SACRAMENTO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A three-judge federal court panel Monday indicated it will order California to reduce its prison population by 58,000 because of inadequate prison healthcare.
The judges declared that overcrowding has deprived prisoners of their right to adequate healthcare, the Los Angeles Times reported. The judges' order is still subject to change, but the judges -- U.S. District Court Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt -- told lawyers for California the stat has effectively lost in the two long-running cases being heard.
The order said the state would have to make substantial changes in prison healthcare or settle the matter with attorneys for the inmates who brought the suits.
If the state eventually is required to reduce prison population -- which currently amounts to twice the capacity the prisons are designed for -- it would probably be able to do so by limiting the number of inmates brought into the prison system and taking other steps, the newspaper said.
