BLOG BULLETS: Remember that many state controlled substance schedules, including California’s, are broader than the federal controlled substance schedules, so convictions under those statutes don’t categorically qualify as drug offenses for federal enhancement purposes. The general rules requiring a categorical approach apply to use of prior drug convictions to enhance statutory mandatory minimums for drug offenses just […]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — It’s disturbing video the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department does not want the public to see – inmates howling in pain, some dragged away bloody and unconscious during a mass cell extraction at Men’s Central Jail in August of 2008. Eyewitness News fought to get dozens of videos unsealed by the […]

BLOG BULLETS: A recent investigation in the District of Kansas discussed in a lengthy district court order reveals a Corrections Corporation of America facility has been recording attorney-client calls and video recording attorney-client meetings it’s not supposed to be recording. On the one hand, the order shows there are potential procedures which could be instituted […]

The daughters of a mentally ill man who jumped to his death in a Los Angeles jail in 2014 will receive $1.7 million under the terms of a settlement approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. Eric Loberg, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and appointed a legal conservator after being found […]

BLOG BULLETS: A recent article by Alan Ellis suggests pleading open may be a better way to go in some cases. A study described in the article showed sentences were actually lower with open pleas in some types of cases, like fraud, though they were higher in other types of cases, like tax cases. So […]