Just before the end of California’s last legislative session, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would allow the possibility of parole for minors tried as adults. According to the LA Times, about 6,000 inmates could go before a parole board. Their sentences could be reduced and they could be placed on parole after serving 15 years of their sentence. This means that an inmate sentenced in his mid teens would get out in his early thirties. Many were sentenced to life without parole for various types of charges including violent crimes or being an accomplice. One group lobbied for bill SB260 in order to change the approach the system takes on inmate youth.

Governor Brown referenced the signed bill in his request for an extension of time to reduce the states prison population. He explained that this bill would decrease the amount of inmates in state prisons. A federal panel of judges has given California until December 31, 2013 to reduce the numbers by around 8,000 inmates according to Reuters. Some legislators and groups would like to see the state fund rehabilitation programs in order to reduce the prison population. Families of victims have a different perspective on the issue and some believe that whether they were minors or not at the time of commission of the offense, they should serve their entire sentence.

CBS Los Angeles reports on the new “app.”

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State correction officials say that 7 out of 10 parolees in California end up back in prison within three years of their release. People are then left to wonder just what impact the early release of prisoners will have on their community. Officials are aiming to reduce the prison population by 6,500 inmates by the end of this year through an early-release program which allows prisoners to reduce their time through work and good-behavior credits. For Orange County, this means over 300 state prison inmates will likely be released and return to their hometown of Orange County.

The early-release program is one of the measures adopted by state legislators to help reduce the budget deficit. However, law enforcement officials are worried that in this tough economy of few jobs and rehabilitative programs, there will be little options available for the inmates who are released. New state guidelines are also changing the way prisoners will be monitored after their release—it will go from supervised to unsupervised parole.

The new parole system will allow resources to go where most needed, that is, to the most violent parolees who are also the most likely to commit new crimes. The early releases and changes to the parole system are expected to save the state around half a billion dollars in 2010.