"The California prison system must reduce overcrowding by as many as 55,000 inmates within three years to provide a constitutional level of medical and mental health care, a federal three-judge panel tentatively ruled Monday. ... 'The evidence is compelling that there is no relief other than a prisoner-release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions,' the panel said in its tentative ruling. ... The court supported its argument by citing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's own support for prison reforms, which he has said would reduce the population by about 40,000 inmates. ... The judges also indicated that they would mandate a prison population cap of about 120 percent to 145 pecent of the state's designed capacity", Solomon Moore, 10 February 2009 at the NYT, link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10prison.html.
This may have been the result Schwarzenegger wanted. Now he can "blame" the prisoner release on the Feds. See my 11 November 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/11/california-in-crisis.html.
2 comments:
Let out "drug" offenders....
Kind of like we already blame Reagan for the surplus of mentally ill in San Francisco?
You should know, Pop, that I'm pro-Reagan because when I grew up (we're talking elementary school), he was like my grandpa.
But we still blame him for releasing the mentally-ill upon California and, especially, San Francisco. It is epidemic - what was that article you sent me about SF being no better than a third world toilet? As a 10 yr resident of said third world toilet (having come from the relative sanity of the Midwest), I of all people can testify to its putridity.
And this is only one small component of California's overall illness. Prisons? Least of our concerns. If only we can contain those who rightfully belong there and protect those who do not. Yeah right.
We can't even pay taxes.
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