That’s how long Lorenzo Mays waited inside a cell in the Sacramento County jail, struggling to understand the court system well enough to stand trial for a 2010 murder he insists he didn’t commit.
Los Angeles County will join seven other counties in leading the way to implement Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court – a sweeping new plan to use the court system to swiftly connect more people to mental health and substance use treatment.
At yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting which lasted well into the night, hundreds voiced their opinion on whether to expand the Main Jail. Those against expanding the jail say conditions in the jail would not be improved with an expansion and the money should be spent on mental health and re-entry services. Supporters of expanding the jail voiced concerns that a thousand felons would be released without it.
Under a veil of secrecy and without any public input, the Orange County Board of Supervisors (BOS) has appointed a new Executive Director of the Office of Independent Review (OIR), and he’s the former attorney for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department.
Three years after agreeing to improve jail conditions to settle a class action lawsuit, Sacramento County is requesting community feedback on ideas to reduce the number of people in its jails.
Last Thursday, Gov. Newsom vetoed the California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement, named after Nelson Mandela, who emerged from decades of political imprisonment in South Africa, to be its first black president in the post-apartheid era.
A jobseeker looking to clean up. A woman whose husband tried to kill her. Those are the types of people who found solace, pre-pandemic, at a South Main Street homeless service center in some cases every day of the week in Santa Ana. And later wrote about it in sworn court declarations.
The great state of California will get outright payments of $1,050 expected to be rolled out to millions of people in about two weeks. It’s time to check if you live in California and if you qualify payments. These inflation relief checks will land in Californian bank accounts on Oct. 7.
Imperial County officials routinely keep people on psychiatric holds for longer than 72 hours, often in ill-equipped facilities and without a formal hearing that’s required by law, an inewsource investigation found.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new bill Wednesday that will create a framework in civil courts to provide court-ordered treatment plans for individuals with severe mental illness. Opponents are already considering options to challenge the bill.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a highly controversial plan into law today, putting homeless people across the state on a potential path toward court-ordered mental health treatment, with the later prospect of forced conservatorship if they don’t go along with it.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday that will allow county judges to order treatment for people suffering from addiction and severe mental illness, one of his top policy priorities this year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new bill Wednesday that will create a framework in civil courts to provide court-ordered treatment plans for individuals with severe mental illness. Opponents are already considering options to challenge the bill.
John Haasjes was having a bad Christmas. It was 2020, and he thought his downstairs neighbor was spying on him. They exchanged words, and she called the cops. He was arrested on suspicion of making a verbal threat and booked into a Kern County jail.
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a mental health industry watchdog, has been reviewing psychiatrists’ inability has been reviewing psychiatrists’ inability to predict violence as part of its investigation into shockingly violent crimes committed by those who were taking or withdrawing from psychotropic drugs or who had undergone mental health treatment and hospitalization.
After the CA Legislature approved SB 1338, the “CARE Court,” Gov. Gavin Newsom last week provided a full-throated statement in support of the measure designed to help those with mental health illness—however, advocacy groups are urging him to veto the legislation.
In the next two years, California’s 58 counties will be tasked with setting up new court systems to address the needs of people with severe mental illness who often languish on the streets.
The City of West Hollywood released a statement applauding the California StateGE Legislature for passing Senator Ben Allen’s Senate Bill 1194 Public Restrooms: Building Standards, which would allow for multi-stall gender-neutral bathrooms in cities that choose to pass such an ordinance.