8/25/2014
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Monday, August 25, 2014
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San Diego court for split sentence
offenders having success
Immigration
Stanford, USF law school sending law
students to aid with immigration cases
The effort to aid immigrants in court got a boost
last week as law professors at the University of San
Francisco and Stanford said they will send law
students to join pro bono lawyers in swamped
courtrooms.
By Kylie Re yno ld s
SAN DIEGO - A middle-aged man
clad in jeans and a T-shirt looked up at
Judge Desiree Bruce-Lyle to reiterate a
request already made by his public
defender. He was grieving, he said, and
wanted court approval to travel to
Scottsdale.
"Mandatory supervision is doing your
custody in the community," the judge
reminded him. He wouldn't be able to
leave if he was still in jail, she said, but
the court ultimately couldn't make that
decision. It's up to his probation officer,
Bruce-Lyle said.
Environmental
Supreme Court shows growing interest in
CEQA
The number of cases involving the California
Environmental Quality Act has tripled at the state
high court in the past decade.
Kylie Reynolds / Daily Jour nal
Fr om left: Deputy Distr ict Attor ney Rachel Solov, Deputy
Public Defender Susan Clemens and Deputy Distr ict
Attor ney Lisa Rodr iguez ar e handling cases impacted by
Health Care & Hospital Law
Female inmates receive a basic right
The state Legislature has unanimously adopted
Senate Bill 1135, addressing a California scandal of
massive proportions: the sterilization of female
inmates without proper state procedures. By
Hadar Aviram
San Diego County’s new Mandator y Super vision Cour t.
"Y es ma'am," the man said quietly.
It was another Thursday morning in San Diego's Mandatory Supervision Court,
which launched early last year to handle the county's influx of so-called "split sentence"
offenders under realignment, the state's 2011 prison reform effort.
Split sentences allow lower-level offenders to spend part of their time in jail and the
remainder in supervised rehabilitation in the community, with the goal of reducing
repeat offenses. San Diego's unprecedented model - the product of a collaboration
between the court, law enforcement, probation and the district attorney and public
defender offices - oversees the supervision of this new offender population before and
after they're released from jail.
There are early signs that the approach is making a dent in recidivism rates,
something other counties are keeping a close eye on.
"It's all new and I think it's a big experiment for San Diego," Bruce-Lyle said in her
chambers later that day. "I don't know any other court in the state that's doing this
with their split sentence offenders."
The initiative, funded through the county's realignment allocation, provides
programs - including substance abuse treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy and
vocational training - to most split sentence offenders in custody. The idea is that these
classes give offenders tools to handle their mandatory supervision, said Lisa Rodriguez,
a San Diego County deputy district attorney and one of the architects of the court.
Before an inmate is released from jail, Bruce-Lyle reviews their case plan developed
by the probation department. Much of the court's work is done in group meetings
before its Thursday hearings, where Bruce-Lyle and the same court team of probation
officers, correctional counselors, prosecutors and public defenders hash out concerns
with case plans, such as whether an offender should head to a treatment facility for
their supervision.
Then the court hears from in-custody inmates who are about to be released and outof-custody offenders who are there for routine check-ups or because of supervision
Law Practice
On the Move
A weekly roundup of lateral attorney moves, law
firm office openings and partner promotions from
around California.
Environmental
Lawsuit aims to spur EPA on biomass
facility approval
A lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological
Diversity alleges that the EPA's permit for an
industrial biomass energy facility in Anderson did
not include adequate greenhouse gas emission
controls.
Obituaries
Renowned SF litigator James L. Hunt
known for leadership
Hunt, who played a central role in steering the
merger between McCutchen, Doyle, Brown and
Enersen LLP and Bingham Dana LLP, died
suddenly Wednesday after an eight-month battle
with cancer.
Government
Judicial Council approves new technology
plan
The new plan, which recently concluded its public
comment period, will allow the branch to seek
special state funds dedicated to improving
technology for government entities.
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Daily Journal - California's Largest Legal News Provider
violations.
"It really requires you have a collaborative team who is willing to engage in it,"
Rodriguez said. "I think overall we all can feel it's working."
As of the end of last month, 615 offenders have passed through the court. While she
doesn't yet have the full data, Rodriguez said one of her analyses of the numbers
showed that the recidivism rate for the county's mandatory supervision offenders is
half as high compared to the rate for offenders who received straight sentences.
