Monterey County Crime & Justice Articles

GREENFIELD — Greenfield Police Department is shining a light on its active partnership with Monterey County Behavioral Health, a collaboration dedicated to supporting the community’s mental well-being. The department’s Mobile Crisis Team includes not only officers trained in crisis intervention, …

Gov. Newsom just signed a tax on firearms and ammunition, among other new gun control laws. California’s remaining gun manufacturers wonder if they have a future.

In the Imperial County desert, a volunteer group routinely maintains large barrels filled with water to help migrants traversing the California desert. As rescues increase, the longstanding immigration policies that funneled migrants to such harsh terrain deserve scrutiny.

A federal judge ruled that Monterey County Jail’s for-profit health care provider is in violation of a class-action settlement over inadequate inmate conditions at the Salinas facility—and has given the company six months to improve its services or risk paying…

A federal judge ruled that Monterey County Jail’s for-profit health care provider is in violation of a class-action settlement over inadequate inmate conditions at the Salinas facility—and has given the company six months to improve its services or risk paying…

Legislators weren’t able to reach a compromise that helps insurers with wildfire risk while also protecting homeowners. Interest groups hope to find one in meetings this fall.

Hate crimes were up 20 percent in California in 2022, with those against transgender, Muslim and Black people increasing especially sharply. But the state is also spending more than any other to combat such crimes, including a hotline, state commission …

A bipartisan bill to prohibit TikTok on state phones is shelved until 2024. It had breezed through the state Legislature, but the authors want to tweak the measure. It's the latest social media regulation to get stalled in California.

California prisons are badly understaffed when it comes to doctors and psychiatrists. A new contract attempts to boost retention with substantial bonuses.

California cities are struggling to hire police in a tight labor market after the COVID pandemic. Some are raising by double digits and offering eye-catching bonuses.

Psychedelics are having a moment. A nationwide push to bring magic mushrooms and other psychedelics into the mainstream is gaining traction, and some Californians want in.

KING CITY — King City Police Department recently welcomed the city’s newest officer, Javier Zavala, to the force. Officer Zavala, a Greenfield native and Navy veteran, was sworn in Aug. 8. Zavala graduated from Monterey Peninsula College Law Enforcement Academy …

More California police departments are deploying body cameras. A new court ruling restricts how prosecutors can use footage of witness accounts at trial.

The public now has its clearest picture yet of medical and mental health care conditions at Monterey County Jail after the release of previously sealed reports by neutral monitors charged with inspecting the state of the jail.

It’s a pleasant 67 degrees in Seaside as I write this, slightly warmer than the usual high of 65. Such moderate temperatures are so normal for Seaside that it’s easy, for those who haven’t traveled further inland this summer, to…

Carmel’s tab for the seven months its former police chief, Alan Ward, worked is a big one: It cost the city more than an estimated $364,200. That includes the cost of a nationwide search, Ward’s salary for the year he…

Almost half of the jobs for doctors and psychiatrists in California prisons are unfilled. Now, their union says it’s ready to strike over pay even as the state faces a steep budget deficit.

It's a potentially long and unclear road to creating an oversight board and/or inspector general's office with authority over the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, but the process is underway.

Sara Rubin here, thinking about what we still don’t know about conditions at Monterey County Jail. As you can read in a story by Rey Mashayekhi that will run in print in the July 27 issue of the Weekly, and…

Since settling a class-action lawsuit over poor conditions at Monterey County Jail in 2015, the county and Wellpath, its health care provider at the jail, have been required to allow court-appointed neutral monitors at the facility. Those monitors have written…