SAN FRANCISCO — After years of failed attempts by California officials to rein in their overburdened prison system, three white-haired federal judges appear determined to find the solution themselves in a lofty courtroom here.
The judges are presiding over a trial in two long-running lawsuits intended to discover whether an overcrowding crisis is the prime cause of medical and mental healthcare so poor that it violates inmates' constitutional rights; if it is, they will decide how to fix the problems.
Although the trial is only halfway over, the judges are speaking and acting as if they have already decided to take action against the state. Now they seem only to be searching for answers on precisely what action to take and have openly contemplated an order to release prisoners and impose a cap on the state prison population.
"The question from our point of view is developing an effective set of orders that will protect society . . . and ensure there is a constitutionally sufficient level of care," explained U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, who said later that the trial wouldn't be needed "if the state were to wake up and start behaving in a rational way."
A ruling is expected early next year. Lawyers for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state lawmakers and local law enforcement officials say they will appeal any decision to release prisoners directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Inmates' attorneys seek an order to remove 52,000 inmates over two years from a $10-billion-a-year state system that incarcerates more than 170,000 people in 33 state prisons and in fire camps, drug programs and institutions in other states.
Some experts think the state could dramatically reduce overcrowding without a public safety risk if it stopped a revolving door of tens of thousands of offenders who are repeatedly sent from their communities to prison for a few months at a time on parole violations and low-level crimes.
"We catch people and we release them," Jeanne Woodford, a former corrections chief under Schwarzenegger and an ex-warden at San Quentin State Prison, told the judges. "We don't do anything for them while they're incarcerated, and we're really just disrupting their lives over and over again, and it really doesn't add to public safety."
Woodford and others testifying for the inmates suggest keeping low-level offenders in less expensive alternatives such as county jail or rehabilitation programs.
