Posted on the CAPT website
www.psychtechs.net
May 30, 2007

Judges propose joint hearing on prison cap

Two federal judges are moving to hold a joint hearing in separate cases on whether to take steps toward imposing a population cap on California prisons. U.S. District Court Judges Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento and Thelton Henderson in San Francisco issued a joint order Tuesday vacating hearing dates, the first of which had been set for next week.

They are also asking attorneys to respond in writing by next Tuesday on why motions in the two cases seeking the population cap should not be heard jointly.

The judges did not set new hearing dates, which had been set for next Tuesday in Sacramento and June 11 in San Francisco. A third hearing on the population cap, set for June 8 in front of U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, is still pending.

In another matter, federal receiver Robert Sillen's chief of staff has told prison medical staff to ignore any directions they might receive from a "strike team" Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger established earlier this month to oversee new facility construction.

The chief of staff, John Hagar, in a memo dated Thursday, told the prison system's Division of Correctional Health Care Services staff that they "are working under the direction of the receiver" and that "you are not obligated to follow the instructions" issued by Corrections Secretary Jim Tilton concerning the strike team.

The receiver has called for construction of 5,000 new medical beds in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The recently enacted $7.9 billion prison construction and rehabilitation plan includes funding for 8,000 beds for medical and mental health inmate/patients. Schwarzenegger on May 11 announced creation of two "strike teams" to oversee the construction of new prison facilities and the new rehabilitation effort that was a key to the package.

Rachael Kagan, the spokeswoman for the receiver's office, said Hagar's memo was basically a reminder to prison medical staff about who is their boss. "Medical folks in the prisons don't report to the secretary -- they report to the receiver," Kagan said. "They don't take orders from CDCR leadership. They carry out assignments given to them by the receiver."

Corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said the prison construction operation never intended to circumvent the receiver's authority.

"In fact, we're awaiting his plan on the hospital side," Hidalgo said. "We're ready to implement his vision on what the hospitals should look like and where they should be located."

The receiver previously indicated he wants the prison hospitals built in San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Lancaster, Sacramento, Stockton, Vacaville and Whittier.

As for the judges' order, it came in two cases in which inmate rights' lawyers are asking the federal courts to establish three-judge panels that would consider a population cap on state prisons.

Plaintiffs' lawyers said in legal motions that inmate overcrowding is impeding efforts to bring mental health and medical conditions in the prisons into constitutional compliance. The system currently houses more than 172,000 inmates in prisons designed for about half that many.

Inmate rights' attorneys welcomed the consolidation decision while Hidalgo said the state's attorneys are reviewing it.

"We'll have a response for them by next week," Hidalgo said.

Don Specter of the Prison Law Office called the consolidation "perfectly appropriate."

"There are overlapping issues of extreme importance in both cases, and we're hopeful that this is a prelude to a decision by both courts to empanel a three-judge court," Specter said.

Specter said Karlton and Henderson took the initiative in consolidating the cases and that it was not prompted by inmate rights' attorneys.

Michael Bien, Specter's co-counsel in the mental health case, said he asked for a joint hearing when he first filed a motion for the population cap last year.

"We know the courts want to carefully consider these important issues," Bien said. "A little more time to get it perfect is good."

The still-pending third hearing is set in a class-action case covering accessibility issues for disabled inmates. Specter said that Wilken, the judge in that case, had asked the lawyers to update her on what happened in the hearing that had been scheduled for next Tuesday.

"We'll have to see what she wants to do," Specter said.