Pubdate: Sun, 23 Aug 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: Front Page, continued on page A10
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Michael Rothfeld, Reporting from Sacramento
Referenced: http://www.caed.uscourts.gov/caed/Documents/90cv520o10804.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

The California Fix

PRISON CUTS EASIER SAID THAN DONE

Fear and Mistrust Stymic Lawmakers's Bid to Trim $1.2 Billion. Some 
Worry About Looking Soft on Crime.

California lawmakers signed off last month on deep cuts to education, 
healthcare and welfare that many said they could scarcely have 
imagined in years past. But when it came time last week to address 
the state's overcrowded prison system -- an area where the Democrats 
who control the Legislature have long pushed for change -- they froze.

State prisons, criticized as unwieldy and inefficient by experts in 
California and across the country, have in recent years become the 
most sacred area of state government, seemingly impervious to 
transformation because of politics, fear and mistrust.

"You have an absolute hysteria," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los 
Angeles) said last week. Crime and corrections, she said, are "a 
visceral issue."

With federal courts this month ordering the state to reduce the 
prison population by 40,000 inmates, a budget crisis that makes it 
crucial for the state to do so and a major riot recently at a crowded 
Chino lockup, the likelihood of relieving pressure and saving money 
at California's correctional institutions has appeared higher than ever.

When state leaders reached a budget deal last month, prisons were the 
only area of government on which they could not agree how to make the 
necessary cuts -- $1.2 billion. On Thursday, the state Senate, 
without a vote to spare, approved a controversial package to fill in 
the details.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other supporters say the 
plan would refocus resources on California's most violent criminals, 
as other states have done, and reduce the number of low-level 
offenders churning in and out of expensive prison cells, cutting the 
inmate population by 37,000 over two years. It would also create a 
commission to reexamine state sentencing laws.

But in the Assembly, Bass could not round up enough votes from wary 
Democrats, at least 16 of whom are waging bids for higher office -- 
including three for attorney general -- that could be hampered if 
they were seen as soft on crime. With letters, phone calls and 
personal entreaties at the Capitol, local law enforcement 
representatives were lobbying lawmakers against the bill, hoping to defeat it.

Legislators listened to attack lines from Republicans: "Mayhem on the 
streets," Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) predicted. And Senate GOP 
leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta said the changes would let 
"bad people" take away Californians' life, liberty and property.

One senator invoked the name of Lily Burk, the Los Angeles teenager 
slain last month, even though corrections officials say the suspected 
killer, a parolee, would have received more scrutiny under the plan 
because he had a record of violence.

So Bass said she would try again Monday with a slimmed-down package.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), who is running for attorney 
general against fellow Assemblymen Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) and 
Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), opposed the measures. He described as 
"early release" a provision that would allow some inmates to serve 
the last year of their term on home detention with electronic 
monitoring. In an interview, Lieu said his bid to become the state's 
chief law enforcer had nothing to do with his stance on the plan.

"Forget about healthcare, environment or education policy," Lieu 
said. "If people are not safe or don't feel safe, then government has failed."

Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Gardena) said that problems in prisons 
are important "institutional issues" but that they pale beside the 
public safety implications of releasing criminals into neighborhoods, 
"where the rubber meets the road."

The number of inmates in California's prison system has skyrocketed, 
from 76,000 in 1988 to nearly 170,000 today, with the advent of 
tough-on-crime measures such as the three-strikes law and 
increasingly harsh sentences imposed by lawmakers. Over the last 
decade, spending has more than doubled, from $4.7 billion in 2000 to 
$10.8 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June.

Over the years, the main impetus for change in prisons has been 
pressure from inmates' lawyers backed by the federal courts, which 
took control of a prison healthcare system they judged to be 
unconstitutionally deficient. Many experts have recommended ways to 
improve the prisons without significantly impairing public safety, 
but those suggestions have been swallowed by Sacramento's political vortex.

Schwarzenegger made fixing the prison system a priority in his first 
term, reorganizing the California Department of Corrections and 
adding the word "Rehabilitation" to its name. But critics said too 
little money followed to rehabilitate prisoners, and some of that 
funding is being cut now.

The governor several times proposed scaling back the state parole 
system, one of the nation's most stringent. But he has been unable to 
win support from legislators and law enforcement groups and in the 
past has backed away. Now, however, he has staunchly advocated the 
plan approved by the Senate.

He called on Democrats last week to exercise political courage on an 
issue he said was "politically risky." And he criticized Republicans 
who asked for more time on the issue: "We are losing total control 
over the system and people say, 'What is the rush?' "

Many experts say less serious offenders belong in county jails or on 
probation, where they may have family support systems nearby and a 
better chance to turn their lives around. County and city law 
enforcement officials have expressed willingness to take those 
prisoners, but they don't believe the state would provide funding for 
the added burden.

"The lack of trust about money is really interfering with great 
criminal justice policy in the state," said Jeanne Woodford, a former 
San Quentin State Prison warden and a corrections secretary under 
Schwarzenegger.

At least one local law enforcement group, the California State 
Sheriffs' Assn., does not oppose putting some state prisoners on home 
detention, an "alternative custody" approach that counties use with 
their own inmates. But in a letter Thursday, the association asked 
that state leaders reconsider proposals that would reduce penalties 
for some crimes and send those offenders to county jails instead of prison.

County lockups "are facing their own overcrowding crisis," the letter said.

Nick Warner, legislative director for the sheriffs' association, said 
they understand that if the state doesn't take action soon, the 
federal courts will. The judges in the prison case could order the 
state to implement parts of the package that is now before lawmakers 
or to release prisoners and limit admissions. They have said they 
would delay such plans pending an appeal of their ruling, however, 
which would probably keep the budgetary pressure on state officials.

Warner, citing the tough decisions to be made, said: "We'd like to 
help the legislators and the governor make reasoned choices in a way 
that is workable and manageable -- even if they are not good choices." 
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