USA - California. Lawmakers gave final approval to a plan to reduce the inmate population by thousands

Lawmakers today gave final approval to a plan to cut the state's giant prisons budget, passing a hard-fought measure that would reduce the inmate population by thousands but stop far short of solving the overcrowding crisis. It would also leave California's budget with $200 million in red ink. Administration officials said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to sign the measure nonetheless. The prisons measure, SBX3 18 by Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego), would reduce supervision of low-level offenders on parole so they could not be sent back for violating the terms of their release. It would allow some offenders to earn shorter terms by completing rehabilitation programs. Legislative officials estimated that under the measure, the prison population would fall by 20,000 to 25,000 over 2 years. But the bill no longer contains provisions passed by the Senate that would have moved thousands of inmates to home detention. The vote was the culmination of weeks of controversy and dispute over how to safely cut the population of the state's overcrowded prisons to ease budgetary pressure and satisfy a federal court order to reduce the number of inmates. The Senate, despite fierce opposition from law enforcement, had approved a broader package of cuts earlier in the summer to reduce the number of inmates by 37,000 over two years, nearly the amount federal judges have demanded.