The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Below are the Times and SacBee stories on yesterday's deal.....

California Prison Reform Plan Falls Short
Lawmakers, calling it faulty, say they'll reject
most of the governor's $6-billion proposal to
ease crowding.
By Jenifer Warren and Jordan Rau
Times Staff Writers

August 30, 2006

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
sweeping proposal to ease overcrowding and other
woes inside California's beleaguered prison
system hit a wall Tuesday as lawmakers said they
would reject major pieces of his $6-billion
package.

One result: California's teeming penitentiaries -
already packed to twice their intended capacity -
will run out of bed space by June, officials say,
and nobody can agree on a plan to quickly create
more room.

Assessing the prospects, Corrections Secretary
James Tilton said he would be forced to close
prison doors to incoming inmates next summer.
Counties with caps on their jail populations
probably then would be forced to release inmates,
he said.

"I'm out looking for every available bed," Tilton
said in an interview. "It's a struggle, and I
hope the Legislature will reconsider and help us
find some immediate relief."

Schwarzenegger had proposed two short-term moves
to free 9,000 beds: the transfer of 5,000 felons
facing deportation to prisons in other states and
the use of private facilities to house 4,000
low-security inmates.

Members of the Legislature's Democratic majority,
however, said the mandatory transfers might be
unconstitutional. As for the 4,000 private prison
beds, it was unclear whether they were even
available, lawmakers said.

Legislators described Schwarzenegger's plans as
hastily assembled and lacking basic pieces of
information, and asked that the administration
flesh them out when lawmakers reconvene in
January. Democratic leaders submitted alternative
legislation containing parts that they found
acceptable.

"It was apparent in the [legislative] hearings
that the governor's ideas weren't ready for prime
time," said Mike Machado (D-Linden), chairman of
the Senate's committee on the special legislative
session on prisons called by Schwarzenegger.

The special session, concurrent with the regular
session, allows lawmakers to bypass many
legislative rules and adopt bills more quickly
than usual. Any legislation that is approved
would take effect 90 days after the session
concludes rather than at the beginning of next
year.

The Senate and Assembly plan to vote on the
legislative package today or Thursday.

Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) joined other
lawmakers in criticizing the governor for failing
to focus on dysfunctional parole and sentencing
laws, which she called the root of overcrowding.
Romero also accused him of using the special
session as a campaign stunt.

"This special session is show time for the
governor," Romero said. "He wants the blaring
trumpets and big hurrahs because there's an
election coming up. He should have dealt with
these problems last October when he was warned
about the population crisis."

Lawmakers embraced only one piece of the
governor's package: the transfer of 4,500
nonviolent female inmates - about 40% of the
total number of incarcerated women - to
correctional centers in their communities. Each
center would house as many as 200 offenders,
providing them with education, vocational
training, substance abuse treatment and other
services to increase their odds of success after
release.

Experts say such a move would be a groundbreaking
shift in policy and would reduce the recidivism
rate for California's female offenders, now
housed in prisons at Chowchilla, Chino and Norco.
Many of the new beds, however, may not be
available before 2008.

Corrections - an $8.6-billion-a-year operation in
the throes of a long-running crisis - became the
subject of a special session this month after
Schwarzenegger said urgent attention was
warranted to alleviate crowding.

The state's 33 prisons house about 173,000
inmates, with more than 16,000 of them bunked in
gyms, hallways and other spaces not intended as
living quarters. Projections show that the state
will receive 23,000 more felons over the next
five years.

Officials warn that the packed prisons - staffed
by officers stretched thin because of vacancies -
are on the brink of a violent outbreak.
Schwarzenegger said a failure to address the
crisis could prompt a federal judge to seize the
prison system and order the early release of tens
of thousands of inmates.

In addition to the shifting of female convicts,
the governor's initial proposal called for $6
billion to build two prisons, expand existing
lockups and open mini-prisons - called reentry
centers - in urban areas for inmates nearing
their release dates.

Since then, however, Schwarzenegger has scrapped
his plan for new prisons and now embraces a
suggestion by the federal receiver in charge of
prison healthcare: the construction of medical
and mental health facilities for 10,000 inmates.

Legislation put forth by Democrats this week
would authorize that move and provide $14 million
to design the facilities. The legislation also
would provide funding to build space for 5,340
more inmates at existing prisons, design the
reentry facilities, and build a new Southern
California academy to train correctional officers.

In all, lawmakers propose to fund less than $1
billion of the $6-billion package originally
proposed by Schwarzenegger.

