California Jailbreak
Cristina Fard
Law enforcement officials recently released more than 1,500 “low-level” criminals from county jails across California. The massive release was due to legislation passed last year by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that was designed to reduce the state prison population in light of the state’s economic crisis. The original legislation was meant to cut the state prison population by 6,500.The recent release, however, has left county officials across the state in controversy. The deputy sheriff’s union in Sacramento filed a suit against the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department to block the releases, after seeing Orange County release more than 300 inmates in the last few weeks. Sacramento County ordered a temporary halt of the early releases after a county judge stated that the legislation only applied to state prisons and not to county jails.Now, official responses from Sacramento, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties have stated that their legal departments advised them that the law did in fact apply to county jails. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has not released any inmates because L.A. County law requires that most male inmates serve 80% of their sentence. Officials of the LAPD insist that the new legislation will not effect that requirement.
- “Low level” criminals: Offenders, who were jailed because of non-violent crimes and drug possession.
- The release of the prisoners would be in an effort to cut prison costs and improve state budgets.
- The new law seems to have not yet effected its intended target, as the state prison system has yet to release any prisoners.
Additional Reading:
-http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-early-release11-2010feb11,0,3369998.story
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