Prisons

In 30 of 35 California prisons, fewer than half of workers are COVID vaccinated. Some advocates urge the state to mandate staff shots.

California tripled the number of its prisons during the 1980s and 1990s, but now, as inmate populations drop, it's beginning to shut down some older facilities.

Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, April 5. CalMatters politics reporter Ben Christopher here, filling in for Emily Hoeven. Emily will be back next week. Rife with indecision and inconsistencies As California nursing homes slowly recover from the COVID-19 siege that killed thousands, the role of state regulators in protecting the frail and elderly has come […]

California's district attorneys are squabbling over whether California should continue to soften criminal penalties.

California has evolved in how it treats victims of sex trafficking. But many victims, most of them Black women, are still sitting behind bars for crimes they committed while being trafficked.

California is testing whether easing up on penalties for crime will result in less crime in the long run.

From child support to insurance fraud, court cases are delayed throughout California. Only half as many civil and criminal cases were resolved last summer compared with pre-pandemic numbers. “Justice has not shut down. Justice has slowed down,” according to an attorneys' group.

Reducing California’s corrections budget is the right strategy, and efforts should be made to overturn extreme sentencing laws.

More than 7,500 prisoners sent home in the program — which aims to slow the spread of COVID-19 — would have been released within months anyway. Thousands with health conditions remain in prison, and the virus keeps spreading.

The virus is surging in California's overcrowded prisons as early releases slow. And county jails are struggling with a backlog of inmates awaiting transfers to state facilities.