Judges order release of California inmates

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California must release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding.

The judges said no other solution will improve conditions so poor that inmates die regularly of suicides or lack of proper care.

The panel said it wanted the state to present a plan to trim the population in two to three years.

“There are simply too many prisoners for the existing capacity,” they wrote. “Evidence offered at trial was overwhelmingly to the effect that overcrowding is the primary cause of the unconstitutional conditions that have been found to exist in the California prisons.”

The three judges suggested a target prison population of between 100,800 and 121,000 inmates – down from the current level of about 158,000. More inmates live in conservation camps, community correctional facilities and private prisons in other states.

The proposed targets would require the state to reduce the prison population by between 36,200 and 57,000 inmates. Attorneys representing inmates had sought a reduction of about 52,000 inmates.

The state can change parole and other policies to cut the population of its 33 adult prisons without endangering the public, the judges said.

Reducing the number of inmates might have a positive effect as well, they said. “This is particularly true considering that California’s overcrowded prison system is itself … a public safety hazard,” the panel said in its order.

The state will appeal any final prisoner release order to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“We disagree with the ruling. We disagree that the prisons are unsafe. We will appeal,” Cate said, speaking on behalf of himself and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The three federal judges said a final population figure would be set later and they may hold more hearings before making their decision final.