Supreme Court orders California to release tens of thousands of prison inmates

[Kat Kanning]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/sc-dc-0524-court-prisons-web-20110523,0,2337401.story

The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused 'suffering and death.' In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns 'terrible things are sure to happen.'

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Inmates at dinner

Inmates sit for dinner at the California State Prison in Lancaster. A federal overseer of the state's prison system has suggested freeing the sickest inmates as a way to cut costs. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times / June 10, 2010)
By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau

May 23, 2011, 8:56 a.m.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ordered California on Monday to release tens of thousands of its prisoners to relieve overcrowding, saying that "needless suffering and death" had resulted from putting too many inmates into facilities that cannot hold them in decent conditions.

It is one of the largest prison release orders in the nation's history, and it sharply split the high court.

Justices upheld an order from a three-judge panel in California that called for releasing 38,000 to 46,000 prisoners. Since then, the state has transferred about 9,000 state inmates to county jails. As a result, the total prison population is now about 32,000 more than the capacity limit set by the panel.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, speaking for the majority, said California's prisons had "fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements" because of overcrowding. As many as 200 prisoners may live in gymnasium, he said, and as many as 54 prisoners share a single toilet.

Kennedy insisted that the state had no choice but to release more prisoners. The justices, however, agreed that California officials should be given more time to make the needed reductions.

In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia called the ruling "staggering" and "absurd."

He said the high court had repeatedly overruled the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for ordering the release of individual prisoners. Now, he said, the majority were ordering the release of "46,000 happy-go-lucky felons." He added that "terrible things are sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order." Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with him.

In a separate dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the ruling conflicted with a federal law intended to limit the power of federal judges to order a release of prisoners.

State officials and lawyers for inmates differ over just how many prisoners will have to be released. In recent figures, the state said it had about 142,000 inmates behind bars, and the judges calculated the prison population would need to be reduced to about 110,000 to comply with constitutional standards.

Kennedy said the judges in California overseeing the prison-release order should "accord the state considerable latitude to find mechanisms and make plans" that are "consistent with the public safety."

The American Civil Liberties Union said the court had "done the right thing" by addressing the "egregious and extreme overcrowding in California's prisons."

David Fathi, director of the ACLU national prison project, said "reducing the number of people in prison not only would save the state taxpayers half a billion annually, it would lead to the implementation of truly rehabilitative programs that lower recidivism rates and create safer communities."

Meanwhile, the court took no action on another California case in which a conservative group is challenging the state's policy of granting in-state tuition at its colleges and universities to students who are illegal immigrants and have graduated from its high schools.

The justices said they would consider the appeal in a later private conference.

[Lloyd Danforth]

After they release all of the 'perpetrators' of non-victim crimes, they should release Sirhan Sirhan and the guy with the swastica on his head, whose name escapes me....Manson!

[littlehawk]

They let em out yet keep passing more laws to imprison others. Can you say revolving door?

Legalize POT! DAMMITT!

[Russell Kanning]

can you imagine that 40,000 are the extra prisoners? that is staggering
they are 50% overcrowded?

[Jim Johnson]

At one point they were 100% overcrowded, twice the number of prisoners than California had facilities to hold.
Besides the nonviolent drug offenders many of the current prisoners are just Bad Daddys short on cash.
They are going to be shipping many of the prisoners to other States' prison systems.  The prisoners that will be moved will probably be medium security prisoners with long sentences.

[highline]

The unjust imprisonment this country engages in puts Apartheid, the Soviet Union, and China (all combined) to shame.

[Russell Kanning]

that is a huge amount of prisoners

[Jim Johnson]

Almost half of the women being held in California prisons are nonviolent and not serious.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/13/california-may-send-thousands-of-female-prisoners-home/?hpt=hp_t2

CNN
September 13th, 2011
12:23 PM ET

Thousands of women inmates from California prisons could soon be released to be reunited with their families under a program the state began implementing on Monday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said offenders whose crimes were nonviolent, nonserious and not sexual, with less than two years remaining on their sentences, are eligible for the Alternative Custody Program, which was signed into law in 2010 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Approximately two-thirds of CDCR's female inmates are mothers whose children are either with relatives or are in foster care," CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said in a press release. "ACP is a step in breaking the intergenerational cycle of incarceration, as family involvement is one of the biggest indicators of an inmate's rehabilitation."

About 45% of the state's 10,000 female inmates may be eligible for the program, the CDCR said. It may be made available to male inmates in the future, the department said.

Those admitted to the program will wear electronic monitors and be supervised by a parole agent, the CDCR said. They can serve their remaining time at home or in a residential substance-abuse or transitional-care facility, according to the agency.

The prisoners will be allowed to find jobs or attend classes during their release, the department said.

The state of California should save about $6 million a year under the program, the CDCR estimated.

California is under federal pressure to reduce inmate populations. The Supreme Court this summer upheld a lower court ruling that medical and mental health care for inmates in the state prison system falls below the level required by the Constitution.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in April a plan to reduce prison crowding by moving 33,000 low-level offenders to county jails. But the state is cash-strapped, and funding for that plan, estimated at $460 million in the first year, must be approved by voters in November.

California has the nation's largest prison system.

[Russell Kanning]

non-violent, non-serious, non-sexual ..... but worthy of jail time

[littlehawk]

Free da women!!   

[Fluff and Stuff]

They let em out yet keep passing more laws to imprison others. Can you say revolving door?

Legalize POT! DAMMITT!

While I agree that even the CA system is horrible, CA does have by far the most fair medical marijuana laws in the US and it has also recently decriminalized marijuana.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Jim, It is hardly fair to claim that these women are not serious.

[Russell Kanning]

hey .... that's just what they said
I know every few years cali turns out all sorts of prisoners .... I wonder if this time it will be a real flood

[Lloyd Danforth]

It might take a couple of percent off of their debt

[Jim Johnson]

It might take a couple of percent off of their debt

0.000016 % of their debt.

$6,000,000 is only 0.000016 percent of California's $375,000,000,000 debt.

And this is why scientific notation is handy: 6X10⁶ < 3.75X10¹¹ by so fucking much!