Latest news with #SanQuentin
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix adds Will Ferrell's most controversial movie
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Cast your mind back ten years. It's 2015, and franchises rule. Mad Max: Fury Road, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation are battling it out for box office supremacy. Sicario, Carol, and The Martian are on numerous "best films of the year" lists, but comedies are out in the cold. Yet, although it wasn't a vintage year, some of their biggest names were out in force — Melissa McCarthy, Seth MacFarlane and, perhaps busiest of all, Will Ferrell. One of his releases from that year — and his most controversial film ever – has just arrived on Netflix today [Monday, June 9]. It's Get Hard. He plays an obscenely rich hedge-fund manager who finds himself convicted of fraud and sentenced to a stretch in San Quentin. With just one month to get his affairs in order and, knowing that his chances of surviving longer than a few minutes behind bars are slim to nothing, he turns to a stranger he believes is an ex-con and can teach him the art of survival. Played by Kevin Hart, he's actually a car wash manager who has never even received a parking ticket and has his work cut out in devising a training regime to keep predatory prisoners at bay. As the tests become increasingly gruelling (to say the least), the two learn they've been wrong about many things and that their assumptions about each other are at the top of the list. With its racial, sexist and homophobic jokes, the film was labelled politically incorrect to the extent that its director, Etan Cohen, and its stars had to speak out in its defence. Audiences gave it a mixed response, both laughing and cringing at what was, at times, surprisingly strong stuff, and the film is probably Ferrell's raunchiest work to date — even closer to the mark than the much-loved Step Brothers (2008). Best movies on Netflix But there's another side to it. While it might look crude on the surface, there's an element of satire just beneath which is aimed directly at the assumptions that feed so many social attitudes. There's no doubt that it's offensive, but in a way that echoes a boundary pushing comedy from the mid-70s — Blazing Saddles (1974). The older film is a classic, Get Hard less so, but it still has plenty of laughs and much of that is down to the Ferrell/Hart pairing, which is where it really scored on its release and still does now. Both actors are naturals when it comes to working as part of a double act. Here, they play on their best-known characteristics — Hart's fast-talking street smarts and Ferrell's naïvete and fumbling attempts to appear more confident — to create the humor and ultimately show their characters' individual strengths. In more recent years, Hart's partnerships with Dwayne Johnson in Central Intelligence and the Jumanji franchise have proved particularly successful. For Ferrell, however, a co-star is essential to his collaborative way of working, both in front and behind the camera. As an actor, he thrives on sharing the limelight either as part of a double act or in a small ensemble, most notably in the Anchorman movies. While he doesn't have a regular on-screen comedy partner, there are a handful he returns to, John C Reilly especially, and there's a good reason. In Step Brothers, their second film together, their juvenile 40-somethings forced into being siblings were uniquely special, and it was all down to their personal chemistry. Sadly, even their combined magic couldn't make Holmes And Watson (2018) live up to everybody's expectations. His roster of female co-stars is equally impressive — Tina Fey, Reese Witherspoon, Amy Poehler, Christina Applegate — and last year saw him carry this collaborative style to a documentary, the much-praised Will And Harper. Ferrell also produced this moving portrait of his friendship with writer Harper Steele, his first documentary behind the camera and easily his most personal project to date. Before then, he'd worked with director/writer Adam McKay on upwards of 30 titles, often acting in them as well, and since they ended their working partnership in 2019, Ferrell has continued producing, with Apple TV Plus's Dickens-inspired Spirited (2022) proving to be a festive favourite and Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) now about to return, but as a stage musical. He and Steele wrote the original movie and are set to repeat their double act for this latest incarnation. The film was a feel-good piece of entertainment, yet its most familiar song probably wouldn't have been out of place in Get Hard. Yes, we mean "Jaja Ding Dong"! Get Hard is on Netflix in the US and UK now. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga is on Netflix in the US and the UK.
