Do recent California prison reforms demonstrate
Plata ruling was a success or a failure?
There was lots of debate, both within the Justices' opinions and in the outside punditry, about whether and why the Supreme Court was wise or foolish to uphold in its 2011
Plata ruling a federal judicial panel's "prisoner release order" based on California's dismal record in running its overcrowded prisons. Now, nearly two years later, this article from today's
New York Timesprompts the question in the title of this post. The article is headlined "California Tries to Regain Fuller Control of Prisons," and here are excerpts:
On the sprawling grounds of the state prison, built here in 1955, a new three-story, $24 million treatment center for mentally ill inmates stands out because of its freshly painted walls and rooftop solar panels. Inside, on a recent morning, psychologists and social workers were leading group therapy sessions for inmates in large, brightly lighted rooms while individual meetings were being held in smaller offices.