Prisons

Californians accused of certain drug and retail theft crimes may already be facing stiffer penalties under an initiative voters passed this year, alongside related bills Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law.

California recorded historically high numbers of deaths in county jails for the past six years. Now, counties expect to house more prisoners as Prop. 36 takes effect.

The agency has an open investigation into its head doctor and assistant health services director.

An Oregon prison guard sanctioned the attack of a man serving time at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in 2022. After the attack, the Oregon Department of Corrections failed to meet the standards of medical care to treat “extreme and debilitating injuries.”

Involuntary servitude is prohibited in California’s Constitution except as punishment for a crime. Prop 6 would remove that exception.

California over decades sterilized thousands of people in state prisons, state-run homes and hospitals. Lawmakers created a reparations program for them, but it has denied most applications.

Oregon judges have released four people from prison, finding Gov. Tina Kotek’s orders that revoked their early release unlawfully violated their rights.

The inmate, 35-year-old Jesse Banks, suffered from a mental health condition and died while in solitary confinement after hours without anyone checking on him, the lawsuit alleges.

During the COVID pandemic, hundreds of prisoners in Oregon were released early. That led to backlash and Governor Tina Kotek later revoking some of those commutations. One woman in Southern Oregon is still struggling after being sent back.

The change comes as a result of a 2021 class-action lawsuit that resulted in refunding $77,041 to 870 people currently in prison.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is recommending small cuts to the state prison system, avoiding the closures of additional facilities.

The state’s high court ruled Gov. Tina Kotek didn’t have the power to revoke a commutation after a person completed their sentence. The justices wrote that Terri Lee Brown’s “imprisonment is unlawful.” Kotek revoked Brown’s commutation last year.