Schwarzenegger Asks Supreme Court (Again) to Intervene in Prisons Case

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On the night before Christmas Eve, Arnold Schwarzenegger reminded the U.S. Supreme Court of what he really wanted: review from the highest court in a case involving California’s dilapidated prisons system. The governor submitted papers Tuesday night pleading with the court to take up the case – he already filed an appeal earlier this fall.

The dispute stems from a ruling by three federal judges that the state take quick action to relieve its bulging-at-the-seams prison population by tens of thousands. It found that prisoners were being denied proper access to health care in violation of the Constitution. The judges acknowledged the state’s economic woes, but ultimately found that “the evidence is compelling that there is no relief other than a prisoner release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions.”

But Schwarzenegger believes the ruling is an affront to California’s right to run the correctional system itself – and its right to control its own budget.

The court will consider the request on Jan. 15. If it takes up the case, it would likely halt Schwarzenegger’s most current release plan until at least June, when the court issues the bulk of its decisions.

The governor’s latest plan involves diverting thousands of inmates to local jails or house arrest, the latter of which, along with electronic monitoring is being touted as “the future of criminal justice — a way to supervise offenders in the community without incurring the social, financial, and community costs of incarceration” according to The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer.

This seems an even more viable solution when one considers a recent paper on the unintended consequences of prison reform (using mostly southern states as a model) that found welfare was often cut to pay for correctional expenditures that racked up as a result of population reduction orders.  Writes UC Hastings law professor Hadar Aviram:

The irony, of course, is that prison reform and welfare target mostly people of the same social class, and once conditions improve and the population is released, folks come out to a world that offers them little in the way of help and assistance.

These are, obviously, heady issues that Schwarzenegger will get to delay sorting through for a little longer if John Roberts and Co. give the Governator the gift of Supreme Court review.