Calif. faces problems with inmate ruling

SACRAMENTO, May 25 (UPI) -- If California removes thousands of inmates from it prisons to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the prisons may quickly overcrowd again, officials said.

The Los Angeles Times said the removals could be undermined by California's tough sentencing laws -- particularly three strikes and you're out -- recidivism and the ongoing budget crisis.

The Times said more than 33,000 prisoners -- court records put the figure at 46,000 -- must be removed to comply with Monday's Supreme Court decision. The ruling upheld the verdict of a three-judge court that said overcrowding unconstitutionally deprived inmates of medical care.

"I think … eventually we will have the same (overcrowding) problem," attorney Michael Bien told the newspaper. Bien's law firm filed the 1990 suit alleging poor mental healthcare in California prisons that led to Monday's ruling.

The Times said more than 40,000 prisoners, about one in four, are serving extended sentences for second and third offenses that are punished more severely under the three-strikes law than the crimes would evoke as first offenses.

Michael Romano, head of a Stanford Law School program on the three-strikes law, said the state has created a long-term population problem, with many prisoners sentenced to at least 25 years.

"The most egregious part of the three-strikes law, and what is contributing to the prison overcrowding and financial strains, are the people serving life for minor crimes," Romano told the newspaper.

A plan by Gov. Jerry Brown would move inmates convicted of low-level and non-violent crimes into the custody of county officials. The Times said the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimated as many as 32,500 such inmates could be transferred to meet the high court's two-year deadline.

However, Brown's plan requires the state to pay local officials hundreds of millions of dollars to help them cope with the flood of prisoners.