“Judges indicate they may order prison population reduced by 58,000”

The title of this post is the title of this new piece in the Los Angeles Times.  Here are the details of the prison crowding story coming out of California, which may quickly become the biggest story in prison nation:

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.

Thanks to How Appealing, everyone can find links to additional press coverage here and can access online at this link today’s tentative ruling of a three-judge panel.