Thousands of prisoners in California are set to be freed before the end of their sentences, after Governor Jerry Brown was ordered to begin releasing them to reduce severe overcrowding.
A panel of three federal judges instructed Mr Brown on Thursday to reduce the state's prison population by about 10,000 before the end of the year, striking a new blow in a long-running court battle.
Mr Brown was told his prison officials could identify low-risk offenders who might be released early, expand a system allowing inmates to earn good-behaviour credits, or take other steps to comply.
If he encounters any legal barriers to doing so, "all such state and local laws and regulations are hereby waived, effective immediately," the judges said, in a remarkable section of their order.
There are currently some 119,500 inmates in California's 33 prisons – about 150 per cent of their maximum capacity. Thousands of low-level felons have been put in county jails since 2011. Extra bunks have been installed on prison floors and some prisoners have been housed in camps elsewhere.
Mr Brown and state authorities were ordered by the judges earlier this year to reduce the number of inmates to 137.5 per cent of maximum capacity, or about 109,000 people, by December 2013.
The governor has repeatedly resisted the judges' demands, arguing that the prisons can sustain larger numbers of inmates than their official maximum capacities, without posing too much risk.
A plan submitted by Mr Brown to the court in May fell 2,300 inmates short of the judges' target, prompting them to accuse him of a "continued failure to cooperate with this court".
The dispute has its roots in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for state prison inmates claimed that their constitutional rights were being violated because of crowded conditions in the prisons.
Mr Brown's state authorities were already mounting a challenge at the US Supreme Court to the inmate number limits.
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