Recognised California by prison on island (9)

I believe the answer is:

canonical

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'recognised california by prison on island' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'california by prison on island' is the wordplay.
'california' becomes 'cal' (short for California).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'prison' becomes 'can' (the can is American slang for prison).
'island' becomes 'i' (geographical abbreviation).
'can'+'on'+'i'='canoni'
'cal' after 'canoni' is 'CANONICAL'.

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(Other definitions for canonical that I've seen before include "Accepted as being authoritative" , "Standard" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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