SANTA ANA, Calif. – Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer joined 43 elected District Attorneys across California today in filing a civil lawsuit to invalidate emergency regulations adopted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to increase “good time credits” that would allow nearly 76,000 state prisoners, including murderers and other violent offenders, to be released early.
The additional credits were the product of “emergency” regulations which were passed and first made public on Friday April 30, 2021, at 3:00 p.m. In adopting these regulations, and claiming an emergency, the CDCR Secretary stated these regulations were necessary to comply with “the direction outlined in the Governor’s Budget Summary” presented a year ago on May 14, 2020. By invoking an emergency, the traditional regulatory scheme and transparent public comment period was bypassed.
This lawsuit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, is asking the Court to declare the regulations unlawful and to prohibit CDCR from awarding these additional credits until CDCR lawfully complies with the regulatory scheme, which would include a transparent and rigorous public comment period.
“As the former chairman of the state Assembly committee overseeing our prisons, I have seen this song and dance many times before. This nothing more than a continuing agenda to close California’s prisons and release dangerous criminals back into our communities,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “It is my job as District Attorney to keep Orange County safe. The public must be given the opportunity to question why the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would decide that returning murderers, child molesters, and rapists back into our neighborhoods more quickly somehow constitutes an emergency. It is unconscionable that these regulations were adopted without concern for the victims who have suffered at the hands of violent offenders or concern for public safety.”
Read the lawsuit here.
