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By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: March 10, 2010
A new law will provide for the release of approximately 6,500 California prisoners over the next year and purportedly save the state more than $100 million. But an editorial in the Sacramento Bee doesn’t think this is the best solution.
According to the article, California laws requiring lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent offenders, and mindless minimum sentences imposed under the state’s “two-strikes” and “three-strikes” laws, have contributed to an overcrowded prison system.
Confronted by a court order to reduce its prison population and a budget crisis requiring steep spending cuts across the board, California has made the mistake of releasing inmates without assessing their risk to re-offend or offering them help in adjusting to the outside world.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to assess risk and recidivism factors and make those part of the sentencing calculation? Unfortunately, California’s mandatory-sentencing laws prohibit such sensible reckoning,” the author states.
California’s release program, however necessary and well-intentioned, is not going to solve the state’s prison overcrowding problem. The state (and the federal government) should instead enact permanent, front-end reforms that will reduce the flow of prisoners into the system, the article concludes.
At the top of that list should be repeal of all mandatory-minimum-sentence laws, including the fatally flawed “three-strikes” law.
To read the editorial, click here.
For more information about smart choices on helping ex-offenders return safely and productively to their neighborhoods, visit Justice Fellowship’s Prisoner Reentry resource page. |
