By Stuart Clarke
A steady decline in California’s adult prison population over the past several years has shifted the structure of the corrections department, resulting in billions of dollars being saved.
However, prison reform advocates, such as James King, director of programs at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, contend that current projections are still inadequate, as reported in the publication, Village Life in El Dorado Hills.
“The Ella Baker Center commends the continued investments in rehabilitative programming for incarcerated people. However, the state budget continues to grossly reallocate more funding to policing and prisons, with $14.2 billion to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,” said King.
In January, the 2026-27 California Budget was released which indicated “a significant overhaul of California’s correctional system, driven by decreasing prison population, notable cost savings from facility closures and increased funding for rehabilitation and reentry programs,” according to Village Life.
King described the prison funding as “a waste of taxpayers’ money” that “continues the harm that the state claims to rehabilitate.”
“If we can reduce the number of victims of senseless crimes before they ever even occur, it would seem to me to be the most humane, efficient use of state funds,” said San Quentin resident John Dudley.
As the prison population declines, CDCR has ceased its practice of contracting incarcerated persons to costly private prisons. The final out-of-state contract ended in June 2019 and the last in-state contract with a community correctional facility terminated in May 2021.
In March 2024, the state concluded its lease with the California City Correctional Facility, the last private prison with which it contracted, noted Village Life.
In addition, numerous other facilities, “yards,” in other institutions have been deactivated, including the Folsom Women’s Facility at Folsom State Prison. Cost savings from these closures are projected for $208.3 million annually.
Also noted by EBC is that the state’s $3 billion deficit would be significantly addressed by the budget’s inclusion of further prison closures and plans for population reduction. The $78.5 million allocated to the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center “exacerbates the state’s economic challenges.”
Significant savings could be seen by the reduction of CDCR’s budget and reallocation of those funds for reentry and rehabilitative programs, housing, job development, youth initiatives, public health, and violence prevention, stated Village Life.
“Society is literally investing in its demise with these policies by letting the foxes and wolves guard the henhouse and paying police and correctional officers more than teachers,” said resident Cornell Allen Jr.
According to advocate Emilio Zapién, director of communications for Youth Justice Coalition, probation unions hinder the reallocation of resources and movement toward “care-first” models.
Youth facilities such as Los Padrinos and Sylmar are unsuitable according to several studies by the California Board of State and Community Corrections. However, young people remain incarcerated there even after a $4.8 billion settlement for abuse; and “the county board is still funding the probation department at ridiculous rates,” reported Zapién to CALÓ News.
Zapién also stated that the funding authority has transferred from Sacramento to county governments. The BSSC, mainly composed of law enforcement and probation officials, oversees funding in addition to the use-of-force policies, programming, education and health care.
“This issue is closely tied to larger budgetary and political systems,” claimed Zapién.