US SUPREME COURT ORDERS REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF CALIFORNIA PRISONERS

The Supreme Court affirmed a decision of a special three judge district court finding that California State prisons are overcrowded to the point where they violate the Eighth amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment in that they are unable to provide decent medical and psychiatric care to inmates. Furthermore, the Court upheld the appellate decision requiring the state of California to release approximately 40,000 inmates in order to comply with the Eighth Amendment.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA) set the procedure for challenging prisons overcrowding on Eighth Amendment grounds. It required a special three judge panel be appointed prior to the release of any prisoners for an Eighth Amendment violation. It required that any order releasing inmates be narrowly tailored to release only those inmates necessary to comply with the Eighth Amendment. Furthermore, inmates can only be released after the District Court has issued a less intrusive order requiring the state to take steps to comply with the Eighth Amendment and the initial order failed to obtain compliance with the Eighth Amendment.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals combined two district court cases challenging overcrowded state prisons. In Coleman v. Brown the District Court found that prisoners with serious mental health problems failed to receive treatment complying with the Eighth Amendment and California v. Plata involved the failure to provide timely and sufficient medical treatment in the prisons.

The three judge panel ruled that the prisons have two years to reduce inmate levels from twice the design capacity to 137 per cent of capacity. The prisons were designed to hold 80,000 inmates but at the time of the three judge panel decision were holdin 156,000 inmates.

As a result of overcrowding the suicide rate for California inmate is 80 percent about the national prison average. Psychiatric prisoners are often kept in a box, the size of a telephone booth, while awaiting treatment. Prisoners often go months and even years waiting to see a specialist. One patient died after seventeen months without treatment for testicular cancer. Insufficient space and the lack of cleanliness lead to the spread of contagious diseases in prison hospitals. The prisons have been unable to fill even the limited number of medical positions authorized by the legislatures. Doctors often resign after being unable to sufficiently treat inmates.

The PLRA requires that prior to an order releasing prisoners

“(i) a court has previously entered an order for less intrusive relief that has failed to remedy the deprivation of the Federal right sought to be remedied through the prisoner release order; and

“(ii) the defendant has had a reasonable amount of time to comply with the previous court orders.

“(B) In any civil action in Federal court with respect to prison conditions, a prisoner release order shall be entered only by a three-judge court in accordance with section 2284 of title 28, if the requirements of subparagraph (E) have been met.

“(C) A party seeking a prisoner release order in Federal court shall file with any request for such relief, a request for a three-judge court and materials sufficient to demonstrate that the requirements of subparagraph (A) have been met.

“(D) If the requirements under subparagraph (A) have been met, a Federal judge before whom a civil action with respect to prison conditions is pending who believes that a prison release order should be considered may sua sponte request the convening of a three-judge court to determine whether a prisoner release order should be entered.

“(E) The three-judge court shall enter a prisoner release order only if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that —

“(i) crowding is the primary cause of the violation of a Federal right; and

“(ii) no other relief will remedy the violation of the Federal right.

The majority opinion by Justice Kennedy in a 5 to 4 decision agreed with the District Dourt panel that the lack of care violated the Eight Amendment. The District Court gave the state two years to reduce the number of inmates to 137 percent of design capacity. ¹ Part of the reduction can be accomplished by constructing new prisons or housing inmates out of the state but the court found that the state did not have the ability to sufficiently reduce the number of prisoners without releasing some of the prisoners prior to the completion of their term. Furthermore, the Supreme Court found that the trial court properly took into consideration, as required by the PLRA, the public safety needs of the state and that reducing the number of prisoners can be accomplished without unnecessarily affecting the public safety.

Dissents written by Justices Scalia and Alito which were joined by Justices Roberts and Thomas objected to the Federal Courts ordering the state to reduce its prison population. They felt that the problem was a state problem and that the state should handle it. They stated that less intrusive means were available to deal with the problem and they worried about the public safety problems that may be incurred.