(Reuters) - A panel of federal judges ordered California on Thursday to ease overcrowding in state prisons by reducing the number of inmates by about 10,000 this year, and criticized what they described as foot-dragging in dealing with the matter.Read the rest here.
California has been under court orders to reduce the population in its 33-prison system since 2009, when the same three-judge panel ordered it to relieve overcrowding that has caused inadequate medical and mental healthcare.
Earlier this year, the judges rebuffed a request by California Governor Jerry Brown to vacate the 2009 order that had argued that the state had fixed the crowding problem and that further prisoner releases would harm public safety.
The judges said if current efforts to reduce overcrowding does not result in the state reaching a prison population target of 137.5 percent of capacity by the end of the year, the state must then release prisoners from a list of inmates at low-risk of recidivism.
"Failure to take such steps or to report on such steps every two weeks shall constitute an act of contempt," the judges said in their ruling.
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I thought enforcing the law and housing inmates falls under the purview of the Executive branch of governance. The Courts are only responsible for sentencing and ensuring just verdicts. It seems to me that this is actually an overstep of Judicial power.
ReplyDeleteBut then again it's California. They make their own rules up out there.
This is a Federal court and it's an 8th amendment case.
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