In another example of the paralysis that is the apparent natural state of California politics, the Supreme Court will probably rule in June that the state must release at least 35,000 prison inmates due to severe prison overcrowding, which results in substandard health care.
Goodness, you say, surely this problem must have sprung out of nowhere quite recently and thus California will be rushing to fix it, right? Au contraire. The first lawsuit against California prison overcrowding was filed in 1991. The US Congress passed a bill in 1996 that made it clear that courts could and would intervene if states did nothing about prison overcrowding. So, faced with this obvious and clear mandate for change, California has done precious little to be pro-active and now appears utterly gobsmacked that the courts may in fact, force inmates to be released.
It would be interesting to know how much money California has invested in fighting the Federal rulings all these years.