The Supreme Court decided not to block a lower court’s order that requires California to release 9,600 prisoners from state prisons by the end of 2013.
The lower court’s decision requires state prison officials to reduce the state prison population by approximately 30,000 inmates. The release in dispute is simply one step in that process.
The state plans to appeal the decision. The process may prove difficult because the lower appeals court has consistently ruled that crowded prisons violate prisoners’ rights.
Brown counters that the court’s ruling is a risk to public safety.
Health care is a serious problem in crowded prisons.
"The court's order is absolutely essential to maintaining prison conditions that protect prisoners from serious illness and death due to inadequate health care,'' Don Specter, the director of a non-profit called the Prison Law Office, told the Associated Press .
Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, and Justice Alito dissented in the court’s decision.
Scalia dissented because he believes that the Federal Government does not have the right to force state prisons to release prisoners.
"California must now release upon the public nearly 10,000 inmates convicted of serious crimes — about 1,000 for every city larger than Santa Ana," Scalia wrote, The LA Times reports. The order, he wrote, goes "beyond the power of the courts."
Prison officials are reviewing their records to identify prisoners who are near the end of their sentence for early release. They are also looking for prisoners who would be considered less dangerous because they have serious health issues.
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