JUDGE CONSIDERING EARLY PRISONER RELEASES

U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson has issued an order
containing the strongest indications yet that he is seriously
considering ordering the early release of an unspecified number of
inmates to solve California's prison overcrowding crisis.

The San Francisco-based federal judge said in the order dated Feb. 15
that the three-judge panel that inmates rights lawyers are asking him
to put together is charged with "determining whether a prisoner
release order should be entered."

He also ordered the state to report to him within three months on
"each specific, concrete measure the state has taken, is taking, or
is planning to take, that is expected to result in a reduction in the
number of inmates confined in state prisons by March 1, 2008 (in
roughly one year), and by March 1, 2009 (in roughly two years), and
the amount of the reduction expected to result from each such measure."

Henderson is acting in a motion filed by plaintiffs' attorneys in a
case in which the judge found that the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation is violating the Constitution in the
way it provides medical care to the state's 172,000 prisoners.
Henderson said in the order that one inmate is dying every six or
seven days as a result of poor medical care in the prison system.

The judge said it is "likely" that prison medical care receiver
Robert Sillen, whom Henderson appointed, would be able to demonstrate
that prison overcrowding is inhibiting his efforts to fix the
problem. He gave Sillen three months to provide an assessment "on the
manner, and extent to which, overcrowding is interfering with his
ability to successfully remedy the constitutional violations at issue."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, met for an hour Thursday
morning with legislative leaders to discuss the state's prison
crisis. The governor scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference Thursday to
talk about prisons.