California to release up to 8,000 inmates to prevent coronavirus outbreaks in prisons

What they're saying: "These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff," CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a statement. "We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety."

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that prisons cannot release inmates who do not have anywhere to go when they return to society.
• “What I can’t do is release people to the streets and sidewalks and parks and benches and call that compassion,” Newsom said, according to Politico.

The big picture: The state prison system currently reports that 5,881 inmates have contracted the coronavirus, while 1,243 prison employees have been infected.

• More than a third of the inmates and staff at the San Quentin State Prison in the San Francisco Bay Area tested positive for COVID-19 as of July 4. Some officials have called it the worst prison health crisis in the state's history, according to NPR.

Go deeper: We're losing the war on the coronavirus