Prison Reform

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.

A federal judge Wednesday abruptly fired the man he had appointed to fix the multimillion-dollar problems of medical care in the state's prisons, after determining the effort was moving too slowly and in too confrontational a manner. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson revoked the power he had given Robert Sillen and handed it to J. Clark Kelso, a lawyer with experience turning around government institutions in crisis.

Orange County's acting Sheriff Jack Anderson on Thursday proposed pulling hundreds of deputies from the state's second-largest jail system and replacing them with career correctional officers. The move, which would dramatically change the way Orange County jails are operated, would create a new career path in the Sheriff's Department: employees who are permanently assigned to the county jails.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed Wednesday that California's death penalty system was deeply troubled but split over the causes and solutions. During a hearing in Los Angeles before a state reform commission, prosecutors called for quicker appeals and amending the state Constitution to permit the California state Supreme Court to transfer some of the initial review of cases to state appeals courts. Defense attorneys opposed the proposal, saying it would make the process more cumbersome.

California does a bad job of compensating people wrongfully convicted in its courts, a blue ribbon commission said Friday. Men and women imprisoned for years, even decades, for crimes they didn't commit are offered fewer benefits than convicts released on parole, the commission said.

Republicans holler a lot in the Capitol but aren't heard. They should be. Two examples last week: They complained again about a federal court that is threatening to back a U.S. government truck up to the state vault and haul off $7 billion to build healthcare facilities for California prisoners. This at a time when the Legislature and governor are struggling to resolve a $15-billion state deficit. Minority party leaders offered a starting point for budget negotiations.

A federal judge Wednesday gave state officials nearly three weeks to explain how they will transfer $250 million to the overseer of medical care in state prisons. In his order, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson stopped short of finding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Controller John Chiang in contempt of court for refusing to turn over a total of $8 billion for new prison medical facilities sought by the overseer, J. Clark Kelso.

Threatened by a federal lawsuit over dangerous conditions at Los Angeles County's juvenile probation camps, county supervisors said Tuesday that they will hire a team of independent monitors to improve safety at the 19 facilities. "The county finally conceded it needed to address issues in the camps," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. "The Department of Justice forced probation's hand."

Two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stood inside one of California's most violent youth prisons and pledged to turn the state's disgraced correctional system for the young into a national model. To reach that goal, the governor now wants to radically shrink the population, shipping about half the state's inmates to county lockups. That provocative policy shift, which must be approved by the Legislature, was unveiled as part of the governor's budget last week. Details are sketchy.