CA budgets and overcrowded prisons

Three judges in California ruled that the overcrowded prisons are a public hazard and that up to 57k prisoners will be released.

According to an old LA Times article, each prisoner costs the state $31k per year.

So, reduce a public hazard and save $1.8 billion per year.

California's budget deficit for 2008 was $17 billion, so this should account for something close to a 10% reduction of the deficit in 2009.

The only downside: 57k more people looking for jobs. All of them with criminal records, few of them with any significant education or work experience.

Maybe the state could pay them $31k per year to dig ditches, provide them with a secure place to sleep, meals, time to exercise...