Supreme Court orders release of over 30,000 prisoners in California to … improve health care

Hotair ^ | 05/23/2011 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

California will have to release over 30,000 inmates from its prison system to comply with a Supreme Court ruling earlier today. The court cited chronic violations of inmates’ rights in its 5-4 decision. The reductions will improve the delivery of health care services to the remaining inmates, claims the majority:

The Supreme Court on Monday endorsed a court order requiring California to cut its prison population by tens of thousands of inmates to improve health care for those who remain behind bars.

The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is “required by the Constitution” to correct longstanding violations of inmates’ rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system’s designed capacity.

There are more than 142,000 inmates in the state’s 33 adult prisons, meaning roughly 32,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released.

Anthony Kennedy joined the four liberal jurists in the decision, while the four conservatives were aghast at the implications. Calling the ruling “perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation’s history,” Antonin Scalia’s dissent predicted a higher number of releases, 46,000. Those may end up going to county jurisdictions rather than state prisons, or perhaps sent to other states with more room in their penal system, but that will cost California money the state simply doesn’t have.

The immediate effect of the order will almost certainly be a large-scale release. That will increase pressure on an already-overburdened parole system and send career criminals back to ply their trade in communities throughout the state — and the country. The increased costs on communities won’t help the state improve medical care to prisoners; it’s more likely to sap the state’s treasury.

This poses other questions as well. What is California supposed to do with convicts now? If they can’t add to the current level of inmates, then they’re going to have to release even more on a one-for-one basis, putting revolving doors on the prisons again. The same will be true in other states, which had joined California in opposing the order, which now have to operate under a new Supreme Court mandate on prison populations.

The state could build more prisons, which would solve the problem. Unfortunately, California spent its money on practically everything but new prisons over the last few decades. The average age of their prisons was 55 years in 2009′s report from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. California has a responsibility to invest in its prison infrastructure, as well as a responsibility to provide for the safety and basic health needs of its inmates. But the Supreme Court has its own responsibility to keep criminals from victimizing their communities, too. This looks like a big failure all the way around.

[blueunicorn6]

I was really mad about this yesterday, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought there might be some good from this. Those 46,000 thugs aren’t going to go to Beverly Hills. They will, for the most part, return to areas that vote Democrat. There are naturally occurring consequences to stupid decisions and behaviors. For many years, the Republicans have had to come in and clean up after the Democrats like parents cleaning up after a drunken teenage party. This has enabled the Democrats to continue on in their dysfunctional ways while they blame everything on the Republicans. Now, when a tsunami of crime hits the Democrat voting areas, they can all thank Jerry Brown and Nancy and Barbara and...

[Texas resident]

When the tsunami of crime hits.
Think of what a liberal governer would do with that situation.
And the supremes won’t stop with California.

[Foolsgold]

Fire all prison guards send all prisoners to Texas at one third the cost (or even half), budget balanced and more thug union hung up to dry.

[WMarshal]

They should follow sherif Joe’s solution and create “tent cities” in the Mojave Desert to house inmates. It is cheap and it has worked for us in Phoenix. Nobody wants to go back twice.

[Captain Kirk]

We agree but the root of the crowding problem are victimless crimes, especially the war on drugs, and our reliance on incarceration rather than restitution for non-violent offenders..

[newzjunkey]

Back in 2007, Arnold & the Legislature passed AB900 which was aimed at solving overcrowding by, among other things, adding 40,000 new beds via prison construction. The federal courts, however, no other solution was good enough EXCEPT releasing prisoners.

Unfortunately, now the Supreme Court has set a precedent and courts all over the nation will now be in the business of determining what “overcrowding” is instead of the voters. This will spark a flurry of lawsuits since many prison systems are overcrowded.

And each of those lawsuits will lower the bar further and further on what constitutes "overcrowding" just like they've made it harder and harder to execute prisoners by finding new ways to call methods of execution "cruel and unusual."

[Vaduz]

Prison guards union may fight it because for every 45 prisoners released one guard gets terminated.

[precisionshootist]

“We agree but the root of the crowding problem are victimless crimes, especially the war on drugs, and our reliance on incarceration rather than restitution for non-violent offenders..”

Yes we do agree. Is it just me or is government so big and out of control it appears we will never be able to fix it?

[goat granny]

If I were head of that state I’d tell the Supremes to come open the gates themselves. Our citizens have enough trouble and don’t need 40000 felons turned loose.. Doesn’t anyone have any cohones left...

[stocksthatgoup]

Being that the Federal Bureau of Prisons does not break down or have a category for “undocumented migrant workers” I doubt that anyone can give an accurate or true answer. But please let me explain those given percentages of “25-30%” and “at least 30 percent”. (in part)

‘Quick Facts About the Bureau of Prisons” {my added parenthesizes}

“Inmate Population
Total population: 209,360
Total sentenced population: 190,571
Inmates in BOP facilities: 172,530
Inmates in privately-managed secure facilities {1}: 22,665
Inmates in other contract facilities {2}: 14,165

1 Includes inmates housed in privately-managed secure facilities under contract with the BOP or with a state or local government that has an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the BOP.
2 Includes inmates housed in community corrections centers, home confinement, jail/short-term detention, contract juveniles, and long-term boarders.

“Inmate Breakdown”

Inmates By Security Level
Minimum: 17.3 % Low: 38.0 % Medium: 29.3 % High: 11.0 % Unclassified1: 4.2 %

Inmates By Gender
Male: 195,899 (93.6 %)
Female: 13,461 (6.4 %)

Inmates By Race
White: 120,991 (57.8 %)
Black: 81,048 (38.7 %)
Native American: 3,766 (1.8 %)
Asian: 3,555 (1.7 %)

Ethnicity
Hispanic: 69,055 (33.0 %)

Inmate Age
Average Inmate Age: 39

Citizenship
United States: 154,769 (73.9 %)
Mexico: 36,610 (17.5 %)
Colombia: 2,602 (1.2 %)
Cuba: 1,754 (0.8 %)
Dominican Republic: 2,562 (1.2 %)
Other/Unknown: 11,063 (5.3 %)

1 These inmates have not yet been assigned a security level.
http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp#2
http://www.bop.gov/news/weekly_report.js…;

[sheik yerbouty]

Let those who were responsible for this travesty do the time left on all the sentences..

[jerseyrocks]

Great idea.