The latest round of litigation in the California jail realignment program relates to the state wanting to move disabled offenders back into state prisons.

Jails were never designed to hold inmates for more than 12 months at a time and because of that, their facilities are far more limited than those that were built to house people for years at a time.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, maybe we should start at the beginning.

Several years back the US Supreme Court ordered the vastly overcrowded CA prisons to cut their population in a very big way.  In theory it was a great idea-  the facilities were bursting at the seams and that was causing any number of problems.

In practicum, it was a bit more difficult, because the state couldn't just open the prison gates and let tens of thousands of felons walk away.  So instead, they did the next best thing.

They passed the buck to county jails, who are now serving as long-term holding facilities for state prison overflow.   And yes, this plan has simply passed the proverbial buck, and it's causing all sorts of new headaches for local sheriff's departments.

Revisiting the court order

The state recently petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal.  Basically, they wanted permission to keep disabled inmates in state prions to make sure they'd have access to appropriate accommodations.

Approximately 2,000 disabled inmates are wards of the state, according to a recent report, but the prisons haven't done a very good job at communicating which inmates fall into this category with the county jails.

Two years ago, a US District Court judge stepped in and mandated the two sides start sharing information in order to ensure everyone was in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Today's system seems to work better, but the state still feels these inmates would be better served at a prison facility instead of a local jail.

But the US Supreme Court has disagreed, and says there just isn't room at the inn to move all those people back.