State Senate Democrats propose alternative to Brown's prison plan

SACRAMENTO - Democratic leaders of the State Senate on Wednesday proposed an extran $200 million annually for rehabilitation, drug and mental health treatment as an alternative to Gov. Jerry Brown's plan for reducing prison overcrowding.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said Wednesday that his Senate Democratic Caucus wants the spending in exchange for a three-year extension of federal judges' Dec. 31 deadline for removing more than 9,600 inmates from state prisons.

Steinberg said the Senate proposal was preferable to Brown's plan to spend $315 million this year and $415 million in each of the following two years on alternate housing for inmates.

"Temporarily expanding California's prison capacity is neither sustainable nor fiscally responsible," Steinberg wrote to Brown and inmates' attorneys Wednesday. Inmate lawsuits led to the judges' ruling that state prisons are unconstitutionally crowded.

Any extension would have to be approved by the judges, who have castigated Brown for stalling on obeying their order to shed more prisoners.

Steinberg, flanked by 16 Democratic senators in a Capitol hallway, said the Senate plan is modeled on a 2009 state program that reduced new prison admissions by nearly 9,600.

The plan won a quick endorsement from the prisoners' attorneys.

"Sen. Steinberg's substantive proposals are acceptable to us and we are open to an extension" if all parties can agree on an approach "that will resolve the chronic overcrowding problem in the state's prisons," the attorneys said in a statement.

The lawyers said they were willing to meet with the governor and discuss ways to end federal court oversight of prison medical care, imposed because the judges said overcrowding led to inadequate healthcare and needless inmate deaths.

The judges are unlikely to extend their Dec. 31 deadline without evidence that the proposal would result in meaningful policy changes, said legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school atUC Irvine.

"I think the court wants to be sure this is not another delay," Chemerinsky said.

Steinberg's plan drew sharp criticism from Gov. Brown and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles).

"It would not be responsible to turn over California's criminal justice policy to inmate lawyers who are not accountable to the people," Brown said in a statement.

"My plan avoids early releases of thousands of prisoners and lays the foundation for longer-term changes, and that's why local officials and law enforcement support it," he said.

Pérez said in a separate statement that he was "deeply skeptical about Senator Steinberg's approach." It would give more power to "prisoner plaintiffs who favor mass release of prisoners," Pérez said.

Steinberg countered that his plan would also avoid early releases. But there may be no more money available for rehabilitation if the state spends more than $1 billion on incarceration over the next three years, the senator said.

Steinberg suggested that a middle ground might be found. "Does this lead to conversation that leads to a solution and compromise? I hope," Steinberg said. "You know me. It's not my way or the highway. We are putting down a settlement proposal here."

But time is short. Steinberg called for an agreement by Sept. 13, the Legislature's last meeting day this year. The settlement would provide for a panel of experts to set a new prison population cap.

In addition, an advisory panel would be formed to restructure sentencing laws so fewer offenders would be sent to prison in the long run.

The state "cannot assume that the plaintiffs and their lawyers, and the federal court, will agree to a three-year extension," said Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber).

On the other hand, nobody wants to be responsible for releasing thousands of inmates early because of a stalemate, said Raphael J. Sonenshein, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.

"You'd have to think they are going to find some accommodation," Sonenshein said.

Meanwhile, Steinberg canceled a Senate confirmation hearing for two corrections department directors appointed by the governor.

"We have additional questions about the administration's ongoing corrections policy," said Steinberg spokesman Mark Hedlund. "It makes sense to wait before we consider those two appointments."


By Patrick McGreevy
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Times staff writers Anthony York and Paige St. John contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

Brown's plan would put prisons ahead of colleges -- again

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to buy the state time to fix its prison crisis by expanding the system would once again put state funding of prisons ahead of state spending on higher education.

The governor's three-year proposal would bring California's corrections budget to $11.5 billion for the current year.

The state currently allots $11.4 billion for higher education.

A spokesman for Brown's Finance Department disputed the comparison, saying that if only general fund money is counted, and not other state funds, higher education still comes out on top.

The largely symbolic comparison is considered by some to be an important demonstration of fiscal and political priorities. Assembly budget Chairwoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) said last week — before Brown announced a $315-million prison expansion — she was proud that California had finally made locking up people secondary to investing in their futures.

Prison spending fell behind higher education in the budget Brown signed in June for the first time in three years. 

Brown described his plan to lease beds for 9,600 more inmates as "short-term," to expire in three years. Whatever capacity California buys, it may have to buy more.

Weekly population reports from the corrections department show that the state's inmate count is again creeping upward. After dramatic population drops in 2011, it has climbed steadily all year, from 132,296 in February to a current population of 133,428.

Brown has expressed concern that county prosecutors and judges are working out ways around the new sentencing laws to send criminals to prison instead of jail.

