A federal court wants Gov. Jerry Brown to explain how he plans to bring nearly 9,000 prisoners currently housed out of state back into California penal institutions.
ORDER
U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton ordered Brown to submit in writing how the state plans to stop sending California inmates to private prisons out of state.
Brown is ordered to give the court the total number of inmates California plans to return from out-of-state prisons, the timetable for their return, and where those inmates would be housed
State prison officials say inmates are to return in stages, scheduled to be completed by June 30, 2016, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
Karlton’s order is separate from work he does as part of a three-judge panel that imposed a population cap on California prisons, but was delivered as a part of Coleman v. Brown, a mental health care class action lawsuit filed for inmates.
CONTRACTS
Meanwhile, the state extended its contracts, for up to three years, to house prisoners in other states, according to a July 18 progress report on how the state plan to meet the population cap by December 31. The progress report indicates a slowing of inmates coming back to California from out of state prisons.
Brown contends that ending the use of private prisons would have no effect on delivering mental health care, which is the primary issue in this case. Brown additionally argues further reductions in the inmate population are unnecessary and he issued an executive order last January terminating the 2006 “emergency proclamation” by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger allowing prisoners to be sent out of state.
