[Scenic Sounds]

"Arnold has had us identify the nonviolent, nonthreatening inmates," said one high-ranking corrections official working on some of the proposals. "We could probably cut the (prison) population by a third, which would be a huge savings for taxpayers and give some of these people a chance to be productive citizens again."

By all means, let's parole the nonthreatening inmates!!

Isn't it amazing how politicians spent a decade or two getting votes by promising to lock up more people and now politicians are going to be getting votes by promising to save money by releasing the nonthreatening inmates?

Why are we such suckers to play this game?

[DoughtyOne]

Why not eliminate the criminal codebook? We could save billions. Lordy, we spent decades trying to get those who supported drug cartels and violent criminals off the streets, now Arno is planning to infuse the cartel/gang pipeline with new cash. Gotta love it.

[liberty or death]

If there are 1,000,000 inmates in California then that 53,000 per inmate. These institutions are getting like schools in that the top is so heavy its about to roll over the ship.

[al baby]

All on Death row this your last supper burger fris and a coke

tommorows the day see ya

End of story

[drypowder]

give some of these people a chance to be productive citizens again

Does this mean they never had a chance? Give us a break! I may be a hard case but I believe if you do the crime, you ought to do the time. End of story.

[cake_crumb]

Not a bad idea if carefully, intelligently done...and for the threatening inmates on death row : carry it out.

[Amerigomag]

Hey Arnie. Instead of deporting illegal aliens, which is the choice of the vast majority of California citizens, you could follow Bush's lead and match willing workers to willing employers.

We could take some of our illegal guests and make them COs. They work cheap and aren't bothered by lack of a fancy retirement program.

What do you think Arnie? You'd be a hero to the Hispanic caucus, California would save millions and we'd keep in tack the deterrent value of sentencing guidelines that have dramatically reduced criminal activity in California.

We could even require these new COs to reside inside the walls and we'd have a double win-win situation

[gcruse]

most of the targeted offenders are now locked up for nonviolent, drug-related crimes

"Tommy Chong and his terrorist-enabling, perverted lifestyle, long-haired freaky people, won't see the light of day if I have to instruct every prosecutor in California to go for the death penalty wherever the demon weed rears its mind destroying head.  This ain't over."
                                 -----John Ashcroft, coming soon

[TheCrusader]

Bout time. There are crimes that deserve jail time and there are 'crimes' that do not. I never did see how creating so many new laws, creating new criminals and building new prisons all over the place fit into the American way. Especially the feminist related laws where so many men go to prison for being poor, or for "breaking" a protective orders by sending flowers or cards to their wives trying to patch things up.

Then there's all this nonsensical "mandatory jail" stuff where the Judge's power to determine extenuating or mitigating circumstances is stripped away and he is reduced to a human rubber stamp. And let's not forget all these "hate crimes" they came up with that punish the person for both the crime and his alleged thoughts. Of courese there's the Draconian "three strikes" laws that turn life into a sporting event and sends 'career criminals' away for life for doing such horrible things as stealing a pizza or a bag of golf clubs, (yes, these are on record in CA). Then there's the WOD that sometimes sends a highschool kid to jail for possession of a roach.

Let's face it, there are way too many people in jails today for committing the pettiest of crimes, and way too many wealthy, famous or politically connected criminals who are always found not guilty. It's become a system of whose got the connections, fame and $$$$$$$ more now than ever before. The famous entertainer type will almost always walk, the wealthy will more often than not buy 'justice', those connected to the "law enforcement system" are specially privileged, and the poor fill the prisons.

I didn't grow up in an America like this and it's nice to see things beginning to change somewhere.

[byteback]

I was working for the Army a few years ago and it was near a women's prison. We used the prisoners as cheap labor and they were all in for being drug mules for their boyfriends. Basically they get duped into hauling the drugs and because of the poundage get these mandatory sentences while the real dealers stay scot free.

Seems to me that they had no idea of the possible penalty when they agreed to drive a pick-up full of weed around and didn't intend to hurt anyone. Maybe I'm just a sucker but I never felt threatened around the prisoners.

[taxcontrol]

Heck I've got a better idea. Lets issue .45's with 7 rounds of ammo to each of the prisoners and tell them we will pardon the last man standing.

It would save millions.

[William Tell]

From the article: "Administration sources said the ideas are driven by California's fiscal problems and, if successful, could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year. "

Until Kalifornia decides to stop threatening me with prison for having a pistol grip on a rifle, I will not believe that they are serious about avoiding bankruptcy.

And I am certainly NOT going to approve borrowing $15 billion dollars to help them avoid the unintended consequences of their tyranny.

[ReagansShinyHair]

Both times that our old house in California was burglarized, I didn't think it was really a big deal because, after all, it was non-violent. /sarcasm

[101viking]

The mandatory sentencing guidelines were absurd to begin with. Created because liberal Judges used their benches as bully-pulpits for activism. When the state took away discretionary senetencing from the bench, with it went justice. While something had to be done about liberal activist judges, mandatory senetencing was not the answer.

[vladog]

And hear I thought the firing squads were going to get busy.

[heleny]

identify the nonviolent, nonthreatening inmates

Gray Davis or our Democrat-dominated legislature considered releasing "nonviolent" inmates about a year ago. Kentucky did it last year, and one of the "nonviolent" convicts raped a young woman soon after his early release.

The problem is that the "nonviolent" category of crimes includes crimes I might consider violent but don't meet the requirements to be considered "violent."

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[Sir Gawain]

"With all due respect to the governor, people in the penitentiary are there for serious crimes and they ought to serve their full sentences."

Like Tommy Chong.