76,000 Inmates Eligible For Early Release: RivCo DA Protests

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin is battling against the possible early release of some 76,000 inmates in California.

Hestrin announced Thursday that he and 40 district attorneys across the state have signed a petition and filed it with the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The petition asks the CDCR to repeal temporary emergency regulations that award additional early-release credits to offenders.

The temporary emergency regulations allow thousands of inmates convicted of violent crimes to become eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their prison sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017.

The new temporary emergency regulations were made public April 30.

“Releasing dangerous and violent felons into our communities by reducing their sentences by as much as 50 percent puts the public in danger,” Hestrin said. “This petition asks CDCR to repeal these regulations and rethink their approach. Specifically, victims and their families deserve to be heard on how these regulations might affect them and public safety in general.”

CDCR spokeswoman Dana Simas said the agency was granted authority to make the changes through the rulemaking process and under the current budget. By making them "emergency regulations," the agency claimed it could impose the new rules without public comment.

If the district attorneys get a formal court order declaring the regulations unlawful, the CDCR would be forced to pass them with greater transparency and public input, the DA's office said.

Simas said in a statement that the goal of the regulations is to "increase incentives for the incarcerated population to practice good behavior and follow the rules while serving their time, and participate in rehabilitative and educational programs, which will lead to safer prisons. Additionally, these changes would help to reduce the prison population by allowing incarcerated persons to earn their way home sooner."

California has been under court orders to reduce a prison population that peaked at 160,000 in 2006 and saw inmates being housed in gymnasiums and activity rooms. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court backed federal judges' requirement that the state reduce overcrowding.

The population has been declining since the high court's decision, starting when the state began keeping lower-level felons in county jails instead of state prisons. In 2014, voters reduced penalties for property and drug crimes. Two years later, voters approved allowing earlier parole for most inmates.