Three months after he was seized and nearly deported, a Santa Rosa man has been released to rejoin his family, and recover from his experience inside the privatized detention facility.

  KRCB previously reported on Okili's arrest on May 21, here.

Because Okili has not only tried to play by the rules as far as his visa was concerned, but has also become an active and constructive member of the community, Sabrina Krause remains convinced that when they are finally able to explain his circumstances to a judge, that background will make a convincing case for him.

At one point during his detention in Eloy, Arizona, Okili was very nearly deported in spite of the frantic efforts to obtain his release. He recalls that he was actually at the airport, just minutes away from boarding the plane that would have taken him to Europe, when he was spared by a last-minuts intervention.

The treatment of detainees at Eloy was subtly abusive, Okili says, from barely edible food to ill-fitting shoes that took weeks to get replaced.

The profit motive affects many aspects of the operation of that privatized detention facility, from policies that prolong the detainees stay there, boosting per diem revenues, down to exorbitant charges for telephone contact with the outside world.

Health Care reform and a forward-looking energy policy are not competing subjects in need of Congressional action, but interlocking national priorities, said speakers at a Santa Rosa rally yesterday.

Sebastopol City Council member Kathleen Shaffer (left), spoke out strongly in support of the health reform plan endorsed by President Obama, and the much maligned "public option" within it.

 Photos courtesy of John Hartong

Another speaker at the rally, Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, defended proactive climate change legislation as a potential engine for economic, as well as environmental benefits.

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The Santa Rosa rally was one of many scheduled across the country yesterday by MoveOn.org.

Doctors see the effects of poverty in the patients almost every day, but treating the root causes requires taking action outside their clinics and hospitals.

Dr. Paula Braveman (right) is a professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF, where she also directs the Center on Social Disparities in Medicine.

 Dr. Mary Maddox-Gonzales, head of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, urges doctors and other medical practitioners to speak out about the public health implications of policies at every level of government.

The recent  PBS television series Unnatural Causes  answered the basic question it posed in the affirmative. So did the  KRCB-Television report on  same question here in the North Bay. You can see what we found out here. Both the national series and our local report will be rebroadcast again this fall.

Democrats in the state legislature have consistently opposed deep cuts in programs that serve California's neediest citizens.  Wednesday, a crowd of those citizens turned out in downtown Santa Rosa to raise their voices in their own defense.

(Photographs courtesy of Becoming independent)

Demonstrators outside the state office building in Downtown Santa Rosa July 16 (above) were uniformly concerned, and some such, as a woman named Bridget, were angry and upset.

Cammy Weaver, Executive Director of Becoming Independent in Santa Rosa, is alarmed at the way proposed budget cuts in the California legislature are eroding the protections of the state’s Lanterman Act.  Moreover, she fears, once those cuts are enacted, they will remain in place for years.

Although the state budget  "trailer bill" - the actual legislation to implement the spending cuts that are being debated in more general terms-is still tentative, it includes 36 specific items that the staff at Becoming Independent has been carefully watching. Chief among their concerns are these four:

Cuts to Early Intervention - 6,000 babies between 0-3 years of age will lose their services. Another 11,000 are at risk to lose of see major reductions in services. The result will be life-long disabilities for these babies who, with early intervention, may not even need ongoing services in their adult years.

 Use of Least Costly Program - For the first time as a matter of law, regional centers will have the authority to assign or transfer a consumer from where they want to be to a program entirely of the regional center's choosing to save money. That choice will not be subject to appeal. The IPP is destroyed for those who will be subjected to a life of someone else's choosing.

Cuts to Transportation - Relying on public transportation to move people with severe disabilities from where they are to where they need to be is a failed concept. It will work for some, but not for most. Unless the bus stops directly in front of their home and goes directly to where they need to be, it is simply impractical. It will trap people with disabilities in their homes. They won't be able to reach your program!

Cuts to Respite - The goal was to save $5 million by capping respite hours at no more than 90 hours per quarter. Instead, this cap imposes at least a 20% cut, "saving" more like $35 million. The reason saving is in quotes is that failure to get vital relief from 24-7 care-giving or people with severe disabilities will collapse many families and lead to much more expensive out-of-home placement.