October 22, 2009
Court rejects governor’s plan to solve prison overcrowding
A federal court on Wednesday rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to solve California's prison overcrowding crisis, giving the state three weeks to devise an alternative or risk an order that seizes control of how more than 40,000 inmates are released from the prison system over the next two years.
In a seven-page ruling, a three-judge panel found the governor's plan for reducing prison overcrowding inadequate. The judges said it failed to comply with their August order requiring the state to come up with a proposal to remove about one quarter of the more than 150,000 inmates now crammed into California's prisons.
Schwarzenegger and chief prison officials in September responded to the August order with a plan that would only reduce the inmate population by about 20,000 inmates over the next three years, less than half of what was sought by the judges. State officials maintain their plan balanced the need to reduce prison overcrowding with public safety concerns…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
