World

10° London Hi 14°C / Lo 8°C

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

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Inmates at Mule Creek Prison in California have been moved into the gymnasium because of overcrowding

Getty Images

Inmates at Mule Creek Prison in California have been moved into the gymnasium because of overcrowding

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.

Post a Comment

View all comments that have been posted about this article.

Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.

Comments

Federal judges rule to free prisoneres in California
[info]formaya wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 02:19 am (UTC)

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.

It's about time
[info]willmorrison wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 03:58 am (UTC)
It's about time that America get over it's infatuation with imprisoning people. It's one of the things that is bankrupting us. In my state, Colorado, we spend enough on prisons to make us third in the nation. At the same time, we are 49th of 50 in education spending.

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...
Don't get swept up in the Chicken-little hype.
[info]danielzuma wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 04:08 am (UTC)
Every month CDCR releases between 6,000 and 11,000 people, so these are people who are going to be being released anyway. Over half of them are drug offenders anyway, and most of the rest are in for property crimes that wouldn't be incarcerated in Europe. Under the proposed settlement it will be harder to send parolees back for trivial technical offences (something also advocated by the Legislative Analyst Office in the state's budget negotiations).

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_m2267/is_2_74/ai_n27366150?tag=content;col1

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.
Prison overcrowding
[info]johnnywi wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 04:53 am (UTC)
I have to agree that prisons in America are full of nonviolent offenders who should be either in rehab, probation or work camps. Prisoners should be given oppurtuinies to work and earn some money if possible. I used to do work in several prisons and many seem to just schools for training criminals.
Start, and end with all the nonviolent drug 'offenders'
[info]phillydrifter wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 06:24 am (UTC)
Start and end with all those 'felons' who were unlucky enough to be caught (or planted with) 'controlled' substances, which, since they are illegal, are the most uncontrolled substances on earth. Tobacco and alcohol should be referred to as 'controlled substances' because they actually ARE controlled, being legal and regulated. Read tinyurl.com/1mn and tinyurl.com/potconviction and see how it's not a war on (some) drugs, it's a war on minorities. Minorities who used these drugs that grow quite naturally from mother Earth without intervention from man at any time, and yet our government had the audacity to outlaw it because minorities were using them instead of drinking the white man's alcohol, and the 'grandfather clauses' that were meant to remove the recently freed slaves' right to vote were found unconstitutional, so Uncle Sam just outlawed the substances minorities were using. If that's not racist, I don't know what is. And it's sickening that our court system ever allowed them to get away with it. Absolutely sickening. Government-endorsed racism. And it's why the world is bankrupt; the drug cartels have all the money.
Tamils Tigers (LTTE) attacked the Holiest shrine in the entire Buddhist world
[info]defender005 wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 07:18 am (UTC)
Sri Dalada Maligawa, which enshrines the Tooth Relic of the Buddha, is the holiest shrine in the entire Buddhist world and to the people of Sri Lanka.

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.
Why not charge them.
[info]selfprogenius wrote:
Sunday, 15 February 2009 at 11:56 pm (UTC)
Make the prisoners finance there own incarceration, the same way college students are forced to pay.
Re: Why not charge them.
[info]stacey2501 wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 03:25 am (UTC)
Make prisoners pay! There are thousands of out-of-work mortgage brokers who could handle financing of these "freedom loans". Let the banks securitize the loans so they can be AAA rated by the rating agencies. In few years US taxpayers will pickup another bailout bill but the banks would have collected billions in fees and distributed it as bonuses. You realy are a genius, selfpro! Almost as briliant as Paulson, Berneke and the rest of the gang(sters).
End The Drug War
[info]eeyor99 wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 12:03 am (UTC)
We no longer can afford this failed policy. Regardless of how many we lock up, the streets are awash in drugs. Any one wanting to get high is getting high. Average pot farmers get longer sentences than murderers and child molesters. Does this really make us safer? It's one to two million to investigate five hundred thousand to one million plus to bring to trial and thirty eight thousand per yer to incarcerate. Pardon all non violent drug offenders now!
Legalise It
[info]nos235 wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 12:24 am (UTC)
Just free all the Cannabis Users and Voila! - Problem Solved. Legalise it and then you won'thave any more troubles. Of course taht is the SANE solution - so I don't expect the powers taht be to do it as they are beholden to an ignorant public
Too much emphasis on revenge!!
[info]samb_uk wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 12:37 am (UTC)
I suggest the following -

- 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.
No Jobs for the innocent...how will criminals get one??
[info]whatthefck760 wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 02:58 am (UTC)
1st thing is if California is in debt and people are loosing their jobs and are trying find one but cant what are they going to do???

