Jails Are Overcrowded Because We Lock Up Far to Many People

The US Supreme Court ruling mandating that California release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve gross overcrowding is the first sensible thing the Supreme Court has done in a while. The problem though is the court begged the question of why California's jails and prisons are packed to the ceiling in the first place. The answer is simple.
California's prisons are a mess because far too many persons are being tossed into the prisons when they don't have to be. With little fanfare and no public outcry, other states that have faced prison overcrowding have implemented programs that have reduced the prison numbers without increasing the danger to public safety.

They've increased funding for and expanded the use of specialty courts to screen and refer defendants to drug, domestic-violence and mental-health treatment or counseling. They issue citations for a variety of misdemeanor offenses, impose community service and pretrial diversion on offenders. They've increased the use of pre-incarceration probation and bail hearings to determine if an offender who does not pose a flight or public-safety risk can be released.
These aren't bleeding-heart, soft-on-crime ploys. In a report on California jail and prison conditions a decade ago, the Little Hoover Commission noted that education, work training, drug-treatment and counseling programs are the best and most cost-effective ways to reduce recidivism rates.

State legislators slashed millions in funding for a successful drug treatment diversionary program that helped keep thousands of people out of jail cells, and coupled with the lack of political will and imagination to enact programs that will end overcrowding and jail violence, was a surefire prescription that guaranteed that California's soaring rate of recidivism will continue unabated, the Supreme Court decision notwithstanding.