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3rdgensooner
5/24/2011, 11:32 AM
Top Court Sets Stage For Felons To Go Free (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304520804576341211890327194.html)


WASHINGTON—California could be forced to release tens of thousands of felons early after the Supreme Court ordered it Monday to reduce overcrowding, in a warning to states that efforts to get tough on crime must be accompanied by adequate prison funding.

In a 52-page opinion illustrated with photos of teeming prison facilities and cages where mentally ill inmates are held, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited lower-court findings that preventable suicide and medical neglect "needlessly" cause the death of at least one inmate a week in California's prisons. The state system was designed for 80,000 inmates but holds nearly twice that many.

The decision comes 21 years after a suit was filed on behalf of an inmate alleging that treatment provided to mentally ill inmates was so poor as to violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments, a claim consolidated with a later case alleging similarly deficient care of inmates with physical ailments. California has conceded the constitutional violations but wanted more time to fix them.

Two years ago, a special three-judge federal court in California found that overcrowding and staffing shortages have overwhelmed prison medical facilities. Monday's decision upholds the lower-court order giving California two years to cut its prison population to 137.5% of capacity.

The district court order applies to 33 state prisons, which as of Monday held 143,435 inmates—or 180% of their intended capacity, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The state has until 2013 to cut that population to 109,805, or by 33,630 inmates, Ms. Thornton said.

The ruling doesn't instruct officials how to reach that maximum population over the next two years.

Prison overcrowding is widespread across the country. Alabama, California, Delaware, Illinois and North Carolina were among states reporting inmate populations significantly above their intended capacity, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report based on 2009 data. The federal prison system was at 136% of capacity, the report said.

Alabama's prisons have nearly twice as many inmates as they were built to handle, according to a March report by a state-level bipartisan panel convened to find solutions for overcrowding. The state faces extra costs of up to $151 million over five years to house new inmates and "risks federal court intervention if crowding is not reduced," according to the report.
The decision applies only to California, but its broader implications were clear: When a state sends a criminal to prison, it takes on the responsibility to feed and care for him, Justice Kennedy wrote.

If taxpayers were unwilling to pay the cost of incarceration that meets constitutional standards, "courts have a responsibility to remedy the resulting Eighth Amendment violation," Justice Kennedy wrote, even if that means freeing convicted criminals.

California's top prisons official, Matthew Cate, said the state could satisfy the court's requirements without releasing inmates early if the Legislature passes the governor's budget proposal, which includes funding for transferring some prisoners to county jails.

In addition, the state is building new prisons and health-care facilities. But funding uncertainty and political gridlock could delay those efforts and force the state to release inmates.

yermom
5/24/2011, 11:46 AM
releasing non-violent drug offenders might be a start...


my understanding is that the California prison lobby is HUGE, and is responsible for the minimum sentencing, etc...

Whet
5/24/2011, 11:49 AM
would that include multiple DUI offenders, too?

yermom
5/24/2011, 11:50 AM
no

Whet
5/24/2011, 11:53 AM
Drug traffickers that sell tons of pot or pounds of heroin/cocaine?

yermom
5/24/2011, 11:55 AM
if they haven't shot anyone, yeah, that doesn't bother me that much

do they really deserve more time than someone that actually kills/rapes someone?

NormanPride
5/24/2011, 11:58 AM
does the drug lord that tells everyone to blow up the building with the rival gang deserve more time than the guys that actually blew it up?

yermom
5/24/2011, 11:59 AM
i'm pretty sure he was kidding when he suggested that

soonercruiser
5/24/2011, 12:07 PM
releasing non-violent drug offenders might be a start...


my understanding is that the California prison lobby is HUGE, and is responsible for the minimum sentencing, etc...

Reinstating the death penalty would be another possibility!
:rolleyes:

soonercruiser
5/24/2011, 12:08 PM
Anybody got statistics on prisoners by ethnic group in CA?

Whet
5/24/2011, 12:29 PM
Anybody got statistics on prisoners by ethnic group in CA?

