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CA: The Prison Overcrowding Fix

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

News Analysis The Prison Overcrowding Fix By SOLOMON MOORE Published: February 10, 2009 In San Francisco last week, a federal court was hearing final arguments in the prison overcrowding lawsuit that led Monday to an unprecedented decision to reduce the nation?s largest prison system by one-third. Just a few blocks away, a state appellate court was affirming a life sentence for Ali Foroutan, convicted of possession of 0.03 gram of methamphetamine. Critics of California?s justice system say Mr. Foroutan?s sentence under the ?three-strikes law,? which mandates 25 years to life in prison for three-time felons, is the kind of punishment that has made the state?s prisons the most overcrowded in the nation. Federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that packed facilities were the chief impediment to adequate health care in prisons ? a system so flawed it was tantamount to a violation of the Eighth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).