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Federal judicial panel orders California to drastically cut prison population

By Douglas A. Berman

This New York Times piece provides the highlights of a major prison conditions ruling coming from California late today: A panel of federal judges ordered the California prison system on Tuesday to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 ? roughly 27 percent ? within two years. The judges said that reducing prison crowding in California was the only way to change what they called an unconstitutional prison health care system that causes one unnecessary death a week. In a scathing 184-page order, the judges criticized state officials, saying they had failed to comply with previous orders to fix the health care system in the prisons and reduce crowding, and recommended remedies, including reform of the parole system. The special three-judge panel also described a chaotic prison system where prisoners were stacked in triple bunk beds in gymnasiums, hallways and day rooms; where single guards were often forced to monitor scores of inmates at a time; and where ill inmates died for lack of treatment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).