Community News
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A contentious program that shifted control of some state prisoners to local governments dramatically reduced the prison population in California, but the decrease was not enough to meet a federal court order, according to a report released Monday.
It was only after statewide voters last fall approved reduced penalties for certain drug and property crimes that the prison population fell below the mandated target, said the new analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California. It has remained there since January, more than a year ahead of schedule.
Public safety realignment, launched four years ago, was considered one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s largest political and policy hurdles since he returned to the Governor’s Office in 2011. Brown, responding to the prison reduction order, argued that local authorities were better positioned to deal with alleviating the overcrowding crisis. But his critics, including law-and-order Republicans and some in law enforcement, asserted the changes would lead to a spike in crime.
PPIC makes no wholesale claims about the efficacy of the program. However, it provides a snapshot of its early effects as new reforms continue to take hold, including November’s successful Proposition 47 that changed most nonviolent property and drug crimes to misdemeanors from felonies.
“Realignment has largely been successful, but the state and county correctional systems face significant challenges,” wrote Magnus Lofstrom and Brandon Martin, the authors of the study. “The state needs to regain control of prison medical care, which is now in the hands of a federal receiver. And the state and counties together must make progress in reducing stubbornly high recidivism rates.”
The report found no dramatic change in recidivism rates. There also was no evidence that realignment has increased violent crime in California.
The lone area where crime increased was in auto thefts. Researchers estimate that the overhaul led to car thefts increasing by more than 70 per 100,000 residents. The car theft rate is about 17 percent higher than it would have been without realignment, the report states.
Although the realignment shift drove county jail populations close to historical highs, the program also has changed the profile of those incarcerated. The report found that by early 2014, some 1,761 inmates were serving sentences of more than five years, up from 1,155 in 2013.
Still, while county jail populations increased since 2011, the growth was far smaller than the prison population drop.
Researchers suggest various alternative crime-prevention strategies such as boosting policing, behavioral therapy and targeted intervention for high-risk youths.
Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article36881103.html
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A group of health and youth advocates on Monday introduced a ballot initiative to expand and make permanent the Proposition 30 income tax increases on the state’s highest earners.
The proposal, led by the California Hospital Association, the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and Common Sense Kids Action, is the second tax measure aiming for next year’s ballot that would extend the 2012 income tax increase.
Similar to Proposition 30, the latest measure would increase taxes on couples earning at least $580,000 annually. Those taxes were set to expire at the end of 2018. It also would impose even higher income tax rates for so-called “super-earner” couples that make more than $2 million a year.
Half of the estimated $10 billion a year in annual revenues would go to K-14 education; 40 percent to California’s Medi-Cal program for low-income people; and the remainder to prekindergarten and early childhood development programs. And it calls for a “rainy day” budget reserve modeled on last fall’s Proposition 2.
California has more kids living in poverty and greater income inequality than virtually any other state, Jim Steyer of Common Sense Kids Action said in a statement announcing the tax increase. Steyer said the measure asks the wealthiest to “pay a little more so we can make the investments every California kid needs to have a great start in life.”
Money from the Invest in California’s Children Act could go to any number of health care-related programs, including to reimburse physicians and other health care workers, who see Medi-Cal patients or to replace a tax on managed-care organizations that expires June 30.
The move creates the potential for another tax-hike clash between well-heeled and well-connected interest groups operating across the state. In 2012, Proposition 30 championed by Gov. Jerry Brown appeared on the same ballot as the unsuccessful Proposition 38 tax hike supported largely by Molly Munger.
It’s unclear whether Brown, who is termed out in 2018, will get involved this time. He said repeatedly that his 2012 tax measure was temporary and should remain so.
Last week, the coalition including the California Teachers Association, Service Employees International Union, and other public safety and public employees’ unions, introduced their version of a Proposition 30 income-tax extension that would run through 2030. The estimated $7 billion to $9 billion in annual proceeds would be deposited into an account for K-14 schools.
That campaign is being run by Gale Kaufman, who at the time stressed its temporary nature along with its promise to help maintain a balanced budget, and to prevent deep cuts to programs affecting students, seniors, working families and health care.
Both measures would allow the sales tax increase in Proposition 30 to expire in 2016.
