California would release thousands of prisoners to home detention and county jails and relax parole, reducing the state's prison population by about 27,000 under a budget deal lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made Monday night.
The deal emerging from behind closed doors is meant to cut the state's prisons budget by $1.2 billion, but it tackles a sensitive issue statewide and a politically explosive one for lawmakers.
The new proposal includes a component of home detention and electronic monitoring, assuaging some critics who complained that previous proposals would have released criminals onto the streets with little supervision.
Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said his organization may look more favorably on this plan than others to simply release prisoners to the streets.
"I wouldn't rule it out....It depends on how it is structured," he said. "I want to see some specifics. All kinds of questions would need to be answered. Who would monitor (electronic devices)? What would be the response time for violations? But at least it's a step in the direction of supervision and oversight."
Tim Yaryan, a law enforcement lobbyist, said that police unions would not applaud the notion of releasing any prisoner, but they might not actively fight a home detention program as part of the budget deal.
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