Schwarzenegger makes last plea to U.S. Supreme Court in prison case - San Jose Mercury News

Schwarzenegger makes last plea to U.S. Supreme Court in prison case - San Jose Mercury News

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has made one last plea to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the legality of a federal court's unprecedented order requiring California to shed nearly 40,000 inmates from its prison system over the next two years.

In court papers filed Tuesday night, state officials urged the Supreme Court to intervene in the case, following up on an appeal filed this past fall seeking to overturn a three-judge panel's orders requiring swift action to relieve prison overcrowding. The Supreme Court will consider the request at its Jan. 15 conference.
The panel found California's 33 prisons are so overwhelmed with inmates that the state can no longer provide adequate medical and mental health care, violating prisoners' constitutional rights. The judges have ordered the state to reduce the prison population to 137 percent of capacity, a move that would force at least 37,000 inmates from the system by 2012.
The governor in November submitted his latest plan to meet that goal through a number of changes, including the early release of certain nonviolent offenders, construction of new prison space and shipping more inmates out of state and into private prisons.