California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation | CalMatters

About 57% of staff in California prisons have skipped COVID vaccines. In this image from 2018, inmates pass a correctional officer as they leave an exercise yard at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo

Most prison staff refuse COVID vaccine — should California let them?

by Byrhonda Lyons May 11, 2021May 11, 2021

In 30 of 35 California prisons, less than half of workers are COVID vaccinated. Some advocates urge the state to mandate staff shots.

Stacy Estes in front of the home he shares with fiancée Kristin Pruitt, in Sacramento, Calif on Wednesday, April 7, 2021. “I don’t mind paying what it takes to raise my kids,” Estes said, but having his wages garnished for nearly 25 years has placed an unsustainanble financial burden on him. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

How California makes millions off child support

by Emily Hoeven May 3, 2021May 3, 2021

California Capitol. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Prison officials goofed and people died

by Dan Walters February 9, 2021February 9, 2021

ICU nurse Helen Cordova receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine as Gov. Gavin Newsom watches at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center on Dec. 14, 2020. Photo by Jae C. Hong, AP Photo/Pool

The scramble for vaccine priority

by Emily Hoeven December 15, 2020December 15, 2020

Demonstrators march toward the west gate entrance of San Quentin State Prison on Aug. 2, 2020. Over 700 people gathered to demand Gov. Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation do more to protect incarcerated people from COVID-19. Photo by Jose Carlos Fajardo, Bay Area News Group

High-risk inmates aren’t prioritized in state’s early releases

by Byrhonda Lyons December 11, 2020December 14, 2020

Wards from the sex offender treatment program exercise at the O.H. Close Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton on March 15, 2007. A controversial new law that takes effect next year will dismantle the state’s current juvenile justice system and transfer responsibility for convicted youth back to counties. Photo by Steve Yeater, AP Photo

Juvenile justice overhaul: How the governor’s plan shifts care of serious offenders to counties

by Elizabeth Aguilera October 22, 2020February 24, 2021

Chris Scull, who was incarcerated at San Quentin for 22 years and released last month, tested positive for COVID-19 in June while in prison. Scull now lives in transitional housing in Hayward and experienced a second lockdown after one of his housemates tested positive for the virus. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

California’s post-prison chaos: Thousands released early, including many with coronavirus

by Robert Lewis August 12, 2020August 18, 2020

An inmate is moved after a session with a psychologist at the the mental health unit at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, June 9, 2014. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo

Overtime at California’s prisons swelled to almost half a billion dollars last year

by Raheem Hosseini August 10, 2020August 10, 2020

The Pine Grove fire camp is the last juvenile fire camp in California. Image courtesy of Fireboys documentary

Is California’s last youth fire camp worth saving?

by Elizabeth Castillo June 8, 2020June 23, 2020

where John Lam, the 33-year-old brother-in-law of Speaker Anthony Rendon, awaits his parole hearing for a murder he took part in as a teen.

Ethnic studies pause, prison issues, Elizabeth Warren’s California foray, and the West Hollywood dream

by Dan Morain and Barbara Harvey August 15, 2019August 14, 2019