Community | May 23, 2011 | 68 comments

Supreme Court upholds order for California to release 46,000 inmates. Oh My God !

source: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-california-inmate-release-20110524,0,2921563.story?track=r...

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MisterWizard
Court upholds order for California to release 46,000 inmates

Reporting from Washington— The Supreme Court, in a narrow 5-4 decision, has an upheld an injunction by a three-judge panel ordering California to release about 46,000 inmates -- more than one-fourth the state prison population -- over the next two years to relieve overcrowding.

The decision was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and backed by the court's liberal bloc. At issue was whether federal judges had the power to order the release of state prisoners as a necessary means of curing a constitutional violation.

A special panel of three judges ruled in 2009 that inmates in the state's 33 prisons were being denied adequate medical care as required by the Constitution. Because overcrowding was the "primary cause," they ordered the state to cap its prison population at 137% of capacity.

The court said the state's prisons had "short of minimum constitutional requirements" and "needless suffering and death" have resulted.

Kennedy noted, however, that the state had begun to reduce overcrowding and said officials deserve time to make changes. The dissenters, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, called the decision "staggering" and "absurd." It "takes the federal courts wildly beyond their institutional capacity," he wrote.
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68 comments // Supreme Court upholds order for California to release 46,000 inmates. Oh My God !

  • letsliveinpeace
  • Dejan_Croatia
  • letsliveinpeace
  • 14_Crusaders
    • 0
      14_Crusaders  

    • You know it costs the state of California 60,000 dollars to house one prisoner ayear.."WHAT"...If the state OWNS the prison...where does that money go..Is it 10,000 for uniforms 10,000 in food,, 10,000 in safey..guards! 10,000 in medical ok that'll be 20,000..Oh! Wait...10,000 in weight sets...so the ones that go in skinny can all come out looking like the Kalifornianator...

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
    • 0
      14_Crusaders  

    • I think that in the near future of California....it should be made a prison state...as to..build a 6 story wall all around the state..and house all the prisoners from all around the US...Let them fend for them selfs...California is starting off to a good start already..we have more prisons then any other state in the US...I can name 4 with in my area..Chowchilla State Prison for women - Avanal State prison - Atwater federal prison - Mendota Federal Prison - All within 1 hour and ahalf from my house....And the government should give farmers land in other states..and corporations and smaller business owner business else where....And all the people money for their homes for relocation to other states.....

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
    • 0
      14_Crusaders  

    • @ Paratus:
      It means:: All criminals, move to California..where getting in trouble means nothing.....Where you have more rights then the general public...Well now..since this is happening..I guess my parent shouldn't have to pay city or state taxes..for law enforcement..Fire all the police in Kalifornia....Close down all the courts

    • 12 months ago
  • 14_Crusaders
    • 0
      14_Crusaders  

    • @ Leen61..Releasing them..will turn them into Hard core criminals. Releasing them will teach them that it's ok to commit more petty crimes....That it's ok that the government wont do anything to them for now on......

    • 12 months ago
  • Blueshound9
    • 0
      Blueshound9  

    • I'm all for letting the non-violent pot offenders out but we need to be careful about all non-violent offenders.

      Off the top of my head a crack dealer with a gun is non-violent unless he was caught using it, Burglars, car thieves, fraudsters, etc. etc.

      Bernie Madoff was non violent and so are the "wall street criminals" that everyone loves to hate.

    • 1 year ago
  • manfreddrake
  • Leen61
    • 0
      Leen61  

    • I have no problem with this because so many inmates are in for such petty violations, especially misdemeanor drug charges, that this many could be released without many hard core criminals hitting the street.

    • 1 year ago
  • Omle_Du_Fromage
  • Mark701
    • 0
      Mark701  

    • "the dissenters, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, called the decision "staggering" and "absurd."

      Translation: What! You mean we someone went against us and won?!?!?!

    • 1 year ago
  • Jeremy_Benson
    • 0
      Jeremy_Benson  

    • Despite the fear mongering that has been attached to this story over the past few months, these inmates are petty criminals, most of whom were sent to jail for something stupid like possession of under an ounce of marijuana. California had a major no-tolerance policy that needlessly sent a lot of people to jail who probably shouldn't have been.

    • 1 year ago
  • tverdell
  • ninetyseven
  • damush
    • 0
      damush  

    • This is nothing compared to the only stock that never falls in any kind of recession. For the Block family - it's a tax write off.

    • 1 year ago
  • mii
    • +2
      mii  

    • We need to make room for REAL criminals like
      some activist members of the Supreme Court and
      GWB and his band of arrogant incompetents.

    • 1 year ago
  • MisterWizard
    • 0
      MisterWizard  
    • Image

    • http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/05/24/us/SCOTUS/SCOTUS-articleLarge.jpg
      Justices, 5-4, Tell California to Cut Prisoner Population
      WASHINGTON — Conditions in California’s overcrowded prisons are so bad that they violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, ordering the state to reduce its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates.
      The majority opinion included photographs of inmates crowded into open gymnasium-style rooms and what Justice Kennedy described as “telephone-booth-sized cages without toilets” used to house suicidal inmates. Suicide rates in the state’s prisons, Justice Kennedy wrote, have been 80 percent higher than the average for inmates nationwide. A lower court in the case said it was “an uncontested fact” that “an inmate in one of California’s prisons needlessly dies every six or seven days due to constitutional deficiencies.”

