The state entered into three-year contracts in November with The GEO Group, Inc. and Correctional Corporation of America to provide facilities for up to 5,000 California inmates in facilities in Arizona and Tennessee. There are currently a record number of inmates in California’s system with 174,000 inmates currently incarcerated in California’s prisons. Some 16,000 are currently triple-bunked in gyms and recreation rooms not designed for housing. Corrections officials say overcrowding at 29 of California's 33 prisons is now reaching proportions that are considered a threat to public safety. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation first asked inmates to volunteer for the out-of-state transfers. A first group of 80 prisoner voluntarily moved to CCA's West Tennessee Detention Facility in November.

Since then, about 300 more volunteers have transferred to CCA's Florence Correctional Center in Arizona. “We will continue to seek volunteer inmates who are willing to serve their sentences in other states,” said Corrections Secretary James E. Tilton in a published statement. The involuntary transfers are slated to take place in 60 to 90 days.