http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me … ory?page=2Reporting from Sacramento -- Less than 24 hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced a plan to close California's massive budget deficit, Los Angeles County officials moved to sue the state, a union for government workers said it might strike, and Republicans threatened to back out of the deal over a provision to cut the number of prison inmates by 27,000.
But as those preparations went ahead, the leader of the Republicans in the state Assembly reacted angrily to news posted on The Times' website about the deal's effect on prisons. Under the plan, some inmates would be allowed to finish their sentences on home detention, new incentives would be created for completion of rehabilitation programs, and parole supervision would be scaled back for the least serious offenders. The prisons now hold 168,000 inmates.
A "Parole Re-Entry Accountability Program" would reduce the state parole population by 46,000 -- more than a third of those now under supervision -- depending on their crimes and behavior.
Best bits right there. In before rise in crime or a smart move by Cali?