California officials: We'll fix prison crowding, won't free 33,000

Source: CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) -- California officials said Tuesday they won't arbitrarily free 33,000 inmates and they will submit plans to the federal courts in two weeks specifying ways to remedy prison overcrowding under a U.S. Supreme Court order this week.

"The goal is not to release anybody early," said spokeswoman Terry Thornton of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "Nobody wants to do that."

"Nobody wants to open the door and let everyone out," she added.

The state's plan to reduce prison overcrowding is still being prepared for a special federal three-judge panel, Thornton said. California's 33 adult prisons now hold 143,435 inmates, she said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/24/california.prisons.overcrowding/index.html

If they are it is for transporting across the border and those people are in federal prison not state prison. Mostly crimes related to being a drug addict like commercial robbery, grand theft, bad checks, identity theft, at least the women. Mostly small time stuff, or bigger stuff that men got them into. There is some violent crime but not a lot of women get convicted of violent crimes. A lot of them are repeat offenders that go in and out and in and out. There are some murderers and child killers but those women are never getting out.

Here is the problem as I see it. Most of these women come from absolutely horrible upbringings. Stuff that nightmares are made of. About 80% have about an 8th grade education and no job skills. If they have children they probably have been lost to the system. These women have little to be released to. They eventually end up back on the street because there really is no hope for them. There may be a success story or two out there but unless these women can stay clean, and find a way to sustain themselves, they end up right back where they came from.

It is a sad sad truth. Heartbreaking. Broken lives, hearts, dreams.

and Medical Marijuana was approved in 1997. First-time offenders are sentenced to rehab, not prison/jail. Consequently, we don't have very many people locked up for pot here.

California eliminated jail time for possession of less than one ounce of pot back in the 1970's. Beyond that, alternative treatments are pursued.

California legalized Medical Marijuana in 1997.

As of January 1 of this year, SB 1449 redefined the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana as an infraction, completely eliminating any criminal penalties. It is now a civil infraction, the equivalent of a parking ticket, that will net you a maximum fine of $100, and cannot result in jail time and never appears on your criminal record.

The only people in jail in California over "minor pot offenses" are the small time drug dealers, and most dealers are selling more than just pot.

Ca NORML, about 1500 pot related prisoners. Wiki says 170k total prisoners, so just under 1%. They also estimate the enforcement actions cost CA 160 million a year.

Profit above all else.

Scalia thinks it was the worst decision ever handed down. Really he said so.

All prisons are owned/operated by the state. The Correctional Officers union is EXTREMELY powerful here and they've managed to keep non-union private prisons out of California.

the state legislature would have not had its collective head shoved up its ass an not passed dumb laws like the 3 strikes laws.

72% of voters said yes on 184. Six years later, voters passed Proposition 36 offering drug treatment to adults convicted for the first time for drug offenses.

Some articles about Proposition 184:
"The Three "Strikes and You're Out" Law" (California Criminal Law Observer article from 1995)
A report in 2005 by the Legislative Analyst's Office "A Primer: Three Strikes - The Impact After More Than a Decade"

taketh away. I think if given the reality of the enormous cost of Three Strikes, the voters would rescind that decision.

these offenders pick up their second and third strikes for non-violent crimes, like shop-lifting or something ridiculous. IMO all three strikes need to be violent and if they are these criminals need to be removed from society for a time. They are a danger.

Part of the over-crowding problem has been a result of parole violations. Parolees are returned to prison for things like dirty tests, not reporting to their parole officers, or failing to follow a term of their parole that would not be an illegal act for someone who was not on parole. Also parole officers had complete control over the decision to return someone to prison and there are some real a$$hole parole officers who would return someone to prison just cause they didn't like them. All of this was changed last year with the implementation of non-revokable parole. Non-violent offenders come out of prison basically not on parole. They don't have to report, haven't any conditions, have to get arrested, pick up a new case, and get convicted to go back to prison. Over time this will lead to a smaller prison population. Your violent criminals do have parole and parole officers, so this reduces the caseloads in theory, so that they can keep better track of the more dangerous criminals. The decision to return a parolee to prison now has to be done by a supervisor not a field officer, and the parolee must have a hearing in front of the prison board within 10-14 days or something like that and they are given a lawyer if they can't afford one. These changes will help but not completely solve the problems.

...One such initiative is the so-called AB 109 law that Gov. Jerry Brown signed in April that will transfer low-level offenders from state prisons to county jails.

But the "public safety realignment" plan doesn't have state funding yet, which could be stymied by how the state treasury deals with a staggering $25 billion budget deficit....

:eyes:

will soon be getting some California inmates...That should help Republicans that receive kickbacks from the owners of those prisons..But no fucking way will the wealthy suffer a little bit larger tax... That would be unAmerican..Socialism....and whatever other scary words the GOP can come up with..