Subject: Prisons

• Going Home

  December 21, 2000

• Little Hoover, Big Problem

  The Little Hoover Commission* (the bipartisan, independent state commission dedicated to "promoting economy, efficiency and improved service in the transaction of public business") has issued a new report on the state prison system, one that neatly dovetails with recent Blotter posts on sentencing and politics. And for such a nice bunch of technocrats, the Lil' Hooverites are using awfully tough language. Says the Times: In a blistering 84-page report, the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission l

  January 26, 2007

• Over Spitzer's Objection, Gov Delays New Death Chamber

  You've got to wonder how state assemblyman Todd Spitzer--a former Orange County supervisor, prosecutor and LAPD reserve officer--tolerates continual Sacramento BS even within his own Republican Party. McClatchy news reported today that GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger--who oddly still enjoys The Terminator image--"personally asked" officials at San Quentin Prison to delay construction of a new death chamber that was set to premiere this May. Schwarzenegger's excuse? Spitzer--rightly frustrated

  April 20, 2007

• CA soon to spend more on prisons than education!

  According to an article today by James Sterngold in the San Francisco Chronicle, California will soon have the dubious honor of being the first state to spend more on prisons than higher education. Sterngold says that beginning in fiscal 2012-2013 the state will spend $15.4 billion annually on incarcerating prisoners—$100 million more a year than on colleges and universities. The story quotes Orange County Republican Assemblyman Todd Spitzer—a former reserve cop, prosecutor and cou

  May 21, 2007

• LAFF 2007: Dancin' to the Jailhouse Doc

  June 23, 2007

• You Can't Make This Shit Up

  I don't know why--probably just to make sure I'm not missing any important updates on the latest south county exit poll nobody cares about or to get my daily fix of aerial photographs of toll road construction--but I tend to visit OC Blog every day. Actually the real reason I go there is they occasionally link to one of my stories, often with a snarky aside. I digress. Fact is you never know what brilliant untold tales--written by genuinely dispassionate Republican Party operatives--you'll fi

  September 6, 2007

• Your heroes: Cal inmates?

  "Thank you heros" read a the words in neon orange, painted onto a plank propped against the corner of Modjeska Canyon Road and, ominously, Shadowland. The spelling was off, but the sentiment was genuine. Photographer Christopher Victorio and I stood with our cameras at the side of the road, watching as two L.A. County Fire vehicles drove past the thank you note, each full of California inmates clad in orange. Moments earlier, fire crew supervisor and 25-year LAFD vet Curt Hummel stopped to c

  October 26, 2007

• Thursday's Headlines & Surprises: Criminal Miscalculations

  California's New Math: The LA Times reports today that state prison officials miscalculated the sentences for not 25 or 50 or 100 but for 33,000 current inmates. According to judges, officials have been applying the "wrong formula." Writes reporter Michael Rothfeld, "The sentencing errors range from a few days to several years." California's chief deputy secretary for adult prison operations gave Rothfeld the money quote: "We believe it's a problem." Recognition is the first step, I guess. But

  December 13, 2007

• Jail Deputies Officially Off the Hook for Bloodiest Jail Murder in County History

  At a press conference this afternoon at the District Attorney's headquarters in Santa Ana, DA Tony Rackauckas announced that a nine-month grand jury investigation by his agency failed to uncover any evidence to charge any Orange County Sheriff's Department personnel for the most bloody murder in the history of the county's jail system. Rackauckas had just finished a brief appearance at OC Superior Court Judge Thomas Borris' courtroom, where three inmates were charged with the Oct. 5, 2006 murde

  March 7, 2008

• OC Sheriff's officials call deputy in Jail Murder Probe "Lazy" and a "Bully"

  According to his colleagues and superiors, the deputy at the center of Orange County's bloodiest jailhouse murder—a man who claims he was watching television when two dozen inmates beat a suspected child molester to death just yards away—is “lazy” and showed a pattern of behavior described by his own department as that of a “bully.” While supposedly watching guard over the roughly 150 inmates in Theo Lacy's F-West Barracks, where John Chamberlain, a Mission Viejo software engineer a

  April 7, 2008

• I CAN HAZ JUSTISS????

  A grand jury report and numerous articles have detailed the barbaric system of jailhouse (in)justice administered by the deputies at Theo Lacy jail. Pretty much everyone involved acknowledges that deputies routinely condoned, authorized, facilitated, ordered, and/or ignored the beating of inmates by designated inmate gang leaders. Inmate John Chamberlain died after such a beating. So why the hell have no deputies been charged with so much as a misdemeanor for this outrage? To be fair, Distric

  April 16, 2008

• Redemption Song

  December 23, 1999

• When Prison Guards Attack!

