Posts Tagged: Beard

Unfair to blame visitors, families for prisons’ woes

An inmate gestures through the bars of his prison cell. (Photo: Sakhorn, Shutterstock)

by VANESSA NELSON posted 10.15.2014

OPINION: In all the justifications for the new measures going in under Beard’s watch, the Corrections Secretary never mentions the well-known, privately acknowledged fact that while visitors may bring in small amounts of drugs, the importation of trafficable amounts of drugs comes in not through visitors, but through staff at the prisons, including custody staff.

A deep dive into Senate culture

The California Senate, Sacramento. (Photo: Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

by CONNOR GRUBAUGH posted 08.05.2014

When the California state Senate reaches the end of its 2013-14 legislative session later this month, it will mark the end of a highly tumultuous period in the institution’s more than 150-year history. Allegations of bribery, corruption, international arms trafficking, racketeering, perjury, illegal drug use and nepotism among senators and Senate staff have marred the institution’s public image for more than a year.