California's Fiscal Crisis Forces Re-Evaluation of Sentencing

Well, the fiscal rubber has finally hit the  sentencing and prison road in California.  As the New York Times details, the state's financial crisis has forced open early release for some prisoners for the first time in years:

The California budget crisis has forced the state to address a problem that expert panels and judges have wrangled over for decades: how to reduce prison overcrowding.  The state has begun in recent weeks the most significant changes since the 1970s to reduce overcrowding — and chip away at an astonishing 70 percent recidivism rate, the highest in the country — as the prison population becomes a major drag on the state’s crippled finances. . . . The goal is to reduce the number of inmates in the state’s 33 prisons next year by 6,500 — more than the entire state prison population in 2009 of Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah or West Virginia. In all, there are 167,000 prisoners in California.

California's prisons are notorious for overcrowded conditions, and its fiscal crisis has certainly not helped matters.  The solution the state has come to--early release of non-violent prisoners who are unlikely to recidivate--is being watched with great interest by other cash-strapped states.

Our criminal justice system has long over-relied on long sentences and continual building of prisons to try to control crime, all of this ironically as crime has gone down over the past 40 years (and has continued to go down even in the recession).  Perhaps the simple lack of cash on the part of state governments will finally force some more reasonable thinking in sentencing.  Of course, as the article points out, the early release of California prisoners is not accompanied by any form of drug or alcohol counseling or rehabilitation to help prevent recidivism.  But it is a step in the right direction. 

Comments

[jmb27]

Predatory Lending is a major contributor to the economic turmoil we are currently experiencing.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:
Scott Veerkamp / Predatory Lending (Franklin Township School Board Member.)

Please review this information from U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley regarding deceptive lending practices:
"Steering payments were made to brokers who enticed unsuspecting homeowners into deceptive and expensive mortgages. These secret bonus payments, often called Yield Spread Premiums, turned home mortgages into a SCAM."

The Center for Responsible Lending says YSP "steals equity from struggling families."
1. Scott collected nearly $10,000 on two separate mortgages using YSP and junk fees. 2. This is an average of $5,000 per loan. 3. The median value of the properties was $135,000. 4. Clearly, this type of lending represents a major ripoff for consumers.

http://merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=A09C6A80-537A-4EB1-83C5-31925F046B6F

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