From 2006:

Over half of the general adult male population is nonwhite. But three of every four men in prison are nonwhite:
38% are Latino, 29% are African American, and 6% are of another race or ethnicity (Figure 1). Seventeen
percent of prisoners are foreign-born; incarceration rates are much lower for foreign-born adults (297 per
100,000) than for U.S.-born adults (813 per 100,000).


Most prisoners serve determinate sentences, but the number of “strikers” is growing.
Fifty-nine percent of prisoners are serving determinate sentences, 12 percent are serving an indeterminate life
sentence, and 2 percent are serving life without parole. Fourteen women and 638 men (0.4 %) are on death
row. Since 1994, increasing numbers of prisoners have been sentenced under the Three Strikes law – currently,
5 percent are “third strikers,” serving 25 years to life, while 21 percent are “second strikers,” serving double the
normal sentence for a second felony conviction.
The prison population experiences frequent turnover.
Every year, approximately 120,000 prisoners are admitted into the system, and a similar number are released.
A growing majority of admissions are returns to prison for new crimes or parole violations, as opposed to new
admissions – 67 percent were return admissions in 2004, compared to 59 percent in 1990. High recidivism
rates present serious concerns for many communities, including the prospects for prisoner re-entry, the stability
of family life, and public health
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_PrisonsJTF.pdf

lexsooner
5/24/2011, 12:36 PM
my understanding is that the California prison lobby is HUGE, and is responsible for the minimum sentencing, etc...

Quite correct. The California correctional workers' union funnels money to these front PACs which support mandatory minimums, so that the prison industry will flourish. Cali prison guards are paid extremely well, and combined with the number of prisons opening, it is helping to bankrupt the state. Someone termed it an "industrial-corrections complex."

SoCaliSooner
5/24/2011, 01:06 PM
If we could deport the illegals who are in the prison system, that would help. They are also the ones feeding into the regular street gang population as well.

Win/win.

sappstuf
5/24/2011, 01:34 PM
It would help if they would build new prisons, the average age of their prisons is 55 years.

They spend money on everything except to keep themselves safe from criminals... Brilliant Californians...

You can find it on page 12 if you wish to verify.

http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/FPCM/docs/MasterPlan2009_pages_1-249.pdf

badger
5/24/2011, 01:36 PM
Oklahoma apparently once had a policy that the worst offenders could avoid prison if they signed something promising to leave Oklahoma and never return, and if they did return, they would then face worse punishment... I don't know if it was the death penalty or not. It might have been.

I think it shocks nobody that prisons are underfunded. It's not like people want to make prison more comfortable and less crowded for inmates or anything.

The Profit
5/24/2011, 01:37 PM
Anybody got statistics on prisoners by ethnic group in CA?




Yeah, most are Catholics, who once drove funny cars.

soonercruiser
5/24/2011, 01:39 PM
Thanks Whet!
That's about what I expected.....disproportionate represenattion.
The real underlying problem not addresses is, foreign national criminals.....that if deported, will be released in ther home country.

"The Tragedy of American Compassion"!

lexsooner
5/24/2011, 01:58 PM
In Kentucky, the state prison system is comprised mostly of rednecks. Unfortunately all of them are citizens so they cannot be deported, as much as we wish.

JohnnyMack
5/24/2011, 02:04 PM
does the drug lord that tells everyone to blow up the building with the rival gang deserve more time than the guys that actually blew it up?

n6lzEhoXads

OhU1
5/24/2011, 02:28 PM
In Kentucky, the state prison system is comprised mostly of rednecks. Unfortunately all of them are citizens so they cannot be deported, as much as we wish.

With any luck I'll help deport an Oklahoma redneck to a Kentucky prison in June. No need to thank me.

lexsooner
5/24/2011, 03:00 PM
With any luck I'll help deport an Oklahoma redneck to a Kentucky prison in June. No need to thank me.

Thanks, OhU1. Just what Kentucky needs: more recknecks.

SanJoaquinSooner
5/24/2011, 03:15 PM
It's difficult to build new prisions in California because the prevailing wage law makes it cost prohibitive. Same reason you won't see any new football stadiums built in California in the forseeable future.