In other action Tuesday, lawmakers sent to the
governor's desk bills that would:

* Allow registered domestic partners to file
joint state tax returns just as married couples
may. SB 1827 by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San
Francisco) was a priority of gay rights groups
and opposed by social conservatives and the
California Catholic Conference.

* Require large retail stores to set up in-store
recycling programs for plastic bags. AB 2447 by
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) requires
stores larger than 40,000 square feet to offer
places where customers can drop off used plastic
bags that the store would recycle.

* Prohibit school textbooks and instructors from
teaching anything that "reflects adversely" on
homosexuals. SB 1437 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl
(D-Santa Monica) originally required textbooks to
note gay people of historical significance, but
that portion was removed.

* Require remodeled pools to include the same
safety features that new pools must have, such as
a cover or fence. AB 2977 by Assemblyman Gene
Mullin (D-San Mateo) also would add two safety
features that would meet those requirements:
removable mesh fences and alarms in swimming
pools that ring if someone enters the water.

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

####
Democrats offer own prison plan
Four bills are alternative to governor's bid to deal with overcrowding. By Andy Furillo -- Bee Capitol Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 30, 2006 Democratic legislative leaders Tuesday presented
an alternative to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
plans for addressing prison overcrowding, one
administration officials said would force county
jails to release thousands of inmates by next
June.

The four bills would provide $918 million in bond
and general fund financing for prison expansion,
authorize the state to move 4,500 women to
community correctional facilities, offer $25
million in grant money for neighborhood parole
programs and allow for voluntary inmate transfers
to out-of-state institutions.

But the package falls well short of the $6
billion expansion plan the governor is seeking.

State Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, chair of the
select committee that reviewed the
administration's prison bills in the ongoing
special legislative session, acknowledged that
Democrats are taking an incremental approach.

"But in no way does it hinder the Department (of
Corrections and Rehabilitation) from getting to
where it has to go over time," he said. "It
doesn't in any way impede them."

Acting Corrections Secretary James Tilton said in
a statement that he was "encouraged" by the
Legislature's "focus" on the issue. But Tilton
said the bills ignore the Republican governor's
call to move 4,000 male inmates into private
prison beds and to involuntarily transfer 5,000
foreign nationals serving time in California to
out-of-state prisons.

"As a result, these bills do not solve the
state's short-term capacity problem," Tilton said
in the statement. "The lack of a short-term
solution will create an emergency situation
whereby the department will run out of beds by
June 2007. When that day comes, the department
will be forced to stop accepting inmates, and
will notify counties that (the prisons) can no
longer accept felons sentenced by the courts."

Tilton said 18,000 inmates a month already are
getting early releases from county jails due to
their own overcrowding problems, which he
predicted will worsen with the Legislature's
prison package, thereby "severely impacting the
public safety of our communities."

Machado, however, did not back off from the
Legislature's prison proposal. He said the
administration "couldn't demonstrate" a detailed
plan on the private prisons for men and that the
proposed out-of-state transfers raise
constitutional questions.

Moreover, Machado said, his prison committee
proposed a review of re-incarcerating low-risk
parolees who violate the terms of their freedom
as a way to stem prison overcrowding.

The Democrats' plan -- offered in identical
Assembly and Senate bills -- calls for $606
million in revenue bonds and $312 million from
the general fund to kick off a new, long-term
prison construction program. The program includes
groundwork for both the community "re-entry"
facilities for short-term inmates and medical and
mental health facilities for prisoners.

The money also would fund an expansion program at
existing prisons for 5,340 inmates (short of the
14,000 sought by the administration) and lay the
groundwork for the construction of a new training
academy in Southern California and the conversion
of a women's prison in Stockton into a reception
center for men.

Schwarzenegger's plan to move the 4,500
nonviolent female offenders into private prisons
may be running into some resistance, however,
from the companies that run the facilities.

Mark Nobili, a lobbyist for Cornell Cos. Inc.,
which operates a private prison in Sutter County,
said his client is not interested in bidding for
the new women's prisons. He said requirements in
both the governor's and the Legislature's bills
that the prisons be staffed with state
correctional officers would impede Cornell's
ability to run its own programs, but still leave
it liable.

"If we don't have the authority over our staff
and over our programs, we've got no quality
control," Nobili said, adding that lobbyists for
other private prison companies have told him they
won't be bidding on the facilities, either.

Wendy Still, the prison system's head of female
institutions, said several companies -- including
some focused primarily on drug treatment -- have
expressed interest in bidding on the private
prison contracts.

"We're going to get a different kind of bidder," she said.

About the writer:

* The Bee's Andy Furillo can be reached at
(916) 321-1141 or afurillo@sacbee.com.

Copyright C The Sacramento Bee