California Plans to Release Prisoners to Tackle Overcrowding

By teleSUR

26 March 17

Many offenders will be given the chance to reduce their sentences through education and rehabilitation programs.

rison populations in California for a number of years has been at crisis levels, so much so that the state’s Department of Corrections has put forward a plan to relieve the problem by releasing 9,500 prisoners in the next four years.

The plan would speed up parole time and sets out new rules over reduced sentences. With the exception of the most violent offenders, those on death row and life-without-parole sentences, all inmates would be eligible for reduced prison time.

Those imprisoned on non-violent felons would not have to serve cumulative time for offenses before seeking parole, but instead could seek parole after completing the prison time allocated for their primary offense.

Under the plan, formal parole hearings used by prosecutors and victims to object the early parole of inmates would be scrapped. Prosecutors and victims would be given 30 days to object in writing to earlier paroles, cutting down significant time in the process.

Sentences would be reduced by up to six months per year for prisoners that complete a university degree. One month of sentence time would be reduced each year for those prisoners who complete programs such as alcohol and drug counseling, victim awareness, anger management, parenting and life skill classes.

In all, the plan is estimated to release 9,500 offenders from California prison system over four years. It will come as a welcome relief with the state nearing its maximum inmate capacity and has been forced to transfer prisoners to other states.

In November, California voters approved Proposition 57 which increase parole and good behavior opportunities for non-violent offenders, giving corrections official greater discretion to grant early release.

The United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate of 666 per 100, 000 people according to the International Center for Prison Studies. While in recent years the prison population in the U.S. has been decreasing over 2.1 million people remain locked up, with disproportionate numbers of African American and Latino inmates.

The country’s prison population spiked after former President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill which dramatically increased sentences for low-level drug offences.