CA Struggles to Comply with SCOTUS Prison Crowding Order

California Governor Jerry Brown plans to move more than 30,000 inmates form state prisons to local jails in response to an order from the U.S. Supreme Court to slash the prison population by 33,000 inmates over the next two years.

According to KSBY-TV, the state's 33 prisons house more than 143,000 inmates in a space designed for fewer than 80,000. Local jails in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County are also overcrowded. The Governor's proposal to move prisoners must have a provision that allocates sufficient funding to operate local jails with increased population. The funding is currently being held up in the legislature by Republicans who are opposing the Governor's plan to extend a series of taxes.

"Based on the law they passed, "AB 109," that law in order for it to go into affect there has to be funding and right now there is none," Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Drew Sugars told KSBY-TV..

Sugars told KSBY-TV the Santa Barbara County Jail is full, "we've had a lack of space now for two decades so to have an influx of inmates coming from the state prison system is simply impossible at this point without help from the state government."

To read more: http://www.ksby.com/news/governor-brown-unveils-plan-to-deal-with-overcrowding-of-state-prison-s/