In-Person Visits Fade as Jails Set Up Video Units for Inmates and Families

WASHINGTON — Shatterproof glass used to separate inmates at the District of Columbia jail from the visitors sitting across from them. Now, they sit in separate buildings, at computers equipped with Web cameras.

The District of Columbia made the switch on July 25 to video visitation, a growing trend in the corrections field. To proponents, the video systems provide a more convenient, safer, thriftier alternative to in-person visits. Some jurisdictions even make money, by charging for the video visits. Critics, including prisoner advocates and corrections officers concerned with how prisoners fare once they are released, fear that the video visits allow less meaningful contact with family and could hurt inmates’ morale.

Information about California Criminal Protective Orders

What is a Protective Order? 

A Protective Order is an order a judge makes to protect a witness or victim of a crime.

Criminal Protective Order or “Stay-Away” Order
Sometimes, when there is a domestic violence incident (or series of incidents), the district attorney will file criminal charges against the abuser. This starts a criminal court case going. It is common for the criminal court to issue a criminal protective order against the defendant (the person who is committing the violence and abuse) while the criminal case is going on, and, if the defendant is found guilty or pleads guilty, for 3 years after the case is over.

To learn more about criminal protective orders, read How does a Criminal Protective Order help me?  And if there is a criminal protective order against you, read A Criminal Protective Order was issued against me.

Print out informational brochure



How to Ask the Judge to Change Your Criminal Protective Order


Ask the Criminal Court to change the Criminal Protective Order made
in a Criminal Court using the Request and Order for Hearing on a Protective Order Modification

The first thing you should do is to read the informational flyer, How to Ask the Judge to Change Your Criminal Protective Order . Then you can ask the Criminal Court to change the Criminal Protective Order by using the proper forms, which can be downloaded from this website. The two forms are:

• Request and Order for Hearing on a Protective Order Modification (Local Form CR-6003 ) and
• Proof of Service by Mail (Local Form CR-6004 )

Santa Clara County
get more info here


SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF ORANGE 
Petition for Modification of Protective Order in Criminal Proceeding 
Information and Instructions


more info for county of orange

Little recourse for attorney barred from visiting California prisoners during hunger strike

Four California prisoners required medical treatment and a fifth was referred to a physician on the 11th day of a hunger strike to protest the long-term isolation of inmates, health care officials said Thursday.

About 30,000 inmates initially joined the protest, but the number has fallen to fewer than 1,500. That could be the result of a tougher approach being taken by the state since the last hunger strike two years ago.

Officials won’t divulge the location of strike leaders who have been relocated. They have confiscated food from the cells of some inmates who say they are striking and refuse to eat prison meals but still have purchase foods from the canteen. 

A Guide to Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System

I have found this really helpful PDF document that gives examples of two different cases in where the person being charged had a mental illness. It explains the process, what you should do to help your loved one, and the guidelines of how the courts will handle a mental illness case.

Although this document is quite helpful to help one understand, the outcomes do not look good. Those who need help for mental illness and are incarcerated will not likely get the help they need and will most likely end up doing time, making their illness worse without the proper help. I know first hand alot of people dont even realize that they are mentally ill, and are good at hiding syptoms like voices, etc.

This is a sad truth of the justice system and what I hope one day the system realizes that jail only punnishes, it doesnt teach, and not getting those who are ill the help they need will result in their illness becoming worse.

People are not animals. Lets get them the help they need, not throw them away in cages.

