Legal News

Possibly thousands more inmates in L.A. with draft overcrowding settlement

By Jason Siegel

A proposed federal court settlement to ease overcrowding in California's prisons would have a big impact on Los Angeles, the L.A. Times reported.

The settlement would send low-risk offenders into county-level jails, treatment programs or use other alternatives to prison - avoiding the early release of prisoners. One proposal would cut the state's 170,000 state prison population by 25,000 over a three year period.

Los Angeles County would be particularly hard hit as prisoners are diverted back there - one third of the state's prison population comes from Los Angeles. Nearly a fifth of the prison population comes from Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County, collectively.

L.A. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley told the Times that he wants more information and isn't sure if the county jail system and diversion program infrastructure could handle the increase in inmates.

Counties would get state grants to pay for alternatives to prison under the plan, the Times reported.

The draft agreement was reached by state officials, advocates for inmates, local police leaders and two mediators after six months of negotiations. It could still be changed before May 30, when the next hearing in the case will take place. Inmates are claiming that overcrowding is the main cause of unconstitutional healthcare and mental heathcare in state prisons, the Times reported.

If the state lost the multiple lawsuits against it, it's possible the three judge panel could cap the prison population or order the early release of tens of thousands of inmates.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).