California Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget asks for $10.6 million to implement Propostion 57, the criminal; justice initiative approved on the ballot this past November.  Scott Kernan, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the governor’s new state budget lays out a primary framework for implementing the reforms in Prop 57, which seeks to reduce the state’s inmate population by giving parole officials greater latitude to offer early release to thousands of prisoners.

“We are in the preliminary stages,” said Kernan, whose agency expects to complete the new package of rules by the required October 2017 deadline. “Proposition 57 is a significant change for this department, and a significant change for the criminal justice system in California.”