Just got a letter from my girlfriend (Yesterday), she was moved from CCWF to CIW. Want to know if anyone has experienced both from the inside or the outside and what is the difference (PROS./CONS.). She is much happier says it is a lot better at CIW and she has only been there 1 week. She was really down about everything at CCWF. Overall from my point of view, everything seems to be moving fairly quick. She was only in reception 2 weeks before she saw counselor. Was over the wall in less than three weeks. Moved to CIW 4 weeks after arrival at CCWF reception. I'm happier visits will be so much easier (We live in Chino). I keep telling her so far her time has been very good compared to the bad experiences I have read others have been put through! Maybe our attorney did after all do us right! He did get the Judge to singe endorsement to CIW along with other favorable comments. The only thing that has went wrong is they have added 3 weeks on her release date, I don't think they are calculating her time after sentencing correctly and hopefully they will catch that. We had planned on her release date as 1 November 08 and they are telling her 21 November 08. Wish all the best BigBurtChino:cool:.

Hey Big Bert, I'm sorry your girlfriend is at Chino but glad that she is now close! I have a daughter at CCWF and a young girl that I sponsor at CIW. I can share what they have written to me.

My daughter just came out of reception @ CCWF and says life is better "over the wall". She put in a request for her housing to be changed since she has a friend in another yard, and called today to say she got it. She is doing well considering she spent 3 years in county @ the Womens Jail Santa Ana, Ca in Ad Seg or SHU. She has not been outside (until now) for 3 years. She has been fed crappy food and looked malnourished when she left for CCWF. She was excited to finally have real food, go outside, feel the grass, see the sun & the moon, see movies, eat pizza, (the list goes on) for the first time in years. She should be home this year but they added a few months on to her sentence too. It's the weird calculations they do, it makes no sense!

My other girl in CIW just arrived too, she was also in Ad Seg at Santa Ana. She is in reception in SHU but they moved her to a new room and she now has a "celly" who is PG and reminds her of my daughter. So they have formed a friendship and help each other out. She too was thrilled about the food and simple things I know I take for granted on a daily basis! God Bless em!! But she is glad that she is close to her family and the other girls have told her that CIW is not that bad and say that CCWF is a pit!!???!!

I guess it all depends on where you end up in the prison and the others around you. My girl @ CIW said in her last letter that all of the girls and the guards were nice and have helped her a lot. I think your girlfriend will do just fine.

I hope she comes home soon and I am sooooooo happy for you that she is close for visits. It has been hard with my daughter so far away! But she seems to be fine. We should be getting approved for visits any day. I received my second phone call from her today since she left to go to CCWF on Jan 14th, 2008. She seems upbeat and positive. Seriously, after county anything is better! :thumbsup:

God bless,
Mahkenna

Hey Mahkenna - thanks for the info. Sorry your daughter and the girl you sponsor are not home where they belong. The one thing I've learned on this site; as a country and especially here in Calif., We lock up way too many people! We have a lock them up and forget them mentality. A lot of people are in prison for addictions of one sort or another. I just feel there has to be a better answer for those non-violent offenders, than sending them to prison. For one thing it is very expensive, solving almost nothing. I also know first hand that a little slap on the wrist and telling an offender don't do that! is also not the answer. Somewhere in the middle is the right approach. Sorry for that little speech, after spending the day with my girlfriends 6 year old daughter and she was asking me when is mommy coming home? Well its just on my mind a lot today.
Your daughter did a lot of county time, so sorry it was such an ordeal. Does she come home this year? I hope so after so much time in county. My girlfriend did all together 3 months in West Valley Detention Center in the last 4 years. She seemed to take that better than her first month at CCWF. I'm really glad she's at CIW now can't wait for a phone call and first visit.
Is it final that your daughter will stay at CCWF? It would be nice if they transfered her to CIW to be closer to home. There's not much choice for the ladies, either Chowchilla or Corona. I looked it up CIW is actually in Chino, they just use a Corona mailing address! The best to all. BigBurtChino:cool:

Yeah I agree with you on the time served thing!! My daughter is in prison because of her boyfriend. He beat their baby while in a meth induced rage. She was asleep in another part of the house and didn't even know he had done it nor that he was using. But in Orange County they are so tough on child related crimes that anyone within a 10 mile radius of the crime will get prosecuted. They held her on child endangerment charges even though her boyfriend cleared her in 2 written statements (one prior to their arrest) and a video taped statement in jail. He is now in trial as we speak. Started today and he is looking at a life sentence.

She shouldn't have done this much time, BUT I think she is responsible for not getting herself and the baby away from this guy. We warned her he was no good. She had no priors, nothing! The Judge gave her time served but the D.A. wanted her in prison and gave her 6 years. Judge said okay to the 6 but @ 50% and gave her 2 more years good conduct credit plus 3 years credit for county already served. She was suppose to do a turn around but CDC had their say and added time...Oct, 08 release. :angry:

This is a huge waste of taxpayer's money!!!! I think the state has bigger fish to fry an should be focusing on the criminals.

The baby is doing great and has been adopted out to a wonderful family. He has totally recovered and has a big extended family who adores him.

Anyway I hope both of our girls are doing well and come home soon, my daughter said last phone call that she may be moving. Said they told her CIW, VSP, or Valley Oaks????

