The sorry state of California s prisons
Washington Post has this extended article describing the crisis condition of California s prison system. Here is how it begins:
This is what conditions are like at one of California s best prisons, the California Rehabilitation Center: Built to hold 1,800 inmates, it now bulges with more than 4,700 and is under nearly constant lockdown to prevent fights. Portions of the buildings, which date to the 1920s, are so antiquated that the electricity is shut off during rainstorms so the prisoners aren t electrocuted. The facility s once-vaunted drug rehab program has a three-month-long waiting list, and the prison is short 75 guards.
Margaret Schwartz
Margaret “Margie or Bommer” Camp Boes Schwartz, 94, of Twin Creek Drive in Peru died April 21, 2021 at her home, under the loving care of her family and Hospice of the North Country.
Margaret was born in Middletown, Connecticut on April 25, 1926, the daughter of Burton and Rachel (Rice) Camp. She attended Connecticut College 1943-47 and graduated with a B.A. in physical education. She then attended the Harvard Physical Therapy Program 1947-49 and graduated first in her class.
Margaret worked as a physical therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital before starting the Poliomyelitis Center of the South at Vanderbilt University in 1950. In 1955, she returned to Boston to teach at the Bouve Physical Therapy School at Tufts University while working at the Children’s Hospital doing muscle testing during the polio epidemic. She also later worked at the California Rehabilitation Center in California before serving as Chief Physical Therapist at Waterbury Hospital
California is looking at closing more prisons. Here are some that might be on the list
Sacramento Bee 5 hrs ago Andrew Sheeler, The Sacramento Bee
Apr. 15 The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has plans to shut down two prisons, but more closures could soon be on the way because of the state s rapidly shrinking inmate population.
According to the Legislative Analyst s Office, the state could close a total of five prisons by 2025, which in turn could save an estimated $1.5 billion in annual spending. The corrections department, which has a budget of $16 billion, oversees 34 prisons and more than 50,000 employees.
New criminal sentencing laws over the last decade gradually reduced the state s prison population from about 144,000 inmates in 2011 to about 120,000 last year. The number of inmates in state custody plummeted in the coronavirus pandemic, dropping to about 95,000 this month.
Santa
Calif.
My solo starts off with my arms out-stretched towards the sky, trying to touch the rafters, stretching on tip-toe, reaching, head up to the sky.
Terry Sakamoto Jr., is describing a dance he calls “The Mountain.” He wrote the choreography from his bunk while in Covid lockdown last spring at the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security men’s prison located in Norco, Calif., about 65 miles from my home.
Before March 2020, when the state prison system shut down all programming and visitation due to the coronavirus, Terry was among the folks inside the prison with whom I had the remarkable opportunity to dance, make dance, and converse every Monday night for years. The project, called Dancing Through Prison Walls, began in December of 2016. The work took many forms, whether teaching credit-bearing college courses or Rehabilitative Achievement Credit workshops, collaborating on choreographies, bringing in guest artists, or simply spending hours dancing wi
“Undanced Dances” showcases written choreography of incarcerated individuals
Apr. 14, 2021 at 6:00 am
Dance: Local artists interpret prisoners’ written choreography as recorded dance performances. Suchi Branfman
When the pandemic hit prisoners’ already limited freedom became even more constricted, but through a unique film initiative, Suchi Branfman has brought the imagined dances of incarcerated individuals to life.
Due to Covid-19 inmates have been isolated in their dorms and lost all access to group programming. Branfman, who previously taught dance inside a Norco state prison, realized that even under these new restrictions incarcerated individuals could still write down dances.
Her project, entitled “Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic”, features 11 professional artists enacting dances written by prisoners in the California Rehabilitation Center. On April 16 at 6:30 p.m., these performances will be screened over Zoom and narrated by formerly i