PALMDALE – On Oct. 1, thousands of female prisoners who have children and have been convicted of non-sexual, non-serious crimes could be released to the general public to help relieve overcrowding. And male inmates are sure to follow, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Those on early release will serve their remaining time at home.
The state of California was given two years to reduce the number of prisoners by over 20 percent. According to the state website, 29 of the 33 CDCR prisons are filled beyond the maximum operational capacity whereas inmates are currently being housed in areas of institutions that were never designed for that purpose. Prisoners are sleeping in gymnasiums, dayrooms, and program rooms.
The California State Prison Los Angeles County, located in Lancaster, currently houses 588 more inmates than designed.
Brenda Cash, the facility’s warden, says the public has nothing to fear.
“There is no major cause for alarm,” she said during her Q&A session at the Antelope Valley Black Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Palmdale Monday. “I encourage the community to speak to local leaders to address their concerns [about the early release].”
She added that low-level offenders would also be moved to county jails.
Originally from San Bernardino, Cash became the first African American female warden in the county in March last year, after more than two decades with the Department of Corrections.
Like many successful corporate executives, she also climbed the ladder to the top, but claims to not have had any challenges because of her race.
“I don’t encounter anything different than any other warden. It’s just time consuming and a lot of work. I’ve been able to demonstrate that I have the capacity to get the job done and I thank the trailblazers before me,” she said.
With the current prison system issues, including overcrowding, Cash says she’s been around long enough to recognize the need to improve security measures in the institutions.
As far as the disproportionate number of Black and Latino inmates, she passed the topic, saying, “I cannot speak on that issue because I do not have sound statistics on that. I cannot validate that [Blacks and Latinos] are the highest in the California prison system.”
According to the CDCR, in 2009, 39.3 percent of the total institution population was Latino, 29 percent was Black, and 25.6 percent was White, compared to California’s total population in which Latinos make up about 38 percent, Blacks 6 percent, and Whites 20 percent.
Prison reform, she said, is a major priority of the institution, despite the budget disparities of the state. Due to major cuts, many education and vocational programs have also been eliminated.
“[Reform] is the department’s mission and at this point with economic woes of California, a lot of rehabilitation has not been able to occur,” she said. However, volunteers frequent the facility for religious services, counseling and to prepare inmates for return to the general population.
She also assured that other rehabilitation programs and volunteers will help buffer inmates as they transition early. Visit www.cdcr.ca.gov for more information.
vafa says
No water means mass death of america in a matter of days. If you take your job seriously as a journalist you have to take the steps I am giving you to ensure a better world for our children and grandchildren.
We hire congress and legislatures, judges, secretary of state, and President to protect our nation. That is their number one job, and they are increasingly failing in everyway which gives us only one option which I will explain later.
You need to WAKE UP to the fact that for the past decade the country Iran who is our number one enemy has been working with china who is our number 2 enemy who has been working with our cobra president Obama which is our number 3 enemy to ensure the death of america which they promised us when they burned our flag 10 years ago.
China not only has ensured the collapse of our economy because of our hate for them for allowing their 6 year olds to work in factories so that we can get cheap stuff and congress and polluted greedy politicians can make money. But they have been stealing our water thru water rivers they built that goes directly to their own water companies such as Nestle which has cargo ships as big as cities to export our water back to china and they have polluted the water we have by putting nuclear wastes under ground in our states that are very close to polluting our main water supply and leaving us with recycled shit water to drink and use, all in the name of GLOBAL WARMING.
