California loses Supreme Court challenge to order to cut prison population by over 40,000

High court rejects challenge to Calif. prison plan

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected California’s challenge to a preliminary court order forcing the state to reduce its prison population, setting up the state’s appeal of a final order issued last week.

The administration immediately filed its next appeal Tuesday, arguing that the lower court violated a federal law limiting judges’ power in inmate rights cases.

In a short ruling, the justices said they will not consider a tentative ruling issued by a special judicial panel in August. The three-judge federal panel had ruled that reducing the state’s prison population by about 40,000 inmates over two years is necessary to improve medical and health care throughout the state’s 33 adult prisons.

The nation’s high court said in a one-paragraph decision that it will await the state’s appeal of the final order. The lower court put its inmate-release order on hold awaiting the Supreme Court’s final decision.

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today is a win for the state because it guarantees there will be no early release of prisoners while the three-judge panel’s latest order is appealed,” Andrea Hoch, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s legal affairs secretary, said in a statement. She said it was no surprise that justices opted to wait and consider the entire case. “We fully expect the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the three-judge panel’s prisoner release order.”

The high court’s consideration of the lower court’s final order could take a year, unless the justices speed up their decision, said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear.

“We’re just in a holding pattern,” said Don Specter, director of the nonprofit Berkeley-based Prison Law Office, which sued over crowded conditions in state prisons. It is uncertain how quickly the justices will consider the state’s appeal, he said.

At issue is whether the California judicial panel exceeded its authority in ordering the prison cuts.

Last week, the three judges accepted the Schwarzenegger administration’s latest plan for lowering the prison population after rejecting a previous proposal. That decision constitutes the lower court’s final order, which now can be appealed.

Schwarzenegger’s proposal aims to trim the state’s inmate population by about 40,000 inmates by December 2011 by sending inmates to private prisons, building additional prisons and sending criminals convicted of drug possession, receiving stolen property, theft and check fraud to county jails. Some low-risk inmates would also be allowed to serve the last 12 months of their sentences under GPS monitoring.

The administration said several of those steps could require the Legislature or federal judges to change state laws and would burden counties with incarcerating and rehabilitating criminals who would normally go to state prisons.

The state’s three-page notice of appeal, filed late Tuesday, argues that both the creation of the three-judge panel and the panel’s final order exceed what is allowed under the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act that governs judges’ actions in inmate rights cases.

The appeal also faults the panel for not immediately waiving the state laws the administration says it must have to meet the court-ordered deadline.

The three federal judges, in their final order, said they will consider any legal waivers sought by the administration to meet the court-imposed deadline of reducing the prison population by December 2011.

It also ordered the administration to negotiate with counties over reimbursing them for the increased local cost. The state should be able to compensate local governments from the money it will save by reducing the prison population, the judges said in their eight-page ruling.