Judges Order Thousands Of Calif. Inmates Freed

[IDemo]

Source: cbs5.com

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California will have to release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding.

The judges said no other solution will improve conditions so poor that inmates die regularly of suicides or lack of proper care.

They said the state can cut the population of its 33 adult prisons through changes in parole and other policies without endangering public safety.

The three judges did not set a final population figure, saying that would come later.


Read more: http://cbs5.com/local/prison.inmate.release.2.931045.html

[Taverner]

1. Release ALL the pot smokers!!!!

To hell with the rapists, release the ones who were busted for either selling or smoking pot

Trust me, we won't do any harm

We'll just get really high, eat shitty food and watch shitty TV

That can't be all bad can it?

[stopbush]

2. Exactly.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. I'll drink to that! n/t

.

[prostock69]

5. that's was I was going to post! I think all drug related offenses

should be carefully looked at. Anyone serving sentences for simply buying drugs should be released.

[Taverner]

8. Anyone serving sentences for simply selling drugs should be released

As well

[FreakinDJ]

23. Does that include "Gang Bangers" Selling Crack Cocaine

I didn't think so

[FreakinDJ]

24. The "Peace Officers Union is going to SHIT!!!!!

[Taverner]

28. Yes, yes it does

Why be selective about our Capitalism?

Now if we're going to go down a more Socialist road, then maybe we should hold up drugs for a case by case analysis.

But until then, we're just being hypocrites.

[Iggo]

34. Yes, it does.

[iamjoy]

25. Unless It Was To Kids

People selling drugs to kids should stay in jail - that's a form of child abuse.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. Abso-fuckin-lutely!

[NM Independent]

12. You beat me to it. Free the Pot Smokers!!!!

n/t

[FatDave]

14. You know, you had me to a point.

But you lost me at shitty TV.

[Taverner]

15. Hey - shitty TV producers probably need love too

Consider it a celebration of the mediocrity that fuels the great teaming masses

;)

[FatDave]

20. Bah!

I'll be over here with a 4-footer and my Arrested Development DVD's. But I'll gladly share my nachos.

[merwin]

29. No! You'll be a burden on our healthcare system because of your poor eating habits!

:sarcasm:

[Hyper_Eye]

30. Victimless crimes are causing this problem and they don't belong there. n/t

[8 track mind]

35. It will be good for the economy!

Just think of all of the business Domino's pizza would get!!!

[xchrom]

4. this is what 'mandatory' sentencing will bring us all to. nt

[jwirr]

6. Agreed and think of the money it will save CA.

[Politicalboi]

9. I would hope the potheads and sellers would be the ones to go

Maybe they're getting ready to legalize pot or at least for medical purposes. And the medical MJ would have to be in all 50 states because it wouldn't be right to have it in some states and not in others. Is aspirin illegal in NV? No, then pot shouldn't be either.

[glitch]

10. Depends -- the majority republican parole boards will release the rapists and the child molesters

in solidarity. (was that unfair? I feel that may've been a very small, slight bit of tad, unfair).

[petronius]

42. If it was, the 'unfair' was so slight as to be undetectable without

highly sensitive instruments (and since republicans are so anti-science, they wouldn't want those instruments anyway)... :)

[glitch]

43. Lol! nt

[Trajan]

11. LEGALIZE !

Decriminalize ...

Offer clemency and treatment to those arrested for drugs (alone) ...

[Zhade]

16. INDEED.

NT!

[ReliantJ]

18. Rehabilitation

doesn't occur in the prisons. Free those suckers :)

[lib2DaBone]

13. Quit arresting tax paying citizens for mere possession of Pot...

..Start arresting politicians for shipping jobs to China and sticking the profits in their pockets.

[bluestateguy]

17. Empty the fucking jails of all non-violent drug offenders

No halfway houses, no parole officers. Just let them go.

[superconnected]

19. No, if they're cronic thieves for drugs keep them in. I'm thinking meth addicts.

[slackmaster]

21. I have a friend who is serving a long sentence for being one of those people

His drug of choice is heroin.

Frankly at age 55 I don't believe he's much of a threat. If only he would stay off dope, he could become a decent citizen.

[defendandprotect]

27. Addiction should be treated as a health issue -- because it is!!!

[Psephos]

22. There are fewer than 2,000 California prisoners doing time for mj

http://www.canorml.org/background/prisonupswing2005.htm

What were the crimes committed by all those others who will be released?

