The controversial news of the prison population reduction in California is raising some eyebrows, especially concerning whether or not it will be a safe thing to proceed in doing. Under the state law signed Monday, nearly 6,500 inmates will be released to begin the process of reducing the overcrowding in the coming year. The bill was signed last year as a piece of the state’s budget package.
Inmates will receive early-release credits for completing educational and vocational programs, which is a plan already being expanded upon. More incentives for getting their GED, learning a trade, and/or becoming clean and sober will also be another change taking place, allowing convicts to have improved opportunities after release. This will allow for inmates to be released earlier. The number of parolees will also be reduced- after their release from prison; ex-convicts with low-level offenses, and considered to be less dangerous and less likely to commit more crimes will not be monitored, though will still be able to be searched without a warrant.
The main benefit to this is that it will allow the state to place more focus on gang members, violent felons, and sex offenders, as well as reducing the load of parolees on the agents, and provide more time for being both a cop and social worker. The law will also end the automatic three-year parole of every released convict.
The estimate of financial savings of the state is 500 million in the first year, but only time will tell if this will prove to be true. With less monitoring, the possibility of ex-convicts committing another crime may rise due to lack of parole. One particular statistic is applicable to this situation- over 70% of released inmates return to prison after being released. Will this number decrease due to less attention to those considered a low-risk, or will it perhaps see decrease due to the law itself? Once again, only time will provide us an answer to this recently debated topic.
Inmates will receive early-release credits for completing educational and vocational programs, which is a plan already being expanded upon. More incentives for getting their GED, learning a trade, and/or becoming clean and sober will also be another change taking place, allowing convicts to have improved opportunities after release. This will allow for inmates to be released earlier. The number of parolees will also be reduced- after their release from prison; ex-convicts with low-level offenses, and considered to be less dangerous and less likely to commit more crimes will not be monitored, though will still be able to be searched without a warrant.
The main benefit to this is that it will allow the state to place more focus on gang members, violent felons, and sex offenders, as well as reducing the load of parolees on the agents, and provide more time for being both a cop and social worker. The law will also end the automatic three-year parole of every released convict.
The estimate of financial savings of the state is 500 million in the first year, but only time will tell if this will prove to be true. With less monitoring, the possibility of ex-convicts committing another crime may rise due to lack of parole. One particular statistic is applicable to this situation- over 70% of released inmates return to prison after being released. Will this number decrease due to less attention to those considered a low-risk, or will it perhaps see decrease due to the law itself? Once again, only time will provide us an answer to this recently debated topic.
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