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California State Prison Case Study

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As of September 2011, California incarcerated close to 144,000 inmates in its state prisons. This number fell in recent years owing to the pressure from SCOTUS and California policy changes. In 2006, California had a peak incarceration rate of 172,000 inmates (Rogan, 2012). Since 1970, California has seen 750% rise in incarceration levels, especially during the “war on drugs” campaign during the 1990s (Harvard Law Review, 2010, p. 753). With no end in sight to the rapidly growing number of inmates in California’s state prisons, the CDCR was challenged to manage the growing population. New prison construction was a short-term solution as the number of prisoners continued to rise and budgets continued to fall, limiting construction funding (Rogan, …show more content…

In Coleman v. Brown (1990), the court ordered a reduction in California’s prison population to provide California Realignment: Assembly Bill (AB) 109 8 constitutional levels of medical and mental health care, demonstrating the court’s ability to generate a comprehensive remedial solution to prison overcrowding (Harvard Law Review, 2009). “The California governor and corrections officials have been sued by California prisoners for violating their rights under the Eighth Amendment 's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause for being deprived of adequate health care” (Spector, 2010, p. 1). The safe operation of a prison is impossible with severe overcrowding (Spector, 2010). In a similar case filed approximately a decade later in Plata v. Brown (2001), the court ruled that the CDCR failed to provide adequate medical services and consequently violated the Eight Amendment (Rogan, 2012). The outcomes of these cases led to a court-ordered reduction in overcrowding, and because of the poor level and standards of prisoner healthcare, the California prison system was forced to change prisoners’ housing. One California prisoner dies every eight days for lack of sufficient medical …show more content…

Many inmates sleep in gyms, dayrooms, and other areas not intended for housing purposes (Gale, 2008). In 2011, Governor Jerry Brown and the Legislature approved a plan that would relocate low-level (non-serious), non-violent, non-sexual offenders (known as “the three-nons”) into the jurisdictional control of the counties in which they were arrested. Furthermore, the Governor’s plan allowed offenders to be released to the county probation system instead of the parole board (Medina, 2011). The Court’s order is part of a two-decade long battle over medical and mental California Realignment: Assembly Bill (AB) 109 9 health care in California prisons (Harvard Law Review, 2010). The first of the two cases was originally filed on April 23, 1990. In Coleman v. Brown, a United States magistrate judge found that the CDCR did not provide adequate healthcare to their inmates and therefore was in violation of the United States’ Eighth Amendment (Harvard Law Review, 2010). The second case of Plata v. Brown was filed in 2001. This case followed the precedent set in the Coleman case. Plata v. Brown argued that the

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The Supreme Court did indeed find that the case was solid and it was obvious the inmate was definitely subject to cruel and unusual punishment. The eight amendment was found to be violated by the Texas Department of Corrections. The Supreme Court came to a decision which was in favor of the defendant because after the Supreme Court had reviewed the case there was definitely a failure by the Texas Department of Corrections to provide the inmate with the proper medical care that he indeed needed bad and did not receive. The Estelle V. Gamble nevertheless did developed valid points and did have real evidence of his mistreatment. The Estelle V. Gamble case did establish the principle that the

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Today, it costs about $20,000 per year to confine just one physically fit and capable offender, and about three times that cost for an older prisoner in a penitentiary (“Reasons” 1). Considering that California is just one of the fifty states that is required to uphold this law, how much money is really being siphoned annually just to keep so many offenders in jail? The state court systems costs are also rising due to the abundance of felony cases being persecuted. Since the prisons are being over populated, new prisons are being build, funneling more money into the equation. There is an obvious chain reaction that can be seen when taking a step back and observing the bigger picture.

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In analysing Steven Raphael’s article, titled How Do We Reduce Incarceration Rates While Maintaining Public Safety? , I was able to uncover some similarities and differences in related topics found in our course textbook-- Steven P. Lab and colleagues’ Criminal Justice The Essentials. Raphael, Public Policy Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has an obvious concern for the policies enforced today that are thought to be responsible to the overcrowding of most prisons across the U.S.. Meanwhile, the textbook draws a close eye to the incarceration rates and increases overtime- all the while remaining objective and open loose interpretation. Both pieces of text add to the enlightenment of my knowledge dealing with the criminal justice system.

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Ashker’s comments exemplifies the strict regime that the prison officials have over the prisoners, ultimately and inequitably limiting their freedom. Prisoners have natural rights and freedom that ought to be respected, but this is not the case of California State Prison. A psychology professor interviewed 100 of these Pelican Bay prisoners who’ve endured the oppressive isolation, and professor Haney “ found

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The first reading “The Just Barely Sustainable California Prisoners’ Rights Ecosystem” by Marco Shlanger analyzes the process of prison rights reform and how the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act restricts litigation of prison rights through imposing increased filing fees and limiting attorney’s fees and damages, specifically in California. Previously, Zacklin’s article underlined the importance of the litigation strategy in order fix collective conciseness (Durkheim) and enable laws that reflect society used by the ACLU. Despite this repressive law, prisoner’s rights are being litigated at a higher rate in California, but the act’s premise cements prisoners as the One Shotters (Galanter) through “friction and starvation”. One Shotters are

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Summary California currently has the highest incarceration rate in the world with 1.5 million mostly non-violent offenders in prison. High-quality correctional education, including remedial, secondary, postsecondary and trade school correctional education has been shown to reduce re-incarceration rates. Reducing inmate recidivism, via correctional education can ultimately save taxpayers money and create safer communities. Correctional education could save California taxpayers millions of dollars as it presently costs taxpayers approx.11 billion annually at min. ($71,000.00 per person) for the 189,000 inmates within the California prison system.

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California state penitentiaries who for years managed prisons without court interference were now in a constitutional bind. Those in favor of California policy system argue that segregation by race invariably resulted in the prison system especially among inmates affiliated with gangs and to put different gang members of different races into the same cell would result in violence. In order to stop interracial violence, many prisons in California adopted the system of assigning race-based cells. State penitentiary would argue that they implemented this system not because they believe in racial segregation but for the safety of all inmates. Those in favor of this system also argued that the 2005 Supreme Court ruling jeopardized the safety of inmates, especially newcomers.

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California’s number of incarcerated men have clearly grown throughout the years and so has the number of gangs who more often than not organize themselves along racial or ethnic lines. Conflict among racial gangs has lead to tremendous amounts of violence and death resulting in the disturbance of prison security. Time and time again these violent racial riots occurred and California state penitentiaries who for years were left to manage this chaos, left without other means, tried to prevent future violence by racially segregating inmates into cells by their race…..

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The $75 billion that is used to fight the war on drugs annually could be funneled into the prison system (Buckley, Nadelmann, Schmoke, McNamara, Sweet, Szasz, T., et al., 1996). With this extra money, specific failures in the prison system can be addressed. Because placing prisoners together in confined areas may lead to violence, and because isolating them may lead to frustration and aggression, this money could be used to hire more officers, to purchase more recreational equipment, to provide more complete medical treatment, and to provide more counseling sessions (Seiter, 2008).

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The chart provides three alternatives strategies of intervention to solve overcrowding prison, it was then isolated into four unique categories: Effectiveness. Equity, Political Acceptability and Financial Feasibility. Effectiveness: represent each representing which options would be the best in giving a solution to the overcrowding issue (Bardach,2012, p. 50-52). Equity: represent the alternative that will most benefit both the inmates and the general public (Bardach,2012, pg36) Political Acceptability: represent the alternative the feasible which may be insufficiently board or both insufficiently intense of both with the approval of Governor Andrew Cuomo (Bardach,2012, p.41).

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