By Vauhini Vara
Online WSJ
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A panel of federal judges on Thursday ordered California Gov. Jerry Brown to release thousands of state prison inmates before their full sentences are served.
The sharply worded order requires the state to immediately start shortening some inmates’ prison stays as long as they behave well, a move that could lower the prison population by more than 5,000 people by the end of 2013. Overall, the judges want prisoner numbers reduced from 119,000 this month to about 110,000 by the end of the year, using the shortened prison stays and other means proposed earlier by Mr. Brown.
Thursday’s directive stems from a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld a finding by a special three-judge panel that the state must reduce prison overcrowding. Since then, California has failed to reduce inmate numbers to the mandated levels.
“The history of this litigation is of defendants’ repeated failure to take the necessary steps to remedy the constitutional violations in its prison system,” Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Lawrence Karlton and Thelton Henderson wrote in Thursday’s order. “It is defendants’ unwillingness to comply with this Court’s orders that requires us to order additional relief today.”
Full story: Judges Order Early Prison Release in California