Mass inmate release possible in Calif.

Source: Houston Chronicle/ Associated Press

Dec. 20, 2007, 11:44PM
Mass inmate release possible in Calif.

© 2007 The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering the early release of more than 20,000 low-risk prison inmates from the nation's largest prison system as a way to save money amid a worsening budget crisis, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Only nonviolent offenders would be eligible, and prisoners considered for the program would have less than 20 months left on their terms, The Sacramento Bee reported on its Web site. Sex offenders would not be included.

The governor's office told The Associated Press that Schwarzenegger had not decided to release inmates early and that it was one of many scenarios being considered as the state seeks to cope with a budget deficit estimated at $10 billion to $14 billion over the next two fiscal years.

The governor has not decided what budget proposals he will deliver to the Legislature next month, said Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn. Schwarzenegger had ordered state agencies to make 10 percent cuts "but has not made final decisions on what those 10 percent cuts will be," he said.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5396091.html

Y'know...I gotta say, that for a Republican, Ahnold isn't a completely brainless shithead. That's actually a fairly decent thing to do.

most of the time.

Now it appears as if people have to be grateful for being returned to their lives, while a lot of those lives were taken to prison without the proper reasons in the first place. Like the robber that returns your car, with only minor damage, and expects praise for it. Hypocrite Arnie

This is what you get with the mantra of cutting taxes---hope they go back to their families and have a good life.

to feed the prison industrial complex failed.

I live in CA and anyone that wants Arnoold can have him ~ we are sick of him.

Why only California?? Heck, this should be happening in all states.. Imagine the possibilities... Of course, a couple of 100,000 more people looking for employment all at once might not be the greatest idea..

I imagine that many of these people are in there on drug charges. It is very expensive to house prisoners and, correct me if I am wrong, many of them are in for non-violent drug related convictions. Decriminalizing many of these substances would not only save an extraordinary amount of money, countless lives would not be ruined by the penal system (might be ruined by drugs but that is a different topic). This reminds me of the opium/Taliban connection because the criminalization of opium is indirectly funding the Taliban who are more powerful than ever since September 10, 2001. Maybe I am wrong but the answers to these problems seem simple to me.

I thought getting rid of Gray Davis and bringing in Arnie was supposed to "terminate" that. See? It was like a pun, playing on Arnold Schwarzenegger's role in those movies as the Terminator. Get it? "Terminate" the deficit, "Terminator" a movie role? Life imitating art and all that?

The state spend more on prisons than on higher education.

Nationwide, we have about a million non-violent offenders in prison, about half of them drug offenders.

Stupid punitive society.