The state's approach to criminal justice has gone in a new direction under Gov. Jerry Brown, driven in part by a court order to improve inmate health care and reduce the state's prison population. The problem dates back to 1990 and a lawsuit over the quality of mental health care for inmates. Underlying it all: too many prisoners and too few cells. In 2011, the Legislature passed the most fundamental reform of California's criminal justice system in more than a generation. It was called "realignment," and it transferred responsibility for tens of thousands of low-level criminals from state prisons to county jails and probation officers. How has realignment worked so far, and how hasn't it?
Brown's Transformation of California Prisons Largely Unnoticed in Gubernatorial Race

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