This just in from the no-longer-Golden State: California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier, as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system.
Shocked? Me neither.
As reported by AP, more than 63,000 of the 76,000 inmates, who were convicted of violent crimes, will be eligible for “good behavior credits” that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. That includes nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.
Here’s background, via AP:
Under the change, more than 10,000 prisoners convicted of a second serious but nonviolent offense under the state’s “three strikes” law will be eligible for release after serving half their sentences.
That’s an increase from the current time-served credit of one-third of their sentence.
The same increased release time will apply to nearly 2,900 nonviolent third-strikers, the corrections department projected.
Also as of Saturday, all minimum-security inmates in work camps, including those in firefighting camps, will be eligible for the same month of earlier release for every month they spend in the camp, regardless of the severity of their crime. Read more…