Judges Order California to Reduce Prison Overcrowding
By Jenny Choi on February 10, 2009
A panel consisting of three federal judges has ruled that the state of California must release over 50,000 inmates within three years to alleviate prison overcrowding. The ruling, which is still considered tentative, stems from a series of class-action lawsuits claiming the state had failed to provide adequate mental and medical care to its inmates. But this leaves open the question of how exactly to mitigate the capacity problem, which would surely have implications far and wide for public safety and prison reform policy. California's prison system is the largest in the nation, but prison overcrowding affects much of the country.
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I am excited to hear this. I am tired of paying lots for money for inmates to be comfortable. They get three meals a day as well as other things I would consider to be a luxary; ie: television w/ cable, team sprots (with good playing conditions), radios, ect. This is not a way i would punish someone.
I am not excited to hear this. This puts a huge threat on American safety; people in prison are put there for a reason. No matter what their individual reason for being put there, they all did something very wrong and illegal and it would be very unconstitutional to just let them go. It would also be unfair to the people that still had to stay in there because 50,000 people got let go, but they didn't. I think they should just open another prison.
I THINK THERE ARE A LOT OF INMATES THAT SHOULD BE RELEASED EARLY. THOSE INMATES THAT HAVE NOT COMMITTED ANY VIOLENT CRIME, INMATES THAT HAVE A YEAR OR LESS UNTIL THEIR RELEASE DATE. IF THEY RELEASE SOME OF THOSE INMATES THEY WILL SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND WOULDN'T NEEDS TO BUILD A NEW PRISON AND SPEND EXTRA MONEY ON THAT.
The CA prison guards and their union (CCPOA) have been behind this prison explosion. We now have 33 prisons in the state of CA, yet we still have severe overcrowding. The prison guards are very politically active and donate millions to sponsor elected officials and sentencing legistlation. They have done so for years and their influence on Sacramento is now being realized. The average CA prison guard makes between $70,000 and $80,000 a year. We spend 10 billion a year on corrections in CA, yet there are virtually no programs for rehabilitation. Most of this 10 billion goes to paying these prison guards salaries. Parole is set up to send the parolee right back where he got out from. Job security for the guards. Keep the violent offenders locked up, but the majority of those being incarcerated in CA prisons are non-violent drug offenders. Google ” CA prison guards” and see what comes up… You will be surprised! Wake up California!!!
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