Get ready, Californians. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled California must release nearly 10,000 prisoners. In May 2011, the court had decided state prison conditions violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and gave the state two years to release 30,000 prisoners, which would still leave the prisons at 37 percent above capacity. After the state began progressing toward the goal, it asked for a stay, but the court has now refused. “California must now release upon the public nearly 10,000 inmates convicted of serious crimes,” Alito wrote in his dissent, “about 1,000 for every city larger than Santa Ana.”
