Last year’s state budget deal included a provision that requires low-level offenders who have earned enough good behavior credits to be released sooner than before. But the union representing the county’s sheriff’s deputies and victims’ rights groups argued that change only applies to state prisoners – not county inmates.
Today, Judge Loren McMaster rejected that argument. He said he didn’t believe the groups challenging the early release had a strong enough case to merit a temporary restraining order keeping the inmates behind bars.
The judge’s ruling reverses an earlier one he issued last week and echoes a similar ruling issued yesterday by an Orange County court.
A Sacramento County inmate freed earlier this month was arrested the next day on suspicion of attempted rape.