SoCaliSooner
5/24/2011, 03:17 PM
releasing non-violent drug offenders might be a start...


my understanding is that the California prison lobby is HUGE, and is responsible for the minimum sentencing, etc...

California Proposition 36 (http://www.shouselaw.com/proposition-36.html) mandates non violent offenders are offered drug treatment instead of prison.

It's extremely difficult to get prison time in California without having multiple convictions or committing serious offenses. People get reduced sentences, probation, diversion or jail time many times before getting prison time. Certain violent crimes, sex crimes or crimes involving use if a weapon include mandatory sentencing, but some guy just smoking pot isn't likely to end up in a California prison.

SanJoaquinSooner
5/24/2011, 03:17 PM
I favor outsourcing California prisoners to the heartland where the costs are less expensive. Oklahoma prison guards, etc are much cheaper than California prison guards.

C&CDean
5/24/2011, 03:32 PM
California Proposition 36 (http://www.shouselaw.com/proposition-36.html) mandates non violent offenders are offered drug treatment instead of prison.

It's extremely difficult to get prison time in California without having multiple convictions or committing serious offenses. People get reduced sentences, probation, diversion or jail time many times before getting prison time. Certain violent crimes, sex crimes or crimes involving use if a weapon include mandatory sentencing, but some guy just smoking pot isn't likely to end up in a California prison.

sshhh. you're going to ruin all the fun for the people around here who live in the "prisons are full of potheads" fantasyland.

SanJoaquinSooner
5/24/2011, 03:42 PM
Thanks Whet!
That's about what I expected.....disproportionate represenattion.
The real underlying problem not addresses is, foreign national criminals.....that if deported, will be released in ther home country.

"The Tragedy of American Compassion"!

Overcrowding in California state prisoners is not caused by foreign nationals. They are well-underrepresented in state prisons.

As stated above:
Incarceration rates
are much lower for
foreign-born adults
(297 per 100,000) than
for U.S.-born adults
(813 per 100,000).

badger
5/24/2011, 03:42 PM
With the lack of prison space everywhere, I'm surprised this business hasn't gotten privatized yet. Not just privatized, but a way for states to screw with other states, counties to screw with other counties.

"Sure, we have prison space for you. $250 per head, per day."

lexsooner
5/24/2011, 03:53 PM
I favor outsourcing California prisoners to the heartland where the costs are less expensive. Oklahoma prison guards, etc are much cheaper than California prison guards.

The California Corrections lobby would fight that tooth and nail. The Union for Cal. Corrections is powerful, from my understanding, and like any other special interest, they want to grow and be paid more and become more powerful, the state budget be darned.

SoCaliSooner
5/24/2011, 04:42 PM
Overcrowding in California state prisoners is not caused by foreign nationals. They are well-underrepresented in state prisons.

As stated above:
Incarceration rates
are much lower for
foreign-born adults
(297 per 100,000) than
for U.S.-born adults
(813 per 100,000).

Those can't be numbers for California, and if they were, what's not factored in are the anchor babies who grow up to join gangs or commit crime. Their parents are illegals and now their legal offspring joins a multitude of sureños
or norteños gangs (claiming 65%-75% of their gang make up as illegals). They drag down the health care system, the social services and all aspects of health care and while they are lumped into the "US born adults", the they are directly the result of illegal immigration.



The California Corrections lobby would fight that tooth and nail. The Union for Cal. Corrections is powerful, from my understanding, and like any other special interest, they want to grow and be paid more and become more powerful, the state budget be darned.

CCPOA's contract states that they are in the top 5 of all law enforcement pay in California. They've garnered increases over the last 10 years just by another agency negotiating a pay raise that puts them in the top 5 and the CDC then gets bumped up automatically. They essentially funded and started the recall of governor Gray Davis when, after getting him elected, he wanted to look into their pay and union benefits.

They target anybody who wants to rein in the spending, and backed Jerry Brown who promised to not cut any spending, and also find more ways to increase their benefits. He just uncapped their vacation day accrual. Guys can bank unlimited vacation time now. Some are cashing out well over $100K just in vacation time and it's going to become even more staggering.

texaspokieokie
5/24/2011, 04:52 PM
If we could deport the illegals who are in the prison system, that would help. They are also the ones feeding into the regular street gang population as well.

