Legal News

State ordered to reduce prison popluation

By Richard Binder

A panel of three federal judges on Tuesday ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 inmates over the next two years.

The order cited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's own words when he proclaimed a state of emergency in the corrections system in 2006 and warned of substantial risk to prison staff, inmates and the general public, saying "immediate action is necessary to prevent death and harm."

U.S. District Senior Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt said the state's "severely overcrowded" prison conditions deny California's 150,000 inmates constitutional access to adequate medical care. The three liberal lions of the federal bench gave state leaders 45 days to submit a plan for shrinking the inmate population.

The governor and most legislative leaders back a plan that would reduce prison populations by as many as 37,000 over the next two years using a combination of early releases, changes in parole policies and shifting of some prisoners to county jails.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 05, 2009 (boomark / email).