Federal judges order California to release 43,000 inmates

[ZUMNDAD]

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Federal judges order California to release 43,000 inmates - Los Angeles Times

Federal judges call conditions in the prisons 'appalling' and unconstitutional. A reduction plan is due by mid-September.

By Carol J. Williams
August 5, 2009

California must shrink the population of its teeming prisons by nearly 43,000 inmates over the next two years to meet constitutional standards, a panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday, ordering the state to come up with a reduction plan by mid-September.

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."

Stretched too thin California prisonsTuesday's ruling heightens the stakes for a legislative debate over prisons that will take place later this month. As part of the agreement to close the state's $26-billion budget gap, the governor and lawmakers agreed to cut $1.2 billion from the prisons budget, but postponed decisions on how to hit that goal.

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.

Debate on that plan will be contentious, with many Republicans opposed. But the judges' ruling means that defeating the plan would not only unravel a major piece of the budget agreement but also potentially cede decision-making over prison policies to the federal courts.

Lengthy process

The 185-page opinion follows a trial last year and nearly 14 years of deliberations over lawsuits brought by inmates alleging cruel and unusual punishment, which moved the state case into federal jurisdiction. The opinion accuses the state of fostering "criminogenic" conditions that lead prisoners and parolees to commit more crimes, feeding a cycle of recidivism.

"The constitutional deficiencies in the California prison system's medical and mental health system cannot be resolved in the absence of a prisoner release order," the judges concluded.

They stopped short of issuing a release edict, though, giving state officials 45 days to come up with their own plan for reducing overcrowding while observing that alternatives to release, such as building new prisons, were "too distant" and unlikely to be funded.

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said the state would comply with the order to produce a plan, but repeated criticism that the judges had ignored significant improvements made in recent years.

He said he doubts the U.S. Supreme Court, to which state officials could appeal any release order, would find that current prison conditions violate the Constitution.

"The courts are ordering the state to come up with a plan to release all these prisoners, but the question is: Which prisoners? Release to what -- halfway houses, GPS monitoring? And what happens when they commit another crime -- do they come back? There's a lot that is not clear," Brown said.

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate said he hoped the judges would back down if state officials and lawmakers make progress in reducing the state's prison population this month, as planned.

The administration's proposal to cut the inmate population by 37,000 over two years could be approved by the Legislature with a majority vote -- meaning no support would be needed by conservative Republicans who threatened to scuttle last month's budget deal if prisoner releases were included.

The governor's plan would allow the state to place on home detention prisoners with less than a year left on their sentences and those who are elderly or infirm. It would also change sentencing and parole rules to reward those who show evidence of rehabilitation.

But Schwarzenegger may be reluctant to use the courts as a hammer to push his plan through. Administration officials have repeatedly said that the court has overstepped its boundaries. The overcrowding problem, Cate said, is a state problem that needs to be fixed by the governor and lawmakers.

"It is not the job of the federal court to do this," he said.

Noting the legislative session that begins in two weeks, Prison Law Office Director Donald Specter, who brought the prisoners' suits, said lawmakers now face the choice of being "part of the solution or continuing to be part of the problem."

Potential win-win

Specter emphasized, as did the judges, that the ruling "doesn't mean that 40,000 prisoners are going to walk out of prison tomorrow."

"If done right, this could be a win-win situation for the entire state, as the prisons will be safer for my clients and the staff who work there, taxpayers will save hundreds of millions of dollars a year and communities will be safer as a result," Specter said, pointing to the judges' opinion that prison conditions contribute to repeat offenses.

The judges capped the prison population at no more than 137% of the designed capacity of 84,000. That would mean release of 42,920 inmates to meet the population ceiling of 115,080.

Some lawmakers welcomed the ruling while others vowed to fight it.

"It's frankly a day of reckoning for those who have pushed for constant sentence enhancements, who would decimate rehabilitation programs and who oppose revenues to support state services," said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), alluding to Republican lawmakers' conflicting efforts to be tough on crime while cutting spending.

"Today's decision by the three-judge panel is a nightmare come true for California families," countered Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo. "Any fair-minded court will see there is no way to reduce our prison population by nearly 43,000 without letting out some very dangerous criminals onto our streets and into our neighborhoods."

The judges pointedly rejected any notion that conditions have improved. Citing testimony during last year's trial by some of the nation's foremost prison administrators, the judges said the experts reported "they have never previously witnessed such appalling prison conditions."

Until overcrowding is reduced, the state will be unable to provide "constitutionally compliant care," concluded the panel comprised of U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton, and U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt.

The judges said overcrowding at prison reception centers approaches three times designed capacity, frustrating prison intake officials' ability to identify incoming prisoners with medical or mental health problems.

Overcrowding has led to conditions that contribute to the spread of disease, require increased use of lockdowns to control inmates, and impede authorities' ability to provide essential healthcare, the judges said. It also "worsens many of the risk factors for suicide among inmates and increases the prevalence and acuity of mental illness," they added.

Conditions are "often dangerous, and on many occasions fatal," the judges said, alluding to reports that California inmates die of treatable or avoidable illnesses at the rate of one per week.

Henderson, a judge of the U.S. District Court for Northern California, seized oversight of the prison healthcare network in 2006 and appointed a receiver to fix the deficiencies.

J. Clark Kelso, the receiver, said in a recent interview that his staff was making progress on a daunting array of projects but that significant improvements remain at least a year away. He plans to computerize inmate medical records, replace a deficient pharmacy operation, build at least $2 billion worth of hospitals and upgrade existing ones.

carol.williams@latimes.com

Times staff writers Evan Halper and Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento contributed to this report.

