The Supreme Court ordered California on Monday to release tens of thousands of its prisoners to relieve overcrowding, saying that “needless suffering and death” had resulted from putting too many inmates into facilities that cannot hold them in decent conditions.
It is one of the largest prison release orders in the nation’s history, and it sharply split the high court.
In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia called the ruling “staggering” and “absurd.”
He said the high court had repeatedly overruled the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for ordering the release of individual prisoners. Now, he said, the majority were ordering the release of “46,000 happy-go-lucky felons.” He added that “terrible things are sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order.” Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with him.
Justice Kennedy said the judges in California overseeing the prison-release order should “accord the state considerable latitude to find mechanisms and make plans” that are “consistent with the public safety.”
IC, These prisoners are awaiting their day in court because they've been indicted for a crime yet to be found whether they are guilty of it.
One young man has been waiting three years because his lawyer will decide when to take his case to court. Meanwhile he being a viewed a "weak" person and must dodge the thugs in that prison to make that day in court. Do you or anyone think that is justified or is that the way the "legal" system works in the USA?
http://tvpixie.com/tv-news/2011/05/23/louis-theroux-miami-mega-jailLouis
Theroux continues his run of troubling documentaries with a look inside Miami's Mega Jail.
This was sobering stuff for a Sunday night - an evening that used to be reserved for cheese on toast, Bovril and half an hour's gardening respite in the company of Last of the Summer Wine. Instead of tumbling old folk in the heart of rural Yorkshire, we got a dose of crime and punishment in Florida, where over twenty prisoners are often confined to bunks in one cell, where the inmates brutally fight over trivialities, where the weak don't stand a chance and where gunning is a regular occurrence.
Yes - 'gunning'. But not 'gunning' as in 'we'll all be gunning for you'. The term refers to the practice of masturbating at passing guards. The specifics of this weren't quite cleared up, especially in terms of who did the clearing up, but the fact it happened all the time only went to show how miserable environment it must be to work in. The guards who spoke to camera were all reasonable enough people - no gung ho punishment slavedrivers until boot camp in episode two - but it was clear they were battle-hardened and exhausted.
Both prisoners and prison guards seemed resigned to the fact the building was cramped, decrepit and unfit for purpose - and the fact the guards had the word 'CORRECTION' on their backs only added to the grim reality of the piece. From what we saw, the only correction going on was unjust and dished out indiscriminately according to the code, from prisoner to prisoner. 'GABOS', as one inmate, awaiting a hearing for a stabbing, put it - a prison acronym for 'Game ain't got no sympathy'.
This was a pre-trial facility, meaning those within hadn't yet been found guilty of the crimes they were inside for. With the overpopulated cells constantly spilling into violence, it was no wonder innocent men or those on lesser charges would get caught up in the horror. The instinctive reaction was to think 'how would I cope?', before you quickly realised that you probably wouldn't.
It's tempting to ask Theroux to return to his own ways, finding kooks and loveable outsiders to catch on film for us. But he's probably doing better work with documentaries like Miami's Mega Jail. it's must-watch, even if it's soul-destroying.
IC, These prisoners are awaiting their day in court because they've been indicted for a crime yet to be found whether they are guilty of it.
One young man has been waiting three years because his lawyer will decide when to take his case to court. Meanwhile he being a viewed a "weak" person and must dodge the thugs in that prison to make that day in court. Do you or anyone think that is justified or is that the way the "legal" system works in the USA?
Hogwash. The article nails it down to felons, which would indicate they have already been found guilty.
A person is guaranteed a speedy trial after being indicted.
If the defendent, or his lawyer is filing frivilous motions then his right to a speedy trial is waived. His problem, not societies for having 46,000 felons released.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Sixth+Amendment
If the government wanted to do something about the over crowding, they could use one of the interment camps they have built to house the left wing socialist government bullsh-t activists that they fear will be protesting. After all, they stand there in many states empty.
"This was a pre-trial facility"
Get serious. California doesn't have one facility for pre trial. Those 46,000 prisoners are being released from all the prisons in the state.
So IC I think you should consider instead of insult.
I didn't insult you, you insulted yourself. All I said was get serious.
You suggested that all those to be released were pretrial, like somebody arrested in San Diego would be put in a facility not in San Diego before arraignment, and the same for somebody in the same situation in Sacramento which is a hundred, if not hundred[s] miles away.
The supreme court ruled on individual rights probably filed by some jail house lawyer over something that was in the constitution re: individual rights, not about releasing prisoners. It proceeded through the state legal system with no avail, and eventually ended up in the supreme court which decides all things not decided in the state courts when it comes to constitutional issues.
If you become legal through the process I think you will have to learn all about how it works.
It wouldn't hurt myself, actually everybody to take a refresher course on the finer points.
Or have Scalia and Thomas come up with the money to pay to keep all these people in a cage somewhere.
And I always thought they believed in lesser Government and Taxes..... and State's Rights????????
Sometimes you seem like a man of reason, other times you match the reasoning of the Chicago MBA [3]
It would be apropos that the liberals on the supreme court screwed the liberal state of California, and I wouldn't care except for the conservatives that are foolish enough to live there also.
Sure enough the CA. liberals brought this madness on themselves with their oblunder style spending, coupled with the greed of the government workers that have the me, me , and screw everybody else attitude. http://biggovernment.com/dspady/2011/05/06/200000-lifeguards-to-receive-milli...
http://reason.org/news/show/bell-california-government-salary-p
And you have the cajones to blame Scalia, and Thomas for the lack of money to house these prisoners. How about oblunder, and the liberals in washington, along with the liberals on the supreme court closing the border, then sending all illegal alians back to mexico?
Why?
"Illegal aliens constitute about 7% of the state's population, or about 2.7 million, according to an April report by the Pew Hispanic Center. State officials say that they add about $4 billion to $6 billion in costs, primarily in the area of schools, prisons and jails, and emergency rooms. This is money the slightly less Golden State can scarcely afford.
For fiscal 2009-10, it's estimated that about $834 million will be spent to incarcerate 189,000 illegal immigrants in the state's prison system. In Los Angeles County alone, Supervisor Mike Antonovich says, illegal aliens add up to $550 million annually in criminal justice costs.
Little note has been made that much of California's prison crisis is due to crimes committed by illegal aliens invited in through the sanctuary policies of its major cities and their policies of not allowing local police to notify immigration authorities when suspected illegals are apprehended.
According to statistics released by the FBI, more than 95% of arrest warrants issued in Los Angeles for the crime of murder are for illegal aliens. Nearly 25% of the California prison population consists of illegal aliens. Increased border and interior enforcement, coupled with expedited deportation, could help immeasurably."
Bailing Out Illegals
Investors Business Daily
July 10, 2009
25% of 150k = 37,500
Maybe certain officials are making to much money allowing the drug trade. Strange that the whisleblower of the off shore bank went to jail, and the only other person was a billionaire who was fined a few million dollars. Are they actually saying there was only one person who had an offshore account? Did the cow jump over the moon.
Then there was the ATF allowing guns to be sold to illegal aliens that killed American border guards.
What is it you liberals don't understand? What makes it right for you people to unleash 46,000 criminals on the population?
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https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/California_Democratic_Party
The box on the far right will tell you that the government of California is dumocRAT. One person doesn't make up the government of the whole state.
Here's a map to help you.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states
You're to happy about the prospects for the country.
Nobody has to wonder about where you're coming from now.