THATS HOW THEY HAVE DISTRACTED US FROM EXPOSING THEIR THEFT. OBAMA IS THE BIGGEST THIEF OF ALL. HE IS THE ONE WHO PROMOTES GLOBAL WARMING AS THE REASON WHY ALL OUR LAKES ARE TURNING INTO DRY LAND WHICH IS A COMPLETE LIE BECAUSE THE REASON WHY OUR LAKES ARE ALL DRYING UP IS BECAUSE OF CHINA STEALING IT AND NOT BECAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING and AS AN ADDED BONUS THEY HAVE BEEN PAYING OFF POLITITIONS TO HAVE NO REGULATIONS ON THE WATER THEY IMPORT AND EXPORT AND HAVE USED THAT POWER TO DRUG OUR WATER SUPPLY SO BASICALLY WHEN WE BUY BOTTLED WATER THERE ARE DRUGS IN THERE THAT WE CANT SEE THAT CONTROL OUR DECISIONS AND BRAINWASH US INTO NOT QUESTIONING THE WATER CONTENT. YOU THINK JIM JONES WAS EVIL FOR GIVING ALL THOSE PEOPLE COOLADE POISEN? CHINA AND POLITICIANS ARE DOING THE SAME THING TO AMERICANS IN SMALL QUANTITIES LIKE BOILING A FROG TO DEATH SLOWLY. AND WE ARE TOO DISTRACTED BY TELEVISION AND OBAMAS STARCRAZED MORONIC POLICIES TO SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE. LOOK AROUND YOU LOOK AT YOUR CHILDREN AND ASK YOURSELF DO YOU WANT TO SEE THEM DEAD BECAUSE YOU DIDNT DO WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE TO STOP ALL THE DISASTER HEADING OUR WAY. CHINA HAS ALSO CREATED A WEAPON THAT IS AS BIG AS A PEN THAT CAN MELT STEAL IN MINUTES WHICH CAN DESTROY ALL THE BUILDINGS IN A MATTER OF DAYS AND MUCH MORE. AND THE DOCTOR WHO TALKED TO JESSE VENTURA ABOUT THE THIS WEAPON DIED 2 DAYS AFTER INTERVIEWING WITH JESSE VENTURA WHO CAN ALSO ELABORATE ON ALL THE FACTS AND SHOW ALL THE EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE POISENED WATER SUPPLY WE DRINK EVERY DAY. ALL PREPLANNED BY IRAN TO COMPLETE THEIR AGENDA OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION TO AMERICA ONCE AND FOR ALL. DO YOU KNOW THAT WHATEVER CHINA MAKES GETS TO IRAN FOR PENNIES AND GETS TO AMERICA FOR THOUSANDS. SEE THE DIFFERENCE? SHOWS WHO THEY ARE LOYAL TO!
SOLUTION: The only solution to this is if we gather 20 million people to raid the white house and to throw out the current congress senators and federal and supreme court judges and all the staff and to cut off OBAMA’s Head infront of the whole world to show that this is what we do to a cobra(OBAMA) ( international execution of OBAMA the cobra)and we have to change our system and vote to nominate a christian congress and senators and white house staff and then have a lottery to chose who will be the new congress and senator and replace judges with polygraph machines (2 seperate ones in each court oversean by marShalls and juries. THAT is the only way to ensure our future security for generations to come. There is no other way to fix this problem because CONGRESS and OBAMA KNOWINGLY sold us out by not regulating our water supply and ensuring our future destruction by selling off our natural and basic human resource that we can not live without and they need to pay dearly for that decision. WAKE UP! DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AS PEOPLE OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES OF the FUTURE massive death of AMERICA FOR EVER. PLEASE LISTEN TO WHAT I AM TELLING YOU TO DO OR WE WILL ALL DIE. YOU SEE THE MEXICANS AND THE BLACKS ARE ALSO UNKNOWINGLY HELPING IRAN DESTROY US BY STARTING ALL THE FIRES WE HAVE HAD TO FURTHER DEPLETE OUR PRECIOUS WATER SUPPLY.
PLEASE TAKE HEED TO MY ADVICE AND BE THE HEROS AMERICANS ARE MEANT TO BE BY THROWING OUT ALL THE CURRENT THIEVES AND CRIMINALS RUNNING OUR NATION AND REPLACING THEM WITH GOD FEARING PEOPLE WHO TRY THEIR HARDEST TO FOLLOW THE 10 COMMANDMENTS AND WHO TRULY LOVE AMERICA THRU THEIR ACTIONS. ONCE ALL THE NUCLEAR WASTES THE GOVERNMENT IS PLACING UNDERGROUND REACHES OUR WELLS IT WILL POLLUTE 40 PERCENT OF OUR TOTAL NATIONAL WATER SUPPLY AND IF WE DON’T STOP CHINA FROM EXPORTING OUR FRESH WATER SUPPLY WE WILL BE DOOMED. OUR ONLY SURVIVERS WILL BE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN SNOW TOWNS, LAS VEGANS WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE BECAUSE OF OUR DEPENDENCE OF WATER BEING IN A DESERT AND ALL. WAKE UP!
LAS VEGAS MARINA IS NO MORE ALL THATS THERE NOW IS SAND AND YOU HAVE SEEN THE LOW WATER LINE IN LAKE MEAD SO PLEASE SEE THE TRUTH AND BE WARNED AND TAKE HEED TO MY ADVICE BEFORE AMERICA IS NO MORE
sacryinshame says
The ski is falling, the sky is falling….You suck and so does your rambling disertation.
Egberts, it’s your turn. You have lots of good ideas about re-entry. Work your magic.
sacryinshame says
*dissertation
Michelle Egberts says
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