Hey California, free the potheads
California Prisons Must Cut Inmate Population
LOS ANGELES – A panel of federal judges ordered the California prison system on Tuesday to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 – roughly 27 percent – within two years.
The judges said that reducing prison crowding in California was the only way to change what they called an unconstitutional prison health care system that causes one unnecessary death a week.
</em>
Lets toss out a radical notion- free the potheads. 20% of our nations prison population are there due to drug charges. Let’s say that half of them are there due to other circumstances as well, such as trafficking or some violent crime. Leave ‘em there. But that still means you can reduce your population by 20,000 by letting non-violent offenders charged with crimes that aren’t crimes in the first place (because the “state” has no divine right to say what you can and can’t do with your body) and focusing our prison dollars on the sort of folks who prey on the weak, not some guy who smoked a joint or grew shrooms for his dorm buddies.