“So many [district attorneys] are upcharging, prisons are rising faster than they were a year ago,” Brown told The Times in an earlier interview, saying that he was meeting with prosecutors to understand the problem.

By Paige St. John and Anthony York

http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ff-browns-plan-would-put-prisons-ahead-of-colleges-again-20130827,0,5739606.story

California Senate approves change to drug law

State law would go easier on people who are busted for carrying illegal drugs for personal use under a bill approved by the California Senate yesterday.


Assembly Bill 721 changes the definition of "transporting" a drug to mean transporting it for sale, eliminating an additional charge for someone who might otherwise only be charged with drug possession.

"If you're in possession of a drug and you're walking down the street, you could be charged with transporting a drug even though your 'transporting' is just walking," said Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, as he presented the bill on the Senate floor.

The bill by Assemblyman Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, would not make it harder to prosecute drug dealers, Wright said, who would still be charged with transporting illegal drugs for sale.

"It simply says that... walking down the street does not qualify as transporting," Wright said.

"What this bill is intended to fix is that someone who would have been charged with simple possession, because their quantity was small, not end up with transportation for sale because (prosecutors) wanted to add charges."

Republicans argued against the bill, saying it would be too soft on criminals.

"This bill gives you a greater chance to get away with it or have it go easy on you," said Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber. "It is not a step in the right direction."

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, countered that the bill could help chip away at the problem of crowding in California prisons.

"We're talking about a universe of people who will still be charged with one or more felonies. They will likely be going to state prison," Leno said. "The question is, do we want them to take up limited bed space for two or three years, or five or ten or 15 years?"

The state Senate passed the bill on a vote of 24-15. It now heads back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote before heading to Gov. Jerry Brown.

PHOTO: Assemblyman Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, in the Assembly chambers in March 2013. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

Legislature OKs bill to let noncitizens serve on California juries

SACRAMENTO — Legal immigrants who are not American citizens would be able to serve on juries in California under a bill that lawmakers sent to Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday.

The measure joins a proposal already on the governor's desk that would also allow legal permanent residents to serve as poll workers in California elections.

The bills are among a handful that would expand immigrant rights in California and have sparked rancorous debate in the Legislature.

Immigrants "are part of the fabric of our community," Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) said during the floor debate Thursday. "They benefit from the protections of our laws, so it is fair and just that they be asked to share in the obligation to do jury duty."

Republicans opposed the measure, which passed the Assembly with a bare majority. The Senate approved the bill Monday.

"I do think there is something called the jury of your peers," countered Assemblyman Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside). "Peers are people who understand the nuances of America."

He noted that some immigrants come from countries where suspects are guilty until proven innocent and where people are taught to obey authority, not question it.

The bill, AB 1401, was authored by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which seeks a way to expand the pool of eligible jurors in California.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles), who has said that non-citizens facing trial deserve a jury of their peers, supported the measure. He characterized it as the latest reform to a system that once barred non-whites and women from jury service.

"Really, it's about making sure that we uphold the standards of our justice system and make sure everybody is afforded a jury of their peers," Pérez said at a legislative hearing.

The other measure would reduce the time and expense that elections officials need to recruit poll workers and provide more bilingual services, according to Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), its author.

There are 3 million Californians who are eligible to vote but who are not proficient in English, Bonta said.

"We have a shortage of multilingual poll workers in California," he said. "There must be language access for voters at the polls, and that's what this bill provides."

Republicans said the bill could affect the integrity of the election process.

"Allowing people who are not actually eligible to vote to work in the polling places, I believe, would be a grave mistake," said Assemblyman Tom Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks). "The net effect is going to be to undermine the confidence that the citizens of California have in their election process."

Added Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point): "Something doesn't smell right to me."

Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) called such comments offensive. If non-citizens can serve in the military and die for this country, they ought to be able to work at the polls, he said.

The measure would allow up to five non-citizen workers at each polling place. It would continue the requirement that poll inspectors, who supervise and protect elections, be citizens.

The National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center proposed AB 817.

"Limited English speaking voters struggle to cast their ballots when bilingual poll workers are unavailable to assist them," said Eugene Lee, voting rights project director at the legal center.

Lawmakers also sent Brown a bill Thursday that would bar law enforcement agencies from requiring a person to show proof of legal residency to obtain a crime report. Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) authored the measure, AB 1195.

Other bills that went to Brown would:

— Allow counties to increase vehicle registration fees from $1 to $2 to fund anti-theft programs (AB 767 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Democrat from San Rafael).

— Increase the penalty for those convicted of making false 911 calls, a prank called "swatting" because it aims to draw out heavily armed SWAT teams, often to the homes of celebrities (SB 333 by Sen. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance and a swatting victim). Those convicted would be responsible for the full cost of the police response, which could be $10,000 or more.

— Prohibit the sale of animals at swap meets and flea markets unless the city or county adopts minimum animal care and treatment standards to prevent inhumane treatment and consumer fraud (AB 339 by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, a Democrat from Sacramento).