      Monday’s ruling in the case, Brown v. Plata, No. 09-1233, affirmed an order by a special three-judge federal court requiring state officials to reduce the prison population to 110,000, which is 137.5 percent of the system’s capacity. There have been more than 160,000 inmates in the system in recent years, and there are now more than 140,000.

      Prison release orders are rare and hard to obtain, and even advocates for prisoners’ rights said Monday’s decision was unlikely to have a significant impact around the nation.

      “California is an extreme case by any measure,” said David C. Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, which submitted a brief urging the justices to uphold the lower court’s order. “This case involves ongoing, undisputed and lethal constitutional violations. We’re not going to see a lot of copycat litigation.”

    • 1 year ago
  • savroD
  • sageohio
  • Paratus
    • -2
      Paratus  

    • Well if CA confines this release to inmates who are incarcerated for such things as possession of pot only or other crimes for which there is no victim I am not unduly upset about this. However, they are there because they violated California law. What does this say about the great liberal enclave of CA that this would be a problem?
      If CA releases people crime offenders back into the population that would not be so wonderful. I am not very optimistic that the prison people are smart enough to differentiate between the two. That said, I do share Justice Scalias, one of the few on the bench with a brain and common sense, concern that this may turn out to be a bad thing.
      Send the illegals back to their country of origin with a tatoo on their forehead so we may know them when they enter again. It will make a nice target.

    • 1 year ago
  • hombre76
  • Paratus
    • -2
      Paratus  
    • hombre76:

      No, no mark of the beast. That is reserved for things such as national ID cards that liberals would like. No, the tatoo would enable identification at extreme ranges when viewed through a scope.

    • 1 year ago
  • moodyblue
  • tverdell
  • Mark701
  • Paratus
  • Paratus
    • 0
      Paratus  
    • Mark701:

      You guys really don't have any other response other than insult do you. Many passed that point in elementary school but a lot of people here take it to the next level. Someone says something yo disagree with and your response is that he hatched from a reptile egg and never knew his father. Do you have any idea how sophmoric and pitiful this makes you sound? Thanks for the laugh, oh I am laughing at you.

    • 1 year ago
  • Littlewolf
    • +2
      Littlewolf  

    • Looks like Wackenhut and Correction Corp of America forgot to pay their lobbyists/politicians and "We the People" won - this time. Scalia & Alito, true to form, remain America's pinnacle of judicial disgrace.

    • 1 year ago
  • GENERALNATTY
    • +3
      GENERALNATTY  

    • 3 strikes law has guys going away for life for stealing a snickers bar and then surprise surprise, california is broke a few years later writing I.O.U's considering legalizing marijuana to help pull it out of the red and ends up releasing as much prisoners as there are soldiers in iraq right now lol.

      Classic case of bit off more than you can chew.

    • 1 year ago
  • ThirdSection
  • totally_dilapidated
  • jubal
  • simplecj
  • letsliveinpeace
    • +4
      letsliveinpeace  
    • Image

    • DISSENTERS FEAR RISE IN CRIME RATE

      One of the dissenting justices, Samuel Alito, disagreed by writing: "I fear that today's decision, like prior prisoner release orders, will lead to a grim roster of victims."

      California argued that forcing it to release inmates would increase murders and crime.

      Donald Specter, an attorney for the inmates, hailed the ruling.

      "This landmark decision will not only help prevent prisoners from dying of malpractice and neglect but it will make the prisons safer for the staff, improve public safety and save the taxpayers billions of dollars," he said.

      The dramatic rise in California's prison population had been fueled by tough sentencing laws adopted during the 1990s.

      The United States has more than 2 million people in state and local prisons. It has long had highest incarceration rate in the world.

      California has been lowering its prison population from a recent high of 167,000 inmates through changes in parole and sentencing policies and by transferring inmates to private prisons in other states. Prison suicide and murder rates have fallen with fewer inmates.

      In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the Supreme Court had upheld "what is perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history."

      The Supreme Court case is Brown v. Plata, No. 09-1233.

    • 1 year ago
  • August_K
    • +6
      August_K  
    • letsliveinpeace:

      "The dramatic rise in California's prison population had been fueled by tough sentencing laws adopted during the 1990s."

      Yep, their stupid 3 strikes law that gives shoplifters life in prison.
      If they release the non-violent ones that got nailed by that law.....I'm for it.

    • 1 year ago
  • MisterWizard
    • +1
      MisterWizard  
    • letsliveinpeace:

      They have every right to be concerned. What California now has is 46,000 released prisoners to add to the states current unemployment list. If your everyday taxpaying " Joe" can't find work in California, how's the ex-con going to find work ?

