State Meets First Goal To Trim Inmate Population To Improve Health Care
On Tuesday, California prison officials announced that the state has met its initial target to reduce its inmate population to improve the prison health care system, the AP/Washington Post reports (AP/Washington Post, 1/3).
Background
Six years ago, a federal judge ruled that poor prison health care in California was leading to about 50 inmate deaths annually. A panel of three judges appointed a receiver to oversee health care and ordered the state to reduce its prison population.
State officials appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the high court ruled in May 2011 that California must reduce its inmate population (California Healthline, 8/17/11).
Details of First Target
Federal judges charged California to reduce its population by about 10,000 inmates by the end of last year to bring the prison population to about 133,000. As of last week, the inmate population fell to 132,887 in California's 33 prisons.
Jeffrey Callison -- a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation -- said, "Based on that number, we have met the benchmark."
The state is on pace to cut the inmate population by 23% -- or 33,000 -- over two years, according to the AP/Post (AP/Washington Post, 1/3).
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