California Senate OKs plan to reduce prison population -- latimes.com
Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have been pushing a proposal that could help satisfy the judges and save money to shore up California's shaky budget.
They would cut the prison population by 37,000 by the middle of 2011 with measures that would shift resources toward higher-risk inmates and parolees. They would reduce the time lower-level offenders and those who show evidence of rehabilitation would serve behind bars and scale back their parole supervision. Officials hope that would cut down on the 70% rate at which California inmates return to prison, one of the highest in the nation.
