California Prison Population Reduction

Yes, it is true the California Prisons will reduce it's population.  Recently in California, federal three judge panel ordered California to reduce the prison population by 40,000 over the next two years.  Also in California, the legislature has proposed a plan for the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation to reduce the prison population by 27,300 to save an estimated $1.2 billion to the California budget.  The plan includes a variety of methods for determining which inmates will be released.  These methods are:

-Using alternative custody methods ofr lower risk offenders, which promises a 6,300 inmate reduction in the prison population;

-Reducing the ranks of parolees by assigning risk based parole supervision and lower parole agent caseloads, expected to reduce the number of inmates by 5,300 for parole revocations;

-Commuting the sentences of select deportable criminal aliens, for a reduction in the prison population by 8,500 inmates;

-Increasing the felony thresholds for property crime and/or changing some wobblers  (crimes that can be considered either misdemeanors or felonies) to misdemeanors, for a reduction in the prison population of 5,600; and

-Increasing the use of positive behavior and rehabilitation credit programs, for a prison population reduction of 1,600.

So, what does this mean?  This means that the California prison system cannot hold the inmates that are currently behind bars.  The prison population will be reduced and certain inmates will be released over the next two years or sooner especially due to this recent court order by the federal judges in California and the huge budget crisis in California.  California simply cannot house all of the current inmates!