Sacramento Topics

Jeff Beard, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, responds to a question concerning Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to reduce prison crowding, during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. To meet a court-ordered population cap by the end of the year, Brown proposed, among other things, to increase the use of private prisons, grant more early release or "good time" credit to inmates, parole elderly and medically incapacitated inmates, and expand the number of inmate firefighters.(AP Photo/ Rich Pedroncelli)

Trixy Lobdell, left, of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, talks with student Gabriella De Carolis at Tuesday's Internship Information Fair at Cosumnes River College. Dozens of Sacramento-area employers wooed young job seekers at the fair, which was co-sponsored by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

This undated file photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, shows Charles Manson follower Bruce Davis. Davis was a member of Charles Manson's murderous cult who participated in two killings.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matt Cate in his office in Sacramento on Thursday, October 27, 2011. When Gov. Jerry Brown returned to office this year, there were whispers that he would quickly replace the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation secretary. It made sense, the guy holding the reigns of the nation's largest penal system was a 2008 appointee of Brown's Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But a year later, Cate is still at the top of one of the toughest jobs in California: overseeing a vast restructuring of Corrections as it aims to shed one quarter of its inmate population and virtually eliminate state parole services. It may well be it's a job that no one else would want.