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

State, prison guards reach deal on new contract

Caifornia's state prison officers will receive a 4 percent pay raise and earn overtime more easily under the terms of a tentative agreement reached with Gov. Jerry Brown.

The deal also allows the state to continue reassigning staff to cover vacancies and reduces the length of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's academy training.

"We feel that the deal that was agreed on was a fair and equitable deal that is reflective of the way the bargaining process should work," California Correctional Peace Officers Association spokesman JeVaughn Baker said in a telephone interview. "Both parties made some concessions, and both parties gained in the process as well."

CCPOA leadership met in Sacramento on Saturday and unanimously voted to send the deal to its 30,000 rank-and-file members for a ratification vote. The two-year contract would expire in July 2015 if approved by members and the Legislature.

Costs of the agreement aren't yet available. A phone message seeking comment from Brown's Department of Human Resources, which negotiates contracts with the unions representing state employees, was not immediately returned Saturday afternoon.

Baker said the agreement:

• Provides a 4 percent pay raise, effective Jan. 1, 2015.

• Replaces the current threshold for overtime in which officers are paid at a higher rate after working 164 hours over a 28-day period with a new standard in which the overtime pay kicks in after working 41 hours over seven days.

• Allows the state to reduce cadets' academy training to 12 weeks from 16 weeks. The precise terms – how to alter academy courses, possible on-the-job mentoring for new correctional officers and the like – must still be negotiated.

• Allows the state to continue redirecting staff from duties it deems less critical to duties it deems more critical through June 30, 2014.

• Increases members' contributions to their retirement benefits from the current 11 percent of pensionable salary to 12 percent in July 2014 and then to 13 percent one year later. (This is in line with the public pension law passed last year by the Legislature that requires employees to pay half the normal cost of their pensions.)

Perhaps the largest union concession is the agreement to cut academy training by 25 percent. CCPOA has long tied academy training and standards to professionalism, pay and workplace safety.

Shortening the academy will save the state millions of dollars, however, both in training costs and by reducing overtime for higher-paid senior staff.

The union's agreement to allow staff redirection to continue until next summer extends a policy that the union has fought for years but also ends it for the final year of the contract. CCPOA has argued that the state should hire more officers rather than apply managerial Band-Aids to cover critical shortages.

The state's prison system has more than 1,000 staff vacancies every day, Baker said, and redirection saves somewhere between $34 million and $40 million annually by moving staff around to cover the holes.

The return to a regular workweek for purposes of overtime was a significant concession from the Brown administration, since it has the potential to run up overtime in a department that is chronically understaffed.

Still, with the prison system much smaller because of realignment, and an influx of academy graduates entering the system more quickly, overtime demand should decline, Baker said.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/25/5678749/state-prison-guards-reach-deal.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#storylink=cpy

Just five 'job killer' bills alive as legislative session nears end

The more than three dozen bills that the California Chamber of Commerce labeled as "job killers" because they would increase regulation or raise taxes have been whittled down to just five as the 2013 legislative session enters its last days.

All of the others have either been held in committee or defeated in floor votes, but technically, will still be alive for the second half of the biennial session that begins in January.

The highest-profile survivor of the original 37 bills is Assembly Bill 10, carried by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, which would raise the state's minimum wage by $2 per hour over the next five years.

The measure was approved by the full Assembly and reached the Senate floor, awaiting another vote, after Alejo agreed to remove an automatic cost-of-living escalator.

The other four bills on the list that remain alive include:

• Senate Bill 404 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, which would extend the Fair Employmentand Housing Act's protections against discrimination to employees who are engaged in family care duties;


• Senate Bill 365 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which would place a 10-year time limit on business tax exemptions;


• Senate Bill 691 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, which would increase penalties for non-vehicular air quality violations; and


• Assembly Bill 769 by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which would repeal the net operating loss carry back deduction for business.

Seven constitutional amendments aimed at lowering the vote threshold for local government and school taxes are technically still alive, but would require two-thirds legislative votes to be placed on the 2014 ballot. Legislative leaders have put them on hold until next year.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/just-five-job-killer-bills-alive-as-legislative-session-nears-end.html#storylink=cpy

Community Legislative Briefing

Community Legislative Briefing

Developing Champions to Restore the Golden State!

Friday, August 23, 2013

10:00 - 12pm

ACLU - SC

1313 W. 8th Street

Los Angeles, CA 90017

Geo Community Reentry Services to Operate California Day Reporting Centers

BOULDER, Colo. — The California Department of Corrections and the Division of Adult Parole Operations has hired Geo Community Reentry Services, a division of Boca Raton, Fla.-based The Geo Group, to operate four intensive parolee reentry centers.

The centers, located in San Diego, Santa Ana, Pomona and French Camp, will serve more than 1,000 inmates annually.

