Steve Shadley, Capital Public Radio
The Republican Lawmakers say a panel of 3 federal judges overstepped its authority when it ordered the state to reduce its prison population by more than 40-thousand inmates.
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Republican state lawmakers are asking the U-S Supreme Court to stop a federal order that requires California to reduce its prison population.
Capital Public Radio's Steve Shadley reports...
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GOP lawmakers say a panel of three federal judges overstepped its authority last month when it required the state to come up with a plan to lower the prison population by more than 40-thousand inmates.
The federal judges also say California prisons are not providing adequate medical and mental health care to prisoners.
But, Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee says the judges don’t understand that state lawmakers are trying to improve living conditions in California prisons...
Blakeslee: “We believe that the U-S Supreme Court when they look at what this three judge panel has been up to that they’ll be shocked. As they have utterly disregarded the facts that have developed over the past three years that show that this legislature has been working strenuously to improve health care issues in our prisons...”
Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration is filing a similar appeal this week.
The republican lawmakers say they support the administration’s move, but they filed their own appeal in case the courts don’t rule in favor of the governor’s office.
California’s prisons are holding nearly twice as many inmates than they were designed to house.