Amador County – The U.S. Supreme Court decided to order the release of as many as 46,000 prisoners back into society recently, while in a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said “terrible things are sure to happen.”

Congressman Dan Lungren agreed Monday, in a speech before Congress. Lungren (R-Gold River), who represents Amador County, the former California attorney general and author of “The Prison Litigation Reform Act,” released a transcript of the speech to TSPN.

Lungren said, in part: “Today the United States Supreme Court delivered a body blow to the safety of the people of my home state of California. Today in an unprecedented action of judicial intemperance, the United States Supreme Court basically ordered that between 38,000 and 46,000 prisoners currently in the California prison system be released.”

He said: “Many times Supreme Court decisions are of mere academic interest. This one specifically deals with the safety of the people of my home state.”

“As one who led a team of attorneys generals of the states of the nation in the 1990s to have prison litigation reform which was incorporated into a law that was passed by the Congress and signed by the president, this flies in the face of every piece of that bill.”

Lungren said: “You rarely say this, but I fear that there will be murders, there will be rapes, there will be assaults, there will be unnamed and unnumbered crimes in my home state as a direct result of today’s decision.”

“Since when did they take over all of the three branches of government, becoming the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch?”

Lungen said the Prison Litigation Reform Act states that “prospective relief in any civil action with respect to prison conditions shall extend no further than necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right of a particular plaintiff or plaintiffs.” It also said that such relief must be “narrowly drawn,” and extend “no further than necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right.” Also, it must be “the least intrusive means necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right.”

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