The measure unveiled Monday is being guided by the SCN Strategies team led by Ace Smith, who ran the original Proposition 30 campaign and Brown’s gubernatorial campaigns. Its proponents stressed the need for sustained education and heath care funding given the state’s crowded classrooms and its near-bottom rankings on Medicaid spending.
If both measures qualify for the ballot and pass, the one with the most votes would prevail.
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Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article35998542.html
Four years after approving legislation that ended the anti-blight redevelopment program in California, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed a bill giving local agencies a way to pay for similar projects.
Assembly Bill 2, by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, authorizes local governments in economically depressed areas to use certain tax revenue for public works and affordable housing improvements and to help businesses.
Alejo said in a prepared statement that the bill signing was a “major victory for our state’s most disadvantaged communities.”
Brown also signed Senate Bill 107, which supporters said it will make it easier for agencies to retain money used for affordable housing programs, while also expanding the type of loans for which local agencies can seek reimbursement.
The bills come after a dispute between local officials and Brown over the winding down of redevelopment, a decades-old program that had been popular with local officials but criticized by Brown and others as a subsidy for developers. Redevelopment agencies ceased to exist Feb. 1, 2012.
“These important new measures enacted today will help boost economic development in some of our most disadvantaged and deserving communities,” Brown said in a prepared statement.
Brown’s office announced the bill signings before traveling to Seattle for climate talks Tuesday afternoon with several other governors and Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping.
Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article36193152.html
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2015
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Exposition Park
Los Angeles, CA 90037
Same issue. Different year.
A bill that would restore funding diverted in 2011 from the state’s four newest cities – all in Riverside County – has landed on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. Again.
Officials in Eastvale, Wildomar, Menifee and Jurupa Valley, stung by Brown’s two previous vetoes of bills that would have restored state funding to them, were pragmatic about whether the governor would sign SB 25 into law.
“I hold out very little hope, but I pray every night that he does,” said Wildomar Mayor Ben Benoit.
Brown has 30 days from Sept. 8, the day SB 25 got to his desk, to either sign the bill or veto it. If he takes no action, SB 25 becomes law.
SB 25, which was introduced by state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, is virtually identical to SB 69, which was Brown vetoed in September 2014. Roth also sponsored SB69.
In his veto message, Brown cited concerns about the “long-term costs to the general fund that this bill would occasion.”
Eastvale City Manager Michele Nissen said the state’s financial picture has improved markedly over the past year.
“Now he’s got a revenue surplus,” Nissen said.
Eastvale and Jurupa Valley have written letters signed by their respective mayors urging the governor to sign the bill to ease the four cities’ financial hardship.
Eastvale, Menifee, Wildomar and Jurupa Valley have lost millions annually since June 2011, when state legislators voted to divert vehicle-license fee revenue from cities to law enforcement grants.
All California cities lost vehicle-license fee revenue, but the four newest cities received a greater share to make up for property taxes that cities formed after 2004 don’t get.
All have had to cut back on services, including law enforcement, but none have been affected as badly as Jurupa Valley, which became a city two days after the vote.
SB 25 would return the estimated $16 million per year to the four cities in property tax money that normally goes to education.
Because state law requires full funding for education, that money would have to be repaid from the general fund.
Jurupa Valley has lost an estimated $25 million over the past four years and has taken an initial step toward disincorporation.
Although Jurupa Valley’s financial situation has improved, the city still owes more than $18 million to Riverside County in unpaid transition year costs, law enforcement costs and revenue neutrality payments.
Menifee Mayor Scott Mann said Brown has had multiple opportunities to restore vehicle-license fee funding rescinded as part of his public safety realignment plan in 2011. And there has been no indication from the governor, or his staff, that he will approve it this time either, Mann said.
Despite that, Mann said, he has written a personal letter to Brown asking him to sign SB 25.
Via: http://www.pe.com/articles/cities-780038-brown-bill.html
State Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, has suspended her latest bid to reverse a law barring families that conceive additional children while on welfare from receiving increases to their grant.
Mitchell said she would not continue forward this year with Senate Bill 23 to repeal a law Mitchell contends perpetuates the negative concept of the “welfare queen,” a woman who has babies while on welfare to collect more cash assistance. Mitchell’s bill is currently awaiting a vote on the Assembly floor, and she said she would instead push to get the policy into next year’s budget.
