Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

"Criminal: Art and Criminal Justice in America" at SFSU - Today's Calendar Pick

1 in 100 Behind Bars: California is Doing its Part!

Buddha Behind Bars

Wear Orange

Incarceration Nation

Dance Theater Jail piece '51802' Makes Audience Its Bitch

Barred for Life

Desperate prison lifers turn to Charles Carbone when trying to navigate the unfair process of parole denials

Make Your Mama Cry

Desperate prison lifers turn to Charles Carbone when trying to navigate the unfair process of parole denials

Gangs of Marin

Desperate prison lifers turn to Charles Carbone when trying to navigate the unfair process of parole denials

Schwarzenegger Proposal Could Burden Underfunded S.F. Jails

Be sure to wear a flower in your hairThis week has seen California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger scrounging for a few billion dollars beneath the sofa cushions after his stop-gap measures for narrowing the state's budget shortfall went down to defeat in Tuesday's special election. Among the consequence ... More >>

Premature Burner Paul Addis May Have Been Granted Parole, But Don't Expect Him at This Year's Burn

Paul Addis' entry in the Best Mug Shot Ever competition​ Starting August 31, a sizable portion of San Francisco will dust off their faux-fur legwarmers, bloomers, and stale MDMA to spend a week on the playa exchanging bodily fluids and other things at this year's Burning Man festivities. The osten ... More >>

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

Paul Addis' entry in the Best Mug Shot Ever competition​ Starting August 31, a sizable portion of San Francisco will dust off their faux-fur legwarmers, bloomers, and stale MDMA to spend a week on the playa exchanging bodily fluids and other things at this year's Burning Man festivities. The osten ... 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 >>

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 >>

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.

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?

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Better Off Dead?

Did Jessica's Law kill a homeless sex offender?

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

​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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Obstruction of Justice

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

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 >>

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 >>

Rapper DMX Tries to Overcome His Demons and Stage a Comeback

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 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 >>

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 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 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

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: 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 >>

Inside Out

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

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 >>

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

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 >>