Will Arnold Schwarzenegger release prisoners early to save money? (before August)

I hope they enact similar legislation all across the country. The fact is that once someone goes to jail for a minor drug related offense instead of going inot rehab they are exposed to cheaper, more concentrated forms of the drug and upon release are about 3 times as likely to return to prison on a new drug offense than someone who hasn't been to prison. No other country on the face of the earth imprisons as many people as we do, and we are now spending almost dollar for dollar on prisons and education. Almost all of the new funding for prisons comes straight from the educational system, and if the old trends continued it wouldn't be long before schools get half the funding of prisons in some states.

Heh... we may very well have the largest amount of prisoners, but that's because China executes most of theirs...

Ryan

Does this settle with the Terminator's signature approving a bill sent to him or do prisoners actually have to walk free by 8/1/08?

@ironman..what do you suggest we do with law breakers? you say minor drug related crime should get rehab..correct? would you consider 3 joints to be a minor crime? what if one of those "minor" bad guys sold-gave-shared their joint with your kid? imho we ain't hard enough on people who break the law. if they still had hard labour people would take going to jail more seriously. as you say they can get good drugs, cable tv, access to gym equiment,..etc thats not much of a deterrant if ya ask me. wonder how many repeat offenders sherriff joe in arizona gets? i would bet less than the national average. have a nice day.

@350+/-
The way the question is worded I suggest they would actually have to be released.

@d.dog
Why would somebody's kid be sharing joints with some creep? Is it really any different than a mickey of vodka? Should bad parenting be a crime?

@mork..slight misunderstanding on your interpatation. ironman thinks we have to many people in jail in the usa. he believes minor (as in not seriours) drug offenders should get sentenced to rehab and not jail. i was just asking him if one of those minor offenders would deal to his kid if he would still feel the same way. i heard somebody say...if you wanna get rid of a bad law enforce it. i agree some sentences for minor drug violations are to strong-long. i never said anything about bad parenting. bottom line people are in jail for violating the law. should we have a quota on the number of people we put in jail? as the population grows and peoples moral's continue to drop, i'd say this country's prison population will continue to grow. have a nice day.

and yes bad parenting should and is a crime in the usa.