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<font size=3>The California Parole Board held a parole hearing for Hugo
Pinell (Yogi) on January 14 at which they denied him parole and scheduled
him to return to the board in 15 years! Previous denials had been
no more than <br>
two years, an earlier one five years. So what has changed? <br><br>
In November, the last state election, voters passed Proposition 9. Under
Proposition, 9 people serving indeterminate life sentences who come up
before the Parole Board are denied parole, could be denied a subsequent
hearing for up to 15 years. Prop 9 increases the time between parole
hearings for life-term convicts from 1-5 years to 3-15 years, for no good
reason. Proposition 9 argued that people convicted of serious crimes are
being released from prison easily and frequently. This simply is not the
case. At present, about 30,000 people are serving life sentences.
Approximately 4,000 of those apply for parole each year, going before a
two-member panel for a parole recommendation. Only about 2 percent are
given a favorable decision, and of those, the governor rejects
two-thirds. Thus, less than 1 percent receives release dates in a given
year. As an example, in 2006, only 23 prisoners with indeterminate
sentences were granted parole, less than 0.5 percent of those eligible
for release. <br><br>
Hugo Pinell has been in Pelican Bay SHU (no phone calls, no
contact visits, isolation 24/7, no windows or natural light, very
restricted possessions, visits limited to less than an hour and only on
weekends/holidays with him in a "phone booth.") 19 years. He
was in other California lockups (SQ, Folsom, Corcoran) for 38 <br>
years, and in prison a total of 45. He's had clean time (no
write-ups) for 25 years.<br><br>
Pelican Bay is isolated in the Northwest corner of California, a very
long trip by car (the only means). His mother, now 87, has health
problems but has continued to make that long trip to visit her son, now
64 years old. Can you even imagine how she'll react to this horrible
news?<br><br>
Georgia (Ca. Prison Focus) called from Pelican Bay to say that Yogi's
handling it well although he's very sad, understandably, and very worried
about his mom.<br><br>
Georgia tells me that this denial of 15 years is <br>
not legal. But since when did they give a damn about legal?!<br><br>
We have to stop this in its tracks. This is absolutely
outrageous!<br><br>
<a href="http://www.hugopinell.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.hugopinell.org<br><br>
</a>Thanks to Kiilu for most of this!<br>
kiilu2@sbcglobal.net <br><br>
<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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