CBS News
13-06-2025
- CBS News
Ex-California correctional officer pleads guilty to planting contraband while seeking promotion
A former California correctional officer is facing federal prison after pleading guilty to a scheme where he planted contraband that he pretended to discover, in order to obtain a promotion, prosecutors said. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced Friday that 52-year-old Avelino Ramirez of Vallejo admitted to one count of wire fraud. Ramirez worked for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a Investigave Services Unit K-9 officer at San Quentin State Prison from 2013 to 2022 and was later promoted to K-9 sergeant at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Oct. 2024. According to his plea agreement, Ramirez engaged in a scheme to smuggle contraband into the prisons and plant the items in common areas of the prisons, which he would then pretend to discover. "Ramirez did so in order to hold himself out as a successful K-9 officer with the hope that it would help him obtain a promotion to K-9 sergeant," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. Among the items planted included methamphetamine, cannabis and cocaine, along with drug paraphernalia, tobacco, cellphones and weapons. During certain instances, prosecutors said Ramirez mixed narcotics with salt and or sugar and mixed cannabis with lawn trimmings. Prosecutors said Ramirez had also sought to inflate his salary by claiming overtime related to searches involving the scheme and writing reports on the false discoveries. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, he received about $8,200 in fraudulent overtime pay. Ramirez, who is out on bond, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sep. 18. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chabria: Even tough-on-crime district attorneys know prison reform is smart
On a recent morning inside San Quentin prison, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman and more than a dozen other prosecutors crowded into a high-ceilinged meeting hall surrounded by killers, rapists and other serious offenders. Name the crime, one of these guys has probably done it. "It's not every day that you're in a room of 100 people, most of whom have committed murder, extremely violent crimes, and been convicted of it," Hochman later said. Many of these men, in their casual blue uniforms, were serving long sentences with little chance of getting out, like Marlon Arturo Melendez, an L.A. native who is now in for murder. Melendez sat in a "sharing circle," close enough to Hochman that their knees could touch, no bars between them. They chatted about the decrease in gang violence in the decades since Melendez was first incarcerated more than 20 years ago, and Melendez said he found Hochman "interesting." Inside San Quentin, this kind of interaction between inmates and guests isn't unusual. For decades, the prison by the Bay has been doing incarceration differently, cobbling together a system that focuses on accountability and rehabilitation. Like the other men in the room, Melendez takes responsibility for the harm he caused, and every day works to be a better man. When he introduces himself, he names his victims — an acknowledgment that what he did can't be undone but also an acknowledgment that he doesn't have to remain the same man who pulled the trigger. Whether or not Melendez or any of these men ever walk free, what was once California's most notorious lockup is now a place that offers them the chance to change and provides the most elusive of emotions for prisoners — hope. Creating that culture is a theory and practice of imprisonment that Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to make the standard across the state. Read more: Chabria: California to transform infamous San Quentin prison with Scandinavian ideas, rehab focus He's dubbed it the California Model, but as I've written about before, it's common practice in other countries (and even in a few places in the United States). It's based on a simple truth about incarceration: Most people who go into prison come out again. Public safety demands that they behave differently when they do. "We are either paying to keep them here or we are paying if they come back out and harm somebody," said Brooke Jenkins, the district attorney of San Francisco, who has visited San Quentin regularly for years. Jenkins was the organizer of this unusual day that brought district attorneys from around the state inside of San Quentin to gain a better understanding of how the California Model works, and why even tough-on-crime district attorneys should support transforming our prisons. As California does an about-face away from a decade of progressive criminal justice advances with new crackdowns such as those promised by the recently passed Proposition 36 (which is expected to increase the state inmate population), it is also continuing to move ahead with the controversial plan to remake prison culture, both for inmates and guards, by centering on rehabilitation over punishment. Despite a tough economic year that is requiring the state to slash spending, Newsom has kept intact more than $200 million from the prior budget to revamp San Quentin so that its outdated facilities can support more than just locking up folks in cells. Some of that construction, already happening on the grounds, is expected to be completed next year. It will make San Quentin the most visible example of the California Model. But changes in how inmates and guards interact and what rehabilitation opportunities are available are already underway at prisons across the state. It is an overdue and profound transformation that has the potential to not only improve public safety and save money in the long run, but to fundamentally reshape what incarceration means across the country. Jenkins' push to help more prosecutors understand and value this metamorphosis might be crucial to helping the public support it as well — especially for those D.A.s whose constituents are just fine with a system that locks up men to suffer for their (often atrocious) crimes. Or even those Californians, such as many in San Francisco and Los Angeles, who are just fed up with the perception that California is soft on criminals. "It's not about moderate or progressive, but I think all of us that are moderates have to admit that there are reforms that still need to happen," Jenkins told me as we walked through the prison yard. She took office after the successful recall of her progressive predecessor, Chesa Boudin, and a rightward shift in San Francisco on crime policy. Still, she is vocal about the need for second chances. For her, prison reform is about more than the California Model, but a broader lens that includes the perspectives of incarcerated people, and their insights on what they need to make rehabilitation work. "It really grounds you in your obligation to make sure that the culture in the [district attorney's] office is fair," she said. For Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and defense lawyer who resoundingly ousted progressive George Gascón last year, rehabilitation makes sense. He likes to paraphrase a Fyodor Dostoevsky quote, 'The degree of civilization in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.' "In my perfect world, the education system, the family system, the community, would have done all this work on the front end such that these people wouldn't have been in position to commit crimes in the first place," he said. But when that fails, it's up to the criminal justice system to help people fix themselves. Read more: Chabria: Bringing the death penalty