View PDF

A mental disorder or psychiatric disorder is a psychological pattern or anomaly, potentially reflected in behavior, that is generally associated with distress or disability, and which is not considered part of normal development in a person's culture. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain or rest of the nervous system, often in a social context. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions have changed over time and across cultures and there are still variations in definition, assessment and classification, although standard guideline criteria are widely used. In many cases, there appears to be a continuum between mental health and mental illness, making diagnosis complex

A

Acute stress disorder Adjustment disorder Adolescent antisocial behavior Adult antisocial behavior Adverse effects of medication-not otherwise specified Age-related cognitive decline Agoraphobia Alcohol abuse Alcohol dependence Alcohol withdrawal Alcoholic hallucinosis Alzheimer's disease

Amnestic disorder Amphetamine dependence Amphetamine withdrawal psychosis Anorexia nervosa Anterograde amnesia Antisocial personality disorder Anxiety disorder Anxiolytic-related disorders Asperger syndrome Attention deficit disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Autism Autophagia Avoidant personality disorder

B

Barbiturate dependence Benzodiazepine dependence Benzodiazepine misuse Benzodiazepine withdrawal Bereavement Bibliomania Binge eating disorder

Bipolar disorder Bipolar I disorder Bipolar II disorder Body dysmorphic disorder Borderline intellectual functioning Borderline personality disorder Brief psychotic disorder Bulimia nervosa

C

Caffeine-related disorder Caffeine-induced sleep disorder Cannabis dependence Claustrophobia Catatonic disorder Catatonic schizophrenia Childhood amnesia Childhood antisocial behavior

Circadian rhythm sleep disorder Cocaine dependence Cocaine intoxication Cognitive disorder Communication disorder Conduct disorder Cotard delusion Cyclothymia

D

Delirium tremens Depersonalization disorder Depressive disorder Derealization disorder

Desynchronosis Diogenes Syndrome Dispareunia Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder) Dyslexia Dysthymia

E

EDNOS Encopresis

Ekbom's Syndrome (Delusional Parasitosis) Enuresis (not due to a general medical condition) Erotomania Exhibitionism

F

Factitious disorder Fregoli delusion Frotteurism

Fugue State

G

Ganser syndrome (due to a mental disorder)

Generalized anxiety disorder General adaptation syndrome Grandiose delusions

H

Hallucinogen-related disorder Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder Histrionic personality disorder Huntington's disease

Hypomanic episode Hypochondriasis

I

Impulse control disorder Impulse-control disorder not elsewhere classified Inhalant abuse

Insomnia due to a general medical condition Intermittent explosive disorder

K

• Kleptomania
• Korsakoff's syndrome

L

• Lacunar amnesia

M

Major depressive disorder Major depressive episode Male erectile disorder Malingering Manic episode Mathematics disorder Medication-related disorder Melancholia

Mental retardation Minor depressive disorder Minor depressive episode Misophonia Mixed episode Mood disorder Mood episode Morbid jealousy Munchausen's syndrome Munchausen's syndrome by proxy

N

Narcissistic personality disorder Neglect of child Neuroleptic-related disorder

Nicotine withdrawal Night eating syndrome Nightmare disorder

O

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) Oneirophrenia Opioid dependence Opioid-related disorder Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

P

Pain disorder Panic disorder Paranoid personality disorder Parasomnia Parkinson's Disease Partner relational problem Pathological gambling Perfectionism Persecutory delusion Personality change due to a general medical condition Personality disorder Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) Phencyclidine (or phencyclidine-like)-related disorder Phobic disorder Phonological disorder Physical abuse Pica Polysubstance-related disorder Post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED) Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Premature ejaculation Primary hypersomnia Primary insomnia Psychogenic amnesia Psychological factor affecting medical condition Psychotic disorder Pyromania

R

Reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood Reading disorder Recurrent brief depression Relational disorder

Residual schizophrenia Retrograde amnesia Rett's disorder Rumination syndrome

S

Sadomasochism Schizoaffective disorder Schizoid personality disorder Schizophrenia Schizophreniform disorder Schizotypal personality disorder Seasonal affective disorder Sedative-, hypnotic-, or anxiolytic-related disorder Selective mutism Separation anxiety disorder Severe mental retardation Shared psychotic disorder Sleep disorder

Sleep terror disorder Sleepwalking disorder Social anxiety disorder Social phobia Somatization disorder Somatoform disorder Specific phobia Stendhal syndrome Stereotypic movement disorder Stuttering Substance-related disorder

T

Tardive dyskinesia Transient global amnesia information obtained from Wikipedia

Trichotillomania

California Is Facing More Woes in Prisons

LOS ANGELES — Just six months after declaring “the prison crisis is over in California,” Gov. Jerry Brown is facing dire predictions about the future of the state’s prison system, one of the largest in the nation.