Hello Mahkenna, You Know I haven't met to many men and certainly no "boys" I can't take care of. I'm 6'5"/265 lbs. in excellent shape and consider myself a very nonviolent person. I do have a few things that just really get me pissed! Two of them is any form of child abuse and a man hitting a women. I say they can skip the trial and any cost associated with housing your daughters ex-boyfriend and let me "consult" with him for 10 minutes on a lonely road in the desert. I know this sounds really bad and doesn't speak very well for myself, but I have zero tolerance for child abuse. The only thing we can all look forward to is most real men inside and outside of prison don't either! As for your daughter she does share some responsibility for this very bad situation her child had to go through. We all make choices in life and have to be accountable for them. Part of our lives is about learning and making good decisions. I tell my girlfriend this until she is tired of hearing it, but as long as she remains with me, she needs to learn to put her daughter first!
I sincerely believe we all are on this earth to make it a better place for the next generation. A lot of people don't think that way and that is why our country is not doing so great right now. Don't get me wrong I have been all over the world and there is no better place then this country, we just need to keep working to improve it!
My girlfriends addiction was also Meth, a very bad drug. Most people and my girlfriend included don't believe me when I tell them, "I personally have never even seen "Meth" (It's the truth). I know it has to be the single most destructive drug out there right now. I think we have all seen the damage! As a society we need to get out in front of this drug, spend our hard earned dollars educating people on the destruction. We would have a lot less of our loved ones going to prison. I'm not not saying we need a "WAR ON DRUGS" because that just turns into a war on our own people. What we need is a whole lot more education! The best to all. BigBurtChino:cool:

Well BigBert, you will have to get in line, you aren't the only one who wants to throw a punch or two!!!!! And yes, my daughter has taken responsibility and is thankful that it wasn't worse! She admits she should have left him a long time ago. She never dreamed he would do such a thing!!!!!! But that's what meth does, it makes you crazy! I am sure you know Big, your girlfriend was a user. It is an awful drug, I'm sorry she got mixed up with that!

I'll let you know how his trial turns out!!!!!!!!!!:angry: I'm sure it won't be pretty!


God Bless,
Mak

I've read all the different postings here on PTO. Some had been from former inmates who served at both CIW (Frontera) and CCWF-Chowchilla; and one who claims to be a former CCWF C.O., now living in Nevada. Between the two facilities, it seems a lot of people had bad things to say about CCWF, and I haven't read anything negative about CIW Corona. According to Wikipedia, CIW is also called Frontera. One gal claimed the women are so happy to have transferred to CIW from less desirible places, they had proclaimed the "W" to mean CI-Wonderful. Overall, from what I've read, CIW seems to have a better reputation than CCWF. You live in the Chino area, so your girl going to CIW is another plus; you're not that far from Frontera. Had she been sent to CCWF, it would had been a 290-mile trip to Chowchilla from Chino, just to visit her and say "Hi." You're so close, you can just drive down there to put ca$h in her account for immediate credit, while most people have to mail it in, which takes a while before its applied to the inmate's account; and thats if they send money order !! If you look at Jpay, Westernunion, or Cybersuitehome to send $$, the fees they charge are exorbirant !!

Passingtrucker - She did go to CCWF at first, did her reception there went over the wall for like 6 days, was then sent to CIW. She says CIW is so much better than CCWF, her only real big complaint (other than being locked up) is the flies! Says flies are so bad at CIW, they are everywhere and into everything. Your idea of taking money straight to the facility is something I never even thought of. Will have to try that, I'm still waiting for my approval for first visit (They are very slow in approving). When I go for my first visit I will look into the possibility of putting money on the books then. She has plenty $$$ right now! Yes it will be much better that she is at CIW, my home is less than 8 miles from the prison. CCWF would have been an overnight trip, but I was prepared to do that once a month if needed. The best to all. BigBurtChino:cool:

Passingtrucker -.....her only real big complaint (other than being locked up) is the flies! Says flies are so bad at CIW, they are everywhere and into everything.... BigBurtChino:cool:

I went over to CIW to scope out the area. Looks smaller than the satellite pict, if you bring up the image on Google-maps. I think the source of the flies are the dairy farms next to CIW. Cows produce a lot of solid waste, and cow feces attract a lot of flies. Another source is a waste water treatment plant on the corner of Pomona Rincon RD & Pine Avenue, bout a mile north west of CIW. The plant filters human waste from sewage, then stores the waste in open pit areas where the sun dries it, until it turns into dirt-like substance called sludge. The sludge is later trucked out near agricultural desert areas like Indio (past Palm Springs), where its processed further into fertilizer. Yes, some of the domestically grown fruits and vegetables you buy at the market (especially if they come from Indio Valley) had been fertilized with human feces. My source= I use to haul sludge bound for Indio. If you go over to visit, do some research on this forum on attire policy . Some of these ladies had either witnessed, or experienced, getting turned away because they were wearing shorts, flip-flop slippers, bandanna, etc...I think you're only allowed to carry one key, and you're car's remote, so you have to leave your entire set of keys in the car (or so someone had posted said so).
When you drive along Pine avenue, east of Euclid (SR-83), you'll come to a T-intersection with "Stop" signs in all 3 directions. This is where you turn south. I didn't see a sign saying "Chino Corona RD," but besides the 3-way Stop signs, theres a Mexican restaurant on this intersection. When you turn south, bout ½ mile on your right hand side, you'll come to a parking lot with bout 30 or more cars. These belong to the CO guards and other CIW staff.