Settlement near on California prison crowding, referees say

A settlement to ease California's prison population crisis without early releases for inmates could be at hand as a result of a proposal laid out Monday by two federal court referees.

If inmates rights lawyers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration endorse the plan – and representatives of both sides said they like what they see – it would lay to rest the case now pending before a specially empaneled three-judge federal court that has hung over the prison system for a year and a half.

The key component of the deal would give the state three years to meet a targeted population level set by a panel of experts in conjunction with inmates' rights lawyers.

In addition, the proposed settlement would give more money to counties to better handle their probationers, cut down on the number of offenders returned to prison on minor parole violations and establish time credit incentives for inmates who complete education, drug treatment and other programs.

"We believe it is very close to the positions the parties will agree to," said Elwood Lui, a Los Angeles lawyer and former state appellate court justice who has served as one of the referees. "The next two weeks will be a time where we can decide if that is true or not."

An inmates rights group that filed a motion for the population cap and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, which opposed it, agreed that a settlement could be imminent.

"We're studying the proposal that is a framework for settling the case," said Don Specter, director of the Prison Law Office in San Rafael. "We still have some ways to go, but it's very constructive so far and we hope we can continue in that way."

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Lisa Page said the administration sees the proposal "as a potential comprehensive framework for resolving the prison overcrowding crisis and as an effective solution to protect public safety."

Lui prepared the proposed settlement along with appellate court Justice Peter Siggins. They declined to make the document public, providing instead an outline of the proposed deal in a telephone press conference.

It is expected to be made available before a status conference scheduled for May 30 in front of the three-judge court that appointed the referees.

Inmates rights lawyers filed the motion in November 2006 to set the population cap that figured to release tens of thousands of inmates. They claimed the prison population has exacerbated the state's failure to comply with orders in two federal class-action cases covering inmate medical and mental health care.

Local police departments, county sheriffs and chief probation officers who were granted the ability to participate in the case hailed the breakthrough, especially because it avoided the releases of inmates before their terms were up.

"When you frame it against the alternative of maybe significant releases from the state prison system, it becomes much more easy to maybe swallow," said Jerry Powers, the Stanislaus County probation director and head of the statewide chief probation officers' group.

He said early releases would have created "a public safety nightmare."

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