Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

Cover of Darkness: S.F. Police Turned a Blind Eye to Some of the City's Most Dangerous Criminals — Who Were Also Some of Their Most Trusted Sources

Rock Sweet Rock: A Children's History of Alcatraz

Barred From Freedom: The Lack of Pretrial Detention Stats

Pretrial detention data is limited. There hasn't been much research to quantify specific details or tell a full story. Todd Foglesong and Christopher E. Stone at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government addressed the dearth of pretrial detention stats in a report last year. "Whatever the moti ... More >>

Alexander Svidler, S.F Businessman, Off to Prison for Bilking Hospital Out of Millions

Don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time. A San Francisco man was sentenced Monday to 18 months in jail for taking part in a scheme that defrauded a Pasadena hospital out of millions of dollars. As if health care costs weren't high enough. Alexander Svidler, 54, was in cahoots with two ... More >>

The Big Veto: Our Governors Hate Inmate Media-Access Bills

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 >>

State Supreme Court, Legislature Want to Give Juveniles Serving Life Sentences a Shot at Parole

On June 6, 2007, Rodrigo Caballero, a 16-year-old member of the Vario Lancas gang in Los Angeles, jumped out of a green Toyota and opened fire on three Val Verde gang rivals walking down the street. He missed two of his targets, but the third caught a non-fatal gunshot wound near the shoulder blade. ... More >>

California Officials Debate Least Inhumane Way to Kill

The current method for executing people in California is as such: First pentobarbital, an anesthetic, knocks the person unconscious; next, pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, paralyzes the body; and then potassium chloride, whose most common uses are as fertilizer and for state-sponsored killing ... More >>

Senate Attempts to Reassess Solitary Confinement

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing to reassess the consequences of solitary confinement in prisons. The hearing opened with a video, playing testimony from a young woman whose 17-year-old brother committed suicide after ... More >>

Murder, She Wrote

Californians to Decide Whether to Abolish the Death Penalty

The Golden State will finally get a chance to kill the death penalty.A measure to abolish capital punishment in California qualified for the November ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen confirmed yesterday evening. The measure -- dubbed the SAFE California Act -- calls for doing away with death r ... More >>

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

Hate Expectations: Police and Prosecutors Are Quick to Claim the Presence of Racism — but Juries Are Not So Sure

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 >>

Federal Judge: MS-13 Informant, Roberto Acosta, Will Likely Be Killed If Deported

The MS-13 informant's future is looking grim. ​A federal judge replaced the defense attorney representing the Roberto Acosta -- the MS-13 gang informant who was convicted of lying to his handlers -- and urged attorneys on both sides to consider the likelihood that Acosta will be killed if he's dep ... More >>

Inside Out

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 >>

San Francisco One of the Few California Towns with Room for Prisoners

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 Hunger Strike: Supporters Plan to Rally, Possibly Disrupt the Evening Commute

Maybe commuters should start protesting protesters ​What we learned from the BART protest earlier this week is that activists can bring commute traffic to a screeching halt. Which is why we are delivering this warning now: Duck out of work early today unless you want to get stuck in yet another pr ... 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 >>

Gov. Jerry Brown Ready to Send State Prisoners to County Jails

Gov. Brown is dumping prisoners in your hometown ​Last month, SF Weekly told readers about a Supreme Court decision to force California to cut its inmate population -- drastically. Today, Gov. Jerry Brown told the courts that he has the perfect plan in mind: Shift state prisoners to county jails.A ... More >>

California to Reduce Prison Population by 46,000, Supreme Court Rules

Mass exodus in the making ​Supreme Court justice have backed an order to reduce California's prison population by 46,000, a move that some are calling a "judicial travesty."At the same time, the state's overcrowded prison population is creating "injury and harm" to the inmate population, which is ... More >>

Eddy Zheng's Deportation Case Will Not Die

In the final battle. ​In 2005, the East Bay Express published a story called "The Last Stand of Eddy Zheng."  Well, it's been six years and Zheng is still standing -- in more or less the same spot. But now the man who was paroled only to face deportation is seeing his saga enter its final rou ... More >>

California Leads The Nation in Imprisoning Criminal Immigrants

10 percent of California's inmates are non-citizens.​It's not a winning spot to brag about, but the Golden State is No.1 when it comes to incarcerating criminal immigrants. In fact, California is the only state to break the 100,000 mark. What's worse -- the state is shouldering the majority of the ... 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 >>

