“The way something becomes iconic, it’s emblazoned in the minds and the memories of the citizens. Whether it was on television news, whether it was photographs in an AP story, or, like me, I saw these same photos as I sat as a witness in front of the three-judge panel in the states’ overcrowding case…It symbolized a system that was so overcrowded it could not work effectively or efficiently.”
That was CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate today, speaking about the “final deactivation of non-traditional beds” — double and triple-decker bunks crammed into gyms and other areas not designed to house inmates. CDCR was so motivated to highlight the dismantling of the “bad beds,” as they’re commonly called, that it posted a video of them being detached with a blowtorch and carted away…
The department even posted a slideshow filled with images of the infamously overcrowded prison dormitories
The state’s inmate population has been reduced by more than 17,000 since last October, says KQED’s Michael Montgomery, which is allowing for the more traditional housing of inmates. The reduction has been achieved through the state’s realignment plan, which “keeps parole violaters and low-level offenders out of state lockups, placing them instead in county facilities,” says Montgomery.
Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that California’s overcrowded prison conditions constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and the court ordered the state to shed tens of thousands of inmates from the system. The court took the unusual step of including photos of overcrowded prison conditions in its decision.