FROM THE UPCOMING ISSUE: Calif. district court issues call for help

Tag : Emergency Call

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Thousands of state prisoner petitionshave swamped the six federal judges in California's EasternDistrict, prompting an emergency call this week for judges fromthroughout the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to pitch in andwhittle down the mounting prisoner cases.

Judges serving on an emergency committee set up to address thecrisis circulated among various judges' meetings during the 9thCircuit's annual Judges Conference to explain why they are askingcolleagues to take on some of their work.

The Eastern District has become a "prison court," themembers of the special Circuit Judicial Council committee warned ina report outlining the problem to Senator Dianne Feinstein,D-Calif.

Along with the volunteers to take on existing cases, they wantCongress to approve five new judgeships, the circuit to providemore money for law clerks and staff to help eliminate the casebacklog, and a pilot program to test mediation between the JusticeDepartment and the inmates to resolve disputes early.

46% from prisoners

Nearly half of the district's new filings in fiscal year 2007, some46%, came from 2,521 prisoner civil rights and habeas corpusclaims. Each of the six judges had 420 prisoner petitions duringthe year, according to court statistics. That is three to fourtimes the rate of the other three districts in California.

The demands of prisoner petitions, often handwritten by inmateswith limited education and no legal training, falls heavily on theremaining caseload. By March of this year, the Eastern Districtreported that 602 civil cases were more than three years old.

And the new prisoner cases continue to rise faster than thehalf-dozen judges, bolstered by five semi-retired senior judges,can resolve them. When cases were weighted for complexity, theEastern District had 869 cases per judgeship, the second-highestrate in the United States. Only the Eastern District of Louisianahad more, after the surge of cases following Hurricane Katrina.

"If just 70 judges took 15 cases each, that would be 1,000cases," said U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii of Sacramento,Calif., a member of the committee. He said diverting 1,000 caseswould bring the numbers down to a manageable level and is thecommittee goal.

U.S. District Judge Morrison England of Sacramento said he isgratified by the response so far. "I have had 10 to 15 judgestell me in no uncertain terms they are going to help."

But he emphasized that this is a stopgap measure until Congressadds permanent new judgeships to the Eastern District. "Aslong as the state of California keeps building prisons, moreprisoners will file petitions and the petitions will continue torise because we have 19 prisons in the district," he said.

Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the 9th Circuit and chair of thespecial committee said, "The problems facing the EasternDistrict result not from lack of effort, but lack of judges andstaff. Judges and court staff are doing all they can, but there arejust not enough of them," he said.

The Eastern District, which stretches from the Oregon borderthrough the California Central Valley nearly to Los Angeles, is thevictim of the explosion in California's prison population afteryears of relentless prison construction in rural areas. Thedistrict holds 19 of the state's 33 prisons, housing 100,000 of thestate's 167,000 state-prison inmates.

By contrast, the federal judges in the Los Angeles-based CentralDistrict received slightly more total prisoner petitions —2,735 in 2007 from seven prisons — but they were spread among28 judges, giving each judge about 95 prisoner cases.

Action in the fall?

Ishii said he hopes to start getting volunteers from otherdistricts by late fall, after chief judges in each of the 9thCircuit's 15 judicial districts start signing up volunteers.

Ishii said he has been gratified by the positive response so farfrom judges at the conference who say they are willing to step up.Some out-of-state judges, however, have expressed concern abouttheir knowledge of, and ability to apply, California law in thecases.

In addition, the district judges are hoping to get an infusion offunds from the 9th Circuit and the Administrative Office of theCourts in Washington to pay for additional temporary law clerks andcourt staff to cover the workload.

The committee proposal also calls for mediation of some of theprisoner disputes, and potentially an ombudsman who can workdirectly at the prison to resolve some of the claims, according toIshii.

A magistrate judge in the Northern District has been running apilot project to mediate some prisoner civil rights claims with theJustice Department, according to Ishii. The judge, Nandor Vadis,will begin using the strategy in a test program for the EasternDistrict, Ishii said.

Longer term, the circuit has asked Congress to add four permanentjudges and to restore one temporary judge to the Eastern District.The request is included in the current federal judgeship bill, S.2774, awaiting action by both houses of Congress.


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