The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a panel of three federal judges ruled today that California must release 44,000 prison inmates in the next two years. According to the Bee’s Kevin Yamamura, 44,000 inmates amount to more than 1/4 of the state’s entire prison population.
Apparently California’s crowded prisons are violating the "rights" of the incarcerated. In their opinion the judges ruled, "…(T)he rights of California’s prisoners have repeatedly been ignored. Where the political process has utterly failed to protect the constitutional rights of a minority, the courts can, and must, vindicate those rights." These three judges have placed the “rights” of the imprisoned above the rights of law-abiding citizens. How long before one of these prisoners commits another crime? Can we expect lawsuits from future victims of these early-release prisoners?
Obviously, with the state in such a dire financial condition, building new prisons won’t be a priority for the legislature—especially when “vital services” like welfare can’t be cut. This should outrage every taxpaying citizen of California. The first priority of government is to administer justice and protect its citizens from criminals—that is the basis of societal order. But the majority party is so preoccupied with increasing spending on social programs (not government’s responsibility), they are willfully ignoring their responsibility to keep their constituents safe from criminals. Hopefully, for the safety of Californians, this outrageous ruling will be overturned by the Supreme Court. And here’s hoping our legislature will start building prisons to protect us from criminals who should not be strolling our neighborhoods.
h/t Kevin Yamamura via Twitter @kyamamura