Latest California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation News
San Quentin inmate podcast host among California clemencies
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's governor on Thursday commuted the sentence of an inmate who has drawn national attention as co-host of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated podcast Ear Hustle, which is produced inside San Quentin State Prison. Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision will allow...
Two California prisoners suspected of killing cellmates
FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) — Two men serving life sentences in Northern California prisons are suspected of killing their cellmates over the weekend, authorities said Monday. Deandre A. Lewis, 37, was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday morning at California State Prison,...
Robert Durst, real estate tycoon convicted of murder, dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Durst, the wealthy New York real estate heir and failed fugitive dogged for decades with suspicion in the disappearance and deaths of those around him before he was convicted last year of killing his best friend, has died. He was 78. Durst died of natural...
California court rejects early releases for violent crime
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that corrections officials need not consider earlier release for violent felons, even those whose primary offense is considered nonviolent under state law. The ruling stems from inmates' latest attempt...
California prisons fight virus outbreaks amid staff concerns
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — With a new and more infectious coronavirus variant sweeping California, attorneys representing inmates say violations of health orders by prison staff risk a repeat of the outbreaks that killed dozens in the first year of the pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom's...
Convicted killer serving life dies in California prison
DELANO, Calif. (AP) — A California prisoner serving a life sentence for murder died Friday after he was found injured in a cell he shared with another convicted killer, authorities said. Abraham Morales, 37, was found unresponsive in the Kern Valley State Prison cell he shared with...
Man killed in freeway shooting was ex-correctional officer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The man fatally shot in a road rage incident on a Sacramento highway was a grandfather, a U.S. Army veteran and a retired correctional officer, his daughter said. Lufino Reyes Mejorado, 60, was shot multiple times Monday on Interstate 5 in a road rage...
California now limits medical parole to those on ventilators
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A new California policy could send dozens of quadriplegic, paraplegic or otherwise permanently incapacitated inmates from nursing homes back to state prisons. Prison officials say a change in federal rules led them to limit medical parole to...
Court blocks COVID-19 vaccine mandate for California prisons
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked an order that all California prison workers must be vaccinated against the coronavirus or have a religious or medical exemption. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a...
Prison systems adding body-worn cameras to security plans
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A growing number of states' prison systems are outfitting guards with body-worn cameras, even in correctional environments already covered by thousands of stationary security cameras. Agencies hope the extra cameras will help reduce violence and...