“California corrections has undergone major changes in recent years, and we are ready to support the expansion of community-based services to reduce recidivism with these evidence-based programs,” said Loren Grayer, divisional vice president of Geo Reentry Services.

While the parole reentry centers in San Diego and French Camp will continue operation without disruption as operational authority transitions, the centers in Santa Ana and Pomona are scheduled to open in September.

The Day Reporting Centers (DRC) will aim to reduce recidivism by offering a wide range of programming for high risk inmates who have failed to successfully reenter into the general population. Staffed with licensed therapists, counselors, behavior change managers, vocational/educational managers and administrative staff, parolees at the DRCs will also be connected to local community resources for further support.

Inmates report to the center, which is open seven days a week, for up to six months. Daily check-ins, drug testing and intensive care management help to monitor an inmate’s progress. According to a press release issued by the company, parole agents are better able to manage their caseloads when high-risk parolees are able to attend Geo Reentry’s DRCs.

Along with reducing recidivism, the company hopes to also target employment or school enrollment, generate significant savings for taxpayers and alter parolee attitudes and behavior through classes available at the center.

Classes available at the DRC include substance abuse education and treatment; adult basic education; life skills development; cognitive restructuring therapy; parenting; domestic violence prevention; anger management; employment skills building and career development counseling; and relapse prevention aftercare. Inmates are also required to attend Community Connections, a program that provides parolees with local resources to housing, health services and additional counseling.

Obama Unveils $100M Initiative Focused on Veterans' Mental Health

During a speech at the annual conference of Disabled American Veterans in Orlando on Saturday, President Obama announced a $100 million initiative that would guide mental health research to help treat veterans with brain injuries and mental health conditions, theWashington Post reports (Goldfarb, Washington Post, 8/10).

Obama said that with combat activity winding down in Afghanistan, like it has in Iraq, the nation's work to address the health care effects of the two conflicts on military service members "has only just begun" (Calmes, New York Times, 8/10).

He said grants from the initiative will be disbursed to help fund various programs at research centers nationwide, including at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Virginia Commonwealth University. The programs are geared toward developing treatment methods for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions that have been linked to an increase in suicide rates among veterans in the past decade, according to the Post.

Under the initiative, Obama said his administration would launch an effort to better share such research amongst the numerous federal agencies. He noted, "I'm not going to be satisfied until every veteran ... gets the support and help they need to stay strong," adding, "We've got to end this epidemic of suicide among our veterans and troops" (Washington Post, 8/10).

Obama: Claims Backlog Slowly Declining

During his remarks, Obama highlighted progress in the government's efforts to reduce the backlog of veterans' disability claims, but he acknowledged that "[w]e are not where we need to be" (Superville, AP/Sacramento Bee, 8/11).

In March, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said VA is committed to ending the claims backlog by the end of 2015. Shinseki added that three major problem areas have contributed to the backlog:

• Large amounts of paper-based claims and health records that need to be converted to electronic format;
• A need to sync VA's records with Department of Defense's records; and
• A growing number of veterans who are qualifying for disability coverage.

Shinseki has said that VA aims to digitize the disability claims process in every regional office by the end of this year (Hooper, "Hill Tube," The Hill, 3/24).

On Saturday, Obama noted that in the past five months, the number of outstanding veterans' claims has fallen by nearly 20% (Hicks, "Federal Eye," Washington Post, 8/12). According to the AP/Sacramento Bee, the number of claims that have been pending for more than 125 days fell from 611,000 in March to about 500,000 in August (AP/Sacramento Bee, 8/11).

Obama said new computer systems, increased congressional funding and mandatory overtime for claims processors are "turning the tide." However, "it has not moved as fast as I've wanted," he added (Hennessey, "Politics Now," Los Angeles Times, 8/10). He attributed the slow progress, in part, to a swell of new veterans who entered the system with PTSD (Laing, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 8/10).

Obama warned that "reckless" budget cuts under the budget sequester pose the biggest threat to veterans' benefits (Mason, Reuters, 8/10). According to theWashington Post's "Federal Eye," the decline in outstanding claims has slowed since April, when the across-the-board spending cuts took effect and forced VA to cut overtime for processors and shorten call-center hours.

Obama noted that "the best way to protect the VA care you have earned is to get rid of the sequester altogether" ("Federal Eye," Washington Post, 8/12).  He called on Congress "to come together and agree on a responsible plan that reduces our deficit and keeps our promises to our veterans" (Reuters, 8/10).

Obama Reassures Veterans About Coverage

Meanwhile, Obama urged veterans not to be swayed by Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act, The Hill's "Blog Briefing Room" reports ("Blog Briefing Room,"The Hill, 8/10). He said there is a lot of "misinformation" being spread about the law and assured veterans that the ACA will not change coverage for veterans with private health insurance or coverage through VA (Hennessey, Los Angeles Times, 8/10). Obama noted that beginning in October, more than one million uninsured veterans will be able to enroll in coverage through the law's health insurance exchanges ("Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 8/10).

