In ordering the release of tens
of thousands of California prisoners, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court sent
an unmistakable message to this state and its citizens: you are unable to
govern yourselves.
At a couple of points in the
decision, the opinion, by Anthony Kennedy, a Californian, departs from the
subject of prisons to comment on the bleak political and fiscal reality of the
state.
The prisons, he writes, are the
product of a state where governance is broken: "In addition to overcrowding the
failure of California’s prisons to provide adequate medical
and mental health care may be ascribed to chronic and worsening budget
shortfalls, a lack of political will in
favor of reform, inadequate facilities,
and systemic administrative failures."
In making the argument for the order, Kennedy concludes that California
and its legislature are simply incapable of taking the necessary action to make
conditions in state prisons constitutional.
"The Court cannot ignore the political and fiscal reality behind this
case," he wrote. "California’s Legislature has not been willing or able to
allocate the resources necessary to meet this crisis absent a
reduction in overcrowding. There is no reason to believe it will begin to do so
now, when the State of California is facing an unprecedented budgetary
shortfall."
That is a damning verdict from the nation’s highest court.