Win/win.

if they went back to mex & couldn't get a high paying job in a cartel, they'd be right back.

Sooner5030
5/24/2011, 04:56 PM
free food, housing, healthcare, dental and gym membership...........these farkers are "more free" than I am.

The prison system/idea is one of the few areas where I can agree with the libruls or least get close to an agreement. The cruel and unusual part is the cost to the taxpayers to secure these folks. Either change the prison system to provide free labor for the greater good or just slap a fine on these folks and make them debt slaves like the rest of us.

but keep the violent folks locked up.

plz tnx

texaspokieokie
5/24/2011, 04:56 PM
Oklahoma apparently once had a policy that the worst offenders could avoid prison if they signed something promising to leave Oklahoma and never return, and if they did return, they would then face worse punishment... I don't know if it was the death penalty or not. It might have been.

I think it shocks nobody that prisons are underfunded. It's not like people want to make prison more comfortable and less crowded for inmates or anything.

that would have to be the dumbest law ever written. what murderer/robber/rapist wouldn't take a deal like that.Go to arkansas or rot in Big Mac ??? you sure you didn't see that in a Jesse James or Dalton gang movie.

texaspokieokie
5/24/2011, 04:58 PM
It's difficult to build new prisions in California because the prevailing wage law makes it cost prohibitive. Same reason you won't see any new football stadiums built in California in the forseeable future.

should make the prisoners do the work.
:D

texaspokieokie
5/24/2011, 05:01 PM
CA should hire Sheriff Joe from AZ. his tents wouldn't be so tuff, unless in the Mojave. should build prisons in Death Valley.

lexsooner
5/24/2011, 05:06 PM
CCPOA's contract states that they are in the top 5 of all law enforcement pay in California. They've garnered increases over the last 10 years just by another agency negotiating a pay raise that puts them in the top 5 and the CDC then gets bumped up automatically. They essentially funded and started the recall of governor Gray Davis when, after getting him elected, he wanted to look into their pay and union benefits.

They target anybody who wants to rein in the spending, and backed Jerry Brown who promised to not cut any spending, and also find more ways to increase their benefits. He just uncapped their vacation day accrual. Guys can bank unlimited vacation time now. Some are cashing out well over $100K just in vacation time and it's going to become even more staggering.

Worse yet, they fund these phony PACs which front for them and lobby for mandatory minimums and tougher drug sentences, three strikes, etc. It really is an Industrial Corrections Complex. A friend of mine works in law enforcement in Kentucky, not Cali, and he belongs to them and when he was off work for a long time due to an illness, the CCPOA gave him a good amount of money to help him out. They do this for all due-paying members, so this shows you how much money they have. He has these calendars from them and from the looks of their members, they ain't hurtin for food either - photos of lots of Bubba McFats on the golf course and at CCPOA conferences.

tulsaoilerfan
5/24/2011, 06:49 PM
Well maybe if they didn't break the law they wouldn't have that problem; **** em

Penguin
5/24/2011, 07:27 PM
I think I hear hundreds of jailhouse lawyers all across the country about to file suits claiming that their state's prisons are overcrowded like California's. This decision probably creates a litmus test that anyone can apply to any state.

Sooner_Tuf
5/24/2011, 10:46 PM
With the lack of prison space everywhere, I'm surprised this business hasn't gotten privatized yet. Not just privatized, but a way for states to screw with other states, counties to screw with other counties.

"Sure, we have prison space for you. $250 per head, per day."

That is pretty good description of many of Oklahoma's prisons. Oklahoma has a ton of private prisons. Many got too expensive for Oklahoma so they house out of state Inmates.

I think that has backfired for a few. I'm not sure if they have reopened but Diamondback in Watonga (capacity 2500 or so) closed about a year ago, The one at Hinton closed several months ago (last Nov?). I believe the one a Sayre is still open. There are tons of smaller ones. Woodward has one that houses eight (yes 8) inmates that is private. It has more employees than it's maxcapacity.

