Saturday, August 08, 2009
(photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
With California’s prison system at nearly 200% capacity, a panel of federal judges has ordered the state to release tens of thousands of inmates to alleviate overcrowding that was deemed cruel and unusual punishment. Nearly 43,000 prisoners may be freed over the next two years as a result of the court’s ruling, which accused California of fostering “criminogenic” conditions that make it more likely that convicted criminals will break the law again once they’re released back into society.
Currently, the state’s correctional system—built to hold 84,000 inmates—houses 158,000, many of whom are forced to live in prison gymnasiums and sleep in triple-tier bunks. These makeshift arrangements have left prisoners exposed to infectious diseases. A shortage of prison doctors, nurses and technicians has only exacerbated the problem.
State officials were already discussing a plan for early release of some inmates as part of the budget solution that took more than a billion dollars away from the prison system. But the federal order far exceeds what Democratic lawmakers and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had in mind. Attorney General Jerry Brown, who may seek the Democratic nomination for governor next year, said he plans to appeal the ruling.
Kara Dansky, executive director of the Stanford University Criminal Justice Center, told The New York Times that the ruling was “an extraordinary form of federal involvement.” She added: “I’m not aware of any other case in which a federal court has entered a prison release of this magnitude over the objection of a state defendant.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Judges Order State to Release Nearly 43,000 Prisoners in Next Two Years (by Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times)
California Prisons Must Cut Inmate Population (by Solomon Moore, New York Times)
Federal Court Ruling on Prisoner Releases (U.S. District Courts of California) (PDF)
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