Chronic absence, suspension derail Oakland black boys

High rates of chronic absence, suspension and poor academic performance signal that more than half of African American male students in the Oakland Unified School District are at risk of dropping out, according to new research.

The Urban Strategies Council, an Oakland-based community advocacy organization, found significant disparities between African American boys and their peers: Fifty-five percent of black boys in the 2010-11 school year were falling off course from graduation or were at risk of doing so, compared with 37.5 percent of students overall in the district.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, researchers found that black boys struggled with regular attendance and suspensions and scoring proficiently on standardized tests or maintaining grades above a C average – warning signs that they might drop out.

Among African American males who were not on track to graduate, 73 percent in elementary school were chronically absent, missing 10 percent or more of school days for any reason, according to the findings released this week. In middle school, the same percentage had been suspended at least once. Nearly two-thirds of high schoolers were chronically absent and had less than a C average; 41 percent had been suspended at least once.

The council's reports on dropout indicators are part of Oakland Unified's African American Male Achievement Initiative, an effort launched in 2010 to improve academic and social equity for black boys. The findings provide "a sense of urgency" for the district, said Chris Chatmon, executive director of the district's Office of African American Male Achievement. "We need to understand what's going on if we're going to effectively intervene and improve outcomes and graduation and success of African American males," said Junious Williams, chief executive officer of the council. 

Chatmon, who plans to hold a community meeting next month to discuss the council's findings, said improving attendance among black boys requires working with other agencies and the community and presents different challenges in different age groups.

In kindergarten and first grade, African American boys in the district were more than four times as likely as their white peers to be chronically absent, the council found. 

"Five-year-olds don't miss school without an adult knowing at home," said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, an initiative that seeks to improve student success by reducing chronic absence. 

Families might face hurdles, such as transportation or health problems, in getting their young children to school, or they might not understand the importance of kindergarten, said Chang, who has worked with Oakland Unified to address chronic absenteeism. 

"Once you miss a month or more of school, and you miss a month or more in kindergarten and first, you're not on track for reading in third grade," she said. "We've got to make sure kids have a chance to start on the right track."

One way the district has tried to target chronic absenteeism among young black students is by working with the Oakland Housing Authority. Forty percent of students at four West Oakland schools live in public housing; 30 percent of those students were chronically absent in 2010-11. Chatmon said the district saw an uptick in school registration by reaching out to West Oakland families living in public housing.

By the time black boys reach middle and high school, different factors begin to undermine attendance, Chatmon said.

"Street culture becomes more attractive than learning and school culture," he said. "How do we define school culture? What is it? What would get our students getting up at 5 in the morning, running to school? … You get school culture right, then you will produce African American boys that produce high academic outcomes."

Cultural clashes and misunderstandings also factor into high rates of suspension among black boys, Chatmon and Williams said. 

"We still have a teaching and administrative body that doesn't … understand the cultural context of where our students come from," Chatmon said. "We have to do a lot of work with our adults to authentically engage with our boys, with our families, to understand our community context."

African American boys made up 17 percent of Oakland Unified students in 2010-11, yet they represented 42 percent of students suspended. Disruption or defiance of authority was the most common reason for discipline, accounting for 38 percent of their suspensions.

Subjective standards for disruption and defiance – the reason behind more than 40 percent of suspensions in California and the recent target of criticism and legislative action – could be contributing to high suspension rates among black boys, Williams said.

The council recommended that Oakland Unified carefully monitor such offenses and clearly define what constitutes impermissible behavior. The district also needs strategies for prevention and intervention so students are not suspended for single incidents, Williams said.

In many ways, Chatmon said, that work already has started.

"This is a 'we' problem," he said. "We are taking this on with the frame of full-service community schools that call out everybody, humbly. We can't do it in isolation."


Via:  http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/chronic-absence-suspension-derail-oakland-black-boys-16298

AB 2204 (Hernandez)

How High Prison Costs Slash Education and Hurt the Economy

These happy graduates have the skills Michigan needs to build its economy. Too many of Michigan’s workers don’t. Photo by Mario Bollin

Michigan, like many states, suffers an education gap that threatens its growth. According to a state turnaround plan, 62 percent of jobs will require a post-secondary education by 2018. Sadly, less than 40 percent of today's workers qualify. Without more college graduates, the best-paying jobs will move away—or they will never be created in the first place.

