Replies

It honestly looks to me more like a problem with the California state government than the SCOTUS.

“In Plata v. Brown, filed in 2001, the State conceded that deficiencies in prison medical care violated prisoners’ Eighth Amendment rights and stipulated to a remedial injunction. But when the State had not complied with the injunction by 2005, the court appointed a Receiver to oversee remedial efforts. Three years later, the Receiver described continuing deficiencies caused by over-crowding. Believing that a remedy for unconstitutional medical and mental health care could not be achieved without reducing over-crowding, the Coleman and Plata plaintiffs moved their respective District Courts to convene a three-judge court empowered by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA) to order reductions in the prison population. The judges in both actions granted the re-quest, and the cases were consolidated before a single three-judge court. After hearing testimony and making extensive findings of fact, the court ordered California to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of design capacity within two years...

...The appeal presents the question whether the remedial order issued by the three-judge court is consistent with requirements and procedures set forth in a congressional statute, the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA). 18 U. S. C. §3626; see Appendix A, infra. The order leaves the choice of means to reduce overcrowding to the discretion of state officials.”

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-1233.pdf

FWIW, the dissent starts at page 59.

This has been going on for 10 years, and California refused to spend the money to expand prisons - although I’d bet the salaries of prison guards increased more than inflation during that time.

I support putting people in prison, but I also support the idea of building prisons to hold them. Maybe if California spent less on unions and more on prisons, this would not have happened. Frankly, I would trust the judgment of a 3 judge panel more than I would a vote of the California legislature...