Pubdate: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Copyright: 2007 The Sacramento Bee Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376 Note: Does not publish letters from outside its circulation area. Author: Andy Furillo, Bee Capitol Bureau JUDGE CONSIDERING EARLY PRISONER RELEASES U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson has issued an order containing the strongest indications yet that he is seriously considering ordering the early release of an unspecified number of inmates to solve California's prison overcrowding crisis. The San Francisco-based federal judge said in the order dated Feb. 15 that the three-judge panel that inmates rights lawyers are asking him to put together is charged with "determining whether a prisoner release order should be entered." He also ordered the state to report to him within three months on "each specific, concrete measure the state has taken, is taking, or is planning to take, that is expected to result in a reduction in the number of inmates confined in state prisons by March 1, 2008 (in roughly one year), and by March 1, 2009 (in roughly two years), and the amount of the reduction expected to result from each such measure." Henderson is acting in a motion filed by plaintiffs' attorneys in a case in which the judge found that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is violating the Constitution in the way it provides medical care to the state's 172,000 prisoners. Henderson said in the order that one inmate is dying every six or seven days as a result of poor medical care in the prison system. The judge said it is "likely" that prison medical care receiver Robert Sillen, whom Henderson appointed, would be able to demonstrate that prison overcrowding is inhibiting his efforts to fix the problem. He gave Sillen three months to provide an assessment "on the manner, and extent to which, overcrowding is interfering with his ability to successfully remedy the constitutional violations at issue." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, met for an hour Thursday morning with legislative leaders to discuss the state's prison crisis. The governor scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference Thursday to talk about prisons. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman