Latest news with #DisabilityRightsCalifornia
UPI
25-06-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Civil-rights groups urge California governor to grant clemency to all on death row
California's corrections department (such as FCI San Pedro pictured in May 2020) holds the nation's largest death row block, with 574 people, among more than 94,000 prisoners statewide. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo June 25 (UPI) -- More than 200 civil-rights groups are urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to use his constitutional powers to commute more than 500 state death sentences. "California's death penalty system is not only broken, it is deeply racist and unconstitutional," Michael Mendoza, national criminal justice director of the New York-based justice advocacy group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, said Wednesday in a statement. The call arrives as some point to what they call an "overwhelming" amount of evidence of racial bias in how the death penalty is carried out in the state. Numerous civil rights orgs argue the death penalty is unconstitutional under the state Constitution's Equal Protection guarantees. On Thursday, scores of advocates and national civil rights leaders will gather at the state's capitol building in Sacramento to visit Newsom and deliver a signed statement by nearly 200 organizations which implores the two-term Democratic governor to grant universal clemency to all of California's 574 inmates waiting on death row. A pubic rally will start around 10:30 a.m. local time on the west steps of the capitol complex with a press conference to follow lead by leaders of renowned organized state and national groups like Clemency California coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, National Center for LGBTQ Rights, Disability Rights California, Equal Justice Society, Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and several others. A proposed ballot measure in the 2012 election sought to eliminate California's death penalty, but it faced a narrow defeat with 53% saying keep and 47% of voters in favor of getting rid of it. "The death penalty is biased beyond repair, which is why we are a proud petitioner in the lawsuit to end California's death penalty," stated Morgan Zamora, prison advocacy manager at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, urging Newsom to "uphold California's values of dignity, human rights and equal justice by commuting the sentences of every person sitting on death row." Last year, 26 people in the United States were sentenced to death with 25 executions. Meanwhile, California's department of corrections holds the nation's largest death row block, with 574 people, among more than 94,000 prisoners in the state. The state also has one the world's single biggest death rows in which 69% are people of color and one-third Black. "The death penalty and entire criminal legal system is overrepresented with disabled people, especially disabled people of color," said Eric Harris, a spokesperson for Disability Rights California. California's high court in 2021 overturned the double murder conviction of Edward Wycoff after it was revealed that a trial judge failed to determine his mental competency. On Wednesday, Harris said DRC has "strongly" advocated to ensure that people with poor mental health, brain injury or intellectual and developmental issues are not placed on California's death row, where one-third of its population is diagnosed with a "serious" mental illness and dozens with a known intellectual disadvantage. "Many of these impacted people are undiagnosed and it is crucial that we ensure that they not be on death row," added DRC's Harris. The state previously released eight men from California's death row due to a wrongful conviction. This month, officials in Oklahoma took steps to grant a new murder trial for longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in February determined his trial had been flawed. At least 4% of U.S. convicts on death are innocent, according to estimates in a 2014 study by the National Academy of Sciences. "Now is the time for California to be a beacon of light for the rest of the country by protecting the civil rights and human dignity of the state's most vulnerable residents," said Vincent Pan, a spokesman with Chinese for Affirmative Action, a San Francisco-based entity founded in 1969. In addition, advocates say its critical to acknowledge how the brains of young people don't fully develop until their mid-twenties. Nearly half of California's death row population was convicted under age 26, with two-thirds having sat for more than 20 years, dozens for more than four decades, which has resulted in "literally decades of delays caused by California's inability to provide lawyers to handle capital appeals." But while California lawmakers have previously enacted a number of legal reforms targeting the legality of sentencing young offenders who have diminished intellectual capacity, the new laws excluded death row prisoners and those serving sentences of life with no chance of parole. "Gov. Newsom has a historic opportunity to reject this legacy of racial injustice by granting universal clemency," Mendoza of LatinoJustice said Wednesday.
Los Angeles Times
31-05-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Gov. Newsom proposes ‘asset test' for low-income and disabled Medi-Cal applicants. What does that mean?