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.
Quick fix to prison overpopulation
[info]joepolitico wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 04:26 am (UTC)
California has been order to release over 55,000 prison inmates to help reign in its out-of-control debt.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cash-crisis-forces-california-to-free-55000-prisoners-1622487.html

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/factsmyths/

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.
Shocked
[info]hugopenteado wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 11:10 am (UTC)
This is happening in the richest country of the world. Something in this model is deeply wrong. What more (planet collapse, social collapse, economic collapse, and so on) do we need to recognize that we need a different view?

Hugo Penteado from Brazil
[info]black_russian6 wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 01:51 pm (UTC)
why not just bring back the ddeath penalty? You kill, be killed, pretty simple, an eye for an eye. why coddle someone who takes another life.
Non Violent Crimes
[info]vdeva wrote:
Monday, 16 February 2009 at 05:21 pm (UTC)
I support the release of non violent criminals. I think these men and women can be reviewed with an eye to public safety. If fact I think the # of non violent criminals imprisoned is a travesty against them, their families and the public coffers. It is NOT a solution to build more prisons. California is bankrupt and needs $ for education and services and not to further punish people and support this prison industrial complex. However the release of people to an economy that cannot offer them work is risky and sad. The priorities of this state and federal government over the last decades have been shamefully neglectful of the common good.
Change?
[info]englishlad89 wrote:
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 at 01:04 am (UTC)
Is this the kind of change Obama promised? Or was it the change from sending troops from Iraq into Afaganistan?!
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?
Mother of a son who liked to fight.Got 42 yrs.no appeal
[info]sadmotherwait wrote:
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 at 09:59 am (UTC)
My son was charged with three strikes and domestic terrorisim because he was young and dumb and liked to fight.He was sent to new folsom and taught about gladiator games he was shot in the stomach and behind the knee by rubber bullets.No medical treatment for months got septic posioning from stomach wound.Sent to Corcoran had 11pm surgery off prison returned to cell at 3am no pain meds given for 4days nor bandage change,until call from another inmate begging for someone to call the warden to help with this oversite.Transferred to two more prisons last being calipatria, where after writing Calif. Governor? finally got knee surgery done 10 years after wearing a metal polio type brace.He wanted to be a US Marine,pre tests went off the scales except he wasn't street wise.Got into a fight in Bakersfield given two strikes,then got into fight defending a 16yr.old from two mexican 20 yr.olds welding knifes,he didn't have any weapon but the sheriff Carona and friends needed a gang task force for Huntington Beach and the judge got reelected.My son has missed all of his 20's and now most of his 30's.But he says not having a meal once a week is not too hard but not having two a week because of prisons non funding by Calif's buget crisis,is kind of hard but he says the guards are real nice and he hopes that one day he will be able to come home,hopefully while we are still alive.He was 19 yrs. old when he was sentenced to 42 years.He did not murder anyone but I think he was murdered in court with this amount of time and it was unjust to californians to pay for this sentence.But it keeps guards in work and those 4 packages allowed a year coming from sheriff backed and owned stores.The public has locked up alot of its future in the name of panick induced fears,and extreme sentences.I think Families that can afford satellite tracking ankle monitors should be allowed to have their loved one out and checking in with local law weekly do public service and do school talks about what can happen if they choose to disobey civil behavor or break the laws of the State.Everyone