Not too long ago, the men now sitting around a table at the Contra Costa Probation Office were in prison. “I want to ask how long have you been in prison,” Chief Adult Probation Officer Philip Kader asks them. They respond with three, six and even 12 times.
On today's Your Call we’ll talk about what’s changing in California’s prison system. The Occupy Movement drew attention to the prison industrial complex this week with a day of action called “Occupy the Prisons.” They are calling for an end to inhumane conditions for people behind bars. Meanwhile, the realignment process is underway in California-- where low-level offenders are being moved from prisons to county jails. Is this the best way to solve prison over-crowding?
The state came close to meeting its first court-imposed benchmark for reducing the prison population last week. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, readying its January 10 report to the federal court in the Northern District of California, announced it’s currently operating at 169.2 percent of its designed capacity. That number nearly hits the 167-percent figure the court demanded California meet by December 27, 2011.
