Three-Federal Judge Court (PLATA) SOCKS it to Governor Brown to Release more inmates including qualified LIFERS!

PLATA vs BROWN    Extension ORDER (click here to see ORDER)
NO. 2:90-cv-0520 LKK DAD (PC)
REF:  PRISON Over Crowding issues.

Federal Court partially grants the extension of time to comply with the original court Order for the prison population reduction benchmark....but adds CONDITIONS. 

See saignant points (below) of the Court Order that will finally be affecting LIFER inmates.
Talk about SB260 Youth hearings. What about Elderly Hearings, if over 60 years old and served minimally 25 years of the sentence..... Stay Tune Coming Soon.

CDCR will meet the following interim and final population reduction benchmarks:
(a)  143%    of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
(b) 141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and
(c) 137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.


Defendants (i.e. Governor via BPH and CDCR)) shall also immediately implement the following measures:
 ...
(c) Parole certain inmates serving indeterminate sentences (LIFERS) who have
 already been granted parole by the Board of Parole Hearings but have future       parole dates;
(d)  In consultation with the Receiver’s office, finalize and implement an expanded parole process for medically incapacitated inmates;
(e) Finalize and implement a new parole process whereby inmates who are 60 years of age or older and have served a minimum of 25 years of their sentence will be referred to the Board of Parole Hearings to determine suitability for parole;

(h) Implement an expanded alternative custody program for female inmates.
...
 The Court will appoint a Compliance Officer for the purpose of bringing
defendants into compliance with any missed benchmark by ordering inmate releases. If compliance with any benchmark is not achieved within a 30-day period following the expiration of any missed benchmark, the Compliance Officer shall, within seven days, direct the release of the number of inmates necessary to achieve compliance with the missed benchmark and the measures to be followed in selecting the prisoners to be released. The authority of the Compliance Officer shall extend no further than ordering defendants to release inmates necessary to ensure defendants’ compliance with any missed benchmark.
  ...
 9. To the extent that any state statutory, constitutional, or regulatory provisions,
except the California Public Resources Code, impede the implementation of this order or defendants’ ability to achieve the population reduction benchmarks, all such laws and regulations are waived. Although the Court does not issue a general waiver of the Public Resources Code, defendants may request waivers, as the need arises, of these statutory provisions that are tailored to specific projects.

10. This Court shall maintain jurisdiction over this matter for as long as is
necessary to ensure that defendants’ compliance with the 137.5% final benchmark is durable, and such durability is firmly established.

11. Defendants shall, within 60 days of the date of this order, file with the Compliance Officer under seal, the categories of prisoners who are least likely to reoffend or who might otherwise be candidates for early release (the “Low Risk List”) that this Court  previously ordered them to create. The Low Risk List shall not be viewed by the Compliance Officer unless and until he or she is ordered to do so by this Court. Similarly, this Court will not inspect the list unless circumstances so warrant. Defendants shall file an amended list every 60 days, should changes to the list become appropriate.

IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: 02/10/14                      SIGNED by the 3 Federal Judges

SB 260 - Youth Opportunity Parole Hearings (YOPH) UPDATE

The new law has been codified in the California Penal Code Sections 3014, 3046, 3051 and 4081. BPH is busy bringing all those entitled to a YOP hearing to their first appearance before the Board for the YOPH.

If you were under 18 at the time of the life crime and have not committed certain serious crimes after turning 18, your next and all future hearings will be YOPHs, at which, great weight must be given "to the diminished culpability of juveniles as compared to adults, the hallmark features of youth, and any subsequent growth and increased maturity" in determining your parole suitability.  [NOTE: Inmates do not qualify if they are LWOP or a death penalty]. This is a brand new process, below is a description of my first exposure from the outside looking in.

SB 260 - Youth Opportunity Parole Hearings (YOPH) are on their way!

Attorney Diane T.  Letarte was at CMC, last week [January 17, 2014] where the 2 member Panel (including Commissioner Anderson) were busy away ...doing their first SB260 - Youth Opportunity Parole Hearing at 8:30am. My non-SB260 client and I waited patiently for our 10:30 am regularly Parole Suitability hearing to start. The Youth Parole hearing took almost 5 hours to complete. We did not start our Parole Hearing until 2 pm in the afternoon. Once started, I requested that the Panel apply In Re Butler  (Base Term calculation) to which I was told they had not been trained on In Re Butler  yet (and to table this objection for now).  Fortunately, the wait was a Blessing.... after the previous 8:30 am agonizing SB 260 hearing, the Commissioners welcomed this Regular Parole Hearing and stated (after the Decision was rendered) that my client was an "easy case" ------ WE GOT A GRANT! my client was found Suitable. Even with the 2 concurrent LIFE sentence, my client was given 6 month credits  (per clean year) and the "release date" was calculated to a date that was already passed!  It was my client's first Subsequent hearing. Hourrayyyy!

