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Community Corner

Gov. Jerry Brown's prison reforms haven't lived up to his billing ............

Two inmates are walked from their cells to the medical unit at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City. On July 1, California will relax criteria for medical parole. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Calif. is poised to spend nearly $2 billion a year more on incarceration than before Brown returned to office

Jerry Brown has missed almost every benchmark he set for prison realignment

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In 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown said the state's "prison emergency is over." The numbers tell a different story

Nearly 15 months after launching what he called the "boldest move in criminal justice in decades," Gov. Jerry Brown declared victory over a prison crisis that had appalled federal judges and stumped governors for two decades.

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Diverting thousands of criminals from state prisons into county jails and probation departments not only had eased crowding, he said, but also reduced costs, increased safety and improved rehabilitation.

"The prison emergency is over in California," Brown said in early 2013.

The numbers tell a different story.

Today, California is spending nearly $2 billion a year more on incarceration than when Brown introduced his strategy in 2011. The prisons are still overcrowded, and the state has been forced to release inmates early to satisfy federal judges overseeing the system.

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Related story: Supreme Court leaves California in charge of disabled inmates

David G. Savage

 Matthew Cate, who ran Brown's corrections department until he left last year, said jail crowding and budget shortfalls create the impetus to make counties reconsider who they lock up and how. "Never waste a crisis," he said.

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