SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California prison officials on Monday released a wide-ranging reorganization plan that calls for halting a $4 billion prison-construction program and bringing back all inmates held out of state.
The master plan outlines the department's recommendations for ending years of federal court oversight, overcrowding, poor inmate medical and mental health treatment, and soaring budgets. It comes at a time that the nation's largest state prison system is being transformed by ongoing state budget deficits, federal court orders and a realignment ordered by the governor that shifts its focus to the most violent and dangerous offenders.
The plan was to be discussed later Monday at a Capitol news conference.
The changes are possible because of a state law that took effect Oct. 1 that shifts lower-level offenders from state prisons to county jails. That shift is the main consequence of a federal court order requiring the state to reduce its inmate population as a way to improve medical care.
Lowering the inmate population eliminates the need for $4.1 million in construction projects and will let the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reduce its annual budget by $1.5 billion, according to the document.