The Higher Education Gap Hurts Economic Growth

Why don't more Michigan residents finish college? What does this have to with jails? The answer is money: Prisons and universities compete for shrinking state budgets. Much of the state's budget is protected by statute or long-standing contracts. It can't be cut in the near term. Higher education budgets are the least protected, and they have suffered the deepest cuts.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

"Our public universities are a major driver of Michigan's economy yet we are spending more on a prisoner in one year than we are to help a Michigan student go to college for four years. This investment strategy is upside down if we want to attract business investment and good paying jobs," says Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, a council of CEOs and other top executives from Michigan's largest companies. Business Leaders for Michigan developed Michigan's Turnaround Plan with help from McKinsey and the Lumina Foundation. 

Prison Costs Have Strong Advocates Across the United States

Powerful constituencies protect prison budgets by putting more people in jail and keeping them there longer. "Law and order" conservatives want to show toughness on crime. Corporations that run outsourced prisons want to raise revenues. Unions representing correctional workers want to protect jobs and salaries. These groups promote tough mandatory sentencing and parole restrictions. 

Michigan is a relatively high-cost jailer. It imprisons 51 percent more of its residents than its neighbors (as a percent of population). Compared to its neighbors, Michigan spends more money per prisoner per year to keep to keep its prisoners in jail.

[See the U.S. News Best Colleges.]

California and many other states also confront soaring, entrenched prison costs. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger summed it up this way:

Thirty years ago, 10 percent of the general fund went to higher education and only 3 percent went to prisons. Today, almost 11 percent goes to prisons and only 7.5 percent goes to higher education. Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future.

Higher Prison Costs Lead to Higher Tuitions and Fewer Graduates

With state revenues under pressure and prison budgets off-limits, funds for higher education have been slashed. Colleges and universities must raise tuition, since they have no other way to bridge the funding gap. The chart below shows the dramatic change.

When college costs soar, fewer people enroll and graduate. The damage will likely spread through the economy. Michigan-based companies will move jobs elsewhere if they can't fill them locally. Out-of-state companies will hesitate to expand in Michigan. Talented and ambitious graduates will flee for better opportunities. Burdened with loans, those who stay will spend little on consumer goods and services.  

[See the top 10 cities to find a job.]

The future of Michigan's economy depends on educating its residents. "Our state cannot afford to continue its recent trend of declining investment in the talent pool of tomorrow," said J. Patrick Doyle, president and CEO of Domino's Pizza, Inc., which is based in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Businesses are struggling now to find the right talent."

North Carolina Made the Sustainable Choice

Education makes the economy productive, but prisons do not. Some states, notably North Carolina, choose to educate. North Carolina's economy is similar to Michigan's, but it spends much more on higher education. The University of North Carolina gets nearly four times as much state support per student as Michigan schools. As a result a four year degree costs in-state students $38,215 in Michigan but only $18,887 in North Carolina.  

You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to predict which state will field the most talented and productive workforce. Today, North Carolina and Michigan rank about even in economic performance. But 30 to 40 years ago, North Carolina lagged way behind, whereas Michigan led. Since then, North Carolina's investments and Michigan's disinvestments have leveled the playing field. North Carolina offers far more to support knowledge-based businesses that pay high wages and fuel the state's economy.

[Not Giving Up: Jobless Keep Searching for Work.]

Don't Eat the Seed Corn

Many states—North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, and others—are planning cuts to sales or income taxes. Where will the cuts fall? Will the states find ways to make government more efficient? Or will the states eat their seed corn, dismantling the educational institutions needed for a modern economy? These consequential decisions will determine the states' economic future.


Via: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/05/24/how-high-prison-costs-slash-education-and-hurt-the-economy?s_cid=rss:economic-intelligence:how-high-prison-costs-slash-education-and-hurt-the-economy

California to stop going after children for caregivers' debts

Clarence Ayers was baffled.


At 73, he was raising his great-granddaughter in rural Fresno County. He relied on $334 a month in public
assistance to help cover the teenager's expenses: new shoes when she outgrew her old ones, transportation
to the after-school activities she enjoyed.


