As a result of efforts by advocates, including the Prison Law Office, thousands of low income Alameda county families will no longer have to pay juvenile probation and public defender fees.

Prisoners in the San Bernardino County Jail have filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging unconstitutional conditions, including failure to provide basic medical and mental health care, reasonable accommodations for disabilities, and protection from violence by other prisoners

After 12 years of reform efforts, conditions in California’s Department of Juvenile Justice Facilities  have improved greatly.  As a result, the parties have agreed to end court oversight and monitoring in the Farrell class action lawsuit.

Leaking and mold are not new to SATF.  But, recent heavy rains have made problems there much worse.  People incarcerated at the prison report that leaking is so bad that during rains they slip and fall in puddles that form inside the housing units, they sleep in soaking wet beds, and eat in dining halls where moldy, rain-soaked ceiling tiles fall in to their food.  The Prison Law Office recently brought their stories and documentation of the problem to the attention of the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

The Special Master in the Farrell v. Cate case released the Thirty-third Quarterly Report. Farrell is a lawsuit brought to remedy abysmal conditions in the DJJ, the state’s lock-up units for young offenders.