Thread: Federal Judges order California prisoners released

Federal Judges order California prisoners released

California told to prepare massive prisoner release

Tue Aug 4, 2009 8:35pm EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -

U.S. judges on Tuesday told California to prepare to release more than 40,000 of its 150,000 inmates to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, which suffer from massive healthcare problems.

The cash-strapped state already plans to release ailing and short-term inmates for budget issues. That would clear up to 37,000 beds over two years, estimated California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate.

But he said an order from federal judges would set a "dangerous precedent" and argued at a news conference that California had cleaned up prisons and hired medical professionals to fill chronic gaps that had left prisoners without adequate physical or mental care.

The federal three-judge panel in February made a tentative ruling pointing toward release. On Tuesday the judges ordered the state in 45 days to prepare a plan to cut overcrowding to 137.5 percent of capacity.

That would amount to a cut of 40,591 inmates in its 33 prisons, it said. But officials intend to appeal a release order, which would follow Tuesday's order for a plan.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson, Editing Chris Wilson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/domestic ... 6720090805

Have these federal judges lost their collective V*****V minds? Turning prisoners loose is going to cost a lot more than keeping them incarcerated. And I am not talking only about money, but the cost in human lives, working a job as you get rehabilitated, drunk driving, home invasions, rapes, child molestation--just to name a few.

40,591 California inmates ordered released by Federal Judges

I hope they put everyone of them on a plane or a bus to Washington D.C.

This is a clear demonstration about how much our government cares about our safety and well-being.

What percentage of those prisoners are illegal aliens?

It would seem there's some awfully dirty dealings going on at the hands of this administration.

WE Are IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE!!!!STOP THE INSANITY!!!!

Originally Posted by azwreath

What percentage of those prisoners are illegal aliens?

It would seem there's some awfully dirty dealings going on at the hands of this administration. :?

Any illegal aliens that are released must be turned over to I.C.E.

They can hold them in Federal Prisons or they can deport them.

California has no say in the matter.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by azwreath

What percentage of those prisoners are illegal aliens?

It would seem there's some awfully dirty dealings going on at the hands of this administration.

Any illegal aliens that are released must be turned over to I.C.E.

They can hold them in Federal Prisons or they can deport them.

California has no say in the matter.

I realize this.

But, Napolitano DOES have a say in it and we all can guess where that's going to get us...........that was where I was going with my post

Well, last I heard, it was to be 55,000 prisoners released. Guess we better get ready for a new crime wave!

U.S. ruling: State must cut prison population
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

(08-04) 21:12 PDT -- A federal court panel ordered California today to reduce the population of its bulging prisons by 40,000 over the next two years to meet constitutional standards for inmate health care and said it could be done without releasing dangerous prisoners to the streets.

"The convergence of tough-on-crime policies and an unwillingness to expend the necessary funds to support the population growth has brought California's prisons to the breaking point," the three-judge panel said. Unless the courts intervene, the panel said, inmates will continue to suffer and die needlessly because prisons lack the space and the staff to treat them.

By changing parole practices and releasing some low-risk inmates to local custody, treatment programs or electronic monitoring, the prison population can be reduced "without a meaningful adverse impact on public safety," the judges said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration immediately announced that it would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state needs to reduce prison crowding on its own, by lowering the inmate population and building more prisons, but "we just don't think the federal courts should be ordering us to take those steps," state Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said.

Don Specter, a lawyer for prisoners who sued the state over health care, said the ruling allows California to "finally fix the horrible problems caused by prison overcrowding, and do so in a way that will not harm public safety but will make us all safer."

Differing opinions
The ruling "means we can't continue to sit on our hands," said state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee.

But Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster (Los Angeles County), a party leader on prison issues, said the effect of the ruling would be "releasing dangerous inmates into every community in the state."

The panel underscored its conclusion, first announced in a tentative ruling in February, that crowding in prisons - now jammed to nearly twice their intended capacity of 80,000 - was the primary cause of woeful health care.

One panel member, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco, appointed a receiver to manage state prison health care in 2006 after finding that shoddy treatment was killing an average of an inmate a week.

"The medical and mental health care available to inmates in the California prison system is woefully and constitutionally inadequate and has been for more than a decade," the panel said.

45-day deadline
The panel gave state officials 45 days to submit a plan that would lower the population of the state's 33 prisons from 150,000 to 110,000 within two years, leaving the prisons at 137.5 percent of their designed capacity.

Such a reduction can be largely accomplished, the court said, by ending California's unique practice of returning parolees to prison for minor parole violations.

Most of those parolees could be handled more effectively and cheaply in local treatment and work-furlough programs, electronic monitoring, and, if necessary, county jails, the panel said.

Inmates considered to pose "low to moderate risk" could have their sentences shortened by several months for taking part in rehabilitation, education or work programs, the panel said.

Governor's ideas
Schwarzenegger has endorsed similar proposals in the last two years. He has also proposed transferring as many as 19,000 illegal immigrant inmates to federal custody for deportation and updating grand-theft laws to keep pace with inflation, which would reduce felony convictions. His administration has transferred 7,900 inmates to prisons in other states.

Cate, the governor's top prison official, said the administration's proposals would lower the prison population by 35,000 to 37,000 over two years. As soon as the bond market improves, he said, the state also intends to begin work on 9,000 to 10,000 prison beds with bond funding the Legislature has approved.

"We think they're sound measures that will reduce our prison population in a safe way over time," Cate said. But he said a federal court order is "a dangerous precedent" that, state officials believe, violates a federal law limiting judges' authority over prisons.

The issue flared in the Legislature last month when Schwarzenegger attached his population-reduction plan to a $1.2 billion cut in prison spending. Republicans refused to approve any prisoner releases and threatened to hold up the entire state budget, forcing the governor to withdraw the details while leaving the spending cuts in place. Lawmakers will decide how to reduce the prison budget when they return to Sacramento late this month.

www.sfgate.com