After moving less than 400 California inmates to out-of-state lockups, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered hundreds more to be transfered involuntarily to states that have room in their prisons, the administration has announced. The governor had hoped to transfer 5,000 to relieve overcrowding.
The Republican governor said in a statement released this afternoon: "Our state has a prison overcrowding crisis. The safety of our correctional officers is threatened, we have the highest recidivism rate in the country because there is no room for rehabilitation, and we face the possibility of court ordered early release of felons. I am asking the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to begin the involuntary transfer of prisoners because it is in the interest of all Californians and our public safety."
In October, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in California's prison population and asked inmates to voluntarily transfer to out-of-state facilities. The administration even produced a video showing the delights of a Tennessee lockup. In his executive order, Schwarzenegger said 29 of the state's 33 prisons are so "overcrowded that the CDCR is required to house more than 15,000 inmates in conditions that pose substantial safety risks, namely, prison areas never designed or intended for inmate housing, including, but not limited to, common areas such as prison gymnasiums, dayrooms, and program rooms, with approximately 1,500 inmates sleeping in triple-bunks."
The California prison system estimated that 19,000 inmates had "expressed interest" in moving to another state. But so far, about 600 have volunteered as of last week, and 380 have been moved. The Times' Jenifer Warren uncovered the promotional video produced by California prison officials that extols the virtues of prisons in other states. Footage shows inmates lounging in roomy cells with views, playing basketball and chess, lining up for hot meals and chatting amiably with smiling officers. Inmates of different races mingle something unheard of on a California prison yard and one convict marvels that "we've already had dental exams," which are hard to come by behind bars in the Golden State.
(Photo: AP)
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