The Governor's office estimates the program would free up about 2,000 prison beds annually.

These inmates take up about 20 percent of all the state prison beds each year, he said, costing California $1 billion.

Only 2.5 percent of the nation's 1.3 million prison beds are privately run.

But the crime bill provides for only 25,000 more prison beds.

The state has an immediate need for 1,700 more prison beds.

Since 1985, 1,130 prison beds have been added, and 3,000 more are planned over the next six years.

There are now more than 1.5 million prison beds in the United States.

He has also brought a civil case because he thinks that his prison bed is too hard.

The budget also includes $82 million for 1,600 new prison beds, most of them to be added to existing prisons.

The state has had to add nearly 40,000 prison beds over the past 16 years to accommodate the explosion.