In a rebuke of Gov. Jerry Brown, a panel of three federal judges has ordered California to take immediate steps to release inmates to comply with a 2009 order to reduce the state’s prison population, reports the Sacramento Bee. In a scathing 51-page order, the judges cited California’s “repeated failure to take the necessary steps to remedy the constitutional violations in its prison system.”
The order left no doubt that the judges believe the state has intentionally defied its previous orders. The ruling requires the state to cut its inmate population by nearly 10,000 inmates by the end of the year by expanding the use of good-time credits.