DAs win TRO against prisons hike in good conduct credits for 2-time felons

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation must wait to implement a good conduct credit system for nonviolent two-strike felons following the issuance of a temporary restraining order by a Sacramento County judge.

Superior Court Judge Raymond Cadei on Wednesday granted a motion by 28 district attorneys seeking to stop the increase of good conduct credits from 50% to 66% for certain inmates designated by the prisons as nonviolent. The system was scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1.

Present in the ex parte hearing held virtually were Deputy Attorney General Anthony J. Tartaglio and Supervising Deputy Attorney General Jay M. Goldman on behalf of the prisons department and Sacramento County Chief Deputy District Attorney Rod Norgaard on behalf of the district attorneys.

The order will be in place until the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction is heard Jan. 18 or the court issues any additional orders. Anne Marie Schubert et al. v. State of California et al., 2021-00312867 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 21, 2021).

The order is part of a lawsuit filed Dec. 1 by nearly half California's elected DAs that alleges the department skirted process requirements such as public comment under the state Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint is the second to be filed by a group of district attorneys led by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who is also running for attorney general. Anne Marie Schubert et al v. State of California et al., 2021-00312867 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed May 26, 2021).

The department has held that the rule changes are valid under Proposition 57, a voter initiative passed in 2016 that was designed to reduce the prison population by creating new avenues for parole.

"Many of these so-called 'nonviolent' second-strikers have long and violent criminal histories -- including repeat felony domestic violence convictions, sexual assaults and gun violence," Schubert said in a statement after the hearing Wednesday. "Releasing these dangerous inmates after serving a small fraction of their sentences not only lacks accountability, it shortens effective rehabilitation, violates victims' rights and is a significant threat to public safety."

Cadei's order aligned with his previous statements on Monday that he was inclined to grant the motion following changes in wording by the district attorneys as to which emergency regulations they were specifically looking to stop.

The department had issued a group of emergency regulation changes, including an increase of good conduct credits for inmates that serve as volunteer firefighters. The district attorneys are only challenging the good conduct credit hike for two-strike inmates, not those that serve in fire camps.

Though there was little debate on the order Wednesday, Goldman reiterated that defense counsel did not feel the plaintiffs had made an adequate showing as to the emergency situation that required a temporary restraining order.