44 California District Attorneys File Suit Challenging The Early Release of 76,000 State Prison Inmates

Published May 26, 2021

Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire announced today that he joined Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and 43 elected District Attorneys across California, in filing a civil lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prohibit awarding additional conduct credits to more than 76,000 violent and serious offenders.

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 requests the Superior 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.   

District Attorney Morgan Gire stated, “This wholesale shortening of sentences and the early release of dangerous and violent inmates put our community at risk.  Depriving our community of the opportunity to express our concerns is unacceptable.  This lawsuit seeks to enjoin CDCR from awarding these credits until our community, our victims and survivors, and their families have had the opportunity they deserve to be heard and to debate these drastic changes.”