In a June 1 Washington Examiner column titled “Supreme Court to California: 'Release the Hounds,' Larry Elder wrote:

Release up to 46,000 convicted felons, the court recently ordered the state of California. In a 5-4 decision, the court gave California two years to reduce its prison “overcrowding” -- or set tens of thousands free. The ACLU, which brought the suit, successfully argued that poor prison conditions violated the prisoners' rights (SET ITAL) [sic] as a class, (END ITAL) [sic] not individually, thus the threat of mass premature release.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, in his majority opinion, agreed with the lower court, which said that overcrowding and an undermanned medical staff mean “an inmate in one of California's prisons needlessly dies every six to seven days.” California houses 143,000 inmates in 33 adult prisons designed for 80,000. The prison conditions, including under-treatment for the mentally ill, wrote Kennedy, "(fall) short of minimum constitutional requirements."

Where to start with this outrageous decision?

In fact, state officials have proposed shifting low-level offenders to county jails and other facilities rather than be subjected to “mass premature release”; further, the number of affected inmates is estimated to be about 32,000 or 33,000, not “at least 46,000,” as Elder claimed.