But last summer, county officials said they were slicing his CalWorks payment by 10% and for the most
perplexing of reasons: Over the years, they had mistakenly sent $10,000 to the girl's mother and grandfather.


"Irene wasn't even born when some of that money was paid," Ayers said. "She was being punished for
something she never did."


For decades, if county officials couldn't track down a parent or guardian who owed them money, they went
after the children — even if they no longer lived together.


Now, the much-criticized practice is ending as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Ayers and
others who accused state officials of essentially holding children responsible for their caregivers' debts.


Details and total costs of the settlement are still being hammered out, but the California Department of Social
Services said refunds will be provided for any such collections made since Jan. 6. Earlier this year, counties
were told to stop collecting on past overpayments from adults whose families benefited from the funds when
they were children.


"We're very pleased that the department has recognized that this is something they want to change," said
Patti Prunhuber, a Public Interest Law Project attorney involved in the case. "These debts do not belong to
these children. They are not responsible for them. They didn't create them, and they shouldn't follow them
into their new households or into adulthood."


Officials now will focus on recovering overpayments from the parents or caregivers who received the funds,
said department spokesman Michael Weston.


A program administered at the county level, CalWorks provides cash assistance to some of the state's
neediest families. The program has been pummeled by budget cuts in recent years, whittling down how much
families can qualify for and how long they can receive the aid.


If county officials overpay a family by $35 or more, state law requires them to try to recover it, according to
court filings. One option is to track down other household members. In some cases, officials allegedly
garnished the benefits or tax refunds of young people whose caregivers had been paid too much because of
a county mistake, legal aid attorneys said.


Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, Jamie Hartley, was just 16 in 2008 when Riverside County paid her mother
for her older brother's expenses, even though he no longer qualified for the program. County officials
threatened to seize Hartley's 2011 tax refund to help collect the $766 debt — money she was counting on to
help cover college living expenses, according to court papers.


It's not clear how many people were targets of such practices, which date back at least to 1981, Weston
said. Until 1996, federal law required that officials recover overpayments from any member of the household
possible, he said.


Now states can decide whether to pursue those who were minors when the money was provided. In Los
Angeles County alone, 4,682 children and 88 adults were having money docked from their benefits to
recoup such overpayments at the time the practice was stopped, officials said. The county stopped going
after tax refunds in 2000.


In the last two years, legal aid attorneys received a rash of complaints from people who had received
collection notices, said Antionette Dozier, an attorney for the Western Center on Law and Poverty who also
worked on the case. It appeared that changes in systems used to recover overpayments had turned up a
number of old cases, Dozier said.


In 2010, Pilar Lopez received a letter from Butte County officials saying she owed nearly $7,000. If she
didn't erase the debt, officials said they would seize her tax refund, a huge financial blow to the mother of
three who was paying her way through Chico State.


The CalWorks money had actually gone to Lopez's father during a period in the 1990s when she'd lived
mainly with other relatives in a different county. After she tracked down school and medical records that
backed up her account — a process that took months — Butte County officials relented.


"Why are you going after a minor when they didn't even know what money meant back then?" said Lopez,
32. "I literally could not sleep at night. I kept thinking, 'Where am I going to get the money?'"


The settlement came as a relief to Ayers, the 73-year-old raising his 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Irene.
He said details of how the state debt was incurred were never fully explained. Irene's mother was a child
herself when at least some of the payments were made, Ayers said, and her grandfather is no longer alive.


Retired after working in transportation on movie sets, he said he lives on Social Security income, his savings
wiped out by a series of family funerals.


The CalWorks grant he receives to support Irene is a "big help," he said. "She's growing so fast." Every
week, she asks for money for a new pair of shoes, a school trip or a science project. "She's active at school.
I don't want to stop that."


Via:  http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/12/local/la-me-child-welfare-debts-20120512

Coffee linked to lower risk of death

Researchers have some reassuring news for the legions of coffee drinkers who can't get through the day
without a latte, cappuccino, iced mocha, double-shot of espresso or a plain old cuppa joe: That coffee habit
may help you live longer.


