Weekly News Update: Week of September 7th

September 15, 2009 |
Valor

NAESV Policy Day
Last week, CALCASA staff members participated in a policy day hosted by the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV).
CALCASA staff went to Capitol Hill and met with many California delegates and staff including…

Modesto Bee: “Chowchilla distinctive for sex assaults”
By Jonah Owen Lamb
One of the nation’s largest prisons for women, the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, is among the worst prisons in America for sexual assaults. The portrayal came from a survey of 10 percent of the country’s prisons.
The survey found that more than 10 percent of the Chow- chilla prison’s 2,867 inmates reported some sort of sexual victimization. No other California prison surveyed matched those numbers, according to the survey.

High court won’t extend California prison deadline
from the Associated Press
The Supreme Court on Friday turned down California’s request to delay a federal court order related to state prison overcrowding.
The justices refused to extend a deadline beyond Sept. 18 for telling a special three-judge panel how California will reduce its inmate population by 40,000, roughly a quarter, over two years.
The judges called for the reduction so the state can improve medical and mental health care for inmates in its 33 adult prisons. The federal courts have found the care so poor that it violates inmates’ constitutional rights.
Judge sets $30 million bail for Phillip Garrido
By Sam Stanton and Denny Walsh
Phillip Garrido was ordered held on $30 million bail today by an El Dorado County judge who said Garrido posed too great a flight risk and was a danger to the community.
The ruling came at a bail hearing for Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido, who are accused in the 1991 abduction of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard. Nancy Garrido was ordered held without bail.