JoshLowry
02-09-2009, 09:18 PM
Another great reason to end the war on drugs.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/california/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) must 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.
The panel said it wanted the state to present a plan to trim the population in two to three years.
''There are simply too many prisoners for the existing capacity,'' they wrote. ''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.''
The three judges suggested a target prison population of between 100,800 and 121,000 inmates -- down from the current level of about 158,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/09/us/AP-California-Prisons.html?_r=1
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/california/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) must 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.
The panel said it wanted the state to present a plan to trim the population in two to three years.
''There are simply too many prisoners for the existing capacity,'' they wrote. ''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.''
The three judges suggested a target prison population of between 100,800 and 121,000 inmates -- down from the current level of about 158,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/09/us/AP-California-Prisons.html?_r=1