Millions of Californians who rely on Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services could lose eligibility under a proposal requiring recipients to prove their assets total less than $2,000. Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent revised budget proposal highlighted a stark $37.6 billion increase in funding costs associated with Medi-Cal between the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year, compared to $17.1 billion in the 2014 through 2015 fiscal year. The dollar amount needed to fund the program is expected to continue rising over the next several years. The cost has been driven up by a surge in enrollment, pharmacy costs and higher managed care costs, according to the budget proposal. The Medi-Cal caseload reported an increase of 12.7 million recipients between 2019 and 2020 to 15 million in 2024 through 2025. Medi-Cal is the state's health care program that provides free or low-cost health coverage for those who qualify, specifically low-income adults and families, seniors and individuals with disabilities. In-Home Supportive Services provides in-home assistance to eligible aged, blind and disabled people as an alternative to out-of-home care. Newsom has proposed tackling the rising costs of the programs by reintroducing what is called the 'asset test' to limit eligibility for the Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services programs. For decades, low-income seniors and those with disabilities had to pass the 'asset test' to be eligible for Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services programs. That meant that a single applicant couldn't qualify if they had assets valued more than $2,000. The limit for a couple was $3,000. To determine whether someone had $2,000 or not, the state would look at a person's bank accounts, the amount of cash they had in hand and whether they had a second vehicle, among other analyses. In 2024, the test was eliminated, allowing all-income eligible people to apply for Medi-Cal's Aged and Disabled program, Med-Care Savings programs and Long-Term Care program regardless of assets. Newsom has proposed reinstating the 'asset test' and include in that evaluation the value of a person's primary home, vehicle or retirement fund for both Medi-Cal and Home Supportive Services programs. Reinstating the test would purportedly save an estimated $94 million this coming fiscal year, $540 million the next year and $791 million annually thereafter, which includes costs for Home Supportive Services, according to the California Department of Health Care Services. If approved, the 'asset test' would go into effect Jan. 1, 2026. Disability and health advocates are criticizing the governor's proposal, with the nonprofit group Disability Rights California calling it a willingness to 'sacrifice the health and human services of California's people, particularly the disabled, poor and elderly populations.' 'Disability Rights California and many others fought tirelessly for years to get this asset limit eliminated, finding it to be a deeply inhumane and punitive approach, the change just went fully into effect in 2024, and it is truly disturbing to see the Governor reverse course so quickly,' the nonprofit said in a statement. Reinstating the 'asset test' would result in 'people losing coverage and force older adults and people with disabilities into extreme poverty,' said the nonprofit organization California Health Advocates. The organization says the individuals who would lose coverage as a result of the proposed policy change could ultimately become 'Medi-Cal eligible again once they have exhausted any resources they have.' 'As a result of losing access to care, the costs to the state when they regain eligibility will likely increase because their condition will have worsened and they may no longer be able to live at home, thus requiring full time nursing facility care,' the organization said in a statement. Newsom defended his proposed budget cuts saying, 'None of this is the kind of work you enjoy doing — but you've got to do it. We have to be responsible. We have to be accountable. We have to balance the budget.' The Legislative Analyst's Office determined that seniors made up just under 10% of Med-Cal enrollment in December of 2024. The largest category of Medi-Cal enrollees is families, followed by childless adults aged 19 to 64 who qualify under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and other enrollees. Families and enrollees of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act make up about three-quarters of Medi-Cal enrollment. Even though the number of senior enrollees is relatively low compared to other groups, the state spends heavily on them, with annual costs per enrollee of around $15,000 compared to $8,000 across other caseload categories. To fund most Medi-Cal programs for families, seniors and those with disabilities, the federal government provides a 50% match, compared to other programs like the Affordable Care Act and Children's Health Insurance Program which gets an enhanced match of 90% and 65%, respectively. 'While higher health care costs are expected as people age, seniors also carry higher state costs due to the standard federal reimbursement rate,' according to the report.
