CDCR

On this week's Issues and Ideas: Monday marks the transition from Jerry Brown to Gavin Newsom as California's next governor; we'll hear stories about "Brownisms" and Newsom promises. Tyler Pratt reports on a new California prison integration program has inmates' families worried for their safety. And Greta Mart attends a recent public forum on offshore wind energy and reports on how state and federal officials are taking public comment on locations proposed for offshore wind energy development—two of which are off San Luis Obispo County's coast. 

A series of riots took place at a Central Coast prison just before the Christmas holiday. Officials at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) confirmed prison fights broke out at Soledad State Prison, and four inmates were hospitalized. CDCR officials call them minor incidents, but families of inmates say more fights are occurring because of a new state prison program.

A handful of protesters gathered outside the California Men’s Colony prison in San Luis Obispo Thursday. The wives and loved ones of inmates say they are worried about a new policy change coming to the facility, and prisons statewide. It’s a program that merges two different populations of inmates; effectively ending the country's largest protective custody program.