The 2026–27 California Budget was released earlier this month, outlining a significant overhaul of California’s correctional system, driven by decreasing prison populations, notable cost savings from facility closures and increased funding for rehabilitation and reentry programs.
According to the annual report, California’s adult prison population has declined steadily over the past several years, a shift that is reshaping the state’s correctional system and generating billions of dollars in savings.
As inmate numbers have dropped, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has moved away from costly contract prisons. The department ended its final out-of-state contract for housing incarcerated people in June 2019, followed by the termination of its last in-state contract community correctional facility in May 2021. In March 2024, the state took another significant step by ending the lease of the California City Correctional Facility, its last privately owned prison,
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