Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

"The California Prison Disaster"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this potent editorial in today's New York Times.  Here are excerpts: The mass imprisonment philosophy that has packed prisons and sent corrections costs through the roof around the country has hit especially hard in California, which has the largest prison population, the highest recidivism rate and a prison budget raging out of control. According to a new federally backed study conducted at the University of California, Irvine, the state?s corrections costs have grown by about 50 percent in less than a decade and now account for about 10 percent of state spending ? nearly the same amount as higher education.  The costs could rise substantially given that a federal lawsuit may require the state to spend $8 billion to bring the prison system?s woefully inadequate medical services up to constitutional standards...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 25, 2008 (boomark / email).