The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The outlines of the plan appear to closely follow the proposals Schwarzenegger laid out last year in his State of the State speech and then in his call for a special legislative session to ease California's prison overcrowding crisis.

Nearly 174,000 prisoners are being housed in prisons designed for fewer than half that many, which prompted the Republican governor to declare an overcrowding emergency earlier this year.

State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, said Tuesday she has been briefed by administration officials on the governor's correctional proposals for next year.

"It's going to be a broad portfolio that will include issues of capacity, local jail issues, enhancing re-entry facilities, moving forth on parole reform and, most creatively, support for a sentencing commission," said Romero, chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Administration officials declined to confirm any details of the proposals, which are expected to be among the governor's major legislative priorities next year along with health care and education.

"The governor has made no final decision on plans for reforming the prisons, and like the many other issues that are being developed by the administration, all ideas are up for debate," gubernatorial spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said.

According to sources, the new prison construction would be funded by lease-revenue bonds, with some general fund money included to take care of planning. The $4.4 billion would fund 16,000 new beds at an undisclosed number of prisons and 5,000 more beds at community-based re-entry facilities.

The re-entry facilities are mini-prisons for short-term inmates on the verge of release or returning for short stays on parole violations.

The construction money also would fund a new correctional officer training academy in Southern California and pay for modifications of San Quentin State Prison's death row.

Another $1 billion in lease-revenue bonds would be for construction of medical facilities, the sources said. Federal court monitors such as prison health czar Robert Sillen have identified the medical facilities as a crucial need to help correct what he has described as the "horrific" medical care system in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The medical facilities also have been requested by the special master in another case covering the treatment of mentally ill prisoners.

Sillen has said the state could build as many as seven hospitals at seven state prisons around the state.

An additional $150 million in the Schwarzenegger plan would be directed to improving medical facilities at San Quentin.

The sources did not identify the funding source of the $4.4 billion the governor is expected to request for county jails. Counties, already suffering from massive jail overcrowding, would augment the construction funding. The money would pay for an estimated 4,500 new county jail beds.

The governor's plan also is seeking to add bed space for 4,500 juveniles at the local level.

No details were available on the sentencing commission.

Corrections Secretary Jim Tilton has said in interviews that the administration is open to the idea of a commission, which could range from being advisory in nature to having the authority to set sentencing guidelines that determine which inmates should go to prison and for how long.

"This is a new era," Romero said. "We now have the opportunity to enact a sentencing commission in California that is long overdue."

Romero predicted a positive reception for the governor's prison package in the Legislature.

"We recognize we have to address this prison crisis," she said. "Otherwise, it will continue to consume us."

PRISON PLAN

Highlights of the governor's anticipated prison plan:

. $4.4 billion for 16,000 new prison beds, 5,000 "re-entry" beds, new correctional officer training facility, death row modifications.

. $4.4 billion for county jails and juvenile facilities.

. $1 billion for prison medical facilities.

. Creation of a California sentencing commission.

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/95422.html