Prisoners’ attorneys have filed a Motion and Reply asking the federal three-judge court overseeing California’s prison overcrowding case to enforce an order requiring the State to take certain population-reduction actions “immediately.” These actions include increasing good conduct credits for minimum-security prisoners and some “second strike” prisoners and implementing new procedures for earlier parole of some non-dangerous prisoners.

In February 2014, the three-judge federal court granted California’s request for a two year extension of time to fully reduce prison overcrowding to the 137.5 percent level required and approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Read the Opinion and Order. The Order requires the State to do certain things that will result in some prisoners paroling earlier than they otherwise would have. Click here to read our informational letter about the order and what the State is doing to reduce crowding.

For more background information on the case, see the Overcrowding section on the Major Cases page.