Med Mal News

On July 23, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ruled that the State of California has repeatedly failed to adequately address the issue of prison overcrowding and the consequent delivery of substandard health care to prisoners, despite
that fact that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency over the issue. In his ruling, Justice Henderson ordered the creation of a special court to determine if prisoners should be released early or have their scheduled imprisonment dates delayed because of the problem. The judge on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered to be the most liberal, Judge Stephen Reinhards, has been appointed to the panel, along with U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which has been in effect for 12 years, did away with the ability of single judges to order early releases or prison entry delays because of overcrowding and instead put in place a three-judge-panel requirement for such decisions. These panels may be convened when less intrusive measures have failed and the state has had a reasonable time to comply with reform orders but has not done so. In the California prison system's case, the Governor has tried to relieve overcrowding by shipping prisoner volunteers to out-of-state facilities that will take them, but only about 400 prisoners have been moved.