AB 109 and AB 117 were introduced to ease the pressure of the federal and state budget through saving costs on the penitentiary system. In this regard, the reduction of the prison population and the transfer of a part of the prison population to county jails was one of the main provisions of AB 109 but AB 117 actually discharges provisions of AB 109. Such a paradoxical situation is the result of scarce financial resources to fund the penitentiary system at both the federal and local level. In order to reduce the pressure on the penitentiary system at the federal level, the decision to transfer the prison population to county jails or to release the prison population sentenced for minor crimes. Thus, AB 109 was introduced. AB 109 implied the transfer of a part of the prison population to county jails and release of inmates sentenced for minor crimes. To define those inmates, who could be released, the state authorities attempted to categorize inmates depending on their crimes and sentences. In such a way, they attempted to identify the least publicly dangerous group of inmates that could be released to ease the pressure on the federal and state budget.…
Assembly Bill 109 is a public safety realignment that will help state prisons overcrowding by shifting low-risk inmates to county jails.Since California prisons are overcrowded, medical and mental health care is lacking and prisoners Eighth Amendment rights are being violated. In the case Brown v Plata, Marciano Plata and other prisoners claimed that California's prisons were in violation of the Eight Amendment, but later it was determined that California's overcrowded prisons was the primary cause. The court ordered the release of enough prisoners so the inmate population would come within 137.5 percent of the prisons' total design capacity.…
The purpose of the “three strike” law against offenders was originally to help reduce the number of criminals who were running around free but what it had come down to was costing tax payers more than what they had bargained for. More than 57% of offenders in California who are placed in prison for the “three strike” law were typically arrested for nonviolent offenses such as drug violations and burglary. More serious offenders who had committed more serious violent crimes were getting of scotch free if it had been their 1st or 2nd offense. 1 in 4 prisoners or 42,000 inmates are serving time in California prisons were serving life terms of 25 years to life after being placed in the prison system against the “three strikes” law. Inmates serving time increased the cost to house them in the prison systems under this law by $8.1 billion with $4.7 billion of that amount being used to house nonviolent offenders. Offenders who were placed in the prison system by the “three strike” law committing nonviolent offenses such as drug related crimes and burglary outnumbered the total number of offenders placed who had committed more serious offenses such as rape, assault or murder. Voters are the only people who are able to repeal this law but what would be left for the inmates who are already placed in prison systems against the “three strike”…
Some people may argue if the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law is even effective or not. Studies have shown that this law is not very effective. The crime rates have not dropped much since the law has been enacted and there hasn’t been much of a difference made. The crime rates have been decreasing at the same rate in every state for the past twenty years regardless of this law. I think this law is fair when it deals with putting repeat rapists, robbers, and murderers away for a long time but is not fair when it comes to putting petty thieves and drug users away for 25-years-to-life. This law can also be seen unfair because other states require the third "strike" to be a violent or at least a serious felony for the harsh mandatory sentence but California allows third crimes normally classified as…
Stern’s (2006) book, “Creating Criminals: Prisons and People in a Market Society”, gives us the black and white truth about important topics that are not usually talked about in the media, nor acknowledged by most in American society. The author explains that she is in no way defending criminals with her literature, rather researching and informing society about the ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system and the market society. She argues that many policies go in favor towards those who have money, leaving people who don’t have money behind, which ultimately leads to creating criminals. She explains the dangers of overcrowded prisons, who are the people more likely to be imprisoned, and the role of a market society within…
The American public is alarmed about crime, and with good reason. Our crime rate is unacceptably high, and many Americans feel like prisoners in their own homes, afraid to venture out for fear of becoming another statistic. Nation-wide attention was focused on so-called three-strike laws in 1994 when California voters approved an initiative mandating prison terms of 25-years-to-life for defendants convicted of a third felony. The California law also doubles minimum terms for second time offenders. The prison population has grown so much that most are already filled beyond capacity and many more prisons need…
In the United States, the government preaches equality for all, while in upholding a system that discriminates against almost everyone that is not white, or not male. Packing prisons in the United States is second nature, since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the populations in prisons have increase at least 400%. And when talking about the prison system in the U.S., there has to be a conversation about race, because the prison system systematically targets people of color. U.S. soil bleeds racism, from the countries racist words about refugees to the color of skin dictating your pay. There is nothing number one about a country with a broken and racially biased criminal justice system, with racism directed at refugees of war because of their…
Have you ever wondered where and how our tax money being spent? We pay taxes for services that we all benefit from as a community. Things like roads, law enforcement, libraries, transportation systems, to live comfortable and safe. However; a very big chunk of that money goes towards prisons and jails. California’s current prison budget is almost $10 billion dollars (Jerrod). Even this sum is not enough to incarcerate all of the offenders. California will need an additional two to four billion dollars to address the overcrowded problem (Hayes). This does not necessarily mean that the crime rate has increased, this just means that politicians need to change the way our prison system works. In the end we are the ones paying for everything. Statistics have shown that the crime rate has decreased over the years but prison population continued to grow (Mayeux). This has started since 1980s when California released a series of strictest mandatory sentencing laws and stringiest parole policies in the nation (Young). These actions have increased prison population by 700 percent since the 1980s (Young). All at the expense of taxpayers which costs us $32 billion dollars yearly nationwide and keeps growing (Kieso). Government cut budgets for education but they keep adding money to correction and rehabilitation sector (Mayeux). Prisons are overcrowded to the point that Supreme Court ordered our state to release 46,000 prisoners because there is just no room for them (Jerrod). Purpose of this proposal is to provide more information on this issue and propose a solution to reduce prison population by reducing the numbers of secondary offenders and going for the root of the problem.…
