Cash crisis forces California to free 55,000 prisoners

[babsbunny]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cash-crisis-forces-california-to-free-55000-prisoners-1622487.html

The debt-ridden state can no longer afford to keep inmates in an expensive and bloated penal system

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Sunday, 15 February 2009


Inmates at Mule Creek Prison in California have been moved into the gymnasium because of overcrowding


There's not been a greater escape since Steve McQueen jumped aboard his motorcycle. The state of California has been ordered to release more than 55,000 prison inmates to ease pressure on its ailing penal system.

Federal judges ruled last week that California's 33 adult jails have become so overcrowded that they violate the constitutional rights of inmates, subjecting them to "cruel and unusual" punishment that is causing at least one death a month. Just over a third of the state's 158,000 prisoners must be set free by 2012 to ensure that basic healthcare is provided to those who remain behind, the judges said. The majority will go through early release and parole schemes.

[Joanne98]

1. Prisons are California's second largest industry. It's a scam.

They should be released now. The RW is appealing the ruling. The RW should be thrown out of California by force! They're a small minority of insurgents who are screwing up the whole state. DEPORT THEM!

[tularetom]

2. They've been sending non violent drug offenders to prison for years

And they now have to release some real criminals because the jails are overcrowded. What genius failed to see this coming?

I'm sure the first reaction among republicans is "build more jails". But they're fucked, there is no money to build more jails.

So perhaps this confluence of events will help our state's judiciary to remove its head from its ass and wake up to reality.

It is poor social and financial policy to send people to prison for possession of a small amount of illegal drugs.

But it's probably too much to hope for them to make the ultimate logical leap - the only permanent solution is the legalization of drugs.

[tavalon]

3. I hope they are drug offenders since I don't believe in the war on drugs

[Bandit]

4. It would be interesting to know the racial makeup of those released.

I would suspect that fifty of the fifty five thousand being released are white. I sure hope I am wrong but nothing in my life so far has showed that this wouldn't be the case.