California Considers Releasing Prisoners to Shore up Budget
August 21, 2009
Author: CFM Staff
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The California Assembly will consider a bill Monday that would release more than 27,000 inmates from the state's prison system before next July.
The legislation would save $524.5 million. Together with the budget revisions lawmakers made in July, the total savings in the corrections budget would total $1.2 billion, according to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.
Governor Schwarzenegger supports the legislation as part of his efforts to cut state spending and balance the budget.
"Relieving prison overcrowding and reducing recidivism are monumental challenges, but they are challenges that we will not retreat from," Schwarzenegger told an audience of prosecutors in June.
Under the bill, an additional 37,000 inmates would be released in fiscal year 2010-11. Other non-violent offenders could serve shorter sentences. The bill would add more resources to parole programs, reducing the number of parolees per officer from 70 to 45.
Republicans called the legislation a threat to public safety. "Among the inmates who could be eligible for early release under the Democrat plan include felons convicted of human trafficking, stalking, identity theft, violent child abuse and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction," the Republican Caucus said in a written statement.
The legislation also calls for a new 16-member Sentencing Commission that would draft new sentencing guidelines by July 1, 2012, which the legislature and governor must approve. The commission would include members of the Judicial Department and California Supreme Court.
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