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One notable economist's reaction to the California prison litigation

By Douglas A. Berman

In this column, famed economist Steven Levitt has these fascinating responses about the recent federal court "tentative opinion" calling for a massive reduction of California's prison population: [A] prisoner?s rights group won a preliminary decision against the state of California?s prison system.  Consistent with my earlier [research], the lawsuit already seems to have had some impact on California?s prison population. For instance, in 2007 California?s prison population shrunk by about 1 percent, whereas the overall U.S. prison population grew by nearly 2 percent.  It will take a few years before a final court decision is handed down, but the likely outcome is that five or six years from now there will be 25,000 fewer inmates than there otherwise would have been...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).