A new study that tracked the health and coffee consumption of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14
years found that java drinkers were less likely to die during the study than their counterparts who eschewed

the brew. In fact, men and women who averaged four or five cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of
death, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.


The research doesn't prove that coffee deserves the credit for helping people live longer. But it is the largest
analysis to date to suggest that the beverage's reputation for being a liquid vice may be undeserved.


"There's been concerns for a long time that coffee might be a risky behavior," said study leader Neal
Freedman, an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute who drinks coffee "here and there." "The
results offer some reassurance that it's not a risk factor for future disease."


Coffee originated in Ethiopia more than 500 years ago. As it spread through the Middle East, Europe and
the Americas, its popularity was tempered by concerns about its supposed ill effects. A 1674 petition by
aggrieved women in London complained that coffee left men impotent, "with nothing moist but their snotty
noses, nothing stiff but their joints, nor standing but their ears," according to the book "Uncommon Grounds:
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World."


In more modern times, the caffeinated beverage has been seen as "a stimulating substance, a commonly
consumed drug," said Rob van Dam, an epidemiologist at the National University of Singapore who has
investigated the drink's health effects but was not involved in the latest study.


"People get somewhat dependent on it," Van Dam said. "If you try to rapidly reduce coffee consumption,
you get headaches or other symptoms."


The National Coffee Assn. estimates that 64% of American adults drink coffee on a daily basis, with the
average drinker consuming 3.2 cups each day. To get a deeper understanding of the risks and benefits of all
that joe, the National Cancer Institute researchers turned to data on 402,260 adults who were between the
ages of 50 and 71 when they joined the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study in 1995 and 1996. The
volunteers were followed through December 2008 or until they died — whichever came first.


When the team first crunched the numbers, coffee seemed to have a detrimental effect on longevity. But
people who drink coffee are more likely to smoke, and when the scientists took that into account (along with
other demographic factors), the opposite appeared to be true.


Compared with men who didn't drink any coffee at all, those who drank just one cup per day had a 6%
lower risk of death during the course of the study; those who drank two to three cups per day had a 10%
lower risk, and those who had four to five cups had a 12% lower risk. For men who drank six cups or
more, the apparent benefit waned slightly, with a 10% lower risk of death during the study compared with
men who drank no coffee.


The relationship between coffee and risk of death was even more dramatic in women. Those who drank one
cup per day had 5% lower odds of dying during the study compared with women who drank none. Those
who consumed two or three cups a day were 13% less likely to die, those who downed four or five cups
were 16% less likely to die, and those who drank six or more cups had a 15% lower mortality rate.


The effect held across a number of causes of death — including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke
and diabetes — but not cancer, the researchers found. And the link was stronger in coffee drinkers who had
never smoked.


The correlation even held for people who mostly drank decaf brew, the researchers found.


"If these are real biological effects, they seem to [have] to do with the substances in coffee that are not
caffeine," Van Dam said. Other compounds in the coffee could be linked to the lower death rates, he said —
or there could be no causal relationship at all.


And, Van Dam added, the researchers didn't make distinctions between different types of drinks. Unfiltered
brews like Turkish coffee or Scandinavian boiled coffee have been shown to raise cholesterol and could
present very different results from the current study if examined separately, he said.


To prove that coffee deserves the credit, researchers could study each of the 1,000-odd compounds in the
brew and test them on subjects over time to see if they reduced inflammation, improved the body's sensitivity
to insulin or caused any other useful biological effects, he said.




http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/16/science/la-sci-coffee-death-20120517

Realignment Plan for California Prisons Causing New Friction

Higher volume of 'compliance checks' done by law enforcement on felons released in L.A. County means that probation officers often aren't available to go along.

By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

Pamela Morris, right, sobs while discussing her problems with Susan Burton, executive director of the New Way of Life group home in South Los Angeles. Morris, 45, was recently handcuffed and searched by LAPD officers even though she was in full compliance with her probation at the home. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / May 18, 2012)

The first four times Pamela Morris was released from prison, she would go to her state parole officers or they would occasionally make unannounced solo visits to make sure she wasn't committing new crimes.

