Nonviolent prisoner release offers budget break

Americans, especially Californians, are disconnected from the incarceration system in the United States. Most are unaware of the business behind prisons and jails. And they tend to turn the other cheek when it comes to prisoner rights.
In 2009, a bill was passed that will release nonviolent prisoners early in order to alleviate overcrowding in state prisons. Currently, such institutions are, on average, at 200 percent capacity. While most law-abiding Californians are outraged over this “get out of jail free” card, the fact of the matter is that there just isn’t enough money to go around. With an insurmountable budget deficit, California should take this law in stride.
The recent release of 260 inmates from San Diego County jails was part of the plan set in place in accordance with this. By allowing nonviolent prisoners to be released early with “good-time” credits and work credits, the state hopes to alleviate overcrowding in the prisons, which has been directly linked to inhumane medical treatment of inmates, while at the same time trimming government expenses.
Across the state, about 6,500 inmates are scheduled to be released in the first part of this year. In order to be eligible for this program, prisoners must not have been convicted of a violent crime, or one that involved child victims.
 Although most Californians do not realize the amount of money that goes into running prisons, such costs compose a significant portion of taxpayer dollars. According to the National Institute of Corrections, California taxpayers paid 28 percent more than the national average to subsidize the cost of prisons. The average cost per inmate in 2008 was $35,587, a cost our budget cannot realistically maintain.
Apart from the obvious taxpayer dollars this bill saves, it also offers nonviolent prisoners the opportunity to move on with their lives sooner than they had initially planned. Public outrage over the bill is, to a certain extent, understandable. Releasing prisoners early seems to disregard the democratic values in which our legal system is embedded. And while we value the fairness and equality of the law, don’t we also value the well-being of our fellow Americans?
There is a general acceptance of the discrimination of prisoners, a level of discrimination that places them in a different class. This is a distinction between “us” and “them.” And while there are some prisoners who are horrible menaces to society, there is another population of prisoners who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We must not fail to remain cognizant of the human, the person or the neighbor behind the mask of the orange jump suit.        
In a nation that tends to forget more than forgive, this bill can be viewed as a second chance for many Americans who have fallen through the cracks of not only our legal system but our society as a whole. Is it such a bad choice to grant nonviolent prisoners the chance to redeem themselves?
At the end of the day, the level of decency and humanity we extend to one another is the measure of our worth as human beings. Whether or not we choose to embrace second chances will tell of our commitment to this so-called “land of the free.”