California to Involuntarily Transfer Inmates Out of State

It's been coming for a while now but with the Federal courts posturing to take over California's prison system the top prison official has decided to start transferring prisoners out of the state to privately owned facilities.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California's prison secretary on Friday said the state will force the transfer up to 5,000 inmates to other states, an indication that an order signed last fall by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has fallen short of expectations.

The involuntary transfers will start in 60 to 90 days. Corrections Secretary James Tilton said the action is needed to relieve overcrowding that threatens the safety of guards and inmates in the nation's largest state prison system.

...

Private prisons in Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma are likely to receive the transferred inmates, Tilton said.

Lawsuits have left federal courts in charge of various aspects of California's prisons, with overcrowding the root of many of the system's problems.

In December, a federal judge warned that he would start releasing inmates early or prohibit convicts from being sent to state prisons from county jails unless the state acts immediately to solve the overcrowding.

KSBW 8

The issue at hand is that the California prison system is designed to house 100,000 inmates but are currently housing 174,000 inmates in 33 state facilities. I'm guessing that the 5,000 inmates are just the start since that still leaves 11,000 sleeping in gymansium's across the state.

Most prisons are ate 200%+ of capacity. Having taken a tour of the Salinas Valley State Prison (where Manson was incarcerated up to about 8 years ago) ... it's very apparent that not only are the prisons overcrowded but they prisoners way outnumber the guards.

I'm wondering when we'll build 3 or 4 more facilities to house our prisoners instead of paying a private business to do so. No one has mentioned if we're saving money by paying a private company or if it would be cheaper to house them ourselves in a new facility.

We need to do a variety of things:

1) Build more prisons (yes I know its a bandaid, but you can't furlogh murderers)

2) Give judges leeway for creative sentancing.

3) For lesser offences like car theft, fraud, petty theft etc, perhaps establishing a mandatory work program to help rebuild California infrastructure. The work would coincide with training and education IF the inmates so choses it. Lets face it may simply are un-interested in learing.