California has submitted a plan for dealing with the state's overcrowded prisons to a federal judge. It includes housing at least 8,000 inmates in other states, building more than 50,000 new prison beds, and creating new programs to rehabilitate inmates. Those are all part of the package of reforms lawmakers agreed on and the Governor signed this month.
Deborah Hysen is leading one of the two teams implementing the new plans. She says it's a comprehensive approach:
Hysen : We are not going to be looking at building that is just four walls and focused on custody. We want to make sure that the building has the capacity to facilitate all of the vocational needs, the rehabilitation needs, the medical facility needs as well.
The plan also includes some fine-tuning of parole practices aimed at reducing the number of inmates returning to prison for parole violations. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ordered the state to come up with a plan for reducing overcrowding -- or face a possible court-ordered cap on the inmate population. That could mean the early release of some prisoners.
