California prison crowding

A pan­el of three fed­er­al judges on Monday gave Gov. Jerry Brown an ex­tra two years to bring pris­on crowding down to ac­cept­able levels, in re­turns for prom­ises of “com­pre­hens­ive and sus­tain­able” changes with­in pris­ons and an agree­ment to con­sider a sen­ten­cing com­mis­sion. The de­tailed or­der also re­quires ex­pan­ded pa­role pro­grams, earli­er re­lease of some felons. And it em­powers a court-ap­poin­ted of­fi­cial to re­lease pris­on­ers if the state fails to meet crowding dead­lines.