Jim Tilton, state corrections secretary, said Wednesday that if not enough inmates volunteer to transfer out of California, the state will force some to move.
Posted on 10/05/2006 8:26:23 AM PDT by SmithL
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a prison overcrowding emergency Wednesday in California, paving the way for inmate transfers to out-of-state institutions within a month.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary James Tilton said that the state is on the verge of signing no-bid, sole-source contracts with three private prison companies and that he expects to begin sending inmates to Indiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arizona at a rate of 100 to 200 a month within 30 days.
In a recent survey, Tilton said, 19,000 inmates expressed interest in doing their time in other states. He said his immediate goal is to get 5,000 of them to follow through.
The corrections secretary indicated at a Capitol press conference that he anticipates no difficulty in getting enough inmates to sign up willingly.
"If I was living in a gym with 240 other individuals and had no (educational or vocational) program, I'd probably raise my hand also, to get a chance to get out of that environment and into a safe environment, as well as to get some program," Tilton said.
But if he can't recruit enough volunteers, Tilton said, the prison agency will try to force convicts into the transfers, starting with foreign nationals.
The idea of forced transfers was met with opposition from a leading legislative Democrat, the prison officers union, an inmates rights lawyer and the public policy director of a Latino rights group.
California's prison system houses more than 172,000 inmates in space designed for about half that many.
Schwarzenegger sought twice this year to embark on an expansion program to address overcrowding, but he was rejected by the Legislature.
In the emergency proclamation he signed Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said he found "conditions of extreme peril" in 29 of California's 33 prisons, where authorities counted 4,313 inmate assaults and batteries last year,...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Will this improve our balance of trade?
Alaska sends some convicts out of state, too.
Why not just send them back to Mexico.
That would be MY answer too.
Send the 28% illegal alien population to Mexican jails!
I'll bet the cable TV in those other states is not as good as California's.
But if I were a citizen of those other states, I would not be too thrilled about importing a bunch of criminals from California.
Send 'em over to see Sheriff Joe in Arizona.
After a couple of weeks at his resort the criminals will be begging to come back.
Or, how 'bout this? Criminals that are US citizens can stay in Kali, all others will be moved.
Did he say out of state or out of states?
In Mexico, they are the police.
For the real bad actors, how about Siberia or Mongolia?
I would deport the illegals before doing this....33% right there
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