Protecting the Public – who is the public

History of the Global Now
Current Event Reflection
Terese Howard
8/25/09

An article in CNN news entitled Inmate-release plan hits snag in California assembly reported , “A panel of three federal judges has ordered California to reduce its prison population by about 40,000 by mid-September. The judges acted on the grounds that overcrowded prisons violate inmates' constitutional rights.”
40,000. That is more people than live in my home town Montrose. Imagine the entire town of Montrose locked up in prison cells. And that is just what they want California to reduce their prison population to. That must mean there is more than twice that many in their prisons right now.
A representative of the prison reduction “assured senators the public would be protected from the most violent offenders.” However, the article also makes note of an incident in the prison a couple of weeks ago. “Some 250 inmates were injured this month at the facility in a riot that officials said was ignited by racial tension. Fifty-five inmates were taken to hospitals with serious injuries, including stab wounds and head trauma.” So if they are promising to protect the public from “violent offenders” why did they not protect the other inmates from this violence while they were locked up in prison together in crowded space for months on end? If prisons are “populations” then I believe they should also be made up of people, and as such they are the public that is supposed to be protected.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/25/california.prisoners.release/index.html