates, instead being allowed to conduct random interviews with prisoners while walk ... More >>

Female Prison Guards Can't Sue Over Masturbating Inmates

​There's some jobs that, as a woman, you just wouldn't want, and being a prison guard is one of them. Here's why:A group of female guards have been denied the right to sue the state of California over thousands of instances where male inmates have exposed themselves, ejaculated, and much, much mor ... More >>

Convicted Murderer Goes on Hunger Strike, Dies

That's really small ​A California convicted murderer died in prison earlier this month after staging a hunger strike to protest the way he and his fellow inmates are treated while living in solitary confinement. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 27-year-old ... More >>

Prison Break: Realignment Inmates Enter Rehabilitation in S.F.

Advocates Link Inmate Suicides to Recent Hunger Strike

Inmate suicides ​Advocates for prisoners involved in the recent hunger strikes are linking three inmate suicides to the unsavory prison conditions that prisoners had been protesting when they refused to eat state-issued meals for several weeks. The group, Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity, says John ... More >>

Report: Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests Skyrocketing in California

Doubling Up​It's a fine time to be a criminal in California. Arrests in every category of crime are down -- way down: Arrests for rape, murder, and theft have all decreased by two-thirds since 1990, according to a study published last week by the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Every cri ... More >>

Law Enforcement to Round Up Homeless Sex Offenders Tonight

Homeless Sex Offenders: smart on crime? ​California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced trick-or-treaters will be safer since cops will keep homeless sex offender parolees indoors tonight in San Francisco. That announcement comes even while Harris' office is defending Jessica's Law -- the bal ... More >>

Homeless Sex Offenders in San Francisco Move Indoors

Sex offenders are moving inside.While all homeless sex offenders in San Francisco will have to report to round-up centers on Halloween, there will likely be fewer transients who need to check in this year.​In the last six months, San Francisco's public defender has quietly won temporary stays on J ... More >>

California Inmates Are Eating Again

Well that explains the strike ​The three-week hunger strike at prisons across the state has officially ended, with all inmates eating meals as of Tuesday. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the inmates were satisfied with the CDCR's plan to substantially revi ... More >>

Pelican Bay Inmates End Hunger Strike; Prisoners at Other Jails Still Refuse to Eat

Would you like extra cheese on those burgers?​After nearly three weeks of refusing food, inmates at Pelican Bay have ended their hunger strike, however, inmates at Calipatria and Salinas Valley prisons are reportedly still on strike. Both the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity and officials with th ... More >>

Hunger Strike: Federal Receiver Denies Inmates Are Collapsing in Cells

Starved for change​As the prison hunger strike enters its third week, California inmates have reportedly collapsed in their cells from deteriorating health conditions, however prison officials are denying that.The number of inmates striking has been dropping steadily. Two weeks ago more than 12,00 ... More >>

State Launches Investigation of Bay Area Lawyers Involved in Hunger Strike Negotiations

​The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has barred two Bay Area attorneys from entering Pelican Bay State Prison as a hunger strike drags on at the facility, asserting that it is investigating them for alleged illegal activity that compromised prison security.The attorneys are ... More >>

Pelican Bay Hunger Strike: Lawyers Turn to Gov. Jerry Brown for Help

You won't get Starbucks in solitary confinement ​Yesterday marked the first official day of the hunger strike taking place at eight prisons across the state, with as many as 4,000 inmates refusing state-issued meals. In response, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a ... More >>

Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Grows; State Threatens Disciplinary Action

​The hunger strike at California prisons has grown to include roughly 6,000 inmates, less than 24 hours after prisoners started refusing state-issued meals. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would not confirm how many inmates have joined the effort, but said they will hav ... More >>

Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Resumes

Inmates go on hunger strike ... and not because prison food sucks​Inmates at Pelican Bay state prison are renewing their hunger strike after a short hiatus of eating prison food to protest the "inhumane" conditions, especially when it comes to solitary confinement. According to the hunger strikers ... More >>

California Asks Facebook to Close Down Prisoners' Accounts

Would you be his Facebook friend?​Prison is just that place where you have tons of time to kill (no pun intended) and not that many friends. So it makes sense that inmates in California prisons are finding creative ways to access Facebook and other social-networking sites. However, the state has c ... More >>

Pelican Bay Inmates on Hunger Strike Are Growing Weak and Sick, Activists Say

​The health conditions of inmates who are striking to protest conditions in the California state prison system's maximum-security units have "deteriorated to critical levels," and some prisoners could start to die if immediate action isn't taken, activists say.The strike began two weeks ago at the ... More >>

California Death Sentences at 33-Year Low

​Fewer death sentences were handed down by California courts during the first half of 2011 than during any six-month period since 1978, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.Just three defendants were sentenced to death from January to June of this ... More >>

Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike Spreads: State Says 'Hundreds' of Inmates Now Involved

Pelican Bay State Prison​A hunger strike that began Friday in a high-security unit of the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison has spread to one-third of California's state prisons and now involves hundreds of inmates, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.Departme ... More >>

Few Deportable Inmates Are from San Francisco

Mexicans top the list, but the Soviets aren't so far behind. ​Yesterday, we told you about California being a national leader when it comes to the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in our state prisons. It turns out that very few of those criminal aliens hail from San Francisco. Criminal alie ... More >>

New Questions Raised About State's Imported Lethal Injection Drugs

​Newly released documents raise questions about the quality of drugs imported from abroad by state corrections officials to carry out lethal injections, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.The documents, obtained by the ACLU through Freedom of Information Act (FO ... More >>

Sex Offenders Forced Into Homelessness a Bad Idea, Task Force Says. Duh.

The government thought good and hard about this...​A law enforcement task force has recommended the state do what common sense would have suggested a long time ago: Repeal the provision of Jessica's Law that banishes paroled sex offenders to homelessness. It's about time. We wrote about this perfe ... More >>

Albert Greenwood Brown Execution: Court of Appeal Demands Judge Reconsider Delay

California Department of CorrectionsAlbert Greenwood Brown, convicted rapist and murderer, may live to breathe another day​SF Weekly earlier reported that Albert Greenwood Brown's 9 p.m. Thursday execution would come just three hours before the expiration of one of the drugs that would kill him. T ... More >>

Sex Offenders Searching For One-Night Stands

Case workers allege that sex offender Nicholas Chaykovsky, pictured in December, died because of Jessica's Law.​State corrections officials will now allow sex offenders living transient because of Jessica's Law sleep indoors -- as long as they don't establish a "pattern of residency." Now, playing ... More >>

Corrections Department: Putting Parolee Program Next to School Was Only Option

You see? There was a perfectly good reason for placing a parolee help center a stone's throw from a grade school -- which means sex offenders are legally barred from entering. ​State corrections officials say they had no choice but to award a contract to aid paroled sex offenders to a non-profit t ... More >>

Contract To Help Sex Offenders Awarded To Non-Profit They're Forbidden to Enter

Paroled sex offenders are now being told they are no longer welcome at the city site specifically designated to service them​Paroled sex offenders forced into homelessness in San Francisco by Jessica's Law used to have at least one place they could call "home": the day-reporting center for parolee ... More >>

Getting Real About Prison Education Cuts

School's out -- forever? ​California has the highest inmate recidivism rate in the country: 70 percent. Now, as a result of a $250 million budget cut in prison education programs, the state is gearing up to liquidate programs, slash in-class hours, fire more than 800 of the state's 1,200 prison te ... More >>

Undocumented immigrants barred from visiting loved ones in prison

State Supreme Court To Homeless Sex Offenders: Tough Luck, For Now

Same old, same old...​The California Supreme Court dealt a smackdown to the state's sex offenders today, ruling it is constitutional to enforce the residency restrictions of Jessica's Law on sex offenders released on parole. The law passed by voters in November 2006 states sex offenders can't have ... More >>

Perverting Justice

Jessica's Law prevents paroled sex offenders from residing near schools or parks. That means they can only live one place in S.F.: on the streets.

SF Weekly Letters

Does Gavin Newsom really have a foster brother who's been in and out of prison?

Prison Legal News Suing San Francisco, Sheriff's Department, and City Attorney Over Unanswered Public Records Request

So much for the Sunshine Ordinance...​ The public records request was not very complicated. Prison Legal News (PLN), a Seattle-based nonprofit and monthly journal, wanted to review all the litigation filed against the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, including settlements and verdicts ... More >>

Insider Art

Cell Phoney

Making phone calls from jail, Harley Mike allegedly helped three prisoners escape and conned parole agents, sheriff's deputies, and judges.

San Quentin Blues

The prison guards' union angrily ripped the rug from under the governor in February

Alien Culture

Terrestrial tragedy has an entirely different context at the UFO Expo

Girl Problems

The juvenile justice system is ignoring delinquent girls -- and creating a social time bomb

Broken Fix

In a radical approach, San Francisco is making addiction a health issue rather than a law enforcement imperative. So far, though, treatment on demand has been a costly pipe dream.

Dead Man Not Praying

The state wants to deny religious counsel immediately before executions. But why?

Cothran

Unspun

Fewer Pen Pals

As more prisons move to ban skin mags, California prisoners' rights lawyers turn a deaf ear to inmates' howls

The Grid

Unspun

Dog Bites

Jail Date

Wives of San Quentin inmates protest politicians' efforts to restrict the Family Visitation program