How do feel about California recently being ordered to reduce its prison inmate population?

[mod says] Lets stick to the topic, please. Thanks!

I’m curious, why is the prisoners per capita ratio in the US a lot higher than in Europe? In principle I see several explanations

(1) There are more crimes in the US
(2) US police forces are more efficient at catching criminals
(3) Sentences are often too hard, not all criminals should end up in prison

If (3) is true then the Californian order reduce its prison inmate population makes a lot of sense to me.

It is more likely a quota is being maintained, as the prison racket is big business in the US.

It was inevitable. California’s “get tough on crime” policies were a social and economic disaster, put in place by politicians because such blustering plays well in focus groups. The prison population has increased by a factor of 8 since the early 90s, not because there’s more crime, but because of the “three strikes and you’re out” policy and the toughest parole standards in the country. As popular as these measures were among “law-abiding” citizens, the consequence has been an untenable budget burden ($10 billion/year) and dangerous conditions for both prison staff and inmates.

In California, a single technical parole violation, such as missing one meeting with a parole officer, will land an inmate back in prison. “Yeah!”, cheer the tough-on-crimers, but that guy is now once again on their tab for $31.000/year.

Well I haven’t heard about this until today and I live on the complete opposite side of the country, but judging by what @Harp said, this seems like a serious problem. The amount of people in prison for non-violent crimes is ridiculous. Here in Rhode Island, it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $43k/year to house an inmate, I’ve been told that this is roughly the cost of admission to an Ivy League school (and I believe it).

To be honest, I saw this coming. When I got busted for pot, they told me I could be looking a six months in prison. They found nothing else on me (I don’t DO anything else), and you wouldn’t believe me if a told you the exact amount of weed I had on me.

I feel that it’s a good step

I think it’s a good thing, as long as non-violent drug offenders are the first ones given their freedom. There’s plenty of people in CA prisons who should stay there, and I hope the right decisions are made about who gets released.

Does this mean the death penalty is back?

California has so many people in prison (over 150,000 !!) that it has to house them in other states. Prisons are overcrowded, well beyond their original intended capacities.

There are too many people in these prisons who are irresponsible druggies who pose more danger to themselves than they do to anyone else.

The people who manage the prison population are clear on who is of little danger and can be let out vs. who is unrepentantly dangerous and should not be let out.

Let the low level offenders out.

Unfortunately, it will not be just low level potheads getting released..burglars, robbers, thieves, rapists and others will surely slide through the cracks.