SAN FRANCISCO
A high-stakes trial over whether California’s crowded prison conditions have led to substandard inmate medical care has started in a federal courtroom.
If the special panel of three judges rules against the state, another trial will be held next year to determine remedies.
Possible solutions include an order to release inmates before they have completed their full sentences, a move opposed by the Schwarzenegger administration and Republican lawmakers.
Attorneys for the inmates want the prison population reduced from roughly 156,000 to about 110,000.
Michael Bien, one of the attorneys representing inmates, said Tuesday that further delay will mean “additional pain, suffering and death” for his clients.
At issue is whether overcrowding is the leading cause of medical and mental health care that the federal courts already have found to be negligent.