Holder to call for scaled-back use of mandatory minimum drug sentences

The Justice Department is planning to alter its policy on charging some drug offenders so that they will no longer face mandatory minimum prison sentences, according to remarks prepared for delivery Monday by Attorney General Eric Holder. 

In an address due to be given to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he is mandating that drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels and no history of violence won't be charged with offenses that impose mandatory minimums. Such sentences -- a product of the government's war on drugs in the 1980s -- limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter prison sentences on offenders.

Under the altered policy, the attorney general said defendants will instead be charged with offenses for which accompanying sentences "are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins."

According to Holder, mandatory minimum sentences "breed disrespect for the system. When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety. They have had a disabling effect on communities. And they are ultimately counterproductive."

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have already introduced legislation aimed at giving federal judges more discretion in applying mandatory minimums to certain drug offenders.

According to the Associated Press, federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity and hold more than 219,000 inmates -- with almost half of them serving time for drug-related crimes and many of them with substance use disorders.  In addition, 9 million to 10 million prisoners go through local jails each year. 

In his remarks, the attorney general praised state and local law enforcement officials for already instituting some of the types of changes Holder says must be made at the federal level.

Aggressive enforcement of federal criminal laws is necessary, but "we cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation," Holder said. "Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. However, many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this problem, rather than alleviate it."

"We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate -- not merely to convict, warehouse and forget," said the attorney general.

Holder said new approaches -- which he is calling the "Smart On Crime" initiative -- are the result of a Justice Department review he launched earlier this year.

The attorney general said some issues are best handled at the state or local level and said he has directed federal prosecutors across the country to develop locally tailored guidelines for determining when federal charges should be filed, and when they should not.

"By targeting the most serious offenses, prosecuting the most dangerous criminals, directing assistance to crime `hot spots,' and pursuing new ways to promote public safety, deterrence, efficiency and fairness -- we can become both smarter and tougher on crime," Holder said.

The attorney general said 17 states have directed money away from prison construction and toward programs and services such as treatment and supervision that are designed to reduce the problem of repeat offenders.

In Kentucky, legislation has reserved prison beds for the most serious offenders and refocused resources on community supervision. The state, Holder said, is projected to reduce its prison population by more than 3,000 over the next 10 years, saving more than $400 million.

He also cited investments in drug treatment in Texas for non-violent offenders and changes to parole policies which he said brought about a reduction in the prison population of more than 5,000 inmates last year. He said similar efforts helped Arkansas reduce its prison population by more than 1,400. He also pointed to Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Hawaii as states that have improved public safety while preserving limited resources.

Holder also said the department is expanding a policy for considering compassionate release for inmates facing extraordinary or compelling circumstances, and who pose no threat to the public. He said the expansion will include elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and who have served significant portions of their sentences.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/12/holder-to-call-for-changes-in-drug-sentencing-guidelines/#ixzz2bm4i1hXt

CA Environmental Advocates Push to Protect Poor from Pollution

Precinct Reporter Group by: Dianne Anderson When, not if, $125 million comes down from future Cap and Trade dollars, a group of advocates and concerned doctors want to make sure that it gets to those who need it most. The Greenlining Institute and the Physicians for Social Responsibility have teamed up, along with many other advocates to push for SB 605, a piece of legislation calling for clean energy investments to help low income disadvantaged communities. The bill jumps off AB 1532 (Perez) and SB 535 (de Leon) signed late last year by the Governor, that was supposed to start tapping 10% revenues from the state pollution auction for environmental relief for hard hit low income communities. Instead, the Governor recently grabbed back $500 million of those auction dollars to provide relief toward the ailing state General Fund. Bruce Mirken, spokesperson for the Greenlining Institute, said while Cap and Trade auction dollars are mostly shot this budget cycle, if passed, SB 605 will put low income communities first in line for any money beyond $500 million, whenever that money comes down. The bill requires any money coming through the Cap and Trade fund over what the State borrowed to be used for underserved communities. “Hopefuly with the economy inching back to health, there won’t be any reason to pull anything like this again,” he said. “And, if there’s an attempt to, lots of us will scream bloody murder.” Advocates view the new bill as a short term way to get things happening as soon as possible, he said. The alternative — doing nothing about dirty air — is extremely costly to the state in terms of money, missed work, needless medical expensives, and illness. “The carbon auctions are still going on, so you don’t know exactly how much is [coming down], but if it exceeds that $500 million, the first $125 million needs to go to projects in disadvantaged communities.” Martha Arguello with Physicians for Social Responsibility said the bill is important toward getting clean energy investments into disadvantaged areas. With over 4,000 members and about 1,500 are physicians, the organization was involved in the fight for air quality and health legislation starting with AB 32, a bill that got the ball rolling for subsequent pollution legislation. She sees SB 605 as a beginning toward lowering the asthma epidemic in Southern California, and saving the state more money on health care dollars. Usually, Black and Brown children suffer the highest rates of asthma in urban areas, and doctors are seeing the correlation between environment and the health of low income people that live close to heavy traffic areas, freeways, or oil refineries. On a bad air day, she said research shows that more kids are getting sick. The connection, she said, is that big polluters continue to buy up cheap land, and site their facilities in low income communities where residents cannot afford to move away. “There’s a growing awareness among doctors that the environment matters. We’ve certainly seen that in the support we get from our doctors and members, there is more willingness to address these issues from a policy perspective,” she said. Long Beach port is also the starting point for the heavy goods movement into the Inland Empire, as trucks and trains once again move nonstop to warehouses, and contribute to the thick toxic zone along the freeways. The next step is getting community to call their legislators, she said, and even ten or 15 phone calls can make a difference. Many legislators say their offices are not receiving community calls of concern, but they are receiving a lot of visits from heads of industry and big business. “Even if it’s just a phone call that says we want you to do something about air quality — that matters,” she said. “I was at a legislative meeting and I said what do you hear from the district? She said, ‘You know what — we don’t hear anything.’” The post CA Environmental Advocates Push to Protect Poor from Pollution appeared first on The Greenlining Institute.