deserves another chance.My husband and I are fighting to stay alive dispite cancer and heart attacks,Agent Orange exposure which our son also suffers with cyists and brittle bone syndrome.he was born after husband came back from Vietnam. Sentenced to 42 years and no one was murdered,and the country wasn't put at risk just bad sentencing by a judge in a re-election year and alot of bad and untrue reporting by the press.And the actions of a police Dept. fueled by a task to bring the land value up by arresting all 17-27 yr. olds hanging out on main street at the beach,and to clean up the streets and beaches.If we could only go back in time and move out of California where we grew up, to the Desert where we now reside,he most likely would be fighting for our country and not in prison to stay alive.A sad mom who used to believe that everything on the news and in the paper had to be true.
prisons
[info]vickibell wrote:
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 at 03:40 pm (UTC)
Turning prisoners loose that have no means of support, is only going to drive the crime rates up higher than ever. It seems the U.S. is more concerned with bailing out multi-million dollar CEO's than it is in reconstructing our TRUE economy. How about taking some of those billions of dollars and creating some jobs here instead of moving factories to other countries. Does America not realize that we left that kind of socialistic government ideas 300 years ago to come here to get away from it. We have opened the door and no one is brave enough to close it.
John Adams
[info]johntheadams wrote:
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 at 11:38 pm (UTC)
Let this rotten society crumble to the point that the working class finally says "enough" and carries out a socialist revolution to smash the capitalist state and establish a new country with a workers state, and a workers government that will expropriate the capitalists and lay the basis for the abolision of the profit system. LET CALIFORNIA ROT!
KICKBACKS
[info]billybobrocks wrote:
Thursday, 19 February 2009 at 11:35 pm (UTC)
THE PRISON SYSTEM IS LOCATED AT THE END OF A LONG CHAIN OF CRIMINALS ALL OF WHOM ARE SUBJECT TO THE RICHO LAWS WRITTEN FOR ORGANIZED CRIME SYNDICATES.....THE LEADER IS OF COURSE THE ATTY GEN, JERRY BROWN....HE IS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE STATE WITH A LICENCE TO PRACTICE LAW ISSUED BY THE STATE....HE CANNOT GIVE BLANKET DELAGATION OF AUTHORITY TO ANYONE . ALL JUDJES AND ATTORNEYS ARE UNLICENCED AS PER THE STATE CONSTITUTION UNTIL YOU GET TO THE 9TH CIRCUIT.......DEMAND TO SEE THIER LICENCES ISSUED BY THE STATE BEFORE PLEA ENTERING AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DONT BELIEVE ME.....I WAS BOUNCED LIKE A PING PONG BALL FROM COURT TO COURT ....NEW JUDGE EACH TIME.....ALL COURTROOMS CLEARED SO NO WITNESSES EACH TIME AFTER THE FIRST APPEARANCE.....ALL FOR A HUNDRED DOLLAR FINE ....THE LAST JUDGE SAID I MADE SOME GOOD POINTS HOWEVER THEY DIDNT APPLY HERE.....YOU CAN APPEAL FROM JAIL IF YOU LIKE.....THE STATE CONSTITUTION DOESNT APPLY? I SAID ALL IM ASKING FOR IS TO SEE YOUR LICENCE ISSUED BY THE STATE......IM A LICENCED STATE CONTRACTOR.....REQUIRED TO PRODUCE MY LICENCE ON DEMAND.......THE PRISONS ARE OPERATING AT A HUGE PROFIT AS CHRONICLED YEARS AGO BY FRONTLINE BEFORE THEY WENT SOFT.........THE JUDGES THEMSELVES ARE SCARED OF MY DEMAND FOR LICENCE BECAUSE THEY OVERSTEP THIER AUTHORITY TIGHTLY DEFINED IN THE CONSTITUTION AND BECOME LIABLE FOR CIVIL SUIT PERSONALLY......OF WHICH CALIFORNIA IS LIABLE FOR TO THE TUNE OF TRIPLE OF THE NEXT CLOSEST STATE OF JUDGES LOSING CIVIL SUITS....THE BAD NEWS IS THAT THEY DONT PAY THE DAMAGES ORDERED BY THE CIVIL COURT HENCE NO FEAR FOR JUDGES TO COMMIT EXTORTION ON US IN CAHOOTS WITHALL LAW ENFORCEMENT WHO ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE A WARRANT SIGNED BY A JUDGE IN ORDER TO ACT...JUDGES WITHOUT LICENCES ARE FRAUDS NOT JUDGES.......POLICE WHO ACT WITHOUT VALID WARRANTS ARE EXTOTIONISTS AND KIDNAPPERS WITHOUT AUTHORITY OF THE STATE........PRISONS WHO ENCARCERATE ARE ALSO ELIGEABLE UNDER RICO ACT LEGISLATION WITHOUT VALID SENTENCES ISSUED BY PHONY JUDGES......UNLESS WE ARE AT WAR.....THEN MARSHALL LAW PREVAILS AND MAKES THIS CONCERNED CITIZEN FEAR FOR HIS LIFE SCINCE THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH AS APPLIED TO DISSENT IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH ....GEEE I WONDER IF THEY LIKE BEING AT WAR......NO REPUCUSSIONS FOR ANY ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR BY GOVERNMENT......THATS WHY I BUY BULLETS INSTEAD OF GOLD AND SEND MY OLD SHOES TO THE WHITE HOUSE AT 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE WASH DC
