In summary: More than 7,500 prisoners sent home in the program — which aims to slow the spread of COVID-19 — would have been released within months anyway. Thousands with health conditions remain in prison, and the virus keeps spreading.
In July, amid an epidemic of coronavirus cases, California’s corrections agency rolled out early-release programs touted as a solution to protect inmates at overcrowded prisons. But nearly all of the prisoners selected were scheduled to be released within months anyway, while many inmates with longer sentences remain in prison despite serious health conditions.
About 6,500 inmates in California’s prisons were eligible for release under the state’s high-risk medical release program.
But as of Nov. 25, only 62 inmates were released solely because of their medical conditions, according to data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The rest of the 7,596 people released had less than a year to serve on their sentences and may or may not have medical problems.
That means several thousand people with serious medical conditions remain in California’s prisons as the number of COVID-19 cases among inmates and guards surges. Even with the releases, more than 20,000 inmates — and counting — have tested positive. At least 95 have died, and some prisons remain overcrowded.
“This is frankly unacceptable,” said Sharon Dolovich, faculty director of the UCLA Prison Law & Policy Program and director of COVID Behind Bars. “I’ve been hearing the number 62 for at least a couple of months, if not longer. It’s just a trickle.
“It’s not going to make any appreciable difference when we’re talking about COVID-risks, and it just tells you that the governor and the Department of Corrections are not taking this crisis seriously,” she said.
Early releases are designed for people with less than a year on their sentences or medical conditions that put them at high risk. To be released early, people can’t be serving time for domestic violence or a violent offense or committed a crime that requires them to register as a sex offender, and the CDCR must deem them low-risk for violence.
I wish there was a way to force the prisons to see each sex offense differently. Just like selling drugs isn’t violent but selling drugs with a gun is. While reprehensible someone in jail for exposing themselves isn’t violent. Nor a host of CP crimes.
At times we that are sex offenders and those behind bars have a type of sign post that hiders many. Plain and simple most all of this sex offense by computers is suggestive at best. Yes I’ve mentioned my story on here and yes I did go down their to prove that it wasn’t a teenager. So who’s tryng one’s spirit or testing ones? Even scripture says respect when respect is due.
Much of this Covid issue can be looked at as a test also. Even the presidency was a suprise to many but one can feel sympathy for those that are incarcared in prisons. Evenby having some porn on their computer and being mixed up with this sex registry ordeal it bleeds for truth and justice. I’m sure many have things in their bedroom that are concered contraban or illegal one may say.
One can suffer a lot of things but when one is a prisoner of one’s mind than who is guilty in much of this callous crime of sexting or verbal sexual camming. Someone has to he the leader and nine times out of Ten its that LE agent trying to induce one in all this prison or probation time and since we have been going thru this pandemic and government talks about prison overcrowding all states should make effort to get those prisoners out of this prison confinment due to this virus condition as it is not humaine in any respect.
Why doesn’t Newsome make them all wear mask? He claims they work so well. We will put you in jail for violating covid-19 rules and then release because of covid. Makes a lot of sense.NOT