It was the result of a court-order in response to shortfalls in medical and mental health care for the state's prison population.
The prison population consisted mainly of men (93%), Latinos and African Americans (roughly 67%), the majority from large urban centers (60% from Los Angeles), and were either unemployed or members of the working poor.
The Supreme Court held in a 5:4 decision that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had violated inmates' Eighth Amendment rights protecting them from cruel and unusual punishment.
[8] As a result, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had to redistribute inmates and parolees to decrease the overall population to the mandated levels.
The resulting Public Safety Realignment Act changed how the California state government deals with low level felonies, with the goal of reduced recidivism.
Effective October 1, 2011, certain felonies would carry a condition of imprisonment in county jails, as opposed to state prisons.
In general, the crimes that qualified for jail sentences, labeled N-3, are non-violent, non-serious, and do not require the accused to register as a sex offender.
[3][9][10] According to the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice, the first eight months of realignment saw a 41% reduction in new prison admissions and a drop of 28,300 inmates.
Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) has stated "The only sustainable way to end overcrowding is to reduce the number of people imprisoned in California.
[10] As an alternative, Professor Schuck of Yale University has proposed deportation of inmates who are present illegally in the US, writing "Early deportation of immigrant criminals would confer immense benefits on federal and state taxpayers (and on the remaining prisoners) at little or no marginal costs.