Gov. Jerry Brown's administration says his stalled plan to shift thousands of inmates from state prisons to local jails will eventually address a U.S. Supreme Court order to slash California's prison population by 33,000 inmates.
The administration acknowledged in its response to the court Tuesday that it might not meet the initial goal of cutting the prison population by more than 10,000 inmates by the end of November. But it did not ask for a delay.
California's 33 prisons house more than 143,000 inmates in space designed for fewer than 80,000.
Brown has signed laws that would shift responsibility for thousands of lower-level inmates to counties. But funding for the proposal is stalled in the state Legislature, where Republicans have opposed Brown's plan to ask voters to extend a series of taxes.
