Gov. Jerry Brown and his top state prison official are about to find out how mad they've made the three federal judges overseeing California's overcrowded prison system.
In court papers filed Wednesday, lawyers for prison inmates asked the special three-judge panel to find Brown and Jeffrey Beard, the state's corrections chief, in contempt for failing to comply with orders requiring the administration to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for reducing the prison population.
Citing "willful defiance" by the governor and his staff, the inmates' lawyers argue the federal court must take strong action to force the state to shed another 10,000 inmates to cut the prison population to about 110,000 at the end of this year.
The federal judges previously found California's prisons so overcrowded that they deny adequate medical and mental health care to inmates. The inmates' lawyers on Wednesday asked the judges to order the state to release more low risk prisoners to solve the overcrowding.
In one recent order, the judges threatened the administration with contempt if the deadlines are not met. A contempt finding could expose the governor and Beard to a range of punishment, from civil fines to the extreme step of jail, but legal experts such as UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar call a criminal contempt finding "very unlikely."
The governor earlier this week notified the three judges he is appealing the orders to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing
California already has rid its prisons of tens of thousands of inmates and now provides legally adequate medical care. The administration has also presented the judges with a plan to reduce the inmate population by another 7,000 inmates but indicated it will not support the steps necessary for the Legislature to put that plan into effect.
The state is expected to present its legal arguments to the Supreme Court this summer, and the justices may decide in the fall whether to take up the case.
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