Nearly one-third of California prisoners released early during the pandemic by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration ended up back in prison, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data. 

The records, obtained and analyzed by CalMatters, offer the first glimpse into what happened to some of the former prisoners after state leaders chose to shrink a prison population imperiled by the spread of COVID in close quarters. 

At the time, the governor and the corrections department did not widely share the full list of the names and crimes of the thousands of people they sent home early, leaving the public in the dark about the scope of an unprecedented prisoner release effort.

In total, between April 2020 and December 2021, the corrections department freed about 14,800 people early. Roughly 4,600 had gone back to prison as of Jan. 31, 2025.