But after Morris completed a state sentence for shoplifting earlier this year, she reported to Los Angeles County probation officers under a new cost-cutting state program known as realignment and checked into a group home for newly released female ex-convicts.

Things were going well, Morris said, until the afternoon three LAPD officers showed up at her door, handcuffed her and searched her room.

"They scared the living mess out of me," said Morris, who added that she takes medicine for schizophrenia. "Nobody would tell me what was going on."

Rather than keeping her on the right track, Morris said the incident was so unnerving that she briefly went back to living on the streets before returning to the group home.

"It kind of set me back," she said.

The encounter at Morris' home highlights one of the new friction points created by a recent shift of responsibility for thousands of prisoners and ex-convicts from state to local authorities. Realignment was intended to relieve California's overcrowded prison system by keeping more low-level offenders in local jails rather than transferring them to state custody. And by giving local agencies more responsibility for monitoring prisoners freed on probation, the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars.

But city and county efforts to keep tabs on nearly 6,000 felons released in L.A. County alone have also prompted confusion and anger, jockeying among agencies for millions in public money and warnings that public safety employees are facing new dangers.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and LAPD officers have expanded duties for periodic "compliance checks" on the reassigned former inmates, who served time for nonviolent crimes. The volume of checks means that probation officers, who may already know the ex-convicts and be better positioned to defuse situations that can become confrontational, often aren't available to go along.

In many cases, like Morris', police or deputies working in teams roll up in multiple squad cars.

Law enforcement officials say officers may not know what they are walking into and that teams help ensure safety. Moreover, under the terms of their release, parolees and probationers generally are subject to warrantless searches at any time, they note.

But critics, including some elected officials, argue that in some cases, the tactics being used are needlessly intimidating and expensive.

"It really erodes trust when four cars and several officers pull up," said Mark Faucette, vice president of the Amity Foundation, which runs a residential treatment facility near USC.

Los Angeles County SupervisorMark Ridley-Thomas, who happened to be visiting Morris' group home when the LAPD officers arrived, expressed concerned about the amount of scarce law enforcement resources being used for the program. "It's not cost-effective, particularly when there was no imminent threat of danger," he said.

Ridley-Thomas said he was so disturbed by the scene at the group home, which was videotaped by a staff member and posted on YouTube, that he phoned LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Beck told him officers were still adapting to their new duties and that procedures were still evolving, Ridley-Thomas said.

Beck confirmed the conversation in an email. "This is a new role for us, and we are working to develop the protocols that our officers use with this population," he said.

The compliance checks top a growing list of controversies quietly brewing as realignment takes hold in communities across California. Other complaints include cuts in public transportation assistance for newly released inmates and delayed payments to nonprofit groups providing drug counseling, job training and other services intended to keep ex-convicts from committing new crimes.

The state gave Los Angeles County about $120 million this fiscal year for its law enforcement and social service obligations under the realignment program. Given the state budget shortfall, it's unclear how much may be provided next year. An estimated $10.6 million of that will be spent by the county Sheriff's Department on compliance checks. A team of 50 deputies, plus other personnel, are assigned to the effort. The LAPD estimates that checks on ex-convicts in its territory will cost the city more than $35 million a year. Thus far, it has been unable to obtain reimbursement through the county.

LAPD officials say they asked for probation officers to be assigned to each of the department's 21 stations to assist in compliance checks. But only five were assigned because of the cost.

Unions representing probation officers say the checks would be more efficient — and less risky — if their members were involved. Leaders of the groups recently wrote county supervisors, criticizing them for not hiring more staff to deal with added increased workloads.

"We are all collectively sitting on a tinderbox waiting to explode," they wrote. "It is no longer a case of 'if' an officer gets injured in the line of duty; it is a matter of 'when.'"

But supervisors say they need to move cautiously in divvying up a limited amount of realignment funding.

"There are some departments that see this as an opportunity to grab a chunk of cash," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "We should be husbanding our money and being conservative, not overly generous in how we appropriate the money."

Those money concerns underscore the need to reexamine the tactics employed in compliance checks, some say. "They're having four people do the job of one person," said Jeff Christensen, the project director of the nonprofit Sober Living Network, which advocates for group homes. Christensen said he's heard more complaints in the last five months about compliance checks than he received over the previous decade.

