<P> Due to the overcrowding in the California prisons, The state of California was sued and now has to comply with federal court - imposed population cap . The overcrowded conditions and accusations of inadequate medical facilities and mistreatment have caused the federal courts to intervene in the system's operation since the 1990s, appointing special oversight and enforcing consent decrees over the system's medical system and the SHU units and capping populations at several facilities . As of 2007, by order of federal courts, the system's medical system is under federal receivership, and a federal court may impose a mandatory limit on the system's total population by June 2007 . </P> <P> From 1982 to 2000, California's prison population increased 500% . To accommodate this population growth, the state of California built 23 new prisons at a cost of $280 million to $350 million apiece . California's prisons are public and are financed by the Public Works Department and operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation . In 2015, California had a prison population of 129,593, which was lower than the peak prison population of 173,942 in 2006 . Beginning in 2006, when the prison population in California was at its peak, the state used out - of - state facilities to house inmates . California's prison population in 2015 made up roughly 9.74% of the United States' total prison population, making up the second largest contribution to the country's prison population (second to Texas which contributed 12.32%). The state funds the prison system's annual costs . In 2005 the state rate of incarceration was 616 per 100,000 adults, or about . 6% . </P> <P> Of the 160,000 prisoners in California, two - thirds are African - American and Latino . Approximately 17% were born abroad . Most prisoners come from California's high density population areas, however incarceration rates in less populated areas are higher than from more congested areas . About 62% of inmates in 2005 were sentenced from Southern California . The largest racial group in California prisons was whites from 1980 to 1986, blacks from 1986 to 1992, and Hispanics from 1992 to the present . </P> <P> In 2011, 6,000 California prisoners partook in a hunger strike to protest the conditions to which they were subject . Prisoners refused to eat until their five demands were met . They asked for: 1) Removal of collective penalties and an end to departmental misconduct, 2) Revoke the debriefing policy, consisting of gang - affiliated inmates divulging information on their gang before being released, 3) Terminate long - term solitary confinement, 4) Serve nourishing and balanced meals, and 5) Implement a variety of rehabilitation programs and privileges for Security Housing Unit (SHU) inmates . The protest gained traction in California prisons; at its peak, over 12,000 prisoners were taking part in the hunger strike . The strike ended after 20 days when the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation announced that they would reassess every inmate in the Security Housing Unit . The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation met few, if any, of the prisoners demands . By 2013, only 382 of the 4,527 SHU inmates residing in California cases had been reexamined, and of those 382 inmates about half were released . </P>

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