The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

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The corrections secretary indicated at a Capitol press conference that he anticipates no difficulty in getting enough inmates to sign up willingly.

"If I was living in a gym with 240 other individuals and had no (educational or vocational) program, I'd probably raise my hand also, to get a chance to get out of that environment and into a safe environment, as well as to get some program," Tilton said.

But if he can't recruit enough volunteers, Tilton said, the prison agency will try to force convicts into the transfers, starting with foreign nationals.

The idea of forced transfers was met with opposition from a leading legislative Democrat, the prison officers union, an inmates rights lawyer and the public policy director of a Latino rights group.

California's prison system houses more than 172,000 inmates in space designed for about half that many.

Schwarzenegger sought twice this year to embark on an expansion program to address overcrowding, but he was rejected by the Legislature.

In the emergency proclamation he signed Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said he found "conditions of extreme peril" in 29 of California's 33 prisons, where authorities counted 4,313 inmate assaults and batteries last year, including 1,671 on the staff.

The proclamation linked the violence to overcrowding -- also a factor, Schwarzenegger said, in deadly violent prison takeovers in recent decades in Attica, N.Y., New Mexico and Lucasville, Ohio.

"Our prisons are now beyond maximum capacity, and we must act immediately and aggressively to resolve this issue," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

The Republican governor's proclamation acknowledged that "strict compliance" with the state penal code would "prevent, hinder or delay" the involuntary transfer of inmates.

As a result, the proclamation said that the "applicable provisions of these statutes are suspended" for "the scope and duration" of the overcrowding crisis -- in effect letting Schwarzenegger bypass the legislative process.

First on the list of forced transfers would be inmates who had previously been deported by the federal government.

Next would be inmates who will be paroled outside California, then inmates with no family or "supportive ties" in the state, followed by inmates with families in other states and then "other inmates as deemed necessary" by the corrections secretary.

The prospect of the forced transfers was met with protest by state Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and others.

"I believe he's breaking the law in trying to send them out on an involuntary basis," Romero said. "He's basically acknowledging that he can't handle the situation, and he's asking other states to do it for him."

California Correctional Peace Officers Association Vice President Robert Dean said forced transfers could incite violence.

"When it's not voluntary, what's the guy going to do? He's not even going to get on the bus," Dean said.

Steve Fama of the Prison Law Office said prisoners must agree to the transfers and be allowed to talk to lawyers.

"I don't like the idea that California is getting into the business of mass exportation of prisoners to private profiteers," Fama said. "I think it's a state function to imprison."

Singling out any particular group of inmates for transfers, such as foreign nationals, raises constitutional questions, according to Francisco Estrada of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"You target any group of folks like this, and you run into problems," Estrada said.

But Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, hailed Schwarzenegger for the emergency move.

"The governor showed real leadership," Spitzer said. "We're in a desperate situation here. He called a special session of the Legislature, but the Democratic leaders did nothing to address the issue."

Tilton said he expected the transfers to result in a net cost saving to the state, with the private firms charging about $60 a day on average to house inmates compared to $90 in California.

He identified the Corrections Corporation of America, Cornell Corrections and the Geo Group as the private prison companies that will receive the no-bid contracts to handle the initial movement of prisoners to the other states.

Geo had contributed more than $90,000 to Schwarzenegger over the years. Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for the governor's re-election campaign, said Wed-nesday that he recently returned the contributions to the company.

TRANSFER PLAN AT A GLANCE

• State will send 100 to 200 inmates a month to private prisons in Indiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona.

• Administration hopes to ultimately transfer at least 5,000 inmates.

• 19,000 inmates expressed interest in going.

• Officials say the transfer could ease overcrowding and save money.

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