CA State Senator Serves One Hour of 90-Day Sentence, Set Free

A California state senator convicted of voter fraud initially faced up to eight years in prison, but was sentenced to ninety days, of which he served one hour — because the prison he was sent to had too many prisoners. (Yep, it’s California.)

Roderick Wright was forced to resign his seat in Sacramento four years ago, after he was charged with voting fraudulently in five different elections by lying about his address on official voting-related documents. However, when he was booked at the Los Angeles County Jail, he never made it inside the penitentiary: according to the Washington Post, “California’s prison system is overflowing with so many inmates that they have no room for a nonviolent offender with no prior convictions.” He was released within the hour. (The

Seriously, it’s that bad: the government once declared a State of Emergency to deal with the state’s massive prison population, which, as recently as this year, contains 117,500 prisoners — twice the intended capacity of the prison system:

Prison authorities use a formula to calculate which offenders are sent to prison and when they are released. State prisons, which are facing pressure from courts to reduce crowding, ship prisoners to county jails, creating crowded conditions at the local level.

Wright still has to serve 1,500 hours of community service, as well as three years of probation.

[The Washington Post]
[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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