Hearing the words “three strikes, you’re out” probably invoke thoughts of umpires, baseballs, and pitchers in the minds of most. In California, if you are familiar with the legal system, “three strikes, you’re out” will likely give you a vision of thousands of inmates dressed in orange, sleeping on bunk beds inside overcrowded gyms. In November 1994, California legislators and voters made a major change to the California sentencing laws with Proposition 184. This proposition better known as the “3 Strikes Law” has long been a controversial topic in California. It has spurred debates as to whether it is considered cruel and unusual punishment for the thousands of repeat offenders sentenced every year. Proposition 184 is a cruel punishment for the thousands of inmates packed into state prisons, and the taxpayers spending billions to keep them there. Over the years legislators have sought a way to reform the 3 strikes law. In November of 2012, Proposition 36 was enacted as an initiative designed to preserve the original idea. The idea was to impose life sentences on serious and violent offenders without imposing excessive sentences on non-violent offenders. As California searches for ways to decrease the recidivism rate of serious and violent offenders, we have to consider the current laws and the impact these laws have on the state of California.…
How come state inmate populations are increasing? Here are some major states and there problems. California is by far the most publicized, but certainly not the only state having challenging problems paying for its correctional system. As with most state correctional systems, the California system is overcrowded with no real operational plan to resolve its overcrowding and other operational problems. Building new prisons is out of the question. The nation’s correctional systems have for the past two plus decades seen a continuous flow of prisoners going in and nothing more than a stream of prisoners coming out. One must also mention the unbelievable recidivism rate of 70%. The “3 Strikes and You Are Out Law”, “Rockefeller Drug Laws”, mandated sentencing, and numerous other laws that were once believed to be tough on crime, I believe, are major contributing factors to the overcrowding of American prisons, and further increasing the operational…
Behan, Cormac. "Report from the European Prison Education Association." Journal of Correctional Education 59.3 (2008): 196-197. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.…
It’s no surprise that the United States prison systems are overcrowded. With the elimination of the death penalty in many states the population of incarcerated Americans has quadrupled since the 1970’s. The average cost of keeping an individual behind bars is $50,000 a year. And we wonder why the government is going broke.…
For decades now, prison overcrowding has become a problem all over the United States. Because of this overcrowding, many individuals are let out of prison before their sentence is complete which poses a threat to the community and society as a whole. However, while that is valid, the real threat is directly to those who are released before they are fully prepared to become functioning members of society once again and who will ultimately end up back in prison because of this. There are many universal causes for this overcrowding of prisons which may vary depending on which state is examined. Some of these causes include recidivism, which is caused by the lack of treatment and educational betterment programs, the “tough on crime” approach, the mandatory minimum requirement and the Three Strikes Law.…
One of the great dilemma’s currently affecting the prison systems is overpopulation, and the factors influencing it. America currently has one of the highest prison populations in the world, which causes immense overpopulation in both federal and state prisons, which in turn create high risk situations within the prisons. As a result, many programs and incentives have been created to reduce the recidivism rate for soon to be released inmates, many of the programs related to either gaining a higher education, and job/skill training. But, with many monetary funds going to these programs, the concern is if education and job training programs actually have a significant impact on the recidivism rates. While there is a general conclusion that implementing…
Alarming issues that causes society to stir up continue to expand every day. Some of these issuesinclude the educational system, existing healthcare laws, unemployment and economic matters,and the water crisis… all of which are major problems in California. One major problem, however, is often ignored. Over the past two to three decades, California’s prison population has grown by 750 percent (“California’s Continuing Prison Crisis”). As this percentage continues to increase, inmates are suffering in prison cells, officials are negotiating over the issue, and the public is protesting to make their opinions count. The prison crisis has continued to expand over the years, causing a great uproar among all of California’s thirty-two state prisons. Prison overcrowding has been an increasingly vital issue since the mid-1970s. Due to many different factors that directly relate to imprisonment such as increased punishment for crimes, carefully monitored drug laws, new criminal offenses, and a high recidivism rate, a large amount of inmates have been deprived of proper treatment while other ill mannered behavior has broken out within the prisons. A few main causes of overcrowding include an increase in returning customers and the effects of the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law. These two factors play the greatest role in overcrowding as the numbers of inmates continue to double and then triple over the years. Overcrowding prison systems in California has affected its inmates to an unimaginable extent. Some targeted issues that have occurred due to overcrowding include health and safety risks within the prisons, an increase of violence and transmission of infectious illnesses, riots breaking out in some local cities, hunger strikes involving tens of thousands of inmates, and a decrease in opportunities for self-improvement and rehabilitative programs. Prison…