By Paige St. John
LA Times
SACRAMENTO — Federal judges have extended until April 18 the deadline for Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration to ease prison crowding, after asking the state to limit the time some mentally ill prisoners spend in solitary confinement.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton announced that he had accepted the state’s offer of a 30-day isolation maximum for severely mentally ill inmates who have committed no rule violations. He then joined two other jurists in pushing back the overcrowding deadline and also in extending negotiations between the state and prisoners’ lawyers until Jan. 10.
In September, the judges ordered the state and the inmates’ attorneys to negotiate long-term solutions to the crowding problem, including the early release of frail or elderly prisoners. In Wednesday’s order, the jurists said they expected no further extension of those talks “absent extraordinary circumstances,” but they left open the possibility of more delays in the population deadline, formerly set for Feb. 24.
Full story: Deadline for Gov. Jerry Brown to ease prison crowding extended