Calif: Judges Orders Early Release Of 40,000+ Inmates (to be able to provide adequate medical care)

Aug 4, 2009 3:24 pm US/Pacific
Judges Orders Early Release Of 40,000+ Inmates

SACRAMENTO (AP) ― A federal judicial panel has ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 to improve treatment of ailing and mentally ill inmates.

The three-judge panel ruled Tuesday that cutting the number of inmates is the only way to bring the system's medical care up to adequate standards. The number of inmates will have to be reduced from about 150,000 to 110,000 over two years.

Judges said the billions of dollars the state has spent on prisons has not kept inmates from dying regularly from suicides or medical neglect.

snip...
The Schwarzenegger administration said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.


http://cbs13.com/local/early.inmate.release.2.1114786.html



more info...

California Prisons Must Cut Inmate Population

LOS ANGELES — A panel of federal judges ordered the California prison system on Tuesday to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 — roughly 27 percent — within two years.

The judges said that reducing prison crowding in California was the only way to change what they called an unconstitutional prison health care system that causes one unnecessary death a week. In a scathing 184-page order, the judges criticized state officials, saying they had failed to comply with previous orders to fix the health care system in the prisons and reduce crowding, and recommended remedies, including reform of the parole system.

The court also described a chaotic prison system where prisoners are stacked in triple-bunk beds in gymnasiums, hallways and day rooms, where guards are often forced to monitor scores of inmates at a time, and where ill inmates die for lack of treatment.

“In these overcrowded conditions, inmate-on-inmate violence is almost impossible to prevent, infectious diseases spread more easily, and lockdowns are sometimes the only means by which to maintain control,” the three judges wrote. “In short, California’s prisons are bursting at the seams and are impossible to manage.”

more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/us/05calif.html

to keep the potheads locked up. Might even be a fed requirement.

California, meet Darwin.

The 'Plan' being if you get really sick just go rob a bank (or grocery store/old lady/whatever), go to jail and get free healthcare. Oh well, back to the drawing board.....

:evilfrown: