Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Prison Realignment Turns 2 Years Old

California’s “Prison Realignment” program turns 2 years old this month. The program was aimed at reducing the state prison population by shifting non-violent prisoners from state prisons to counties, along with a shift in funding to help counties with the transition. Realignment slashed the prison population, but the state is still struggling to meet court orders to reduce prison over-crowding, while counties are struggling to build new jails or beef up probation and crime prevention programs in its wake. Christopher Martinez reports from the state capitol.