Illustration by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters; iStock

Good morning, CalMatters reader.

A quick note before I get into this week’s news: We’re celebrating our 11th anniversary here at CalMatters. And with it, we’re asking readers to donate (your gift can be matched dollar-for-dollar right now) to our independent, member-supported and nonprofit newsroom. Your gift today will help you and people across California stay informed on issues of inequality, along with a myriad of other pressing issues. If you can, please give today.

And on to this week’s news.

The California Supreme Court is reviewing convictions that turned on undercover stings in county jails. In what’s known as a “Perkins operation,” undercover agents pose as incarcerated people to elicit incriminating statements from suspects. The tactic has helped secure hundreds of murder convictions, but critics say they are coercive, risk false confessions and disproportionately target Black and Latino people.

At least 10 cases are lined up at the California Supreme Court this year to challenge the practice, including from defendants who have maintained their innocence since before they were charged with the crime. 

Among those, four defendants are Hispanic, four are Black and two are white. The youngest was 18 years old at the time of the Perkins operation. In some cases, defendants allege that Perkins agents coaxed them to waive their Miranda rights to remain silent or consult an attorney before a formal police interrogation. In others, defendants argue agents coerced them into making incriminating statements after they repeatedly invoked those rights.

“These cases are going to the Supreme Court because it’s an issue that is paramount to understanding how far law enforcement can go in these operations,” said Scott Sanders, a criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles. “These are the lines that you would think are too far.”

The California Public Defenders Association and American Civil Liberties Union urged the court to look closely at the highly coordinated police practice because they say it produces extreme racial disparities and perpetuates racially biased policing. 

They cited recent data from the Riverside County Public Defender’s Office, which found significant racial disparities when it analyzed roughly 881 murder cases between January 2015 and June 2023, including 145 Perkins targets. The analysis showed Black defendants were more than four times as likely to be targeted in a Perkins operation than white defendants. Latino defendants were targeted at twice the rate of white defendants, they found. 

Public defenders in San Diego County have also voiced concern over racial disparities in a Racial Justice Act petition regarding a Perkins operation. The law, passed in 2020, allows people to challenge a prosecution, conviction or sentence that they believe was based upon racial bias. 

In an analysis of roughly 40 Perkins operations in San Diego County, public defenders found agents consistently used racially discriminatory language, including slurs and cultural stereotyping, to develop a false sense of rapport and generate incriminating statements.

• Homeless seniors. New data reveals seniors are staying about a month longer on the streets compared to younger adults, Voice of San Diego reports.

• Woman in photo. Notus does some deep and thought-provoking reporting on the viral July 4 photo of Bernita Bowlding riding the Metro while surrounded by members of the white supremacist group, Patriot Front.

• CalWORKS initiative. UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s Human Services department will implement a comprehensive training, technical assistance, and coaching system to support California’s new “Transforming CalWORKs” initiative. CalWORKS is a public assistance program for families with children.