Introduction

Data on the population currently incarcerated under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as of December 2023 and April 2025. Information was acquired via the California Public Records Act (CPRA). The Department applied several privacy (health information, age, etc.) related exclusionary criteria to release these records to Redo.io. The CDCR identification numbers are anonymized for an additional layer of privacy and security.

Citation

If you make use of our dataset(s), please cite our work as follows:

"Redo.io. cdcr-offenses-data (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset]. https://github.com/redoio/offenses_data"

License

This cdcr-offenses-data repository is made available under the Open Database License: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/ by Redo.io. Any rights in individual contents of the database are licensed under the Database Contents License: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/dbcl/1.0/

Access

Our datasets are publicly available and downloadable. For data previews and exploration, you can access the same demographics.csv, current commitments.csv and prior commitments.csv data on https://data.world (log in required) and the Harvard Dataverse.

Links:
https://data.world/redoio
https://data.world/redoio/ca-prison-sentences
https://data.world/redoio/ca-prison-former-sentences
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi%3A10.7910%2FDVN%2FQCTMSI

Data Dictionary

Versions: 2023 and 2025

Demographics

Files: demographics.csv demographics.xlsx

Variable	Type	Calculated	Description
cdcno	str	No	Unique identifier (MD5 hash) for each individual under CDCR jurisdiction, including those housed in a state prison, temporarily released, or held in a non-CDCR facility. Excludes parolees. Individuals serving CDCR sentences in county jails are included.
ethnicity	str	No	Race or ethnicity of the incarcerated person (e.g., White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander).
controlling offense	str	No	California penal, vehicular, or other code number for the offense governing the individual's current incarceration (e.g., PC187, PC664, PC214(a)).
description	str	No	Text description of the controlling offense.
offense begin date	datetime	No	Date the controlling offense began.
offense end date	datetime	No	Date the controlling offense ended, if applicable.
controlling case number	str	No	Case number associated with the controlling offense.
controlling case sentencing county	str	No	County where the individual was sentenced for the controlling offense.
sentence type	str	No	Indicates whether the individual is sentenced to a Determinate Sentence Length (DSL), Life with Parole, Life Without Parole (LWOP), Third Strike, Second Strike, or Condemned.
aggregate sentence in months	int	No	Total sentence length in months. Note: "Condemned" sentences are recorded as 100,000 or 1,000,000 months.
offense category	str	No	Broad category of the offense (e.g., drug crimes, property crimes, crimes against a person).
eprd mepd month and year	str	No	For determinate sentences: Earliest Possible Release Date (EPRD), calculated from the court-imposed sentence minus applicable credits. For indeterminate sentences: Minimum Eligible Parole Date (MEPD), the earliest date a "lifer" may be considered for parole.
current location	str	No	Name of the facility where the individual is currently housed. Note: CDCR sentences being served in county jails typically appear as " Control Office".
aggregate sentence in years	float	Yes: aggregate sentence in months divided by 12	Total sentence length in years.
time served	float	Yes: today's date minus offense end date	Total sentence length in years that has been completed. Note: This value represents the minimum time served. Because the value is refreshed every 3-4 months, the actual time served at any given point may be greater than what is recorded.
expected release date	datetime	Yes: offense end date + aggregate sentence in years	Possible release date based on sentence length and offense date.

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Current Commitments

Files: current_commitments.csv current_commitments.xlsx

Variable	Type	Description
cdcno	str	Unique identifier (MD5 hash) for each individual under CDCR jurisdiction, including those housed in a state prison, temporarily released, or held in a non-CDCR facility. Excludes parolees. Individuals serving CDCR sentences in county jails are included.
sentencing county	str	County where the individual was sentenced for this offense.
case number	str	Case number associated with this offense.
sentence from abstract of judgement	str	Sentence as written in the abstract of judgment. Values include Life Without Parole (LWOP), Life With Parole, Condemned, or a specific term in years and months.
offense	str	California penal, vehicular, or other code number for the offense the individual is currently serving time for.
offense description	str	Text description of the offense.
offense begin date	datetime	Date the offense began.
offense end date	datetime	Date the offense ended, if applicable.
in prison	str	Indicates whether the offense was committed while incarcerated.
offense category	str	Broad category of the offense (e.g., drug crimes, property crimes, crimes against a person, case enhancement).
offense time with enhancement	str	Total sentence length in months, including any enhancements (e.g., additional years added for use of a firearm during a robbery).
relationship	str	Whether this sentence is served concurrently (overlapping with other sentences) or consecutively (no overlap).
off enh<num>	str	California penal, vehicular, or other code number for the enhancement associated with the offense. Columns are numbered off enh1 through off enh11 and <num> is a placeholder for the enhancement count.
off enh desc<num>	str	Text description of the enhancement. Columns are numbered off enh desc1 through off enh desc11 and <num> is a placeholder for the enhancement count.

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Prior Commitments

Files: prior_commitments.csv prior_commitments.xlsx

Variable	Type	Description
cdcno	str	Unique identifier (MD5 hash) for each individual under CDCR jurisdiction, including those housed in a state prison, temporarily released, or held in a non-CDCR facility. Excludes parolees. Individuals serving CDCR sentences in county jails are included.
sentencing county	str	County where the individual was sentenced for this offense.
case number	str	Case number associated with this offense.
sentence from abstract of judgement	str	Sentence as written in the abstract of judgment. Values include Life Without Parole (LWOP), Life With Parole, Condemned, or a specific term in years and months.
offense	str	California penal, vehicular, or other code number for the offense the individual previously served time for and completed.
offense description	str	Text description of the offense.
offense begin date	datetime	Date the offense began.
offense end date	datetime	Date the offense ended, if applicable.
in prison	str	Indicates whether the offense was committed while incarcerated.
offense category	str	Broad category of the offense (e.g., drug crimes, property crimes, crimes against a person, case enhancement).
offense time with enhancement	str	Total sentence length in months, including any enhancements (e.g., additional years added for use of a firearm during a robbery).
relationship	str	Whether this sentence was served concurrently (overlapping with other sentences) or consecutively (no overlap).
release date	str	Date the individual was released upon completing this sentence.