High court backs cuts in Calif. prison population

Source: Associated Press

(05-23) 09:03 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

The Supreme Court on Monday endorsed a court order requiring California to cut its prison population by tens of thousands of inmates to improve health care for those who remain behind bars.

The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is "required by the Constitution" to correct longstanding violations of inmates' rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system's designed capacity.

There are more than 142,000 inmates in the state's 33 adult prisons, meaning roughly 32,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a California native, wrote the majority opinion, in which he included photos of severe overcrowding. The court's four Democratic appointees joined with Kennedy.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/23/national/w071257D18.DTL

Let all the people that are in prison for simple drug possession (or maybe even small scale sales) out that should put a dent in the population. Since California has lax laws on marijuana possession it might not be as many as I think but it wouldn't surprise me that it was a substantial number. Hell while we're at free everybody that is in prison for growing or selling pot.

so it won't happen. lol

That's larger than Sunnyvale, the second largest city in our county. It's nearly as many as the combined number of undergraduates at all ten campuses of the University of California. And that doesn't even include the people in various county jails. Damn right it needs to be reduced.

Nice to see Kennedy do the right thing for once.

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I believe this wins the non-sequitur post of the day award, hands down!