      Who's going to hire them. I'm all for fairness but this can't help but add more problems to the unemployment crisis that the state already has.

    • 1 year ago
  • JStation
    • +7
      JStation  

    • Good. It's a damn shame so many nonviolent criminals are being housed in prisons which should be reserved for the likes of gang members, sex offenders, and other violent criminals.

      This is the first step toward drawing the line between the opinion that nonviolent criminals with drug-related crimes are dangerous and the fact that drug abuse has a high rate of recovery while sex offenders do not.

    • 1 year ago
  • Clevelandchick
  • Dusty_King
  • hombre76
  • EdJoyProductions
  • ArchDruid
  • remanns
  • MisterWizard
  • JStation
  • August_K
    • +3
      August_K  
    • MisterWizard:

      They fooled the voters when they passed their 3 strikes law. It was meant for violent offenders but they tossed everyone in for life. Even for minor offenses.

      I watched a show on 60 minutes about it. Some poor old guy stole some videos for his grandkids for Xmas and he'd has two offenses from decades before when he was young and that gave him his 3rd strike and he got life for stealing less that $20 bucks worth of movies.

    • 1 year ago
  • Chukarhunter
    • +14
      Chukarhunter  

    • Being retired from that line of work, all I can say is "About Time!" I worked in the prison system for 27 years and watched it go from bad to worse over the years. The worst part being when the states started to pass laws getting tough on crime. Some states had the "Three Strikes" law. Some passed minumum sentencing law. Some even went as far as to specify crimes and the time needed to be spent in prison for the offense. And that is why we are where we are today. I knew at the time that it would only be a matter of time before the bill came due for all of this B.S. And the only reason they got passed was because it looked good on the 5:00 o'clock news. Some politician got the population all worked up into a lather and how we could cure crime. The problem was he didn't explain the cost of all this hate would cost. Nor did anyone think about the destruction of some of the lives of these young people going to prison for petty offenses. But instead of doing two years now they must do twenty. Believe it or not there are some good young people in prison. Problem is you can't save them now. Diversion programs really do work, if you give them a chance, and they are a lot cheaper. But no, we have to lock them up. Everyone will be safer. Truth is you can pat yourself on the back, avert your eyes, and walk away saying to yourself how great you are in saving the neighborhood. Well the ugly truth is about to come out and we are going to find out it wasn't such a great plan after all. Here is one truth no one can ignore, you can try, but almost all of those people we have locked up are going to get out at some time. Now what are you going to do? These young people who were saveable may not be so willing to change after twenty years for a Pot offense.

    • 1 year ago
  • northernexpat
    • +3
      northernexpat  
    • Chukarhunter:

      Very well put. There should not be a three strike rule for minor crimes. More effort is needed into preventing crime and providing places for young people to go to keep them out of trouble. Many prisoners today are only guilty of being poor and uneducated. This is why cutting Education funding is a disaster in the making.

    • 1 year ago
  • CCorsair
    • +3
      CCorsair  

    • time to get some more ammo Oh wait we can't do that I think they passed bill limiting my right stock up on ammo ..Oh well there is more than one way to fight back ...

    • 1 year ago
  • timetide
    • +9
      timetide  

    • The article left out that the court recomended letting out the non-violent pot related convicts since they contribute the largest amount of the incarcerated.

    • 1 year ago
  • unimatrix0
  • Mark701
  • NiceN
    • +5
      NiceN  

    • Well, if America didn't slowly turn into a belligerent private prison machine, this would have never happened. I swear one day if this machine doesn't end, the US will turn into Superjail.

    • 1 year ago
  • northernexpat
  • August_K
  • xhuffpo
    • +9
      xhuffpo  

    • The thing about this that bothers me is the dissenters are willing to ignore the constitution by using fear as justification.
      Screw your constitution I want to feel safe.
      I do agree that this is not the best way to do this, but if the people want to jail , jail, jail, they better be willing to pay for that jail.

    • 1 year ago
  • Chukarhunter
  • Roldan
    • +10
      Roldan  

    • Prisons are big business in the US. A form of State sanctioned slavery, really.

      This is an excerpt from: http://www.patrickcrusade.org/prison_industry_in_USA.html

      "The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."

      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
      [current background noise: Rotting on Remand ~Billy Bragg]
      Ⅲhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiSXGjVriUE Ⅲ

      A verse from this song:

      "I said there is no justice
      As they led me out of the door
      And the Judge said, "This isn't a court of justice, son
      This is a court of law."

    • 1 year ago
  • Varex_Sythe
  • floydyboy
    • +12
      floydyboy  

    • Release all non-violent drug offenders! They do not belong in jail. You're probably right though artemis6, anyone with a medical problem that is expensive to treat is probably on the top of list to get out. They're afraid of getting sued. That'd cut into their profit.

    • 1 year ago
  • cutthecrap
  • artemis6
  • timetide
  • artemis6
  • MisterWizard
  • Stoneyroad
  • MisterWizard
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