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Economic necessity finally forcing long-needed reform in California

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this Los Angeles Times article, which is headlined "Opposition to state budget deal mounts," the budget deal worked out in California to deal with a huge deficit includes huge cuts to the prison population.  Here are the details and the brewing debate: [I]t was the effect that the deal would have on prisons that seemed to offer the most potential for trouble. Neither the governor's office nor the Legislature had publicly released details of the prison portion of the agreement. When they were revealed, Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) insisted that he had not agreed to them.... The governor's corrections chief, Matt Cate, said the administration was doing a "full-court press" to win approval for the plan. "If we don't achieve these measured, thoughtful, I think smart-on-crime proposals, then we really are in a position where we have nothing left to do but talk about early release," Cate said...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 22, 2009 (boomark / email).