Overcrowding

California must shrink the population of its teeming prisons by nearly 43,000 inmates over the next two years to meet constitutional standards, a panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday, ordering the state to come up with a reduction plan by mid-September. The order cited Gov.

California prison officials, facing severe overcrowding and a financial crisis, have been granting early releases to inmates serving time for parole violations. State officials said the dozens of prisoners set free from the California Institution for Men in Chino and from lockups in San Diego and Shasta counties had 60 days or less left on their terms, or had been accused of violations and were awaiting hearings. The releases were approved by the state parole board.

A panel of federal judges, accusing California officials of obstruction, on Thursday denied the state's request to delay an order to produce a plan for reducing its prison population by 40,000 inmates. Aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said they would take their request to the U.S. Supreme Court today. The judges issued their order on Aug. 4 in two long-running lawsuits by inmates. The state asked for a delay pending its appeal of the order to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was filed separately Thursday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday asked a panel of federal judges to delay their order that the state produce a plan to reduce prison crowding, saying he would take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not grant the request. In the motion filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the governor said the order should be delayed pending an appeal to be filed Thursday in the Supreme Court, arguing that the state would probably win in the nation's high court. The order was issued Aug. 4 by judges overseeing two lawsuits filed by inmates complaining of inadequate medical and mental health treatment.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is exploring a settlement of two lawsuits that would require California to dramatically reduce the number of inmates in its overcrowded prisons -- and limit the Legislature's influence on the issue, according to participants in the discussions. The settlement discussions in the federal court cases, which have been consolidated, are in an early stage, and the framework of a deal has not been ironed out.

The long waits that government inspectors say endanger emergency room patients at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center can also be found in backlogged hospitals across the country, according to emergency care experts who have been trying for years to draw attention to the nation's overloaded safety net. "Overcrowding in our emergency departments is a national crisis," said Dr. Linda Lawrence, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, an advocacy group based in Washington D.C.

More Los Angeles campuses will have to make room for charter schools, even if some teachers are forced to give up their classrooms and become roving instructors, under a litigation settlement approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday. The agreement requires the school district to inventory all properties and work directly with charter schools to find space on or off campus. Charter advocates say finding and paying for facilities is their No. 1 challenge.

The honeymoon between the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and its health services director finally foundered Tuesday amid fears that a second county hospital could close. Dr. Bruce Chernof, who has headed the nation's second-largest public health system since December 2005, told the supervisors last week that the federal government would be citing Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for placing its emergency patients in "immediate jeopardy" because of overcrowding and long waits.

Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to seek $100 million for a long-stalled jail expansion despite long-standing opposition to the project -- and created new adversaries in the process. County officials have been trying to expand James A. Musick Branch Jail outside Irvine for more than a decade but have been hamstrung by court challenges and funding shortfalls, even as a swelling inmate population left the jails chronically overcrowded.

An ambitious $672-million plan to be presented to supervisors next week would reorganize Los Angeles County jails and ultimately shut down the Men's Central Jail, long a symbol of inmate violence and overcrowding in the nation's largest jail system. "This is far-reaching," said Sheriff Lee Baca. "I have been wrestling with this problem for the past 10 years. This is the time to be making the big change."