The U.S. Supreme Court tonight rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s motion to stay a three-judge panel’s order to produce a plan by next Friday for reducing California’s prison population by 40,000 inmates.
A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman said the governor would submit a plan as ordered on Sept. 18.
Earlier in the evening, unrelated to the high court’s decision, the state Senate adopted an Assembly-authored prisons bill that changes parole policies and raised the dollar threshold for some property crimes. The legislation is expected to save the state up to $300 million and reduce the prison population by an estimated 17,000 inmates.
What could have been, after the jump.
The bill was far more limited than one passed by the Senate last month that would have created a sentencing commission and an alternate custody program for some offenders. That legislation was expected to cut prison costs by up to $600 million and reduce the inmate population by 37,000 over two years – a figure much closer to what the three-judge panel is seeking.
Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, called the Assembly’s version “prisons lite,” but she and other Senate Democrats insisted it was the best the Legislature could produce given staunch opposition form Republicans and many Assembly Democrats to more sweeping proposals.
The governor is expected to sign the legislation. He has not explained how he plans to comply with the court’s 40,000-inmate reduction order.
The three-judge panel has held that overcrowding in California’s prisons has caused unconstitutional conditions for inmates in need of mental health and medical care.
-- Cheryl Miller
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