California prisons

A federal appeals court on Tuesday agreed to reconsider a ruling that rejected the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on for-profit private prisons and immigration detention facilities.

A new report that said 76,000 violent and repeat California prisoners could soon be eligible for early release, is now being clarified by state prison officials. They say, it’s not an early release program, but rather a new way for prisoners to work toward their freedom.

A decade after prison crowding forced California to realign its criminal justice system, the population in what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system has shrunk to the point where officials announced Tuesday they will close one of two inmate firefighter training centers.

Despite spending nearly $10 million a year to improve the handling of inmates’ allegations of staff misconduct, California’s prisons’ “process remains broken.”