Donald Specter, the director of the Prison Law Office who argued against the state before the Supreme Court, said that medical care was still wanting.

“There are not enough beds for the mentally ill, you have prisons all over the state who are flunking by every measure in taking care of chronic conditions like H.I.V. and diabetes and high blood pressure,” Mr. Specter said, citing several recent reports by the state’s inspector general.

Mr. Cate concedes that the state is doing little to rehabilitate prisoners and has almost no space to run programs that would keep them from landing back here again.

“There’s far too much idleness, and that’s the thing that concerns me the most,” he said. “When you have lockdown as often as we have to, it’s not setting anyone up for anything good.”

Many of the prisoners here are serving sentences of less than a year for parole violations. According to California law, any parolee caught violating the terms of release could be sent back to state prison, creating a situation that many call the “revolving door.” Under a plan Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed, those inmates would instead be sent to county jails.

Robert Caldera, 52, has spent much of his life floating in and out of the prison system, most recently arriving at Chino after he did not report to his parole officer. Mr. Caldera was convicted of second-degree robbery several years ago, he said. Now, he spends his days reading the Bible with a group of inmates. He, too, said the conditions had improved, but like nearly everyone else here, he said the real problem is the bathroom.

“It’s nasty pretty much all the time,” he said. “There are holes in the walls that have feces in them. It’s damp constantly so you don’t ever feel clean.”