Should Be Seeing RC Collins Any Time Now
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:25 am
To a Halfway House or county hospital near you.
Should be a boon to the NBA forum.From the Los Angeles Times wrote: Judges indicate they may order prison population reduced by 58,000
Federal panel issues tentative ruling in lawsuit brought by inmates, who say overcrowding in state prisons violates their right to adequate healthcare. A massive inmate release is not likely.
By Michael Rothfeld
5:08 PM PST, February 9, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — A panel of three federal judges, ruling that overcrowding in state prisons has deprived inmates of their right to adequate healthcare, today indicated they would order the state to reduce the population in those lockups by as many as 58,000 people.
The judges issued the tentative ruling after a trial in two long-running cases brought by inmates to protest the state of medical and mental healthcare in the prisons.
Although the order is not final, U.S. District Court Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt effectively told the state that it had lost the case and would have to make dramatic changes in its prisons unless it could reach a settlement with inmates' lawyers.
If the state is ordered to reduce the population, it would likely be able to do so over several years by limiting new admissions and other measures, so that it would not have to release large numbers of prisoners at once.
State prisons right now operate at about double their designed capacity, and the judges found that with inmates crammed into institutions, they could not receive the care to which they are entitled.
"There is . . . uncontroverted evidence that, because of overcrowding, there are not enough clinical facilities or resources to accommodate inmates with medical or mental health needs at the level of care they require," the judges wrote.
The state's 33 prisons hold 159,000 inmates, the vast majority of the 170,000 in the correctional system. The rest are in out-of-state prisons and other facilities.
The judges said they believe the prisons can safely operate at between 101,000 and 122,000, a potential reduction of 37,000 to 58,000 inmates.