Realignment, officials say, is limited to ex-inmates whose last conviction was for a nonviolent or nonsexual crime.

Morris, 45, said she has spent the last decade bouncing in and out of jail and prison for shoplifting or violating her parole by not taking her medication.

She said she had a troubled upbringing with her mother's family in Gardena and only occasionally saw her father, who lived in New York. At 12, she recalled, she was so distraught leaving him after a visit that she got a teardrop tattoo under her right eye.

She first went to jail in 1999, for stealing clothes from a Target store. Ten years later, she said, she was arrested for the same offense: taking baby clothes from an Old Navy in Manhattan Beach.

While serving a three-year sentence at a state prison for women in Chowchilla, Morris said she decided to turn her life around, which led her to the New Way of Life group home in Watts after her release in January. There, she underwent drug testing, attended several counseling sessions a day and took a daily round of medications.

"For the first time, I really wanted help," Morris said.

On the day of the LAPD compliance check, she said, she had just finished telling Ridley-Thomas and other visiting county officials about the progress she was making. When she was approached by three officers and placed in handcuffs, she said, "I thought I was getting arrested."

She said little during the incident, Morris said. The video shows New Way of Life's executive director, Susan Burton, angrily confronting the officers in the street afterward. Burton demanded their business cards and asked why they had handcuffed Morris.

"This is a waste of taxpayer money," Burton tells the officers at one point.

"I agree," one officer responds. LAPD Capt. Phil Tingirides later viewed the video at a community meeting in South Los Angeles where complaints about the tactics were aired. An online video of the meeting shows Tingirides telling Morris he was sorry she felt embarrassed but that the officers acted appropriately.

In a Times interview, he said that the same team had found guns during other compliance checks. "It is not like we can go into these checks knowing beforehand that one person is a big deal and another isn't," he said.

Still, Tingirides said he hopes officers can undergo more training because the searches are creating tension. "If we keep going as we are, we are going to alienate people," he said.

Morris said she appreciated Tingirides' apology. But she worries about her next compliance check.

"I don't want to get handcuffed again," she said. "I've done my time and trying to start a clean slate."

jason.song@latimes.com

Staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-realignment-cops-20120526,0,4960199,full.story?track=lanowpicks

Inmates With Mental Illnesses Wait Months in Jail Before Treatment

Advocates for prison inmates are criticizing the practice of holding individuals with mental illnesses who are deemed incompetent to stand trial in jail for months while waiting for state hospital beds to become available, the Sacramento Bee reports.

The Sacramento Bee article was produced by the California HealthCare Foundation's Center for Health Reporting. The Center is supported by a grant from CHCF, which publishes California Healthline.

Background

In recent years, California counties have sustained severe cuts to mental health programs.

The state reduced mental health funding by $765 million -- more than one-fifth of its mental health budget -- from 2009 to 2012, according to a report from National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has determined that the number of state prison inmates with mental illnesses has increased from 19% in 2007 to 25% in 2012.

Randall Hagar -- director of government affairs for the California Psychiatric Association -- said that in many counties, patients with serious mental health conditions often wait three to six months in jail before a state hospital bed becomes available.

According to data from the sheriff's department in Stanislaus County, the number of inmates with mental illnesses in the local jail increased by nearly 50% in the past six years.

Concerns

Prisoner health advocates say that the combination of mental health cuts, a decreasing number of state hospital beds and prison realignment plans are exacerbating the problem (Weiner, Sacramento Bee, 5/27).

In May 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its inmate population to help improve health care. Since then, the state has begun shifting low-level offenders to county jails to address prison overcrowding (California Healthline, 5/17).

Pilot Program Could Offer Solution

Hagar said San Bernardino County has piloted a program that would help inmates with mental illnesses being held in jails. Inmates participating in the program can receive the medication and education services needed to restore competency rather than waiting for the treatment at hospitals, according to Hagar.

Lawmakers have introduced a bill (AB 1693) that would expand the pilot program to a few other counties (Sacramento Bee, 5/27).

Read more: http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2012/5/29/inmates-with-mental-illnesses-held-for-months-before-treatment.aspx#ixzz1wI58gcEs