Jails not prisons: inmates stay local.

• Author: Steigerwald, Lucy
• Position: Citings - Brief article

IN MAY, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California prison overcrowding constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, California began warehousing low-level offenders--including shoplifters, drug offenders, and others who have committed nonviolent, nonsexual crimes--in county jails or even under house arrest.

California has about 140,000 people ha prisons, which are at 125 to 225 percent capacity. The Supreme Court gave the state until June 2013 to reduce its prisoner population by 33,000 people.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Dana Toyama says the inmate population will be reduced "by attrition." Every month 10,000 prisoners complete their sentences, so California can meet the deadline by sentencing a larger share of new convicts to jail or...