Calif. ordered to cut its inmate population - US news - Crime & courts - msn... - 0 views
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The Supreme Court on Monday narrowly endorsed reducing California's cramped prison population by more than 30,000 inmates to fix sometimes deadly problems in medical care, ruling that federal judges retain enormous power to oversee troubled state prisons.
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Michelle Perritt on 24 May 11What are they planning on doing with all of these people? I hope that they just don't let them go free just because the jail is overcrowded, that would be rediculous. I would feel terrible for all of the victims and victims families.
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The reduction is "required by the Constitution" to correct longstanding violations of inmates' rights to adequate care for their mental and physical health, the court said. In 2009, the state's prisons averaged nearly a death a week that might have been prevented or delayed with better medical care.
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To emphasize the conditions, Kennedy took the unusual step of including photos of overcrowding, including cages where mentally ill inmates were held while they awaited a bed.
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Scalia's number, cited in legal filings, comes from a period in which the prison population was even higher.
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Michael Bien, one of the lawyers representing inmates in the case, said, "The Supreme Court upheld an extraordinary remedy because conditions were so terrible."
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Donald Specter, an attorney for the inmates, hailed the ruling. "This landmark decision will not only help prevent prisoners from dying of malpractice and neglect but it will make the prisons safer for the staff, improve public safety and save the taxpayers billions of dollars," he said.
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Kennedy acknowledged the concern, but said the judges gave state officials flexibility in complying with the court order, including offering "early release only to those prisoners who pose the least risk of reoffending."
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Schwarzenegger also sought to reduce the inmate population by signing legislation that increased early release credits and made it more difficult to send ex-convicts back to prison for parole violations. Another law rewards county probation departments for keeping criminals out of state prisons.