Cash crisis forces California to free 55,000 prisoners
The debt-ridden state can no longer afford to keep inmates in an expensive and bloated penal system
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Inmates at Mule Creek Prison in California have been moved into the gymnasium because of overcrowding
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There's not been a greater escape since Steve McQueen jumped aboard his motorcycle. The state of California has been ordered to release more than 55,000 prison inmates to ease pressure on its ailing penal system.
Federal judges ruled last week that California's 33 adult jails have become so overcrowded that they violate the constitutional rights of inmates, subjecting them to "cruel and unusual" punishment that is causing at least one death a month. Just over a third of the state's 158,000 prisoners must be set free by 2012 to ensure that basic healthcare is provided to those who remain behind, the judges said. The majority will go through early release and parole schemes.
Critics claim the ruling amounts to throwing open the doors of the biggest prison system in America, and will endanger the public. California's Attorney General, Jerry Brown, announced an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court, saying: "This order is a blunt instrument that does not recognise the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals, many of whom are deeply disturbed."
Jerry Powers, who heads the state's chief probation officers' association, called it "a game of Russian roulette".
But regardless of their concerns, something needs to be done: California's prison population has increased by nearly 80 per cent since 1990, and its penitentiaries are operating at nearly double their intended capacity of 84,000. A rise in the number of elderly prisoners is also affecting resources; 11 per cent of inmates are aged 50 or over and the average cost of housing a single prisoner is now $46,000 (£32,000) a year.
Building more prisons is not an option, since state finances are in such disarray that public workers are forced to take two unpaid days' leave each month. The state government is running an annual deficit of $12bn.
The prison crisis is not limited to California. In Des Moines, Iowa, county officials plan to start charging prisoners for toilet paper. Michigan, where Detroit has America's highest murder rate, will release 4,000 prisoners who have served their minimum sentences. New Jersey, Carolina and Vermont are putting drug-addicted offenders into treatment rather than prison. Louisiana, which has one of the highest incarceration rates in the developed world, is hoping to reform a system that spends more on prisons than on higher education.
These measures are controversial in a nation that views prison as a place for retribution rather than rehabilitation. Many states have a "three strikes" rule that means relatively petty criminals are given life sentences.
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It has been 20 years since the first legal action which finally culminated in the release order by the federal judges. We shall hear the "public safety threat" by our politicians and law enforcement. However, when I attended the hearings I heard the release program discussed in detail, and no prisoner will just be returned to the community without a review and a release program. The statistics accepted by the defense, i.e. the State of CA, shows that the number of parolees in a community has nothing to do with the crime rate. This fear mongering about public safety is a farce, an excuse to build more prisons, lock up and warehouse more people, and do nothing about rehabilitation, job training, education and incentives for people to come out and become productive members of our community again. Most men and women behind bars are not violent and are not a threat to our communities. Let us rise up and stop this insanity and spend our tax dollar on the public good not on the prison industrial complex.
This all started aroudn teh time the cowboy president, Reagan, decided that we couldn't run mental hospitals, and turned out the mentally ill, only to have them put into the for pforit prison system. And it was he who turned a gov't run justice system over to the for profit sector, assuring that there would be on incentive to keep people OUT fo the system, but every incentive to put them in. And now we have more people in the system than any other country in the world. 5% of the world's population, 25% of the world's prisoners. And that is 2 million in jail or prison and another 6 million on probation.
If you look at the stats about the incarceration rates in this country, they were pretty much level until Reagan, when they skyrocketed, and have stayed foolishly high ever since. We are bankrupting ourselves to house non violent drug users, petty criminals and DUI offenders, while Cheney brags about having ordered torture and stays a free man. America doesn't have a justice system, we have got what Richard Pryor called a "JUST US" system.
Funny how you keep reading about this in the UK press, and not a word about it in our press across the pond...
In 2007, CDCR returned 92,628 parolees to prison--twice the national average and twice the number sentenced for actual crimes by actual judges. The vast bulk of these were for technical violations, such as missing an appointment, failing to provide a cell phone number, or turning in a dirty pee test. It would be one thing if parole officers actually knew which of these things lead to criminal reoffending, but criminologists tell us that this expertise does not exist because the underlying research simply has not been done.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m
California's much touted 70% recidivism rate is not actual criminal recidivism; it reflects the zero-tolerance jumpiness of POs who are looking for any excuse to send people back, because overcrowded prisons provide job security, more riots to justify pay raises, and very, very lucrative overtime. We have prison guards with high school educations pulling down more money than tenured university professors and, as a group, they are notoriously open to self-dealing and abuses of authority.
