Pursuant to court order, the State of California filed a progress report on July 18, 2013 that details steps to comply with the Three Judge Panel request to reduce California’s prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity by December 31, 2013. The Department successfully reduced the prison population to 149.4 percent or 25,071 inmates during October 2011 with the implementation of the public safety realignment plan under Assembly Bill 109.
The CDCR progress report includes an assessment of non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offense populations in the system (9,077), and concluded that of this population, only 1,205 are defined as having low risk to recidivate. The progress report provides details about compliance measures such as, admitting inmates to the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, expanding fire camp capacity, increasing prison credits, expanding criteria for medical parole, new parole process for low-risk elderly inmates, slowing the rate of returning inmates to California, pursue contracts with counties that have available jail capacity, and development of a court-ordered early release system.
CDCR released the following statement:
“The filing today is a progress report about steps we are taking to develop the court-ordered measures to reduce the prison population. We have urged the Supreme Court to halt the lower court’s attempt to force early releases because they would unnecessarily jeopardize public safety, and are not needed given the quality medical and mental health care that inmates already receive.”
A copy of the complete progress report is available at: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/News/docs/3JP-July-2013/Status-repor-to-Three-Judge-Court-July-18-2013.pdf