Court Orders 20,000 to 60,000 Inmates Released From California Prisons

The 3 federal judges trying to figure out how to solve the California prison overcrowding and healthcare crisis issued a tentative ruling ordering the state to release tens of thousands of inmates from California prisons.

Before you go all tough-on-crime crazy, consider this:  California prisons are operating at 200% capacity.  The court ordered most prisons to operate at somewhere between 125% and 145% of capacity.  It’s still gonna be pretty suqished in there.

Here’s an excerpt from the ruling that succinctly explains the problem:

Evidence offered at trial was overwhelmingly to the effect that overcrowding is the primary cause of the unconstitutional conditions that have been found to exist in the California prisons. There is, for example, uncontroverted evidence that, because of overcrowding, there are not enough clinical facilities or resources to accommodate inmates with medical or mental health needs at the level of care they require. There is also uncontroverted evidence that, because of overcrowding, there are not enough clinical or custodial personnel to ensure that inmates with medical or mental health needs are receiving appropriate treatment, are taking the medications that they need to take, are being escorted to their medical appointments in a timely manner, and are having their medical information recorded and filed properly. Additionally, as the Governor has stated, and as the California appellate court has found, overcrowded conditions – the use of triple bunks in gymnasiums and other areas not intended to be used for housing, for example – have “substantially increased the risk of the transmission of infectious illnesses among inmates and prison staff.”

As anyone who does any work in the California prisons will tell you, a tuberculosis outbreak is at the top of everyone’s mind.  A TB test is required for pretty much anyone who sets foot in there — especially because TB won’t stop at the prison walls.   TB is a much bigger risk to public safety than the early release of a guy caught with a few pounds of weed in his trunk one too many times.

And by the way, that’s exactly who is going to be set free. Inmates slated for release are non-violent offenders, people almost at the end of their sentences, the sick, the elderly.

The final order that details how many prisoners will go free will come after a final hearing.  According to multiple news outlets, the Schwarzenegger administration will appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.   That’s kind of funny considering that Gov. Schwarzenegger used to support the early release of non-violent offenders.  Check out the Real Cost of Prisons blog for more on that.

Here’s the full text of the tentative ruling:

Tentative Ruling