California to release about 20K prisoners
In a flurry of legislation-signing yesterday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger put a lot of new bills into law, including one to release 20,000 to 25,000 inmates from California prisons. It's estimated that this will save the state about $270 million though it's still less than the 40,000 that a panel of federal judges ordered the state to release.
California's prisons are famously over-crowded, creating all sorts of institutional problems as well as budgetary problems. Earlier this week (before the legislation was signed) lawyers representing California inmates called for the Governor to be held in contempt of court for not complying with the judges' orders and that the system cannot provide adequate mental health and medical care. Vanguard's Laura Ling reported from one of them: Corcoran State Prison.
Prison Power Play (Video)
Releasing prisoners will take some of the strain off the state, and supporters of the plan say that ever-stricter stances on crime (such as California's "Three Strikes Law") have unnecessarily put many thousands behind bars. But some are unsurprisingly nervous about a new influx of ex-cons on California's streets.
What do you think? Can California stand to release some of the pressure on its prisons system? What else could they do? Comment over here at Current News.
Also on California Prisons:
- Getting Out of Prison (Video)
- Life After Prison (Video)
- Convicts on Fire (Video)
California's prisons are famously over-crowded, creating all sorts of institutional problems as well as budgetary problems. Earlier this week (before the legislation was signed) lawyers representing California inmates called for the Governor to be held in contempt of court for not complying with the judges' orders and that the system cannot provide adequate mental health and medical care. Vanguard's Laura Ling reported from one of them: Corcoran State Prison.
Prison Power Play (Video)
Releasing prisoners will take some of the strain off the state, and supporters of the plan say that ever-stricter stances on crime (such as California's "Three Strikes Law") have unnecessarily put many thousands behind bars. But some are unsurprisingly nervous about a new influx of ex-cons on California's streets.
What do you think? Can California stand to release some of the pressure on its prisons system? What else could they do? Comment over here at Current News.
Also on California Prisons:
- Getting Out of Prison (Video)
- Life After Prison (Video)
- Convicts on Fire (Video)
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