Growing Opposition to AT&T’s Attack on LifeLine Program

Beyond Chron
by: Randy Shaw


As we described on July 10, the California State Legislature is moving toward passing AB 1407, an AT &T backed measure that would devastate the state’s LifeLine phone program. The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee voted 6-1 in favor of the bill on July 8, and the Senate Appropriations Committee votes on August 19. AT&T is used to getting its way in Sacramento, but the 1.2 million low-income Californians whose phone rates will jump under AB 1407 are finding surprising support from influential forces. On July 16, the Los Angeles Times editorial board urged the Legislature to defeat AB 1407, saying the measure “is premature and its consumer protections too thin.” The Greenlining Institute wrote in the Capitol Weekly that AB 1407 “undermines LifeLine’s essential guarantee of affordable phone service, effectively replacing that guarantee with a coupon.” As the media, community and labor organizations, and LifeLine participants learn of this corporate usurping of the state PUC’s jurisdiction, opposition to AB 1407 has grown. This may yet be a battle where David defeats Goliath, and the needs of low-income phone users trump corporate profits.

California’s LifeLine phone users are among the state’s poorest residents, and have least access to the communication methods many of us take for granted. For example, many using LifeLine are single-room occupancy (SRO) tenants. These tenants not only would have no phone access at all without LifeLine, but the San Francisco City Attorney’s office is in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals battling the US Postal Service’s decision to stop delivering mail to individual mailboxes in SRO’s.
No mail, no phone—and no connection to the outside world for people often already isolated from social interactions.

AT&T’s proposed hijacking of the LifeLine program is particularly surprising in light of Democratic Party control of the California Legislature and the Governor Brown-appointed California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) strong opposition to AB 1407.

On June 27, 2013, the CPUC voted to oppose AB1407, which would legislate rates for California LifeLine Program wireless phone service subsidies. The CPUC told the bill’s sponsor in a letter that “the bill would supersede an open proceeding on this topic at the CPUC that is considering the views of all stakeholders and all relevant issues in a deliberate and thorough manner.”
What clearly troubles the CPUC, and should anger all Californians, is AT&T’s effort to use AB 1407 to effectively destroy state regulation of the LifeLine program. As the CPUC put it in its letter:
It removes or limits the CPUC’s ability (a) to keep LifeLine service affordable, (b) to address the unique needs of California’s low-income residents, (c) to resolve LifeLine consumer complaints, and (d) to ensure all households are sufficiently informed of the LifeLine program. The bill would eliminate the current requirement that LifeLine providers must offer “basic service,” as defined by the CPUC, to residential customers.

It further repeals provisions requiring service providers to inform LifeLine subscribers of the availability and terms and conditions of LifeLine service, as well as any safety implications of the service provided.

As the Los Angeles Times noted regarding the PUC’s plan to release its recommendations in October,
“The right way to proceed is to let the commission do its work. If lawmakers don’t like the result, they can override it. Unlike the Legislature, the commission has developed an
extensive record of views not just from industry executives but from Lifeline users and
other consumers. That process shouldn’t be short-circuited when it’s so close to
completion.”

Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg sits on the Appropriations Committee that considers AB 1407 on August 19. If former State Senate leader John Burton were confronted with a bill raising phone rates on the very poor, he would probably have to be restrained from grabbing the bill’s Democratic sponsor and throwing them down a flight of stairs. Few legislators have Burton’s passion for defending the very poor, but Steinberg needs to use his leadership to kill this destructive measure.
Defeating AB 1407 requires increasing public knowledge of its provisions. So spread the word.