Rapper DMX Tries to Overcome His Demons and Stage a Comeback

Sodomy, Rape Conviction in Jail Laundry Cart Escapee's Past

Attempted laundry cart escapee John Anthony III, a man without a very clean background​Readers could be forgiven for laughing at this morning's news of prisoner John Anthony III purportedly attempting the most hackneyed, cliched jailbreak in many a year when he reportedly tried to secret himself o ... More >>

Damir Shalako, Former Tattooed Fugitive, In Court Today

Damir Shalako was more easily identified than most fugitives​It won't be hard to spot Damir Shalako in court today. He's the one with "SF" tattooed across his face. Sadly for Shalako, it wasn't hard to spot him outside of court, either. Last month, the very visible fugitive was spotted by a civili ... 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 >>

Obstruction of Justice

A kidnapping victim watched his case linger needlessly in court 
for years. In S.F., he has company.

Executions Stalled Across Country Due to Drug Shortage

​It turns out that California isn't the only one making life-or-death-penalty decisions based on the availability of the drug sodium thiopental -- the first of three drugs used to render the inmate unconscious before injecting other drugs that stop the heart and breathing. (The manufacturer's desc ... More >>

Chelsea's Law Threatens To Force San Francisco Sex Offenders Into Homelessness For Life

Living like this for 10 years?​Republican Attorney General Candidate Steve Cooley is drawing heat from Kamala Harris' attorney general campaign for remarking that "You know what gets an initiative passed in California? Name it after a female ... Jessica's Law, stuff like that." Call that a sexist ... More >>

Relatives sorry to see man go to prison: Even after he threatened to kill them

Expired Pot Card Lands Parolee in Trouble, Possibly Jail

Do not let me expire​It's vital for medical marijuana patients to renew their recommendations as soon as the cards expire. This advice is too late for a motorist pulled over while driving near the Alemany Boulevard housing projects. His car is impounded, his pot is gone, and his parole officer was ... More >>

San Francisco Murderer Frank Baca Accused of Killing Fellow Prison Inmate

​San Franciscan Frank Baca, already in prison serving a life sentence for murder, is now accused of killing a fellow inmate. Authorities say the 49-year-old Baca yesterday stabbed a convicted thief to death in the recreational yard at Donovan State Prison east of San Diego. The motive is not yet k ... 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 >>

Man Who Outraced Cops One Of 20 At-Large Sex Offender Parolees

​You may have read about the sex offender wanted on a parole violation who played Dukes of Hazzard with the cops this week. A parole agent spotted Matthew Thrasher in his gold Toyota Corolla (hardly the General Lee) around the Great Highway and Lincoln Way on Tuesday afternoon, news accounts repor ... More >>

Better Off Dead?

Did Jessica's Law kill a homeless sex offender?

S.F. Man Fails To Register As Sex Offender -- Because He's Dead

​According to the state's sex offender registry, Nicholas Chaykovsky has been in violation of registration requirements since Sunday. He has a decent excuse. He's dead.   Chaykovsky died at age 61 last month after suffering a heart attack. And though the San Francisco Police Department s ... More >>

Will Lil Wayne's Stardom Survive Lockup? Look To 10 Other Jailed Rappers

RJ Shaughnessy​Lil Wayne, perhaps the most commercially successful and critically-lauded rapper of the past few years, was recently granted a reprieve from his date with destiny. Due to be sentenced on February 9th after pleading guilty to gun possession, the proceedings have been delayed until Ma ... More >>

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 >>

No Way Out

Inmate Lonnie Morris is a role model, antiviolence program leader, and darling of the media. But will the parole board see past his crime?

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.

Update: How Much Does Prison Coffee Have To Cost Before Inmate Files Federal Suit? Less Than You'd Think.

The crux of a Constitutional lawsuit...​Last week we reported on a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court by an octet of inmates charging they were being price-gouged at Pelican Bay prison in the far north of California. We noted that the e-filing of the case, sadly, didn't include the actua ... More >>

Further Proof That Incarceration Is No Fun: Inmates File Federal Suit Over Alleged Price Gouging In Prison Cantina

But no one loves pricey coffee​As hard-liners say, "you do the crime, you do the time." But if you feel you're getting ripped off by paying too much for prison coffee -- to quote Doug Llewelyn, "You take 'em to court." Eight inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City in the far north of ... More >>

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