Sounds like Cali is going to have an uptick in crime soon.

Meanwhile, I hope the first 2,000 names on the release list are mj offenders. Jailing people for possession is itself a crime.

[LeftyMom]

36. That's not counting parole violations for hot piss tests or people in county lockup, is it?

Jesus, we probably have 2K people doing time for smoking pot just in this county.

[Psephos]

40. I was using the NORML stats

but you raise an excellent point

still, after all the mj users are rightfully discharged, an army of actual criminals will be released - and that's not going to bring peace, love, and understanding to the streets

quite the opposite

[defendandprotect]

26. Wow -- imagine the conditions . . .

We could probably let 3/4s of the prison population go --

We have an atrocious record on all of this!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

31. This is what happens...

When you try to turn a natural function of the state into a profit-making, private business.

[2Design]

32. don't jail martha stewart - that was a waste of a lot of money for nothing except the rw n/t

[jgraz]

33. If they can be released without endangering public safety...

why the fuck am I paying to keep them locked up?

[Joanne98]

37. Judges back a one-third reduction in state prison population

Source: LAT


Reporting from Sacramento -- A panel of three federal judges, saying overcrowding in state prisons has deprived inmates of their right to adequate healthcare, tentatively ruled Monday that the state must reduce the population in those lockups by as many as 57,000 people.

The judges issued the decisionafter a trial in two long-running cases brought by inmates to protest the state of medical and mental healthcare in the prisons.

Although their order is not final, U.S. District Court Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt effectively told the state that it had lost the trial and would have to make dramatic changes in its prisons unless it could reach a settlement with inmates' lawyers.

State officials immediately said they would appeal.

If the state is ordered to reduce the prison population, it would likely be able to do so over two or three years, so it would not have to release large numbers of inmates at once. Some methods of cutting the population include limiting new admissions, changing policies so parole violators return to prison less frequently, and giving prisoners more time off of their sentences for good behavior and rehabilitation efforts.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-prisons10-2009feb10,0,6519269.story

---

The state officials who are appealing this should be FIRED!

[davidinalameda]

38. you want the state to spend money on prisons

or education or senior programs or environmental programs

this is either/or; this isn't and

I for one don't want 57, 000 felons back on the streets

if they don't want to be in jail, they shouldn't have committed the crimes that got them there in the first place

[lunatica]

39. As a Californian this makes me very nervous

Not because there are a lot of minor offenders doing time with the major offenders, but because I don't trust the system to actually release the right people. Although this is an extreme example, Polly Klaas was murdered by Richard Allen Davis after he was released on parole. He was released after he had served 6 years on a 12 year sentence for kidnapping.

Child molesters and petty criminals will be released because they have prison terms that are not for life. The authorities will think, in their own logical way that it's OK to release someone who will be released eventually anyway. Lots of rapists get relatively short prison time also.

And with the economy even less willing to absorb these people what are they going to do to make a living? We're in for a very dangerous upsurge in crime.

[haele]

41. We also need jobs and transitional support -

30K adults coming out of the warehousing/workhouse system that the State of California calls it's "prison system" into the general society where there are no jobs to support them is as catastrophic as the overcrowding prisons.
We run into the same problem we did when Reagan tore apart the Mental Health care system we had in California. Too many people just tossed out on the streets with no safety net beneath them and no resources for supporting themselves in a society that is increasingly too busy to stop and actually help someone become as gainful as they can be and lead a reasonable life.
The dirty secret of all these prosperity worshipers that have co-opted many communities with their mega-mall churches and their social clubs - er- community planning/homeowner's and neighborhood associations is that for all their lip service about the culture of morals and life, they really don't mind people dying in poverty on the streets - so long as the poor remain on those streets are in "those neighborhoods" and that their grudging tax dollars don't need to provide anything but clean-up service.

Yes, we need to get the non-violent, rehabilitative "criminals" out of the prison system, but we also have to do it smartly with jobs and transitional assistance for them - or many of those people will just end up back in jail because they have no other way to support themselves, not to mention their families, but by criminal or self-distructive means.

Haele

[distantearlywarning]

44. Start with the pot smokers. n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

45. Sometimes you read news that seems too good to be true. Action by

humane and intelligent, far-sighted people in high places.