The post Growing Opposition to AT&T’s Attack on LifeLine Program appeared first on The Greenlining Institute.

Bill to let non-citizens work at California polls heads to governor Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/bill-allowing-non-citizens-to-be-poll-workers-heads-to-governor.html#storylink=cpy

A bill that would allow legal immigrants who are not U.S. citizens to serve as poll workers is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk after passing its final vote Thursday.

After some partisan discussions, the Assembly agreed to technical amendments made in the Senate toAssembly Bill 817 by Democrat Rob Bonta of Alameda.

AB 817 would allow an election official to appoint up to five people who are not U.S. citizens to serve as poll workers at each precinct. The non-citizens would have to be lawful permanent residents who meet all the other requirements for being eligible to vote except for citizenship.

Bonta said the measure would increase language access for voters.

"There are nearly 3 million citizens who are fully eligible to vote and not English proficient," Bonta said.

"We have a shortage of multilingual poll workers in the state of California," he added. "There has to be language access at the polls."

Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto said she didn't buy into that logic.

"Let's keep in mind what poll workers can and cannot do," Olsen told fellow Assembly members during floor debate. "Poll workers cannot go into a voting booth with a voter, cannot read the ballot to the voter, cannot help them understand what they are voting on."

Republicans have opposed the bill since it was first introduced. The bill originally passed the Assembly in May on a 49-23 vote. Last month, the Senate passed it 22-10. The bill returned to the Assembly on Thursday for concurrence on minor changes made in the Senate.

"If somebody is not registered to vote and they aren't a citizen and they can't vote, then why would they even want to sit at the poll?" asked Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point. "What could possibly entice them? Is this just another career path? I'm a bit confused."

Democrats focused their rebuttal on pointing out that legal residents who are not U.S. citizens can serve in the military but are not welcome to serve as poll workers.

"It's offensive to suggest that those people could go and put their lives on the line for their country and go off to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, but when they come back home, they are unfit to serve as a poll worker," said Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville. "That's offensive."

PHOTO: An elections assistant instructs a class of poll workers in this 1998 file photo. The Sacramento Bee / Owen Brewer.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/bill-allowing-non-citizens-to-be-poll-workers-heads-to-governor.html#storylink=cpy

Covered California delays offering 'embedded' dental plans

Board members of the California Health Benefit Exchange voted Thursday to delay soliciting bids for medical plans that include pediatric dental care until next year.

Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, has said it will offer five stand-alone pediatric dental plans for 2014 as well as what's called a "bundled" plan in which insurers pair a stand-alone dental plan with a medical plan.

Critics have argued that Covered California should also offer so-called "embedded" pediatric dental plans that are included in medical plans.

But Leesa Tori, senior adviser for plan management, told the board at its special meeting that too many questions remain for the exchange to offer embedded pediatric dental plans before 2015.

The exchange still must decide whether to make purchasing dental insurance mandatory, and for whom it would be necessary. Until Covered California makes this decision, Tori said, staff members will not know which types of plans to include in the exchange.

"There is no silver bullet for 2014," said Tori, as board members considered final recommendations on pediatric dental plans. "What we are suggesting here is that we go back, we do the proper policy analysis, look at the various products and then put it into a portfolio for 2015."

Tori also said that six of the eight health insurance firms with the ability to provide embedded dental plans said they could not develop a bid for next year.

"If we thought we could, we would," said Susan Kennedy, one of the board members. "We don't believe it's technically feasible or in the best interests of consumers to do so right now."

The board's plan to solicit multiple options for children's dental plans in 2015 comes in response to concern from children's advocates and families about the affordability of pediatric dental care. Monthly premiums for the pediatric dental plans to be offered in 2014 start at $10 per child, depending on the plan. The plans cover children up to age 19.

A coalition of children's health advocates sent a letter on Monday to the health exchange's board members urging them to request bids for embedded pediatric dental plans in addition to the stand-alone and bundled plans the exchange has already solicited.

The coalition -- which includes Children Now, United Ways of California, California Coverage and Health Initiatives, The Children's Partnership and Children's Defense Fund California-- called for the board to give the public the opportunity to choose their dental coverage.

"Consumer choice is important, and we recognize that for some families the option to select a stand-alone plan will be attractive," the letter read. "But stand-alone plans must not be the only choice."

PHOTO: Tribal dentist Gurminderajit Sufi works on Jonathan Jesus Lomeli, 10, of Arbuckle at the Colusa Casino's Wellness Center on April 23, 2013. The clinic offers subsidized medical care for low-income families. The Sacramento Bee/ Randy Pench.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/covered-california-delays-offering-embedded-pediatric-dental-plans.html#storylink=cpy

Student loan deal to get Obama's signature Friday

By Ricardo Lopez

August 9, 2013, 8:03 a.m.

