Sacramento County will resume early releases of jail inmates as soon as today in response to another order from a judge over the state’s new parole reform law. Judge Loren McMaster droped a temporary order halting the releases because inmates had a right to be heard, says the Sacramento Bee.
The legal wrangling added to the confusion over a new state law that aims to reduce the state’s prison population by 6,300 inmates this year, both through parole changes and by increasing good-time credit opportunities for some inmates. Counties have interpreted the good-time credit portion of the new law to apply also to their jail inmates. The judge who had stopped the jail releases “unrung the bell,” said Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness.