Judges Extend Deadline To Reduce Prison Population
SACRAMENTO (AP) — A panel of federal judges has extended California's deadline to cut its prison population until April 18.
The judges previously had moved the deadline to February while a court-appointed mediator works to find a long-term solution with Gov. Jerry Brown's administration and attorneys representing inmates.
The judges ordered that those talks continue until Jan. 10. But the one-paragraph order released Wednesday warns that they plan no further extension in the negotiations, "absent extraordinary circumstances."
The state now faces a spring deadline to reduce the prison population to about 110,000 inmates.
The state is pushing for a three-year delay in the court-ordered deadline to give rehabilitation programs time to work as an alternative to housing thousands of inmates in private prisons and county jails.
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