Supreme Court: California must continue prisoner release

[Locutus]

WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court ruled Friday that California must proceed with the release of nearly 10,000 prisoners from its overcrowded prison system.

In a ruling by Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's lone Californian, the justices refused to grant the state a reprieve based on progress on prison overcrowding.

The high court had ruled in May 2011 that conditions in the state's prisons violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

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Supreme Court: California must continue prisoner release

 

[The Old Medic]

California voters put into place laws that are so strict, and so harsh, that they are merely reaping what they sowed.

The enhanced punishments, made much longer sentences apply; created life w/o the possibility of parole for even the most minor 4th offense, etc., etc.

They can not build prisons fast enough to keep up with all of the people they are locking up. That one state now has more prisoners than many countries do.

They have built a number of new prisons, plus they place prisoners into private prisons. They also send a number of them to other states (California pays the bill for their care). And still more people are being sent to prison every day.

They have cells built for one person that are housing 4-5 people. They have an assault rate that is horrendous. Guards are regularly assaulted, because there are just so many prisoners that they can't keep track of them.

What stood as by far the most secure prison for over 100 years (Folsom Prison), is now rated as a "Medium Security Prison". This is because they have to house so many people there, that are NOT high security prisoners, that security has pretty much gone out the window.

As the people of California are learning, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

 

[Highball]

Good decision! In my city of 110,000 40% of the citizenry are inmates in a California State Prison (Solano) and the conditions are so crowded they are using the Gyms, Medical Care facilities and the old Janitorial Closets as sleeping space. I think the conditions are less than human. But it has grown into an industry in this state employing more than 120,000 and the list of potential growth is increasing. The gist of the thinking here is that the California Prison Industries now competes with private enterprise and thrives on 75 cents and hour prisoner labor.

 

[tay]

California inmate in prison hunger strike: 'Each minute has been torturous'

Hundreds of inmates across the state enter second month of protest against 'inhumane' solitary confinement units


A mass protest which has just entered its second month is playing out in the solitary confinement units of maximum security jails where an estimated 400 prisoners are refusing food to demand an end to what they call inhumane conditions.

Some have been hospitalised as their bodies, stripped of fat, now consume muscle, a point when health can be permanently damaged.

Inmates' supporters held small rallies in Oakland and Los Angeles on Thursday to mark one month – 32 days – since the July 8 start of the protest. A "bike for the strike" event is scheduled in Oakland on Friday.

The core demand is an end to indefinite solitary confinement in Security Housing Units, known as SHUs. Some inmates have been in such cells for decades, prompting denunciations from Amnesty International and other human rights advocates.

Strike leaders – an unusual alliance of whites, African Americans and Latinos – say the conditions amount to torture and that the system for selecting those for segregation is callous and capricious. A condition of release into the general jail population is to "debrief" – inform – against gang members.

Authorities reject the criticism and say the strike is an attempt by gang leaders to regain the ability to terrorise fellow prisoners, staff and communities throughout California. Each side accuses the other of brutality and manipulation. There is little sign of negotiation or compromise.

The media have not been granted access to striking inmates but eight in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay state prison, an isolated, windswept facility outside Crescent City, and the protest's epicentre, have written to the Guardian shedding light on their motivations and states of mind.

In handwritten letters on A4 notepaper they all pledged continued defiance and gave no indication about when the strike may end.

Todd Ashker, an outspoken member of the so-called Short Corridor Collective, a group of segregated strike leaders, said he was inspired by the 1981 hunger strikes by republican prisoners in Northern Ireland which left 10 men dead.


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California inmate in prison hunger strike: 'Each minute has been torturous' | World news | The Guardian

 

[tay]

Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation's criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.

In remarks prepared for delivery Monday to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he is mandating a change to Justice Department policy so that low-level, non-violent drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels won't be charged with offenses that impose mandatory minimum sentences.

Mandatory minimum prison sentences — a product of the government's war on drugs in the 1980s — limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter prison sentences.

Under the altered policy, the attorney general said defendants will instead be charged with offenses for which accompanying sentences "are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins."

Federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity and hold more than 219,000 inmates — with almost half of them serving time for drug-related crimes and many of them with substance use disorders. In addition, 9 million to 10 million prisoners go through local jails each year. Holder praised state and local law enforcement officials for already instituting some of the types of changes Holder says must be made at the federal level.


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Holder proposes changes in criminal justice system

 

[Nuggler]

8OAttorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation's criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders."""

Someone finally found the light switch ?!