The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

To close budget gap, close prisons

by Sean South and Rose Braz

Sacramento - Facing news of a $109 million cost overrun for California’s embattled Department of Corrections, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) proposes that the state begin closing prisons, and not open Delano II, California’s 33rd prison, now under construction. This is not unprecedented: budget crises have derailed prison construction in Oregon and delayed prison openings in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the past two years.

“If the governor was serious about blowing up boxes, he would begin closing prisons that this state does not need and can’t afford,” says CURB member Sitara Nieves.

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s own January 2004 budget proposal acknowledged that the only way to reduce prison spending is to reduce the number of people in prison. He said that, given an expected decline in the prison population by 2005, the state should examine prison closures.

States across the country facing similar budget crises have also taken steps to improve rehabilitation programs and reform their prison and parole systems. As a result, these states were able to reduce prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison while maintaining - and even improving - public safety.

“It’s not just the financial costs,” adds CURB member Barbara Oldershaw. “There is mounting evidence that over-incarceration leaves our communities less safe. Growing police, jail and prison budgets are taking money from health and human services, from public education, from housing and from other programs that make our neighborhoods more stable, hopeful and strong.” For the annual cost of operating one prison:

l 341,800 eligible children could get health care through the Healthy Families Program,

l 77,963 children not eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families could enroll in California Children’s Services and

l 336,469 individuals could utilize state Vocational Rehabilitation’s employment services for people with disabilities.

Corrections estimated that parole reforms would bring down the state’s prison population by about 15,000 people by mid-2005. This reduction in the number of people in state prisons would mean that California could close:

l Pelican Bay State Prison ($115 million annual operating costs, according to CDC);

l Folsom State Prison ($72.7 million annual operating costs, according to CDC); and

l Valley State Prison for Women ($63 million annual operating costs, according to CDC).

“While the ‘action, action, action’ governor may claim he can’t do anything to rein in rising prison budgets, the solution is actually quite simple: reduce the number of people in prison,” said Nieves. “The governor had that opportunity with Proposition 66, the Three Strikes Amendment. Instead, he chose to star in commercials repeating lies about the initiative that a Superior Court judge barred from the ballot.”

CURB, a coalition of 40 organizations, is committed to reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in California. More information about CURB is available at www.curbprisonspending.org.

Rose Braz is director of Critical Resistance, an organization founded by Angela Davis and others, 1904 Franklin St., Ste. 504, Oakland CA 94612, (510) 444-0484, rose@criticalresistance.org.

San Francisco Bay View, 11/17/04