Today is the first benchmark date for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce prison overcrowding as per a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. CDCR has until January 10 to prepare and provide a report on the progress of inmate population reduction for review by a three-judge court which initially issued the order.

Inmate populations in California’s 33 state-detention facilities should be reduced to 167 percent of the capacity they were designed to hold by December 27. The number should drop to 155 percent by June 27, 2012, to 147 percent one year from now, and to 137.5 percent of capacity by June 2013.

Prisons are designed for use by one prisoner per cell, and call for single level beds to be used in dormitory-type settings. Using these guidelines, California can currently house 79,858 inmates.

As of December 14, 134,804 people were in custody, representing 169.2 percent of the system’s capacity. Locally, the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near the southern border has a reported population of 3,941, representing 179% of the prison’s 2,200 inmate capacity as of December 21. To San Diego’s east, the Imperial Valley facilities Centinela and Calipatria were overpopulated by ratios of 168.5 percent and 188 percent, respectively.