It took an entire summer of wrangling, but students heading to college this fall won't see dramatic student loan interest rate hikes once President Obama signs a deal on the matter, a move expected Friday.

About 11 million college students are expected to benefit from the legislation, which brings interest rates near what they were before a temporary extension expired in June.

Undergraduates will now be able to borrow at a 3.9% rate for subsidized and unsubsidized loans, according to legislation that was negotiated in July.

The previous rate for undergraduate borrowers was 3.4%.

Workers beware: Top cities with falling wages

Graduate students will be able to borrow at 5.4%; parents at 6.4%. But rates are expected to edge higher as they are tied to financial markets. The lower interest rates are in place because the government can borrow more cheaply now, but once the economy improves, borrowers can expect to see rates rise.

There is a cap, however. Interest rates for undergraduates cannot go higher than 8.25%, for instance. Congressional Budget Office estimates show that those higher rates are not expected to be reached any time in the next decade.

The bill, which Obama is expected to sign Friday, was approved by the Senate Aug. 1 -- two months after the previous extension expired and caused interest rates to double to 6.8%.
 
Student loan debt has ballooned in the last decade as more people went to school during the recession. There is now between $902 billion and $1 trillion in total outstanding student loan debt in the U.S, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Consumer Finance Protection Bureau estimates.

via: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-obama-student-loan-deal-20130809,0,6067318.story

Reforming the Prison-Industrial Complex

By Rich Lowry

Prison is one of the most important institutions in American life. About a quarter of all the world’s prisoners are behind bars in the United States, a total of roughly 2 million people. It costs about $60 billion a year to imprison them.

This vast prison-industrial complex has succeeded in reducing crime but is a blunt instrument. Prison stays often constitute a graduate seminar in crime, and at the very least, the system does a poor job preparing prisoners to return to the real world. Since 95 percent of prisoners will eventually be released, this is not a minor problem.

Prison tends to be harsh in small-minded ways (taking away weights and various TV programs) and lax in the important things. Needless to say, sexual violence and de facto rule by gangs — all too common — shouldn’t be tolerated in a civilized country. And when it comes to inculcating habits that might make prisoners decent citizens, prison should be more prescriptive, rather than less.

In an essay in the journal National Affairs, Eli Lehrer sets out an agenda for reform geared toward rehabilitation, and the conservative group Right on Crime, a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, advocates a similar program.

Most fundamentally, prisoners should be required to do what many of them have never done before, namely an honest day’s work. Fewer than a third of offenders hold full-time jobs at the time of their arrest, according to Lehrer. They won’t acquire a work ethic in prison. University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Stephanos Bibas notes that only about 8 percent of prisoners work in prison industries, and about 4 percent on prison farms.

Labor unions and businesses have long supported restrictions on productive work by prisoners for fear of cheap competition, but their self-interested concerns shouldn’t obstruct attempts to instill the most basic American norm in people desperately in need of it. Prisoners should be made to work, but be paid for it and rewarded if they are particularly diligent and skilled. As Bibas argues, some of the proceeds can go to restitution for victims, to paying for their own upkeep, and to support for their families.

Prison should align itself with other norms. Inmates with drug and alcohol addictions should be forced to get treatment. There should be maximum openness to faith-based programs, such as those run by the splendid Christian organization Prison Fellowship. Prisoners should be encouraged to keep in contact with their families rather than cut off from them through what Bibas calls “cumbersome visiting policies and extortionate telephone rates.”

Once offenders get out, there’s a good chance that they are going back. Lehrer notes that about 40 percent of ex-prisoners are rearrested within three years. The goal should be to reduce recidivism as much as possible. Offenders shouldn’t be discharged directly from solitary confinement, or discharged without a photo ID. In the job market, they shouldn’t be denied occupational licenses when the job in question has nothing to do with their crime. They should, if their crime wasn’t too serious, eventually have it expunged from the records for most purposes.

Ex-inmates out on parole or on probation should be monitored more closely. As Lehrer writes, “Transition programs should increasingly involve random, unannounced home visits, subject ex-offenders to round-the-clock electronic monitoring, require them to take random drug tests, and offer them swift and certain punishment for slip-ups.”

Playing against type, hang-’em-high Texas has been a model of prison reform and innovative reentry programs of the sort championed by Right on Crime. It has sent fewer people to prison while crime has continued to decline in the state. It has funded more slots for treatment for substance abuse and mental illness and increased the use of drug courts, creating alternatives to prison. It has strengthened supervision of probationers and parolees, by reducing caseloads for officers and fashioning a system of swift and certain sanctions for violations.

We have proved in the past several decades that we can lock a lot of people up. The challenge now is if we can do it more humanely and intelligently and, ultimately, create less work for the prison-industrial complex.

— Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review. He can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com. © 2013 King Features Syndicate