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.

Construction of the Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse reached a milestone last week when workers placed the last beam of the $490-million structure in downtown Long Beach. The new building, set to open on Magnolia Avenue in fall 2013, will replace the nearby Long Beach Courthouse, completed in 1959 and considered overcrowded and obsolete. The five-story Deukmejian building will house 31 courtrooms, as well as superior court administration quarters, Los Angeles County justice agencies, offices leased to the county Probation Department, a food court and a convenience store.

Until California eases prison overcrowding, it can't slow the revolving prison doors that return roughly 70% of freed inmates within a year, national experts reported to the Legislature on Friday.

Angered by a prison fire in Honduras that officials say killed more than 350 trapped inmates, rights advocates on Wednesday decried dangerous and overcrowded conditions that they say have long typified the country's neglected prison system. Officials said at least 356 people were confirmed dead by late Wednesday, after the blaze a day earlier consumed half the prison in the town of Comayagua in central Honduras. The toll is the highest from any prison fire in modern history. Rights advocates called for reforms of Honduran prisons, which for many years have been beset by chronic overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate food and ramshackle quarters.

Severe and dangerous overcrowding is getting worse at the emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the county's flagship hospital, despite increased transfers of patients to other hospitals, according to a report presented Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors. Already, County- USC's emergency room is considered overcrowded more than 80% of the time, a percentage that rose slightly from May to June. But during that period, dangerous overcrowding rose from about 11% to 15%, and severe overcrowding rose from about 38% to 47%. As a result, waiting times — already very long — continue to increase.

David Freed's article (May 12) on prison overcrowding will, I think, stir the interest and contempt of many correctional employees. Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Camp is to be commended for correctly assessing the potential for violence in our overcrowded prisons. He also deserve mention for suggesting that alternatives to incarceration need to be considered. This is true, not only as necessitated by current crowding, but in an effort to improve rehabilitative efforts. Department of Correction spokesman Bob Gore, however, must be held in contempt for his apparent lack of concern and advocacy for correctional employees.

A New York message Re "Medicare plan may have cost GOP a seat," May 25 Democrat Kathy Hochul took a House seat away from the Republicans in a very conservative district in New York, and most folks think it was because Republicans want to turn Medicare into a private voucher program. There were, in fact, many other issues. Polling in the district showed that voters were equally concerned with the lack of jobs created by the newly elected House majority. In addition, voters throughout the country are upset that Republicans refuse to discard the huge tax cut for the very wealthy and their refusal to end big tax breaks for oil companies.

Ten prison guards have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts, charging prison overcrowding is so severe that guards are in danger. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Suffolk Superior Court, charges that inmates in the Concord prison are shoehorned into the paint shop, day rooms, telephone rooms, hospital ward and hallways. The crowding has made some areas impossible to secure.

Prompted by dire projections for even more severe jail overcrowding into the next decade, Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder has scheduled a meeting Tuesday with Sheriff Brad Gates and other officials to discuss possible recommendations outlined in a recent jail study. Wieder said Friday that she was encouraged that cities were being urged to either expand or build new jails of their own because of the county's chronic overcrowding problems.

About halfway through the show, when the man in the fireman's helmet and jacket walked on stage, the women-only audience began whistling and shrieking, "Take it off! Take it off!" From the best spots they could find--standing on tables and chairs, perched on railings--the women had already seen several costumed strippers disrobe down to their G-strings. But the helmeted man on stage at Chippendales nightclub in West Los Angeles was a real fireman.

The former Los Angeles school police officer who staged his own shooting in a bizarre hoax was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail, although he will probably spend only a fraction of that time behind bars if he meets the terms of his probation. Convicted in September of planting false evidence, insurance fraud and other crimes, Jeffrey Stenroos, 31, appeared to receive little mercy from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard H. Kirschner, who handed down the toughest sentence allowed under state guidelines.

The early release of inmates in some parts of California is accelerating as officials at county jails struggle to accommodate state prisoners flowing into their facilities. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department planned to begin releasing about 150 inmates Friday because of overcrowding in county jails. Sheriff Rod Hoops has decided to release the inmates, mostly parole violators or those convicted of nonviolent crimes, over the next five days. The inmates must have served at least half of their sentence, and have less than 30 days remaining on their sentence.

Looking at Gingrich Re "Will the best debater win?," Opinion, Nov. 15 Jonah Goldberg elevates the immoral and discredited Newt Gingrich to the level of great white Republican hope. For shame: We're discussing the leadership of our country. Instead, he offers this sophomoric analysis. Gingrich is smart, educated and totally dishonest. In his previous power position he brought the federal government to a halt. Now Goldberg and other conservative pundits seem to think that if Gingrich had another chance he could stop the Earth's rotation.

Too many inmates Re "County jails filling faster than feared," Nov. 16 There is an obvious solution to L.A. County's jail overcrowding problem. I read in The Times recently that 70% of the people in jail are awaiting trial. The last time I checked, these people have not been convicted of anything and are, therefore, presumed innocent. The problem is, they are not presumed innocent by the majority of the judges in this county when it comes to bail. Judges routinely set bail in amounts so high that hardly any person charged with a crime can afford to post it. So they go into custody.

Debating a cross Re "Marines restore memorial to fallen comrades," Nov. 12 As a Christian and a patriotic American citizen, I am offended by the installation of a cross on government property. Camp Pendleton is government-owned land, and the cross is intended as a memorial to "all military personnel sent to foreign lands. " But a cross, the universal symbol of Christianity, is an inappropriate choice to pay tribute because not all military personnel are Christians.

Lindsay Lohan avoided a lengthy jail sentence Wednesday when a judge ordered her to serve 30 days behind bars for violating her probation, which will probably be reduced to only about a day because of overcrowding. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner warned the troubled actress that she would receive plenty of jail time if she slips up again. Expressing her displeasure with the "Mean Girls" star, Sautner ordered Lohan to perform her remaining 400-plus hours of community service at the county morgue because a women's shelter where Lohan might have worked said she would be a "bad example" for its clients.

Los Angeles County is facing a systemwide criminal-justice crisis. Public safety and all aspects of law enforcement here are in jeopardy because of the combination of overcrowded jails and inadequate judicial resources. Without an immediate and effective increase of judicial officers, the early release of prisoners and breakdown of court processes are inevitable. Our jail overcrowding is staggering.

The Wiseburn School District in Hawthorne will reopen a portion of a closed elementary school to alleviate a crunch caused by a 42% enrollment increase in the district's three schools, officials said. The elementary school district closed the Peter Burnett School in 1982 when enrollment dropped to a record low of 1,086 students; the number now is 1,650, said Supt. Don Brann.

Los Angeles school district officials will retake substantial control over Manual Arts High, which has been part of a high-profile reform effort led by an independent nonprofit, officials announced Thursday. The campus has been beset by overcrowding and endured a disorderly start to the school year that saw initial shortages of desks and textbooks and left some students without class schedules. The move demonstrates a startling new development in the reform landscape of the nation's second-largest school system.

The boring, bureaucratic word "realignment" masks the truly dramatic change in locking up California criminals that Gov. Jerry Brown just pulled off. "A lot of people say, 'Hey, what's new in Sacramento?'" Brown told a news conference last week. "Well, this is new. It's bold. It's difficult. And it will continuously change as we learn from experience. "But we can't sit still and let the courts release 30,000 serious prisoners. We have to do something. " In truth, the change was inevitable.