Tagged: Prison Overcrowding

(Sacramento Bee) // Just after it was revealed that California faces a budget deficit of $16 billion, how and when to pay crippling pension costs has become a major public debate. The California Public Employees' Retirement System voted to raise the annual state payment for state worker pensions by $213 million to a total of $3.7 billion, despite Governor Jerry Brown’s recommendation for an even bigger increase to avoid accruing more debt. The decision came as an attempt to diffuse the projected blow of lower investment returns in the upcoming fiscal year...

At the moment, Austin Hills is wearing an orange t-shirt, orange pants, and wrist shackles. He’s sitting in an interview room in the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno.

Hills, who’s been in custody since December 31, 2011, was born and raised in San Francisco. He went to good schools and graduated from college. Now, he owns a business renting out luxury cars. After an incident late last year, Hills was arrested and charged with arson and making a criminal threat. He’s been in jail ever since – four months – because having been charged with multiple felonies, his bail was set high.

Not too long ago, the men now sitting around a table at the Contra Costa Probation Office were in prison. “I want to ask how long have you been in prison,” Chief Adult Probation Officer Philip Kader asks them. They respond with three, six and even 12 times.

But now they’re getting a taste of their newly found freedom. Thanks to realignment, they’re here under a new program called post-release community supervision. They’re having dinner with the probation officers that are responsible for them. Sharing a meal together is how they start their weekly class called “Thinking for a Change.”