Judges tell California to cut prisoner count by 10,000

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES | Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:45pm EDT

(Reuters) - A panel of federal judges ordered California on Thursday to ease overcrowding in state prisons by reducing the number of inmates by about 10,000 this year, and criticized in harsh terms what they described as foot-dragging in dealing with the matter.

The three-judge panel also repeated an earlier warning to potentially hold California Governor Jerry Brown in contempt if a reduction plan is not implemented. The governor said he would seek a stay of the ruling.

California, the nation's most populous state, has been under court orders to reduce inmate numbers in its 33-prison system since 2009, when the same three-judge panel ordered it to relieve overcrowding that has caused inadequate medical and mental healthcare.

The issue has become a political football for Brown, partly because reducing the population in state prisons has meant that local jurisdictions have to host some convicts in county jails who previously would have been sent to state prisons.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-usa-california-prisons-idUSBRE95J17W20130620

[BobbyBoring]

1. I bet a bunch of them are in for pot

Makes no fucking sense!

[alp227]

2. Sacramento Bee/McClatchy: Judges order California to immediately release prisoners

For decades, California's political leaders have tried every imaginable approach to dealing with its overcrowded prisons - sending inmates out of state, fighting the federal courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, promising more prison beds and insisting that it has done plenty to cut inmate populations and improve health care.

On Thursday, a panel of three federal judges said they have had enough.

In a sharp rebuke of Gov. Jerry Brown, the judges said the state must take immediate steps to release inmates toward compliance with the panel's 2009 order that the prison population be reduced to 137.5 percent of capacity, an order the U.S. Supreme Court later adopted.

"The history of this litigation is of defendants' repeated failure to take the necessary steps to remedy the constitutional violations in its prison system," the panel wrote in a scathing 51-page order and opinion that demands the state immediately slash inmate levels or face a contempt citation.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/20/5512376/judges-order-california-to-immediately.html

[Spirochete]

3. Let me guess...

they're planning a medical marijuana sweep, and are going to need the room?

[Art_from_Ark]

4. You might be on to something there

[panzerfaust]

5. So how is that "Three Strikes, You're Out" thingy working out for California?

2003 Data (Can't find any more recent)

In 1994, analysts predicted that Three Strikes would result in over 100,000 additional inmates in state prison by 2003. Clearly, that rate of growth has not occurred.
http://www.lao.ca.gov/2005/3_strikes/3_strikes_102005.htm

However, this suggests there *might* be a problem

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cjpp.2013.5.issue-2/cjpp-2012-0008/cjpp-2012-0008.xml

[Turbineguy]

6. That's why California needs to get rid of Jerry Brown.

Why waste money on education when you could be building more prisons?