By Miriam Raftery

September 24, 2013 (Sacramento) – Under a court order to reduce California’s prison population by 9,600 prisoner’s at year’s end to relieve overcrowding or face contempt of court charges, Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law Senate Bill 105. 

The bill provides that Brown will ask a panel of judges to delay the order to allow the state time to expand rehabilitation programs to reduce the prison population, including mental health and substance abuse treatment.  But if that request is rejected, SB 105 will shift thousands of inmates to county jails and to private, out-of-state prisons.