A PANEL of three federal judges, finding that overcrowding in state prisons has deprived inmates of their right to adequate health care, has ruled tentatively that California must reduce the population in those facilities by as many as 57,000 people.
The judges issued the decision after a trial in two long-running cases brought by inmates to protest at the state of medical and mental health care in the prisons.
Although their order is not final, the judges 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. State officials said they would appeal.
If the state is ordered to reduce the population, it probably would be able to do so over two or three years, so it would not have to release large numbers of inmates at once. Some methods of cutting the numbers include limiting new admissions, changing policies so parole violators return to prison less frequently, and giving prisoners more time off their sentences for good behaviour and rehabilitation efforts.
The judges said these types of measures could save the state more than $900 million a year in prison costs, money that could be used by cities and counties to put those who otherwise would have gone to prison into local jails or treatment programmes.
The state’s 33 prisons were designed for 84,000 inmates, and they now hold 158,000. The rest of the 170,000 in the correctional system are in out-of-state prisons and other facilities. The judges found that with inmates crammed into institutions, they could not receive the care to which they are entitled.
They said triple-bunking of inmates in prison gymnasiums has increased the risk of infectious disease and that a shortage of doctors, nurses and correctional officers has denied inmates access to treatment and medication.
In the ruling, the judges said they believed the state’s prisons could safely operate at between 120 per cent and 145 per cent of their designed capacity.
Based on the current prison population, that would mean a potential reduction of 36,000 to 57,000 inmates. – ( LA Times/Washington Postservice)