Aug 07 2009
Reducing California’s Prison Population Not So Difficult
On Tuesday, judges on a Federal court panel ordered California state officials to lower their prison population by 40,000 within two years. The judges have given California 45 days to devise a plan on how to trim prisoners from its 33 adult prisons. Suggestions have been made to rearrange parole practices, transfer prisoners to rehabilitation programs or county jails, as well as grant early releases based on good behavior. The drastic measures are in response to a health care system that has been deemed inhumane, and found to result in unnecessary deaths of prisoners, to the tune of one prisoner death a week. The overpopulation of California’s prisons has been found to be a leading cause of inadequate health and mental care while also in violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Don Specter, a lawyer and leading advocate for prisoners stated that the court rulings can “finally fix the horrible problems caused by overcrowding, and do so in a way that will not harm public safety but will make us all safer.” The ruling has been met with some opposition, particularly from Republicans who approved of a major cut in prison spending but vehemently opposed any prisoner releases during the recent state budget battle. Currently, California’s adult prisons operate at 188% of capacity with 158,000 inmates housed in facilities built for about 80,000.
GUEST: Rebecca Evenson, Senior Staff Attorney with the Prison Law Office
4 Responses to “Reducing California’s Prison Population Not So Difficult”
Land of the free.
The highest incarceration rate of any country on the face of the earth.
Prisons–a money making, job creating growth industry.
Hey, if there aren’t enough prisoners to keep those prisons going,
maybe we’d better just incarcerate even more people.
Here’s what some judges in Pennsylvania did in order to line their own pockets:
http://www.truthout.org/021209L
Gotta love this country. The almighty dollar is the true God in the United States
What is not mentioned is the fact last year California paroled 138,000 inmates with no impact on crime and no one even noticed! This year the number is about 10,000 inmates each month. Releasing 40,000 over a 2 year period is a drop in the bucket and will also have no impact what so ever! It is amazing how this information is missed in virtually every article printed in the media? Why create fear for a problem that does not exist? The majority returned to prison are not for new crimes but for technical parole violations, such as missing an appointment, drinking a beer or testing dirty. Does the media really wish to inform the public or create panic and fear?
Your compliment of our judiciary was not clear; it will be removed.
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