Articles by Charlotte Dean

This summer, California submitted a new initiative (Californian Cannabis Hemp Initiative of 2014, 13-0013) for ballot consideration that would decriminalize cannabis in all its manifestations. The slim document allows for the expansion and formalization of a mass industry that has operated in California for decades, providing separately for industrial, personal, and commercial cultivation in an outline dense enough to fit on the back of a petition. Within two months, however, the pressure of ...

Recently the state auditor's office published its report of "high-risk," low-accountability areas of state operations, released every other year. This year, realignment and corrections are evaluated separately. REALIGNMENT County-assistance funds have doubled yearly since implementation, surpassing one billion next year. The 2012-13 budget of $5.9 billion is likely to rise. Proposition 30 partially rerouted fees and sales taxes to fund these county projects, but if the money is used ineffect...

trekandshoot / Shutterstock.com The nation's response to criminal deviance over the past 30 years, from harsh sentencing to arbitrary bail and overwhelmed facilities, is while entirely justified, a good example of growing ideological polarization. Unfortunately, the economic crisis of the late 1970s fell hardest onto these very groups, with deep cuts to safety net subsidies. Bruce Western, criminal justice professor at Harvard, says the subsequent crime spike was no accident, but wasn't predic...

SB 649, a bill introduced by California State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), allows judges and prosecutors the discretion to shift drug possession between a felony and a misdemeanor depending on context. It recently passed the Assembly largely along party lines, with ten Democrats and two Republicans voting across the aisle. The vote is notable because one Republican, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, is one of Sacramento's most conservative voices. After the vote, he stated he was ...

bikeriderlondon / Shutterstock.com A federal deadline to realign prison numbers with design capacity is fast approaching. California is 9,600 inmates over capacity and the feds aren't budging on requesting early releases, a politically toxic solution that could boost crime rates. With just a few months to avoid fines, Governor Brown hammered out an eleventh-hour plan. Alarmed lawmakers advocating for sustainable corrections compromised by requesting to extend the deadline on rehabilitative con...

Just a few months from the federally mandated deadline to reduce California's prison population by 137.5 percent capacity, Governor Jerry Brown released a plan to partner with private prisons and a correctional staff union. It would invest more than $700 million over the next two years for the construction of new contracted lock-up facilities bringing incarceration numbers down to required levels.State lawmakers and corrections watchdogs emphasized that it sacrifices long-term tactics for short-...

trekandshoot / Shutterstock.com When the San Diego Community Corrections Department began the controversial expansion of a local detention facility in early 2012, an observing NGO gave them a failing grade in evidence-based methods. Just a few months later, however, the primary purpose of the same expanded facility was changed and given new holistic re-entry programs for inmates preparing for a rocky transition back into society. When asked for comment, chief probation officer Mack Jenkins str...

Image Source: classroom.synonym.com A March 2012 realignment report card assigned a failing grade in realignment progress to the Community Corrections Partnership of the county of San Diego. This was largely due to a planned expansion in local jail capacity to both the East Mesa and Las Colinas detention facilities which the Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) deemed wasteful. Since then, East Mesa Detention Facility, originally a juvenile facility, has been renamed East Mesa R...

In July, a comprehensive, 58-county progress report was published by the Board of State and Community Corrections on California county jail procedures, including drastic differences in data collection, individual risk and needs assessments, and short-term versus long-term strategies.The first two obscure data accuracy, but the "easy" solution of expanding lock-ups has already been proven to be counterproductive to solving recidivism. Despite a chorus of experts emphasizing specific incarceration...