Author Archives: Rina Palta

March 20, 2012 | 8:01 AM | By

Catching crime before it happens

By Nicole Jones

Santa Cruz Deputy Chief Steve Clark has been with the Police Department for 25 years. But there are some things that even experience doesn’t teach. Up until now, he’s been trained to respond to incidents.

“Back in the day, you would ask any police officer what does it take to make your city safe, and the pat answer was, ‘More cops,’” Clark says.  “And really, I’ve described that as kind of primal policing because it’s a primal response. There’s not a lot of thought to it. There’s not a lot of analysis. You’re just going out there and hoping that you get lucky just by sheer numbers.”

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FILED UNDER: Police
March 19, 2012 | 8:19 PM | By

How New York City became safe

In the early 1990s, New York was considered a dangerous place. The crack epidemic was still in full swing, and the city was at the peak of a national crime wave. Twenty years later, everything’s changed. New York’s crime rate has dropped dramatically and so has the state’s rate of locking people up in prison. How did this transformation occur? I sat down with Berkeley Law Professor, Franklin Zimring, to talk about his new book, The City That Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and its Control. Audio of the interview is above.

FILED UNDER: Police, Franklin Zimring, New York City
March 16, 2012 | 9:13 AM | By

Is it worth it to educate inmates?

Our sometimes blogger here at the Informant, and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, Josh Page, was on Minnesota Public Radio earlier this week talking about in-prison education. “I can understand the idea that people think it’s unfair for people in prison to get an education,” he told MPR. “It plays into the ‘either/or’ thinking about punishment: anything that is good for prisoners can’t be good for the rest of us. But that’s not true.”

A discussion of the costs and benefits of educating prisoners above. The discussion was inspired by a Ted Talk:

FILED UNDER: Corrections
March 14, 2012 | 8:30 AM | By

Another Death Row inmate dies

CDCR

California's Death Row at San Quentin State Prison

According to the Associated Press, 69-year-old Dennis Lawley was found dead of natural causes in his prison cell on San Quentin’s Death Row on Sunday afternoon. Assuming departmental statistics are up to date, Lawley’s death is the 56th time a condemned inmate has died of natural causes since the death penalty was reinstated in California in 1978. Meanwhile, 19 have committed suicide, 6 have died of unspecified causes, and a total of 14 have been executed.

FILED UNDER: Capital Punishment, Corrections
March 13, 2012 | 3:01 PM | By

Report: Youth curfews don’t work

Digital Globe-Imagery

From the Voice of San Diego, we have further indications that youth curfews may do little to deter juvenile crime. The online investigative outlet did a thorough analysis of San Diego’s lauded curfew sweeps, which city leaders claim have helped bring down crime citywide. They found neighborhoods “without the sweeps have reported greater drops in crime in the last five years than those with them.” Furthermore, while “police across the state have moved away from curfew enforcement, they’ve reported equal or greater drops in crime compared to San Diego.”

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FILED UNDER: Police, youth curfews
March 12, 2012 | 12:31 PM | By

Domestic violence advocate says Mirkarimi case not over

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi plead guilty today to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment in the domestic violence case that’s plagued the new sheriff since before he took office. In exchange, the district attorney dropped three additional charges against the sheriff, including domestic violence. Mirkarimi is expected to be sentenced to three years of probation, 100 hours of community services, around $600 in fines, and a year of anger management counseling. Mirkarimi’s legal battle appears to be over, but the case is bound to follow him for years, as he defends his job, his ability to lead a law enforcement office, and his progressive political credentials. Minouche Kandel, a staff attorney for Legal Aid in San Francisco, who represents domestic violence victims in family court and immigration matters, led protests against the sheriff when Mirkarimi originally denied his guilt and called the New Years Eve incident “a private matter.” I spoke with Kandel earlier today about the verdict.

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FILED UNDER: Courts, Domestic Violence, Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco, San Francisco Sheriff's Department
March 9, 2012 | 10:22 AM | By

Judge Thelton Henderson talks receivership for Oakland Police

UC Berkeley

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson

Reuters’ Dan Levine has an exclusive interview with Judge Thelton Henderson, who, at least in the criminal justice world, has had an incredible historical impact on California. Henderson oversaw the Pelican Bay Prison conditions case, the case that’s placed the Oakland Police Department under court monitoring, and the case that has the state completely overhauling its prison system in the wake of massive overcrowding.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Judge Thelton Henderson, Oakland Police Department
March 8, 2012 | 4:59 PM | By

California to dish out $602 million for jail construction

The Corrections Standards Authority today approved $602,881,000 in funds for jail construction projects in 11 counties, the second phase in what’s now a $1.2 billion investment in county jails.

Los Angeles will receive $100 million, as will Riverside and Orange counties. Smaller grants will go to Santa Barbara, Tulare, Stanislaus, Kings, Shasta, Sutter, Madera, and Imperial counties.

Originally authorized in 2007 under AB 900, the allocations were recently kicked into gear to help counties deal with increased responsibility for low-level offenders under AB 109, the state’s prison realignment plan.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, AB 900, Realignment