A panel of federal judges Thursday heard the pleas of attorneys for state inmates who say California is not doing enough to keep the coronavirus from ravaging its prison population.

Attorneys from the Prison Law Office and Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld are asking the judges for an emergency order freeing, or possibly relocating, an unspecified number of elderly and ailing inmates as well as those who are approaching their scheduled release dates. Such an action would modify a 2009 order that capped the statewide prison population at 138% of its designed capacity.

That order "has proven inadequate to ensure that minimal constitutional care can be provided in the current pandemic," Prison Law Office attorney Sara Norman said.

State and federal courts around the nation have grappled with balancing inmates' health concerns with public safety as health authorities call for increased physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. As of April 1, eight prisoners in three California facilities and 27 prison employees had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The state has responded to such numbers by stopping the admissions of new prisoners and announcing the release of 3,500 nonviolent inmates who are within 60 days of the end of their sentences. Attorneys say those measures don't go far enough to ensure that inmates can stay six feet away from each other. But they did not propose a specific release number to the court.

"Given that plaintiffs have conceded that they don't know how many inmates we would need to release in order to attain six-foot physical distancing, how can this court do its job of evaluating the impact on public safety to the release of that number of inmates since we don't even know anything about the characteristics of that group?" asked U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California.

Norman said the plaintiffs can't offer a concrete number until the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation measures the space in currently used prison dorms to decide how many people can be housed six feet apart.

"And then they will know how many people need to be moved," Norman said. The state can do that within a matter of days, she said, and then decide whether inmates should be released or rehoused in unused gyms or buildings both inside and outside the system.

"We believe it is very much within this court's power to order them to do so," Norman said.

Tigar was joined on the panel by Judge Kim Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and U.S. District Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller of the Eastern District of California.

Representing the state, Hanson Bridgett partner Paul Mello called the inmates' motion "unclear" and "inchoate." Corrections officials have taken "bold" steps to reduce the risk to inmates and they "should be afforded the opportunity to do those things without intervention of this courts especially when plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that they have satisfied the elements of the" Prison Litigation Reform Act, Mello said.

Asked by the judges whether the changes would ensure adequate spacing among inmates, Mello said that it's too early to tell and, in any case, the Eighth Amendment does not require prisons to meet that standard.

Newsom said earlier this week that he has "no interest" in releasing "violent criminals" from prison.