Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is again in a position to decide whether California prisons must address overcrowding and release 9,000 prisoners by the end of the year. This occurs as nearly 1,000 California prisoners enter their third week of a hunger strike in protest of poor living conditions and the ongoing use of solitary confinement. The protest has elicited national attention and support from advocacy organizations that claim California prison authorities are not meeting basic human rights requirements.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Justice Kennedy spoke for a 5-4 majority opinion two years ago, mandating the release of 47,000 prisoners because inmates were dying from the lack of decent medical care. Kennedy said the conditions amounted to unconstitutional “cruel and unusual punishment.”
CNN reports that the current issue stems from two separate lawsuits filed in 1990 and 2001. The lawsuits claimed that overcrowding was creating inhumane conditions. In 2006, California prisons were at 202 percent capacity.
California prison authorities have since released 37,000 prisoners in compliance with the decision. The state appears to be well on its way to reducing the population to the 137 percent capacity mandated by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Critics believe that the arbitrary release of prisoners could lead to a spike in crime across the state. However, it’s unlikely that serious offenders who have committed violent crimes will be among those released.
The Economist reports that California’s large prison population stems partly from the “three strikes” rule, which mandates long sentences for third-time offenders who commit crimes as minor as shoplifting.
The Supreme Court mandate is complicated by Kennedy’s previous statement that “if significant progress is made toward remedying the underlying constitutional violations,” further reductions in the prison population might not be necessary. California appears to making progress, but remains well short of the reduction goal. Brown has now asked the Supreme Court to step in and give the state a reprieve from further releases this year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Complaints about prison conditions set off a mass hunger strike this month among prisoners across California. The hunger strike began July 9 with some 30,000 prisoners refusing food, primarily to protest prolonged solitary confinement.
Now in the third week of protests, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports that as of Monday, 986 inmates in 11 California state prisons continue their hunger strikes.
Prisoners have issued a set of demands that, in addition to less solitary confinement, include pleas to provide nutritious foods and more family visits. An ensuing crackdown from prison authorities elicited criticism from leading human rights organizations like Amnesty International, which claims that California officials have “breached international human rights obligations by taking punitive measures against prisoners on hunger strike over conditions.”
“Prisoners seeking an end to inhumane conditions should not be subjected to punitive measures for exercising their right to engage in peaceful protest,” said Angela Wright, an Amnesty International researcher.
This article originally was published on July 25, 2013.