“As Congress and many other states look for ways to reform their criminal justice practices, California’s prison downsizing experiment holds lessons for lawmakers.”
“Over the past decade, California has led the nation in reducing its prison population. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that conditions in the state’s overcrowded penitentiaries had “fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements,” lawmakers and voters enacted a series of measures to reduce sentences for many crimes and divert offenders to the authority of the counties.”