  August 22, 2002

• Prison Dreams, Nocturnal Butterflies and 4th St.

  June 4, 2009

• Another Sheriff's Employee Who Tarnished Badge Leaves OCSD

  In light of the Orange County Register report on Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Taylor, the lead jailer at the center of inmate John Derek Chamberlain's October 2006 death by stomping, finally leaving OCSD, it's worth comparing his future with that of the killers many believe he egged on. The Weekly's Nick Schou took readers inside Theo Lacy Branch Jail after the incident and later blogged about grand jury documents showing the most bloody murder in the history of the county's jail system was the result

  February 10, 2009

• Nurse Says Her Efforts to Improve the OC Jail's Women's Infirmary Have Broken Her, Haunt Her Dreams

  October 2, 2008

• Another Witness Weighs In on the Jailhouse Beating of Ex-Kiss Guitarist Mark Leslie Norton

  July 10, 2008

• DA's Office Says Alleged Jail Beating of Former Kiss Guitarist Referred to Sheriff's Department

  June 19, 2008

• Theo Lacy Unmasked: Was Ex-Kiss Guitarist Mark St. John a Victim of Brutal Jailhouse Justice?

  April 17, 2008

• Jared Petrovich Admits His Role In the Killing of John Chamberlain. But Why Did He Target the Guy?

  April 3, 2008

• An Open Letter to DA Tony Rackauckas Regarding the Jailhouse Murder of John Chamberlain

  March 13, 2008

• The Kid Is Dead: Arthur Carmona, 1982-2008

  February 21, 2008

• Taking Lives

  August 17, 2006

• Justice Takes a Beating

  August 11, 2005

• Equal-Opportunity Psycho Crew

  August 28, 2003

• OC Murderer Escapes Death Row--for Now

  Jury deadlocks on ‘ultimate’ punishment for Michael Lamb

  August 2, 2007

• !Ask a Mexican!

  'Theyre always little bit more rambunctious'

  June 14, 2007

• Kissing the Pinky Ring

  Newport Beach barbecue honors racketeer heading to federal prison

  May 24, 2007

• Letters

  'This article is CRAP. This interview never happened, and falsifying information in that way is wrong for so many reasons. Mickey Mouse is a household name. Its like slandering Jesus; you just dont do it'

  April 12, 2007

• Blind Spot

  For OC jail inmate John Chamberlain, jailhouse justice served as judge, juryand executioner

  March 29, 2007

• Welcome Home, Mr. Haidl

  March 30, 2006

• Monster's Ball

  March 23, 2006

• The Trials of Billy Joe, White Supremacist

  February 16, 2006

• Now More than Ever

  November 17, 2005

• Shocking Development

  December 9, 2004

• Jailhouse Iraq

  May 13, 2004

• Eddie Ready

  January 1, 2004

• Open Big House

  November 13, 2003

• Did Matt Lamont Try to Blow Up Hitlers Birthday Party?

  May 1, 2003

• A Third Reprieve

  November 21, 2002

• Lords of Discipline

  September 26, 2002

• Prison Blues

  June 13, 2002

• All In the Family

  May 2, 2002

• In the Hole

  December 7, 2000

• Everything's Memorex

  February 17, 2000

• The Weekly Guide to Doing Time

  February 10, 2000

• The Devils Are Here

  November 18, 1999

• Criminal Prosecution

  February 11, 1999

• Justice Department Probing OC Jail Brutality

  Ex-Sheriff Carona to Feds: Please Clean up the Jails before I start serving time!​Front page stories in both the LA Times and Register today report that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating Orange County's jail system in the wake of recent brutality allegations. "Officials from the department's Civil Rights Division are seeking to determine whether incidents of violence by jail personnel amount to a pattern of violating inmates' rights, the Sheriff's Department confirmed," writes the T

  August 14, 2009

• Governor Signs Arthur Carmona-inspired Wrongful Convictions Bill

  Arthur Carmona R.I.P.​When he died at the hands of a hit-and run driver early last year, Arthur Carmona was still hard at work trying to help people like him who had been convicted of crimes they didn't commit, and whose problems didn't end when, miracle of miracles, the justice system finally corrected itself and declared them innocent. Now, nearly two years after Carmona's tragic death and almost a decade after he walked out of prison a free man, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has

  October 12, 2009