[Tom98915]

Exqueeze me? Baking powder?

I better get my friend on the ball with getting HER permit...you never know...

[BonoVox]

Over crowding is over crowding. They better figure out how to deal with it and that does not include early release. If Arizona can do tent cities why can't California?

If the recent situation up in downtown LA of the 16 year old girl being murdered by a person with multiple convictions out on a "supervised" break from a drug rehab center does not drive home the point, then I don't know what will????!!!!

[desertrat]

They need to remember something They are prisoners, convicted, they have no fing rights!

[DVSmith]

Originally Posted by desertrat

They need to remember something They are prisoners, convicted, they have no fing rights!

Look, I am as law and order as they get, but when you claim that someone who was convicted of a crime and is serving their sentence has no rights, you are in the wrong country. I have no interest in supporting Russian Gulags thank you very much.

Bono is right. The Governor and Legislature better figure this out and quick. Unfortunately, the Prison Guard Employee Union California Correctional Peace Officer Association (CCPOA) has a hold of the Democrats in the legislature by their unmentionables and real reform will never happen while that is the case.

[MuscleGirl]

Originally Posted by BonoVox

Over crowding is over crowding. They better figure out how to deal with it and that does not include early release. If Arizona can do tent cities why can't California?

I'm all for tent cities.... in the desert in July
OK, just kidding on the desert part, but I see nothing wrong with the tent cities. If you volunteer to serve this country in our military, you will most certainly live in some pretty horrible conditions at some point. I know I sure did. I also worked in a prison (Federal, not State) and know that while being locked up with a bunch of other criminals is no cakewalk, the physical conditions themselves are far better than I saw as a soldier a great deal of the time.

If the recent situation up in downtown LA of the 16 year old girl being murdered by a person with multiple convictions out on a "supervised" break from a drug rehab center does not drive home the point, then I don't know what will????!!!!

I agree. It's sad, it's sick, and I just don't understand how they think there is anything good about letting this many inmates out before they've served their terms. It always ends badly.

[derringer]

How about letting all the innocent victims of unconstitutional firearms laws out first, eh?

[sholling]

There are lots of options.

• One of those is to outsource the prisons or at least the overflow to private for profit companies that do a better job cheaper. The problem is that the guards union got the legislature make this illegal in order to protect union jobs.
• Tent cities similar to those in Arizona could be used to house low risk prisoners and have passed constitutional scrutiny. If we do this then we should copy the whole package. The ACLU and the guards' union won't like it but tough cookies.
• Recover the cost to build new prisons by renting out prison labor to farmers.
• We could release those found guilty of victimless crimes. Quite frankly I couldn't care less how many pot growers and pot dealers are released.

[BonoVox]

Originally Posted by sholling

There are lots of options.

• One of those is to outsource the prisons or at least the overflow to private for profit companies that do a better job cheaper. The problem is that the guards union got the legislature make this illegal in order to protect union jobs.
• Tent cities similar to those in Arizona could be used to house low risk prisoners and have passed constitutional scrutiny. If we do this then we should copy the whole package. The ACLU and the guards' union won't like it but tough cookies.
• Recover the cost to build new prisons by renting out prison labor to farmers.
  
• We could release those found guilty of victimless crimes. Quite frankly I couldn't care less how many pot growers and pot dealers are released.

Was with you until the last bullet point.

That is way to broad of a catagory. How about the pot growers that are invading our National forests doing damage and making them unsafe for your average hiker?

Also remember a lot of that Pot has been smuggled over the border from Mexico. We just had a border patrol agent murdered down there. (I suspect by drug smuggler) We had two Border Patrol agents put in jail after shooting a Pot smuggler with over a ton of Pot in his truck.

Either legalize it. Or enforce the laws.

[sholling]

Originally Posted by BonoVox

Either legalize it. Or enforce the laws.

I'm good with that to. It would free up resources better used to go after rapists and murderers.

But I think the biggest thing that we can do is fire our full time state legislature that currently has all of the time in the world to dream up silly gun laws but no time to balance a budget and no time to reform the prisons and replace it with a part time legislature.

[jdoane9724]

Guys, Guys, GUYS!!!

You're missing it! Pass laws making California a "shall issue" ( no "good cause" crap to deal with) state, arm the potential victims, teach them when and how to shoot, THEN release the prisoners.....

Whaddiya think, too much?

[louva]

What if all the people that are on death row awaiting execution were actually executed. Save money on court case after court case and the day to day expense of keeping this scum alive.

[PirateQueen]

Originally Posted by BonoVox

Over crowding is over crowding. They better figure out how to deal with it and that does not include early release. If Arizona can do tent cities why can't California?

If the recent situation up in downtown LA of the 16 year old girl being murdered by a person with multiple convictions out on a "supervised" break from a drug rehab center does not drive home the point, then I don't know what will????!!!!

Can you say CCW!

[PirateQueen]

Originally Posted by DVSmith

Look, I am as law and order as they get, but when you claim that someone who was convicted of a crime and is serving their sentence has no rights, you are in the wrong country. I have no interest in supporting Russian Gulags thank you very much.

Bono is right. The Governor and Legislature better figure this out and quick. Unfortunately, the Prison Guard Employee Union California Correctional Peace Officer Association (CCPOA) has a hold of the Democrats in the legislature by their huevos and real reform will never happen while that is the case.

There, I said it for ya.