Opinion: Can Federal Judges Help the Octuplets, Too?

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Three federal judges have said that the overcrowding in California’s prisons is damaging the physical and mental health of the inmates. So they’ve ordered the release of tens of thousands of non-violent prisoners to stop it from happening.

May I issue an invitation to those judges? Your Honors, in the next month or so, please get yourselves on down to Whittier. Check out a three-bedroom house occupied by an older couple, their daughter and her 14 children.

All of these children are under the age of eight. Three of the six older children have some kind of disability. Eight are infants with possible health complications, the scope of which is still unknown. Their mother has no job. She has no income, apart from the food stamps and disability checks for her children. She still owes $50,000 in student loans.

The six children already sleep in bunk beds and get fed in shifts. Where will the other eight, the newborn octuplets, will squeeze in when they come home? Who will pay for their food? Their medical needs? Who will look after them and change their diapers?

So Your Honors -- please. If you can look out for the welfare of inmates, please look out for the welfare of these children. Find out whether all these circumstances mean that they too are in peril -- and if so, please consider ordering them to be released from these risky conditions.

Free the Whittier Eight?