Where Will California’s Inmates Go?
September 22, 2009
California is in trouble. How much trouble? The state is in so much debt it is planning to release 23,000 inmates over the next two years to reduce costs.
The proposal has been submitted to a special panel of federal judges, which in August ordered the state to reduce its inmate population by 40,000 this fiscal year and the next. Under the court order, the California prison population in the state's 33 prisons is supposed to drop to 100,000 inmates.
I wonder if any of them will move next door to the judges? Part of the reason for overcrowding is California's three strikes law. No matter what the strikes are - felony or misdemeanor - your third infraction can get you a life sentence. But the other contributing factor is disrespect for the law. And that has come about because we no longer teach right from wrong in our government schools and sometimes not even in more liberal churches.
Let's hope California doesn't regret this and someone is murdered because someone else was let out of prison.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
Originally published September 22, 2009.
