California prisons shedding inmates fast.

California prisons have been shedding about 900 inmates a week and are nearly on track to meet the target set by the U.S. Supreme Court early in 2011, when it issued a mandate ordering California to reduce its prison population to 110,000 inmates by the spring of 2013, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper reported that as of Dec. 28, 2011, the state's prisons held 134,804 inmates, with the reduction in numbers just 1,800 less than an initial goal set by the Supreme Court. In early 2011, the California prison population exceeded 150,000. Such a huge population led the Supreme Court to issue its mandate, citing "unconstitutionally bad prison conditions."

The state's response to the mandate was to formulate a "'prison realignment plan," which began in October and requires low-level offenders to serve their sentences in county jails rather than state facilities. The plan was met with some opposition, as many counties said they could not handle the influx of new inmates. From the state's perspective, however, low-level offenders "should be serving time in state prisons anyway." The state's next goal is to reduce the prison population by another 10,000 inmates by June 27. 2012.