Miscellaneous

Crowded Big House

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Like the curse of winning Best New Artist at the Grammys, some laws seem like a popular idea yet don't stand the test of time.

That's the case with California's famous 3 strikes law. Once upon a time, this seemed to some like a coherent and predictable way to sentence offenders and appease a worried public. Now the jails are overflowing. The 3-judge panel ordered the state to reduce the inmate population by 55,000 (good thing they're not in Texas!) within 3 years.

How? A few ideas tossed out by the panel:

• Shorter sentences


• Diversion to county for nonviolent felons


• Allowing inmates to earn early release via good behavior


• Reforming parole

Each of these inmates passed through the court system before entering the crossbar motel, but now the court is the one saying stop. Faster than you can say "come on Eileen," AG Jerry Brown is on the case. Brown calls the order a "blunt instrument."

We've heard the threats and speculative fiction, but what does reducing overcrowding do? Freakonomicist Steven Levitt found that reducing inmate population saves money. That seems like a big "duh" to us.

How does one reduce population? Don't just get tough on crime, reduce it. Make sure everyone who's in there is there for a reason, and there's no way they could be any place else. Got interpreters? Use them! Got probation? Use that, too. Best o' luck.

See Court Orders California to Cut Prison Population, Solomon Moore, NYT (February 9, 2009). Gotta love the Ninth Circuit!

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).