“How would we pay for it?” Mitchell said. “Because of the huge price tag, I’m going to continue working with the administration during the interim.”
Overturning the “maximum family grant” would cost an estimated $205 million in the first year. SB 23 passed the Senate this spring, but its prospects dimmed when Gov. Jerry Brown left it out of the final budget deal in June.
Mitchell said she had not changed tactics out of concern that the bill would fail in the Assembly or be vetoed by Brown.
“I’m confident that they agree with the policy,” she said. “I will be waiting with bated breath for January 10,” she added, referring to the date by which Brown must release his budget proposal.
Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article34058808.html
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Strong Communities Forum
Saturday, September 26, 2015
9: 00 am - 5:00 pm
The Hyatt Place
3500 Market Street
Riverside, CA 92501
|
Count Down to Conference
FEATURING
Special Guest Kim Carter
|
On September 23rd, Reach will be
hosting the First Inaugural Conference on Gender-Responsiveness in Richmond,
California. To promote this event, our newsletter will highlight a
different conference presenter throughout the entire month of September.
This first week, we are honored to
present a publication that highlights our Conference Guest Speaker, the
Founder and Executive Director of the Time for Change Foundation, Ms. Kim
Carter. She was recently named a 2015 CNN Hero for the services she provides
to both homeless and formerly incarcerated women. Read the article
below:
|
2015 CNN Hero
Published: Time for Change
August 27,
2015
Time for Change Foundation
(TFCF) under the leadership of Kim Carter has been named a 2015 CNN Hero! The CNN Heroes
initiative is a year-long initiative that honors everyday people for their
selfless, creative efforts to help others. The campaign is now in its
ninth year. In the past eight years, CNN Heroes has received more than
50,000 nominations from more than 100 countries. Since 2007, the campaign
has profiled more than 200 CNN Heroes. They're working in more than 80
countries around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of people.
"We
are most humbled by this prestigious international recognition and realize that
it has truly been a joint effort in this region to address the societal issues
that homeless women and children encounter. Based on my experience
working at TFCF, after having been a successful graduate of the TFCF program,
when I think of Kim Carter it reminds me of the 'little engine that could' ...
All the people that we serve and the people whose lives this agency touches
leave knowing that they too have the ability to strive for seemingly
insurmountable goals." commented Nicole Wolfe, Communications Coordinator
at TFCF.
"I'm
happy that CNN is shining an International spotlight on our organization."
says Phyllis Scott, TFCF Case Manager.
Kim Carter,
Founder and Executive Director of TFCF stated, "I am so grateful that I
answered God's call on my life. My homelessness, substance abuse and
incarceration experiences fuel my passion to help others succeed. It's
that calling that started Time for Change Foundation."
It is Kim’s
belief that by providing these women with training and the opportunity to
develop life skills, in a nurturing and supportive environment, they will
become independent, active, participants in their communities. In addition to
being the conference's guest speaker, Ms. Carter is also a Soul Panelist for
the event.
Chanting “Black lives matter!” and staging a massive “die-in,” scores of people rallied Wednesday at the state Capitol in support of legislation that seeks to stamp out racial profiling by law enforcement.
Protesters marched through the streets and then crowded the halls outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown, demanding his signature for Assembly Bill 953, which still must clear the state Senate before it reaches the governor’s desk. It would require law enforcement to gather and report data on stops, something advocates hope will illuminate the extent of racial profiling.
The bill, by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, was one of several police-focused measures introduced this year amid tensions and violence between officers and communities. Critics, in urging its defeat in the Legislature, have derided the proposal as too costly.
Though demonstrators chanted for an audience with Brown, he was not in Sacramento. Instead, Weber called on Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, to accept a petition from the demonstrators.
“You’re making your voice heard today. That’s your right, your responsibility,” Atkins said. “We’re going to keep working on this.”
After addressing the crowd outside the Capitol, Weber said her bill was necessary because of California’s comparatively high death rate at the hands of police.
“When we look at the issues of racial profiling we discover that African Americans and Latinos are stopped two and three times more than anybody else, and yet have a lower arrest record,” she said, as activists read the names of victims. “So, obviously you’re stopping them without a cause to arrest them.”
The stop, Weber said, becomes the foundation “for other things happening” after.
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