A widespread inmate hunger strike in protest of California’s policy of solitary confinement was approaching its second week on Sunday. The federal courts have demanded the release of nearly 10,000 inmates and the transfer of 2,600 others who are at risk of contracting a deadly disease in the state’s overcrowded prisons.

California Inmates Sue State After Contracting Valley Fever

Monday, July 15, 2013 Last week, inmates and former inmates at two California prisons who contracted valley fever while incarcerated filed a lawsuit against the state, AP/U-T San Diego reports (Thompson, AP/U-T San Diego, 7/12). About Valley Fever Researchers estimate that each year more than 150,000 people nationwide contract an airborne fungus known as valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis. The cocci fungus is commonly found in soil in much of the Southwestern U.S., and is especially common in California's Central Valley. People can contract valley fever by breathing in cocci fungal spores (California Healthline, 7/3). The fungus typically causes mild to severe influenza-like symptoms. However, the infection also can spread from the lungs to other parts of the body and cause symptoms such as skin abscesses, blindness and death (AP/U-T San Diego, 7/12). Details of Current Outbreak In early May, CDC began investigating the deaths of more than three dozen California inmates who had contracted the fungus at Avenal and Pleasant Valley state prisons in San Joaquin Valley. The investigation was launched after federal receiver J. Clark Kelso -- who is charged with monitoring the state's prison health care system -- ordered the relocation of about 3,200 high-risk inmates from the two prisons. Late last month, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ordered California to move 2,600 inmates at risk of contracting valley fever out of the two prisons. The order gave the state seven days to begin the transfers and 90 days to complete the task. In addition, Henderson said no new inmates who are considered at risk of contracting the fungus should be sent to either prison (California Healthline, 7/3). Jeffrey Callison -- a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation -- said the state currently is working to comply with Henderson's order. Details of the Lawsuit The lawsuit is seeking payment for lifetime medical care -- including medications that can cost as much as $2,000 monthly -- for inmates and former inmates who contracted valley fever in California prisons since July 2009. The current state policy is to provide a 30-day supply of the drugs upon parole for severely affected inmates. Individuals represented in the lawsuit include black, elderly and medically at-risk inmates and former inmates at the Avenal and Pleasant Valley prisons. Ian Wallach -- an attorney representing the inmates -- said the prison system did not adequately protect them from the fungus, which he called "a life sentence that no judge had ordered." Attorneys are seeking class-action status for the case. Wallach said his firm already has been contacted by more than 500 current and former prisoners regarding valley fever (AP/U-T San Diego, 7/12).

source

California prisoners prepare for another hunger strike to protest persistently deplorable conditions

Sitawa Jamaa is among the thousands of California inmates who, two years ago this summer, took part in the largest prison hunger strike in US history to protest harsh conditions and their invisibility to those outside prison walls.

Now, Jamaa and other prisoners are about to launch another hunger strike to highlight the system's unfulfilled promises and the persistence of inhumane conditions.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) counted 6,000 prisoners throughout the state who refused food over several weeks in July 2011. During a follow-up strike that September, the number of prisoners missing meals swelled to 12,000, according to the federal receiver who was appointed by the courts to oversee reforms in the system. At least one inmate starved to death.

As one of four inmates who call themselves the Short Corridor Collective, Jamaa was a key organizer of the hunger strike. The group of inmates drafted a list of core demands calling for the strike when they weren't met.