Santa Cruz County Crime & Justice Digest

The Sacramento Bee explains Proposition 6, the initiative to ban involuntary servitude.

Lookout Local sat down with departing Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart for a look back on his 10 years in local law enforcement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills that aim to make it easier to prosecute retail theft. He’s asking voters to reject a ballot measure that would impose even tougher penalties.

The Sacramento Bee explains Propisition 36, the anti-crime measure on the November Ballot.

Legislators are pushing ahead with a retail theft bill package in their continued opposition of Proposition 36 — a November ballot measure backed by law enforcement groups and Republicans (and some Democrats) that would roll back parts of 2014’s Prop. 47.

“This doesn’t build public trust. Where is the evidence?” said Jeff Wenninger, a former Los Angeles Police lieutenant who oversaw use of force investigations.

California failed to ban private detention centers. Now, it’s focusing on their working conditions, for immigrants who toil for $1 a day.

California State Hospitals can bill patients for the care they receive during confinement. The charges often run in the tens of thousands of dollars, putting vulnerable people in debt for years.

California courts have long upheld below-minimum wage pay for prison inmates working a wide range of jobs. A 2024 ballot measure that would ban forced labor could alter those decisions.

Responding to a July 11 welfare check, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Deputies discovered a cockfighting ring and over 200 mutilated roosters.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, California’s Democratic leaders moved fast to shore up reproductive rights: They persuaded voters to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution, approved a dozen bills strengthening abortion protections and passed a law in May to enable Arizona doctors to temporarily provide abortion services for their patients in California.

In three rulings the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a body blow to the federal bureaucracy. From healthcare to climate to workers’ rights, California’s rules often go farther.

Assemblymember James Gallagher speaks during the floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on June 13, 2024. Photo by Cristian Gonzalez for CalMatters

The Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury released a report finding a lack of tracking of occupancy of local affordable housing units.

The ruling by the conservative court majority means cities no longer are prohibited from punishing homeless people for camping if they have nowhere else to go.

The Supreme Court 6-3 ruling in the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson case found that the fining and arresting of homeless people does not violate Eighth Amendment rights.

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted to award the county jail health services contract to a new provider, a move not related to the recent Civil Grand Jury report according to Sheriff Jim Hart.

The Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury released a report critical of mental health services provided at the county jail.

EdSource reports that police are dispatched thousands of times per school day across California.

California lawmakers voted to offer an official apology for the state’s role in supporting slavery and moved several reparations bills but let others die.

Pending legislation would lift requirements for California’s doctors to report all domestic abuse cases to police. The Assembly’s three physicians had different opinions.

At many universities across the country, graduation for the Class of 2024 will feel more like making it through airport security than a procession through a free-flowing campus green or a cheering stadium crowd.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has charged three East Bay police officers with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 death of 26-year-old Mario Gonzalez.

Alejandro N. Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who grew up in California, is the first U.S. Cabinet official impeached in nearly 150 years.

An initial review of body cam footage indicated no violations of department policy or the law in the arrest by multiple officers of a lone Black cyclist on the Santa Cruz Westside, according to the police chief.

Witnesses allege Santa Cruz police used excessive force arresting a Black man for a bike infraction on April 10 at the intersection of Bay Street and West Cliff.

A majority of the guns found were loaded, according to the TSA.

Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued the state of California and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that state prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners.

A judge ruled GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene can move forward with their lawsuit against two California cities where rallies were canceled.

California prison officials announced they will move the last 457 condemned prisoners out of San Quentin's death row by summer. They will be transferred to other state prisons and housed in the general population.

After receiving bipartisan support, California Senate Bill 400, legislation intended to increase law enforcement transparency, was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Proposition E broadens police surveillance powers and Proposition F mandates drug screening and treatment for people receiving county welfare benefits who are suspected of drug use.