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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

California Ordered to Cut Prison Population

Citing an overcrowded prison system that has led to inadequate health care for inmates, a panel of federal judges has ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 over the next two years.
That reflects a roughly 27 percent cut from the current population of 150,000.

The New York Times, which has a PDF of the court order, reports that "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."

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, notes that "[t]he order cited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's own words when he proclaimed a state of emergency in the corrections system in 2006 and warned of substantial risk to prison staff, inmates and the general public, saying 'immediate action is necessary to prevent death and harm.'" - CBS News Story

What a great idea. It's not like all of those people belong in prison. Just let 40,000 of them out and don't put anymore in. For every person you put in you have to let someone out and keep the population down. They are being mistreated in there.

Give me a break.

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