Prison Population – California

California, in financial crisis, opens prison doors, By Randal C. Archibold, March 23, 2010, New York Times: “The California budget crisis has forced the state to address a problem that expert panels and judges have wrangled over for decades: how to reduce prison overcrowding. The state has begun in recent weeks the most significant changes since the 1970s to reduce overcrowding – and chip away at an astonishing 70 percent recidivism rate, the highest in the country – as the prison population becomes a major drag on the state’s crippled finances. Many in the state still advocate a tough approach, with long sentences served in full, and some early problems with released inmates have given critics reason to complain. But fiscal reality, coupled with a court-ordered reduction in the prison population, is pouring cold water on old solutions like building more prisons…”