Judge: Calif must release tens of thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding (unemployment, generations)

[Little-Acorn]

Most interesting part of this, um, "ruling", is the statement that releasing these prisoners will "not adversely affect public safety, and might well have a positive effect".

Would the judge(s) who made that statement, like to stand by his claim? And, if a prisoner he orders released commits another crime, will he serve the resulting sentence with him? Or maybe in his place, seeing as how prisons are so overcrowded?

Or better yet, will that judge agree to take the effects of the crime on himself, since he guaranteed us it wouldn't happen? If some released inmate assaults and robs someone, will the judge agree to get pistol-whipped and slammed against a wall, and have the contents of his wallet removed? If the inmate rapes someone, will the judge agree to... well, you know. And if the inmate murders someone.....

It's nice to know the judge(s) think that releasing a huge mass of prisoners won't adversely affect public safety. That's what they said about the parole system, wasn't it?

I would like to have a talk with these "judges" about this "ruling". Yes, I'd like that very much.

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Judges tentatively order Calif. inmate release

Judges tentatively order Calif. inmate release

By DON THOMPSON, The Associated Press
4:09 p.m. February 9, 2009

SACRAMENTO — A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California will have to release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding over the next several years.

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

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

Reducing the prison population "could be achieved through reform measures that would not adversely affect public safety, and might well have a positive effect. This is particularly true considering that California's overcrowded prison system is itself, as the Governor as well as experts who have testified before the Court have recognized, a public safety hazard," the San Francisco-based panel said in a 10-page order.

The three judges did not set a final population figure, saying that will come later. They said they may hold more hearings before making the decision final.

In Monday's tentative ruling, the panel said they want the state to present a plan to trim the population of the nation's largest state prison system 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 order came less than a week after the judges finished hearing two days of closing arguments. They said then that they wanted to quickly issue a tentative ruling in hopes of forcing the state to take steps on its own or reach a settlement with attorneys representing inmates.

In Monday's order, they offered the services of a court-appointed referee who could help with settlement talks. Previous negotiations failed, forcing the trial that took place over 14 days in November and December.

[Unstable]

It is time for "three strikes" to go. The vast majority of these people wouldn't be dangerous except that they were incarcerated among hardened criminals when they had committed very minor crimes.

[USS Enterprise CV-6]

With unemployment like it is, they're going to be right back in there.

Thus another "Revolving Door".

Hopefully the Police have time to round them up again.

Hopefully the taxpayers, don't mind putting them through the court systems "AGAIN".

[allydriver]

I wonder how many existing inmates are illegals?

[dubyanumberone]

How about we expand the use of the death penalty rather than turn thousands of predators loose on society?

The only way to combat crime is to have a tough, no nonsense justice system.

Build more prisons and start using the death penalty on career criminals, don't just turn them loose. People have to pay for their crimes otherwise they will never quit committing crime.

[Unstable]

Originally Posted by dubyanumberone

How about we expand the use of the death penalty rather than turn thousands of predators loose on society?

The only way to combat crime is to have a tough, no nonsense justice system.

Build more prisons and start using the death penalty on career criminals, don't just turn them loose. People have to pay for their crimes otherwise they will never quit committing crime.

Are you familiar with current statistics on the unreliability of the death penalty? Capital sentences are being overturned left and right. Life is too limited a resource to let the government mess around with it.

[Roaddog]

Originally Posted by allydriver

I wonder how many existing inmates are illegals?

That is an excellent question and the ones that are should be deported back to where they came from.

[th3vault]

Originally Posted by Unstable

Are you familiar with current statistics on the unreliability of the death penalty? Capital sentences are being overturned left and right. Life is too limited a resource to let the government mess around with it.

Yeah, but very rarely are they overturned because the offender was innocent...

Either a court declares lethal injection "cruel and unusual punishment" and spends half a year halting executions for no reason..

Or there is a minor legal technicality, I guess one will always pop up if you have 30 years of appeals before the sentence is carried out

Or SCOTUS tramples state's rights... declaring child rape non capital, thereby forcing states to allow monsters of off death row....

Perhaps if we actually used the death penalty effciently , we wouldn't be bickering about the "unreliability" of it...

[dubyanumberone]

Originally Posted by th3vault

Yeah, but very rarely are they overturned because the offender was innocent...

Either a court declares lethal injection "cruel and unusual punishment" and spends half a year halting executions for no reason..

Or there is a minor legal technicality, I guess one will always pop up if you have 30 years of appeals before the sentence is carried out

Or SCOTUS tramples state's rights... declaring child rape non capital, thereby forcing states to allow monsters of off death row....

Perhaps if we actually used the death penalty effciently , we wouldn't be bickering about the "unreliability" of it...

Spot on. These human scum drag out and delay justice for decades. None of them are innocent. No one has ever been proven innocent after execution either. It's a lie of the left. The appeals process is so lengthy and the courts so biased in favor of the criminals that it is simply impossible for an innocent to slip thru the cracks.

The thought that lethal injection is cruel and unusual is also laughable. It's not nearly painful and terrifying enough IMO. Bring back the rope and the chair.

The simple fact is that for the hardened, career criminal you can't rehabilitate them. They are and always will be predators. The only way you control them is by either locking them up, killing them or keeping them in line thru fear of punishment. Coddling and "empathizing" with them doesn't work and is also morally wrong.

[Fred314X]

That certainly does set up an interesting situation, doesn't it? Let's extend the implications of this "tentative ruling." IF prisoners are going to be released to relieve overcrowding, THEN there really isn't a need to have them imprisoned in the first place, is there?

As a result of this logical extension of thought, look how much money California (and the other states that will hop on the revenue-enhancing bandwagon) will save! There won't be any need for trials, which require many tax dollars. So there won't be any need for prisons and their staffs, which also require much money that the state government could put to other--and, one would hope, more important--uses.

Of course, there may be a small adverse effect, in that crime will go unpunished. But any judge worth the price of his robes will be able to solve that problem; all it takes is a simple ruling that nothing is illegal. Therefore, there is no crime and no punishment is required.

Voila! Not only is the thorny issue of prison overcrowding solved, but so is the debate over whether the United States is headed towards socialism. We are headed towards no such thing as socialism--we are headed straight towards anarchy. Without question, the special panel of judges referred to in the piece above will be heralded by future generations as the fathers of their new country. Assuming none of them have been murdered by anyone released from prison as a result of their deliberations.