SB 260 PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPLEMENTS - sooner than we think!

 The criminal defense Attorney assigned to the SB 260 hearing (before my hearing) assured me that the inmate had recently been given an updated Psychological Supplement that took into consideration all the "Hallmarks of a Youth".  He stated that although the inmate had his last Psychological risk assessment completed August 2013, the inmate received a Supplement in December 2013 - only 4 months after the FAD Risk assessment Evaluation was complete in order to address the "Hallmarks of Youth". This requires the Doctor to accord great weight to the inmate's age and circumstances at the time of the life crime. "Hallmarks of youth" include immaturity, impulsivity, recklessness, lessened responsibility, lessened ability to anticipate and appreciate consequences, immune to punishment, susceptibility to negative family/peer influences, and lessened capacity to  overcome (or escape) dysfunctional home environments or crime-producing settings.

This short Notice for a Psychological Supplement was unexpected since BPH had claimed that if the Risk assessment was less than 1 year old - they would not be able to re-do another Risk Assessment in such a short period of time. BPH re-iterated that the Panel would give "great weight" to the Hallmarks of Youth. Inmates should be ready to receive a visit from the BPH's Psychologist, for any upcoming YOP Hearings.

 REMINDER:
A)  If inmate are serving a determinate sentence, they will be eligible for a YOPH @ 15 years.
B)  If inmate are serving a life sentence of less than 25-life, they will be eligible for a YOPH @ 20 years.
C) If inmate are serving a life sentence of 25 or more-life, they will be eligible for a YOPH @ 25 years.

In re ROY BUTLER Decision: Does it help LIFERs? (BASE TERM CALCULATION)

In re ROY BUTLER  (12/16/13)  --   Case Nos. A139411 & A137273
Alameda County Case No. 91694B

In summary, the BUTLER Court forces the Parole Board to calculate the base term of life prisoners at their Initial Hearings. Thus, the BUTLER case section that will apply to all LIFERs is the Base Term Calculation as ORDERed by the Court. Regardless of whether the LIFER will be found suitable or not, once the LIFER walks out of the Parole Hearing Board room, he will have a Base Term calculation for his specific crime under his specific circumstance, as defined below. If this is a subsequent Parole hearing, s/he will also be provided their Base Term, at that hearing.

The BIG QUESTION: How is the CASE  going to affect the time served by LIFERS?

According to BPH Executive Director Jennifer Shaffer and Chief Legal Counsel Howard Moseley ------ NO CHANGES will occur for the length of time incarcerated.

On the other hand, Attorney Diane Letarte would argue that once the Calculation is done at the Hearing (on the record for possible Appeals) and the BASE TERM has been exceeded,  the Panel (2-3 Commissioners at the Hearing) must articulate the reason for a denial beyond the Base Term in a non-arbitrary fashion. The Panel should be held to the Arbitrary-and-Capricious standard. Any action less than this standard would violate the Due Process of the Law and fail to provide a reasoned explanation for the denial.NOTE: YOPH Youth and Elderly parole hearings do NOT have a base term calculation done at the end of their hearings because if granted Parole, they are immediately release after the 150 days review period, regardless of the base terms.

The News Media links are below: San Francisco, Sacramento,  Los Angeles:

Click here for San Francisco 's version
Click Here for LA 's version
Click Here for Sacramento' s Version

Below is an excerpt of the ORDER. Paragraphs 3, will require the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH), via the Executive Officer Jennifer Shaffer, to announce NEW policies (and/or Directives) that will force the Commissioners to calculate the base term for all LIFER inmates during their hearing regardless of whether they are found suitable. This tern calculation was refused to be done by the Board for many years. It is encouraging to see the changes  in favor of the LIFER population.

========================
IS HEREBY ORDERED that:

1. ...

2. Upon issuance of a decision from this Court in Case No.
X137273, whether favorable or unfavorable to petitioner, the terms of
settlement for Case No. A139411, as described below, will become
effective immediately.

3. The Board shall, at the next publicly noticed Board meeting,
announce a policy of calculating the base term and the adjusted base term
for all life term inmates at the initial parole consideration hearing. The
Board will implement phis policy on faze first day of the calendar month
following the aforementioned meeting.