Look at education and work history while incarcerated
[info]liferwife wrote:
Friday, 20 February 2009 at 05:40 am (UTC)
There are many inmates that have more than done their court prescribed time and have completed vocational programs, even earned university degrees and have held full time jobs for many years during their incarceration. There people seem to be rehabilitated yet they are constantly being denied by the board of prison term due to their "indeterminate" life sentences. If they are released it wouldn't even have to be considered an 'early release', because they have served far beyond their minimum time.
Another Chance
[info]godsprincess201 wrote:
Wednesday, 25 February 2009 at 05:16 pm (UTC)
They should just let all the non violent drug offenders all go. These people dont hurt anyone except to feed their families by selling a little. Marijuana users and offenders should be let go immediately. There is nothing wrong with a little weed. Check out ancient history about the use of opiates, cocoa, and marijuana and you decide whose wrong for putting a label on who. Its all about the power people. LET THEM GO IMMIDEATELY.
Mandatory MInimum sentences = Predatory Prosecutors = Fascism
[info]dragonsundancer wrote:
Monday, 9 March 2009 at 01:13 am (UTC)
I've been reading a lot about the many ideas that people have for addressing the prison crisis, but they all seem to be aimed at treating the symptoms of the disease. At the root of the problem is the fact that the power to decide who should be imprisoned and for how long has passed out of the hands of the "Lords", ii.e., the educated, mostly upper class, Judges and into the hands of the "Thugs", somewhat educated, middle and lower class, and rarely genteel, i.e., Prosecutors. Where once a judge could throw out politically motivated cases and persecutions, or decide that a defendant had no business going to prison, he or she is now bound by state law to be no more than a mouthpiece for sentences decided by a legislators who have given little or no thought to the potential abuses of such 'one size fits all" decrees, and who for the most part sold out to the fear-based pressure of coming up with a quick fix to "get tough on crime". Further, Predatory Prosecutors, which describes most people who make a career of harming people with impunity, benefit from imprisoning as many people as possible ; surreally, they are awarded state money for every person they manage to incarcerate, and their offices add fuel to the sadistic fires that burn in them by basing their job performance on the severity of the punishment that they mete out, meaning how many years their victims "get"( at an estimated cost to the state of $42,000 per year per prisoner).
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.
ca prison systems overcrowding
[info]hscarroll45 wrote:
Friday, 10 April 2009 at 06:15 pm (UTC)
I think they should release the prisoners that are in there for minor offenses and also the ones that want to work and do the right thing. Also out of state prisoners that have no family members in Ca. I think should also be allowed to be paroled to their home state or else where their family members are where they can have the help and support of their families. I know my son is due to be released in July and Ms. has a contract with Ca. about this. My son said they told him he couldn't be paroled here because of his restitution, but my attorney says otherwise and he has praciticed in Ca. and knows Ca. law. He said the only thing that could prevent my son from being paroled here would be if he said no. I just know that my son has a future and a career ahead of him, but I don't think he needs to be in Ca. to spend his parole time. We can help him here to get his feet back on the ground and then he could go back there if he wanted to. I think the attorney general, etc. there are all crazy. It costs like the devil to house inmates and some do need to be kept. But