The Temple of the Tooth Relic, a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site in the hill country of Kandy came under an LTTE suicide bomb attack in the early hours of January 25th, 1998 as a suicide bomber drove a massive explosive laden truck into the Temple killing at least 17 people including 2-year old infant.
- A moratorium on the use of the death penalty which is an outrageous drain on resources (not to mention a violation of the basic right to life enshrined in the UDHR)
AND
- Liberalising the laws regulating recreational drug use.
2nd If prisoners are getting let out because you cant keep them in jail anymore what is going to stop them from doing another crime if they already know that the jails cant seem to take them in since they are to crowded???
3rd If prisoners are let out and they cant find a job wont they be more likely to cause more crime again??
4th Why cant the government have them work and pay for their cells??
I'm thinking this is going to lead to more crime and new criminals because everyone is going to be competing for a job to get food and support themselves or their families.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w
Since the cost of housing is a legitimate concern that is pushing state and local municipalities across America into debt, it is time to address reducing prison populations by thinking outside the box and viable, result-driven, non-traditional methods.
The growing illegal alien population taking up space in our prison system should not be there. Those that are not guilty of the most heinous of crimes should be GPS Chipped, then deported.
As Investors Business Daily reported in March 2005:
"The U.S. Justice Department estimated that 270,000 illegal immigrants served jail time nationally in 2003. Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some estimates show illegal aliens make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces."
Remove illegal immigrants housed in prison and costs will return to more manageable numbers. It really is that simple.
Alcohol and Tobacco are controlled drugs that are regulated and taxed. They each have their own concerns regarding abuse and impact they cause and create. Marijuana is not so different. Myths exist, but are easy to counter and disprove as continuing research since the 1970's shows.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/fac
At one time, marijuana was controlled, regulated and taxed just like alcohol and tobacco. Our economy isn't what it used to be, jobs are not readily available to our U.S. Citizens, and poorly run banks, businesses, and industries have cause tremendous financial damage and strain to our great nation that will take years to correct.
This is why it makes sense to restore marijuana to being a controlled, regulated, and taxed product. Not only would this free ten of thousands of people currently in prison due to marijuana offenses. but the state and local municipalities would benefit and gain from the increased revenue, while the law enforcement community can better focus on more serious crimes and criminals.
I may be called radical for recommending illegal aliens are removed from our overcrowded prisons and deported to their own countries and in suggesting restoring previous policies regarding marijuana; but thankfully - I'm not the only one.
Hugo Penteado from Brazil
When the U.S. decieds to smarten up, they will realise that they spend so much time and tax payers money on imprisoning drug users... most of which are arrested for simple drugs like Marijuana or Shrooms. The "change" Obama needs to make is to legalise Marijuana so then they can release all the prisoner which in turn will decrease the amount of money spent on inmates.
Honestly, the one of the dumbest laws created by the U.S. involves making Marijuana illegal... when will we smarten up?
As I said, at the root of the prison crisis is mandatory sentencing. And what is the root of the crisis is our own collective darkness, our desire for revenge, our idea that harming someone because we believe that they harmed someone is a viable course of action. In fact, revenge is a never-ending cycle. Of course, we must isolate people who are so damaged that they are a danger to themselves and/or others, but as is common knowledge to anyone familiar with the state of the less and less accurately named Justice System, that is a small fraction of the people who are imprisoned in the former Land of the Free. To be afraid of people who are no threat to anyone's safety is not only cowardice, it's not sensible. Let's call "Victimless Crimes" what they are- Criminalized Behavior" , putting the onus on the Power junkies, control freaks and fear mongers, instead of on their victims. Obviously no one should be imprisoned for Marijuana, yet millions are. And for those who are no threat to anyone but for whom it seems necessary to exact some kind of compensation for their misdeeds, certainly given the many difficulties facing the United States at this time, we have no lack of projects that we could assign to these people that would provide mutual benefit instead of the mutual harm that is currently being quite adequately supplied by our prison system. Their are roadways and bridges that need restructuring, lakes, rivers and waterways that need cleaning, a million projects great and small that would benefit all involved.
Not only will the public have to fear for their houses being repossesed, but for their lives!!
''Oh look darling, we have some new neighbours. I heard the father was charged for drug dealling. Wonder if the kids could arrange for a play date...''
This is vile to think of!
Mark from current buy to let mortgage rates
I shudder to think that this will be the status-quo for a while to come. I will make no judgment on early release, here. But, I have already encountered the germ of danger that could become something much worse, and, I will probably stop giving money to panhandlers all together now. The next time, I may lose my wallet, or worse. There were no cops sitting outside the 7-11 that night, but there were outside the Albertson's 24-hour store in Signal Hill later. There, I moved as quickly as possible to my car, my hands shaking a bit as I fumbled with my keys. I hate this. I hope they figure something out, soon.
Dean Allen