Anecdotally, court members have noticed early successes, which partly comes down
to the judge's involvement in inmates' progress, said Christine Brown-Taylor, the
reentry services manager at the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. The judge will
talk to inmates about receiving their GED while in custody or remind them about the
importance of attending substance abuse meetings.
"Y ou can't measure the impact that has on the individual in an empowering away, a
motivating way, to continue with that positive direction, versus sitting in jail and doing
nothing at all," Brown-Taylor said.
Even though she didn't approve the man's trip to Scottsdale last week, Bruce-Lyle
was quick to congratulate him on "taking a better, different path" and "for going above
and beyond" what's been asked of him in supervision. Stepping down from the bench,
she handed him a $10 gift card for fast-food restaurant Subway.
"Eat fresh," she quipped, as the courtroom erupted with clapping from the offenders
and their families. He was one of four offenders that morning who received a "kudos,"
small incentives to keep up good behavior provided by the San Diego County Probation
Department.
There's also a sense of accountability for the attorneys and law enforcement officials
involved. The judge ordered probation to go back and talk with one inmate who resisted
going to a specific rehabilitation facility for fear of relapsing.
"I'm familiar with a lot of different approaches that the courts and counties are
kicking around the state, and I think San Diego has created a really model program for
this population," said Kathleen Howard, executive director of the Board of State and
Community Corrections.
A few years into realignment, split sentencing is still anything but uniform across the
state. That may change some come January, when the governor's budget bill
legislation containing a "presumption" of split sentences - in other words, judges should
grant split sentences unless there's a good reason not to - takes effect.
With an average of 22 percent of its realigned offenders receiving split sentences, San
Diego isn't leading the state in this type of sentencing. It lags behind counties like
Riverside and San Joaquin, which hand out split sentences to around two-thirds of
realigned offenders, while still trumping nearby Los Angeles County, which only gives
split sentences in about 3 percent of cases, according to data by the Chief Probation
Officers of California.
The Mandatory Supervision Court's members have seen modest increases in the
number of split sentences that judges have granted since the specialty court's launch,
but Rodriguez said they're prepared for when those numbers likely rise further with the
split sentence presumption.
Some counties may look to emulate San Diego's model as the pressure to dole out
split sentences increases. Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown, who runs
Sacramento County's reentry court, is one of a handful of visitors who have gone down
to see the Mandatory Supervision Court in action. He said Sacramento might consider
implementing this "innovative approach" to split sentences down the road.
Constitutional Law
Search and seizure: warrant exceptions
A review of the rules and applicable case authority
for various exceptions to the general warrant
requirement of the Fourth Amendment. By Elia
V. Pirozzi
Environmental
CEQA 'reform' begins to take hold
A large slate of proposed reforms to the California
Environmental Quality Act failed to get out of the
state Legislature last year. Instead, a less ambitious
package of reforms was passed as Senate Bill 743.
By Mitchell M. Tsai
Constitutional Law
Death penalty case heads to oft-overturned
9th Circuit
On July 16, Judge Cormac Carney, ignoring the
opinions of the U.S. and state Supreme Courts to
the contrary, declared the California death penalty
procedurally dysfunctional and therefore
unconstitutional. By Lawrence Waddington
Marriage battle lines more clearly drawn
The U.S. Supreme Court stayed of the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals' recent 2-1 decision
holding that Virginia's limiting marriage to
opposite-sex couples violates the 14th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution. By Kris Whitten
Letter to the Editor
LETTER: Column goes too far criticizing
Sterling ruling
Michael Acker unfairly attacks Judge Michael
Levanas in his article, "Sterling ruling a blow to
free speech" (Aug. 14). By Arnold H. Gold
Judicial Profile
Donna D. Geck
Superior Court Judge Santa Barbara County
(Santa Barbara)
Corporate Counsel
Deborah A. Henderson
General Counsel Zodiak Americas Santa Monica
Criminal
San Diego court for split sentence offenders
having success
Since launching early last year, San Diego
County's Mandatory Supervision Court has seen
lower rates of recividism for its offenders, who
spend part of their time in jail and the remainder
in supervised rehabilitation in the community.
"It's going to increase the number of people on mandatory supervision and it'll be a
real challenge," Bruce-Lyle said. "But we have a program in place, so we won't be
scrambling to address that."
[email protected]
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Editorial Id: 936832
Publication Date: 08/25/2014
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