SPRINGFIELD (AP) – A top Illinois lawmaker says the state faces a stark choice: Let low-level, well-behaved criminal offenders out of prison early or watch a judge order the state to “start churning people out.”

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie said Monday that Illinois could be headed for a California-style prison-crowding lawsuit as a committee approved a revamped early release program 7-1, sending it to the House floor.

Shaving time off prison sentences for good conduct has been viewed as politically risky since a 2009 early release debacle that nearly cost Gov. Pat Quinn the election. But, proponents say, it is necessary to make a dent in a prison system with 15,000 more prisoners than it was designed to house.