MORE ON: prison overcrowding

Until recently, California state prisons were so packed that inmates were living literally on top of each other. In June 2011, the Supreme Court ordered California to drastically reduce its inmate population. + read more

They’re not the young men they were when they went to prison decades ago. Some have grown children and several have lost some hair. They tease each other about the weight they’ve gained since moving on from prison cuisine. The men were among seven former residents of San... + read more

Prisoners serving long sentences under California’s “three strikes” law are so expensive that legislative analysts say releasing some of them early could eventually save the state $100 million. A proposed ballot measure, called the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 [PDF],... + read more

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a court filing last week that it has the funding to reduce its prison population in compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling [PDF], but it anticipates it will meet the court’s first prisoner reduction benchmark a month behind... + read more

California’s latest plan to alleviate prison overcrowding and meet a federal court order – announced last week – relies heavily on the transfer of thousands of inmates to county facilities, as long as the state can come up with the funding. But unless prison officials exceed... + read more

California was among 23 states that approved legislative measures last year to reduce the number of people in their prisons. The legislation enacted here was small in scope, but nonetheless part of a national trend, according to a new report [PDF] by The Sentencing Project, an organization... + read more