Overcrowding at the Court: Justices Consider California Case

The U.S. Supreme Court heard heated arguments yesterday on whether a special federal court overreached when it ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 -- and all accounts point to a court divided along the usual lines.

The court's conservative justices questioned the connection lower courts made between prisons packed at 195 percent of capacity and the failure to deliver medical and mental health care. Meanwhile, the liberal justices called the state's bluff in asking for more time.

California attorney Carter Phillips had only just begun when he called the lower court order "premature." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg quickly reminded him that this issue has been pending for 20 years, SCOTUSblog reports. “How much longer do we have to wait? Another 20 years?” she demanded. Ginsburg and her fellow bleeding heart criminal-lovers on the bench went on to explore compromises (give the state more time to fix the problem? allowing 145 percent capacity rather than the court-ordered 137.5 percent?)

It's not an all-or-nothing issue. Regardless of the outcome of this case, the cash-strapped state will be looking to expand community corrections and alternatives to incarceration under new governor Jerry Brown. The dispute may focus on the power of courts to order state governments to reduce their prison populations, but California's prisons are in crisis. Court order or not, the state must take action.

Dozens of local organizations, like the California Reentry Program and Second Chance, are working to provide paths to employment for released prisoners. State lawmakers are looking at reforms that would keep non-violent offenders in the community, giving them a second chance. When Jerry Brown takes the governor's office next month, he has the opportunity to atone for a prison-building past and change the paradigm from incarceration to opportunity. Use this opportunity to send Brown a new report from Berkeley law school on paths to post-prison employment.

Sticking to form yesterday, Justice Samuel Alito tried to head off prison reform with some good old-fashioned fear-mongering. "If I were a citizen of California," he said from his seat on the nation's highest court, "I would be concerned about the release of 40,000 prisoners."

He shouldn't be, and history will show that we don't have to incarcerate millions of people to keep ourselves safe.

Read more on the case:

The go-to argument recap, from ScotusBlog.

Another great recap from KALW public radio, which has covered this story inside-out for months.

The argument transcript.

Photo Credit: David Paul Ohmer