The counties in Western Oklahoma that have enough money to build bigger jails do charge other counties and even the state to house their prisoners. Woodward is currently building a huge county jail and that is exactly how they hope to pay for it.

OU_Sooners75
5/24/2011, 11:04 PM
sshhh. you're going to ruin all the fun for the people around here who live in the "prisons are full of potheads" fantasyland.

Its not the potheads. The potheads are in jail, not prison.

However, there are quite a few people in prison for nonviolent crimes.

3rdgensooner
5/26/2011, 11:05 AM
Oops!


Computer errors let violent California prisoners go free (http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-prisons-20110526,0,7913472.story)

A computer system that lacked key information about inmates factored in the release of an estimated 450 prisoners with a "high risk of violence," according to the California inspector general.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Computer errors prompted California prison officials to mistakenly release an estimated 450 inmates with "a high risk for violence" as unsupervised parolees in a program meant to ease overcrowding, according to the state's inspector general.

More than 1,000 additional prisoners presenting a high risk of committing drug crimes, property crimes and other offenses were also let out, officials said.

No attempt was made to return any of the offenders to state lockups or place them on supervised parole, said inspector general spokeswoman Renee Hansen.

All of the prisoners were placed on "non-revocable parole," whose participants are not required to report to parole officers and can be sent back to prison only if caught committing a crime. The program was started in January 2010 for inmates judged to be at very low risk of reoffending, leaving parole agents free to focus on supervising higher-risk parolees.

The revelations come two days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California's prisons are dangerously overcrowded and upheld an earlier order that state officials find a way to reduce the 143,335-inmate population by roughly 33,000. The state has two years to comply.

State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), a former prosecutor who requested an investigation of the unsupervised-parole program, said the inspector general's report "confirms my worst fears" about it.

Investigators reviewed case files for 200 of the 10,134 former inmates who were on non-revocable parole in July of last year. They found that 31 were not eligible, and nine of those were determined likely to commit violent crimes. The inspector general and corrections officials refused to identify the inmates who were released erroneously. They also would not specify what their original offenses had been.

Using the 15% error rate they found in their sample, investigators estimated that more than 450 violent inmates had been released during the first seven months of the program, the time period they reviewed. Prison officials have disputed the findings, saying they had corrected some of the computer problems discovered by the inspector general. The error rate is now 8%, the inspector general report says.

Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to address overcrowding would shift tens of thousands of low-level offenders from prison to county custody. Counties would also supervise most low-risk parolees, like those in the non-revocable program.

But if the state can't properly identify which inmates qualify for an unsupervised parole program, Lieu said on Wednesday, "how can the public have confidence they can release 33,000 felons safely?"

Under the law that created non-revocable parole, inmates are excluded if they are gang members, have committed sex crimes or violent felonies or have been determined to pose a high risk to reoffend based on an assessment of their records behind bars.

That's where the problems begin, according to the inspector general. The computer program prison officials used to make that assessment does not access an inmate's disciplinary history.

The program also relies on a state Department of Justice system that records arrests but is missing conviction information for nearly half of the state's 16.4 million arrest records, according to the inspector general report.

Lee Seale, a deputy chief of staff for the California prisons, acknowledged that the corrections department's computer system can't access an inmate's disciplinary record. But that information is reviewed manually by a member of his staff before prisoners are released, said spokesman Luis Patino.

Seale agreed that the missing conviction information from the Department of Justice database is a problem. "That presents a serious issue for the entire criminal justice system, every judge, every probation officer, every cop on the street trying to decide whether to arrest someone," Seale said.

In July, a parolee named Javier Joseph Rueda, who had been classified a low-level offender and placed in the non-revocable program, opened fire on two Los Angeles police officers, hitting one in the arm. The police returned fire, killing Rueda.

Prison spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said Rueda had been properly classified. At the time, Hidalgo pointed out that the attack could have taken place even if Rueda had been checking in periodically with a parole agent.

"Supervised parole is not incarceration," Hidalgo said.

SoCaliSooner
5/26/2011, 11:15 AM
Looks like these guys are getting away with their crimes...