there are a lot that given a chance and somebody to really give a damn to help them, could become productive citizens. I know of a lot that have here and I have met some inmates that need help, as they have mental problems and they need to be in a hospital or home where they could be helped and treated like human beings. I know people do things sometimes they aren't supposed to, but people that have emotional problems etc. Don't need to be locked behind bars. Yes, they have hurt somebody, but has anyone ever thought of what caused the person to go over the edge? I have dealt with mentally unstable people before and there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with them. I have also dealt with drunks and people that were high on drugs and you have to be careful with them. But I have also found through experience that if you stay calm with them and don't go yelling and cussing them, you can talk them into calming down. Thank you for letting me make my comment H. S. Davis
[info]mia_white wrote:
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 at 10:54 pm (UTC)
This is awful!
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
FRIEND SINCE 17
[info]natalya4 wrote:
Monday, 17 August 2009 at 09:11 pm (UTC)
THIS IS THE TYPE OF SARCASIM THAT MOST AMERICANS THINK WHEN IT COMES TO PRISONERS. I HAVE A FRIEND WHO HAS BEEN IN PRISON SINCE HE WAS 18 AND HE IS NOW 46. HIS SENTENCE WAS 15 TO LIFE, WELL HE HAS ALMOST DOUBLED THAT TIME. IS THAT REALLY FAIR THAT HE IS SILL THERE. HE HAS BEEN A MODEL PRISONER, HAS NOT GOTTEN ANY 115'S, DONE AND COMPLETED EVERYTHING ASKED OF HIM. TELL ME WHY HE IS STILL IN PRISON. HE HAS SERVED HIS TIME AND SOME MORE. HE SHOULD BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO GO. YOU LET RAPISTS AND PEDOPHILES GO, THOSE ARE THE "MAIN" ONES WHO SHOULD BE LOCKED UP FOR LIFE. LET GO OF THE ONES WHO HAVE SERVED THEIR TIME AND GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND LET THEM GO. APPRENTLY THE DEFICIT ISNT AS BAD AS YOU GUYS SAY, IF IT WAS THEN LET THEM GO AND SAVE THE STATE MONEY.
Noticable increase of youngish male "beggers" (prisoners?) outside of stores in Long Beach, CA
[info]redhank wrote:
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 at 11:51 pm (UTC)
Long Beach has always had its share of homeless beggars, sad young people on the outs, always shy, obviously embarrassed to be asking for change. When I have it, which these days is rarer and rarer, I had some over, even making it a folded bill once in a while, a nod toward God's wish for us all to share the wealth. But the last few days and nights I have noticed something different - in every shopping area parking lot, all night long (with cops watching, seated in patrol cars), and outside of 7-11's, there have been youngish to middle aged black men, sometimes 2 or 3, panhandling - some slightly frightening in their aggressiveness. I acknowledge one on my way into 7-11 the other night and said I'd give him something when I came out, then was accosted by another closer to the door, who's attitude turned me off. His was not a request, but a demand. When I came out of the store I held a folded dollar bill in my hand and the second man approached me saying "Here I am, here I am." Not fooled, but confused a little by his behavior, and not knowing then that this was probably a recently released prisoner, I said "No, you are not" and turned to see the first man, a sad looking man with a damaged eye standing forlornly, saying, "No, it was me." Saying nothing else, I walked to the first man (the one I intended to help), handed him the dollar and turned back to look at the other, trying to understand what had just happened. I know, I know, easy one, right - yet- not the usual behavior of beggars outside a 7-11. Now I get it. I hope the second man did not then rob the first as I drove away.
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
Hmmm
[info]citizen2 wrote:
Saturday, 14 November 2009 at 02:48 am (UTC)
Why they dont put them to work inside the jail been productive, paying money to the society and for their own support, it is scary what its happening closing libraries too, and realising dangerous people out of jail. what is happening in this country??????

Article Archive

Day In a Page

Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat

Select date