back to L.A. is politics and hubris, not justice Despite being perceived as a tough-on-crime D.A. (he prefers "fair on crime") he's so committed to that goal of rehabilitation that he is determined to push for a new Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles County — an expensive (billions) and unpopular idea that he says is long overdue but critical to public safety. "Los Angeles County is absolutely failing because our prisons and jails are woefully inadequate," he said. He's quick to add that rehabilitation isn't for everyone. Some just aren't ready for it. Some don't care. The inmates of San Quentin agree with him. They are often fiercely vocal about who gets transferred to the prison, knowing that its success relies on having incarcerated people who want to change — one rogue inmate at San Quentin could ruin it for all of them. "It has to be a choice. You have to understand that for yourself," Oscar Acosta told me. Now 32, he's a "CDC baby," as he puts it — referring to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — and has been behind bars since he was 18. He credits San Quentin with helping him accept responsibility for his crimes and see a path forward. When the California Model works, as the district attorneys saw, it's obvious what its value is. Men who once were nothing but dangerous have the option to live different lives, with different values. Even if they remain incarcerated. "After having been considered the worst of the worst, today I am a new man," Melendez told me. "I hope (the district attorneys) were able to see real change in those who sat with them and be persuaded that rehabilitation over punishment is more fruitful and that justice seasoned with restoration is better for all." Melendez and the other incarcerated men at San Quentin aspire for us to see them as more than their worst actions. And they take heart that even prosecutors like Jenkins and Hochman, who put them behind bars, sometimes with triple-digit sentences, do see that the past does not always determine the future, and that investing in their change is an investment in safer communities. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
CBS News
30-05-2025
- Health
- CBS News
California bill proposes pilot program for single-occupancy prison cells
In a unique alliance, prisoners at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and California district attorneys are championing legislation to reform California's prison system by introducing a pilot program for single-occupancy cells. Ken Oliver, who spent nearly 24 years incarcerated — eight of those in solitary confinement — turned that trying time alone, in a cell the size of a closet, into an opportunity for self-improvement. "I literally turned my cell into a law library and studied the law for four years," Oliver recalled. "Had I had a cellmate, I would not have been able to do that." AB 1140, sponsored by Assemblymember Damon Connolly, whose district includes San Quentin, mandates the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to implement a pilot program for single-occupancy cells by January 1, 2027. If approved, the program will designate four adult prison facilities where at least 10% of the incarcerated population will be housed in single-occupancy cells. The bill emphasizes the importance of restorative sleep and reduced stress in promoting rehabilitation. Studies cited in the legislation highlight that overcrowded conditions can lead to increased stress and health issues among inmates. "It causes less stress," Oliver says of single-occupancy living for those incarcerated. "That actually soothes me a little bit, calms me down, allows me to go to things in a different perspective. When I'm forced to navigate that with another person, I'm actually restricting a piece of myself, or repressing a piece of myself because there's another human being in close proximity that if I don't do that, may cause violence, may cause death, which has happened in multiple cases inside the Department of Corrections." San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins leads regular symposiums with inmates, whom she calls residents, at San Quentin. She worked alongside those serving time to craft the legislation. "It is probably the most unimaginable partnership between a district attorney and inmates in a prison," she told CBS News Bay Area. "They have an overwhelming desire for us as prosecutors to understand the road that got them here. They also want to give back so that other people, other kids, youth, young people, don't end up in the same place." Vincent O'Bannon, who collaborated with Jenkins on the legislation during his 15-year tenure at San Quentin, emphasized the potential benefits of single-occupancy cells. "Just being alone takes a great weight off of you," he stated. "When you can go to a cell and know you don't have to share it with anyone else, and you can just walk in and relax. It makes a difference." As Oliver reflects on his past and the potential impact of AB 1140, he remains hopeful. "Never fun to go back into the dungeon," he said, referring to his time in confinement. Yet, he believes that the system that once confined him is now taking steps to enhance public safety and rehabilitation both inside and outside prison walls. The state Assembly is expected to vote on the legislation next Tuesday. If approved, it will go to a vote in the Senate.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Body identified after 45 years linked to serial killer
Police say a California serial killer is the sole person of interest after a man found dead in Oregon was identified after nearly 45 years. The 30-year-old, whose body was found alongside an interstate, was identified on Friday as Larry Eugene Parks. Oregon State Police spokesman Kyle Kennedy said Randy Kraft, who has been dubbed the Scorecard Killer, is the only person under investigation for the 1980 killing. 'There's some evidence that we're processing to determine that link,' Mr Kennedy said. 'We are very confident that we have the correct person of interest.' Kraft, now 80, was convicted in 1989 of brutalising and killing 16 men over a decade in California and sentenced to death. He remains in San Quentin State Prison and has denied killing anyone. On July 18 1980, police responded to a report of the body identified as Mr Parks along I-5, south of Portland. A homicide investigation unsuccessfully tried to identify the victim. A Vietnam veteran whose family had lost contact with him in 1979, Mr Parks had last been seen in Pensacola, Florida, police said. Kraft was pulled over in his vehicle on a California freeway in 1983 after being spotted driving erratically. In the passenger seat of the vehicle was a strangled US Marine. In the trunk of Kraft's vehicle was a coded list believed to tally 67 victims in California, Oregon and Michigan, according to police. Prosecutors described Kraft, a former computer programmer, as a fetishist who kept some of the dismembered parts of his victims in his freezer. In 2024, an Orange County Sheriff's Department investigator reached out to the Oregon State Police Cold Case Unit and offered to help identify the remains using forensic investigative genetic genealogy. A genetic profile was developed from a blood sample and Parks' identity was confirmed after possible family members submitted DNA profiles for comparison, according to police. Until his identification last month, the circumstances of his disappearance were unknown to his family, police said. In 2023, the remains of a teenager believed to have been killed by Kraft in California were also identified using investigative genetic genealogy.
