In case you’re not in the know, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) issues inmates released from prison $200. This money is in addition to any monies the inmates may have in their trust account from working jobs in prison or from the inmate scamming friends and family for money.
Inmates also get other free items depending on the situation and prison they are released form. Sometimes these free extras are Narcan, cellular phones, laptop computers, and free hotel vouchers.
If the inmate needs clothing when they are released from prison, the state provides basic clothing, but sometimes deducts the cost of these items from the $200 gate money. If the inmate does not arrange his/her own transportation when they parole, they are expected to use the $200 gate money to pay for transportation.
Several people think making a parole pay for transportation or clothing should be illegal and San Francisco’s former district attorney is leading a class action lawsuit.
With former SF DA Chesa Boudin, now Executive Director at UC Berkeley’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, estimating California releases approximately 30,000 prisoners each year, his case says the class action body “exceeds hundreds of thousands of individuals.” Boudin says the legislature’s statute was quite clear in providing $200 to prisoners when they exit prison if they aren’t being transferred to federal prison or another state.
The two plaintiffs representing the class are Colin Scholl, who spent 14 years at a CDCR prison and was provided $70 upon release after $130 deducted in clothing and transportation, and John Vaeseau, who spent 33 years at a CDCR prison before being transferred to a San Francisco jail and not receiving any gate money — which the case claims violates the gate money law given that Vaeseau was not being transferred to another state, or to federal prison, as “CDCR’s own policy guidelines acknowledge that people released from prison are entitled to gate money even when they are transferred into the custody of local law enforcement.
For relief, the suit is demanding re-evaluation of the payments made with unlawful deductions and payment of the deducted amounts to released prisoners, ending of the deductions, a judgment that CDCR violated state law, award pre-judgment interest and post-judgement interest on sums withheld from plaintiffs, awarding of attorneys’ fees and costs of the lawsuit, and “such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.”
We at The Toughest Beat cannot fathom why so many people are so focused on these criminals trying to ensure the state gives them more free clothing and rides. I know the state could care less about the victims of crimes, but do we have keep giving the criminals so much free stuff?
thetoughestbeat