Posted on 02/10/2009 5:22:37 AM PST by kellynla
Reporting from Sacramento — A panel of three federal judges, saying overcrowding in state prisons has deprived inmates of their right to adequate healthcare, tentatively ruled Monday that the state must reduce the population in those lockups by as many as 57,000 people.
The judges issued the decisionafter a trial in two long-running cases brought by inmates to protest the state of medical and mental healthcare in the prisons.
Although their order is not final, U.S. District Court Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt effectively told the state that it had lost the trial and would have to make dramatic changes in its prisons unless it could reach a settlement with inmates' lawyers.
State officials immediately said they would appeal.
If the state is ordered to reduce the prison population, it would likely be able to do so over two or three years, so it would not have to release large numbers of inmates at once. Some methods of cutting the population include limiting new admissions, changing policies so parole violators return to prison less frequently, and giving prisoners more time off of their sentences for good behavior and rehabilitation efforts.
The judges said these types of measures could save the state more than $900 million a year in prison costs, money that could be used by cities and counties to put those who otherwise would have gone to prison into local jails or treatment programs.
The state's 33 prisons were designed for 84,000 inmates, and they now hold 158,000, nearly double their designed capacity. The rest of the 170,000 in the correctional system are in out-of-state prisons and other facilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It ain't rocket science! shezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
ping
Wow that’s a great solution to the fiscal crisis ... Let out all of the prisoners.
Remind me to stay out of CA.
What will that help more - crime rate or unemployment?
Deport the aliens and end the “war on drugs”....
Exactly... and not only them. That would cut more costs in healthcare, housing, crime, welfare/food stamps/medicaid/WIC, schools, law enforcement and Immigration can finally look for illegal jihadists that cover this country. Oh, and that would create many jobs (and don’t think all of them are ag or service either).
Thanks to Ahnuld, Ca is going to look like the future in Terminator.
I “think” the Bureau of Prisons reported some time ago that there were about 100K foreigners incarcerated in America.
No reason why American taxpayers should have to pay to incarcerate other countries’ criminals. At a conservative cost of 25K a year per prisoner, I "think" that's about $2.5 Trillion a year!(my calculator doesn't compute that high so I might be wrong.LOL)
Can the judges just order people not to be criminals?
Exactly! (If there were only someone in the WH as smart as you!)
Get into an argument with a lefty over the current scale of compulsory collectivism. Without fail, you are immediately charged with wanting to cut out core services - police, fire, roads, water/wastewater mains etc.
Cutting core services is what our spiteful leaders do when tax money is tight. They NEVER cut the crap. They always cut police, fire, defense, prisons - among the only things the government SHOULD be doing. All other cuts are described as “draconian”.
I don’t think truly essential services are cut solely because the cuts will prop up support for tax increases; these things are cut also because “everyone will suffer equally”. The other services are things for which the government does not (yet) have a crippling monopoly, meaning that the “rich” can largely escape any direct pain.
That is the mentality we are working with here folks.
Execute the murderers. That should do it.
If they gotta get rid of prisoners then euthanize them.
A flight home is cheaper than three hots and a cot. Ship 'em back and drop 'em off.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Is there any provision in President Hussein’s stimulus package for building prisons in California?
Not only illegal aliens, but legal resident aliens who commit felonies are subject to deportation.
But if Bush didn't have the cajones to deport illegal alien criminals, do you think Hussein will?
This is Obama’s plan to balance the budget: Perform more abortions; kill the elderly (65 and over) by restricting their health care; reduce the military 25%; eliminate the war on drugs; eliminate NASA; reduce prison populations; legalize controlled substances.
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