Interactive map: Counties with the most residents in prison

A panel of federal judges Tuesday ordered state officials to lower California's prison population by around 40,500. While no mass prisoner releases are eminent, the order could eventually impact some counties a lot more than others. The Sacramento region, for instance, sends a high proportion of its residents to prison; if the judges' order was applied equally, 3,000 would-be prisoners would either be on the region's streets or sitting in already-crowded jails. (Those offenders, however, would likely be guilty of lower-level felonies.)

This map breaks down the proportion of each county's residents that are currently in California prisons. Click a county for more details ...

This story was originally published August 5, 2009 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Interactive map: Counties with the most residents in prison."