Prisons in California
The California state prison system is a system of prisons, fire camps, contract beds, reentry programs, and other special programs administered by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Division of Adult Institutions to incarcerate approximately 117,000 people as of April 2020. CDCR owns and operates 31 prisons throughout the state.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had a $15.8B budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which was 7.4% of the state budget, and $13.6 billion for CDCR in 2021-22. The state's prison medical care system has been in receivership since 2006, when a federal court ruled in Plata v. Brown that the state failed to provide a constitutional level of medical care to its prisoners. Since 2009, the state has been under court order to reduce prison overcrowding to no higher than 137.5% of total design capacity.
Facilities
California's first state prison was the Waban, a 268-ton wooden ship anchored in San Francisco Bay. Men incarcerated on the Waban constructed California's oldest active state prison, San Quentin State Prison, which opened in 1852. California's newest state prison, California Health Care Facility, opened in 2013 as part of the state's response to the federal court ruling in Plata v. Brown that the state failed to provide a constitutional level of medical care to its prisoners.CDCR owns and operates 31 state prisons. CDCR formerly staffed California City Correctional Facility, which was leased from CoreCivic from 2013 to 2024 as part of measures to reduce state prison overcrowding. Two facilities, California Institute for Women and Central California Women's Facility, are designated for women, and additionally Folsom State Prison houses men and women in separate facilities.
The Legislative Analyst's Office describes four special missions for specific California state prisons, which impact their design and staffing:
- Mental health
- Medical care
- High security
- Conservation camps
- Reception centers: designed to house incarcerate people incoming to the state prison system while they complete an evaluation and receive a custody score. After that, they may be transferred to another prison for longer-term confinement.
- Reentry hubs: while all facilities have some level of education, treatment, and pre-release programs, reentry hubs provide specific reentry support to incarcerated people within 4 years of release, including cognitive behavioral therapy, job search skills, and financial literacy.
Major court cases and policy changes
Over the past 4 decades, the California prison system has been substantially shaped by a set of legislative initiatives that caused a large increase in the prison population, which resulted in severe prison overcrowding and unconstitutional living conditions. Those conditions led to a set of court cases that mandated a reduction in overcrowding and changes to prison services, which resulted in a number of legislative initiatives to reduce overcrowding and improve conditions.| Year | Event | Effect |
| 1972 | California Supreme Court decision in People v. Anderson | Struck down the death penalty. Proposition 17 reinstated it that same year. See Capital punishment in California for a full history. |
| 1976 | Senate Bill 42, Uniform Determinate Sentencing Act of 1976 | The introduction of determinate sentencing and subsequent increases in prison sentence lengths was the largest driver in a nearly 900% increase in California's prison population over the next 3 decades. |
| 1994 | Proposition 184, Three Strikes Law | Part of a wave of "tough on crime" laws passed across the country, Three Strikes required a doubled sentence for any felony if the person convicted had a prior "serious or violent" felony conviction. It also required a mandatory 25-year-to-life sentence for any felony if the person convicted had two prior "serious or violent" felony convictions. Three Strikes was one of the largest drivers of California's increasing prison population over the next 2 decades. |
| 1995 | Federal class action civil rights lawsuit Plata v. Brown | The court ruled that CDCR failed to provide a constitutional level of medical care to its prisoners and ordered the state's prison medical care system be put into receivership. The receivership started in 2006 and is still active. |
| 2007 | Convening of three-judge panel in Plata and Coleman | Convened after California's state prison population peaked in 2006, this panel ordered the state to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of prison design capacity. The court order is still active. |
| 2011 | Assembly Bill 109, Public Safety Realignment | In response to the court mandate to reduce the state prison population, the state altered sentencing and supervision guidelines to shift responsibility for some prisoners to counties. Under Realignment, people with convictions for "non-serious, non-violent, non-sex" crimes serve their sentences in county jails and are under county community supervision upon release. |
| 2014 | Proposition 47, Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative | One of many responses to prison overcrowding, this approved ballot proposition change some felonies to misdemeanors, including some drug possession, petty theft, and forgery offenses. The proposition also permitted re-sentencing for people serving a prison sentence for one of the reduced offenses. |
| 2016 | Proposition 57, Parole for Non-Violent Criminals and Juvenile Court Trial Requirements | One of many responses to prison overcrowding, this approved ballot proposition allowed the parole board to release people convicted of "non-violent" crimes once they served the full sentence for their primary offense. It also required CDCR to develop uniform parole credits for good behavior and rehabilitative achievements, to incentivize rehabilitation. |
| 2016 | Proposition 64, Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act | This approved ballot proposition legalized recreational use of marijuana. Following legalization, several district attorneys announced that they would apply Prop 64 retroactively, resentencing or dismissing thousands of marijuana convictions. |
Prison population and overcrowding
California's prison population grew dramatically after the passage of the Uniform Determinate Sentencing Act of 1976. The introduction of determinate sentencing and subsequent increases in prison sentence lengths was the largest driver in a nearly 900% increase in California's prison population over the next 3 decades. In 1994, as part of a wave of "tough on crime" laws passed across the country, California passed a Three Strikes Law that required a doubled sentence for any felony if the person convicted had a prior "serious or violent" felony conviction. It also required a mandatory 25-year-to-life sentence for any felony if the person convicted had two prior "serious or violent" felony convictions. 'Three Strikes' was one of the largest drivers of California's increasing prison population over the next 2 decades. The highest recorded CDCR daily prison population was on October 20, 2006, with 173,643 people under custody.In response to this population growth, between 1984 and 2005 California built 21 of the 35 prisons that CDCR currently operates in the state. Despite this construction, most of the prisons continued to be overcrowded. In 1995, the court ruled in federal class action civil rights lawsuit Plata v. Brown that CDCR failed to provide a constitutional level of medical care to its prisoners and ordered the state's prison medical care system be put into receivership. The receivership started in 2006 and is still active. After the state's prison population peaked in 2006, a three-judge panel was convened in Plata and Coleman. This panel ordered the state to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of prison design capacity. The court order is still active.
Since that court order, the state has taken several steps to reduce prison overcrowding. In 2011, California passed Public Safety Realignment, which altered sentencing and supervision guidelines to shift responsibility for some prisoners to counties. Under Realignment, people with convictions for "non-serious, non-violent, non-sex" crimes serve their sentences in county jails and are under county community supervision upon release. CDCR also contracted with private companies to incarcerate thousands of people in private facilities in other states.
Other legislative changes to reduce prison overcrowding include 2014 California Proposition 47, which changed some felonies to misdemeanors, and 2016 California Proposition 57, which allowed the parole board to release people convicted of "non-violent" crimes once they served the full sentence for their primary offense. Prop 57 also required CDCR to develop uniform parole credits for good behavior and rehabilitative achievements, to incentivize rehabilitation. While prison populations have been declining since their peak in 2006, as of April 2020, 32 of California's 35 state-run prisons have incarcerated populations above their design capacities, and 10 prisons have incarcerated populations greater than the 137.5% limit from the Plata and Coleman court order. Valley State Prison has the highest overcrowding rate, with an incarcerated population at 150.1% of design capacity.