RIVERSIDE, CA - The state's department of corrections is expected to announce plans to move nearly 700 female inmates into community-based facilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in an effort to relieve prison crowding and reduce the number of women returning to the system.

The report, to be released Thursday, outlines plans to create Rehabilitative Community Correctional Centers throughout the state for roughly 4,350 nonviolent female offenders. Eligible inmates would be moved from remote prisons to these locked facilities closer to their homes, corrections officials said.

The shift would ease prison crowding while enabling the female inmates to maintain family and community ties that motivate them to successfully rehabilitate, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"It's absolutely groundbreaking," Thornton said. "There are going to be several major announcements over the next few days."

According to the report, the first facility could open as soon as 2008. The plan would divide the state into 12 districts, with the larger Southern California counties accounting for one district each. If the plan goes through, Riverside County would house about 325 women and San Bernardino County would house about 350 women in these facilities. Los Angeles County would house about 1,100 women. The centers would house between 75 and 200 inmates each.

About 800 female inmates at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco would be moved out to make room for male inmates.

Some programs outlined in the report include individual and family counseling, trauma treatment, education and substance abuse treatment. Of the 11,600 female inmates currently in state prison, about 5,900 are nonserious, nonviolent offenders eligible for the program.

Correctional officers and inmate advocates have expressed mixed feelings about the reform. The officers union raised staffing and security concerns.

"It doesn't address the real problem, which is the need for sentencing reform," said Dorsey Nunn, program director for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. "How do we know we won't be back here 18 months from now with the same overcrowding problem?"

Thursday, an assembly panel is scheduled to discuss prison overcrowding.  James Tilton, director of the corrections and rehabilitation department, and others are scheduled to testify before the Assembly Select Committee on Prison Construction and Operations.