Pubdate: Sat, 19 Sep 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
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/people/Schwarzenegger
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

GOVERNOR'S PRISON PLAN SEEKS TIME TO REDUCE NUMBERS

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday evening gave federal judges a 
road map to reducing state prison overcrowding. But the proposal 
would take more than twice as long as the judges ordered to make the 
improvements they demanded and would fall short if state lawmakers 
did not approve certain provisions, administration officials said.

The plan appears to set up a confrontation between the governor and 
the judges, who made their impatience clear in ordering the state to 
forge a plan to reduce the number of inmates by 40,000 within two 
years. Schwarzenegger's plan would take five years -- if lawmakers 
sign off on it.

Under a second scenario, if lawmakers balk at more prison changes 
than they reluctantly approved last week on the final day of the 
legislative session, the state would retain nearly 23,000 more 
inmates after two years than the judges have said is reasonable.

There was no indication Friday that legislators were more inclined to 
approve the proposals the governor included than they were when they 
dismissed some of the same ideas in recent weeks under pressure from 
law enforcement groups.

The governor's proposal avoids anything that could be portrayed as a 
mass release of criminals or that would leave him on a ledge without 
lawmakers' support. A combination of prison construction and a 
variety of generally modest steps to reduce inmate numbers, it is 
limited to maneuvers for which he already has authority or might receive it.

If the judges find that the state's proposal violates the order they 
issued Aug. 4, they could hold officials in contempt. The judges 
could also ask inmates' attorneys to present their own plan to reduce 
overcrowding and order the state to implement it.

State officials said they filed the plan in U.S. District Court 
Friday evening, hours before the midnight deadline set by the 
three-judge panel overseeing a pair of inmate lawsuits. U.S. District 
Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and Judge Stephen 
Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that 
crowding must be reduced because it has caused medical and mental 
healthcare for prisoners that is so poor it violates the 
constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The state has appealed the judges' ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The elements of Schwarzenegger's proposal that would not require 
further legislation would create about 18,000 new prison beds over 
six years. They would reduce the number of inmates by allowing them 
to earn more time off their sentences if they completed 
rehabilitation programs; by reducing post-prison supervision to 
prevent offenders from returning to prison on parole violations; by 
sending more inmates out of state; and by attempting to turn some 
undocumented immigrant felons over to federal custody.

The Legislature approved some of these measures last week; the rest 
the governor can do on his own authority.

The plan would not come close to the judges' target. Under the second 
scenario, the proposal would come closer. It assumes that lawmakers 
might approve some measures the Assembly recently rejected, such as 
home detention for some inmates and a commission to reexamine state 
sentencing. It also would require more transfers of inmates out of 
state, faster construction and other changes.

That would leave the state with almost 18,000 more inmates after two 
years than the judges specified. The state would meet the required 
inmate level after five years, and after six years would have 4,300 
fewer prisoners than required.

In outlining details Friday, Schwarzenegger's prisons chief, Matt 
Cate, said the administration had suggested "everything that is 
appropriate" to relieve overcrowding safely as permitted by existing state law.

"In my view, this honestly demonstrates a good-faith effort to do 
everything we can," Cate said. "I think that what we've got is a plan 
that a reasonable viewer will see substantially complies with the 
court's orders. Do the years match up exactly? Maybe not, but I think 
it's a good plan."

In a statement, Schwarzenegger called it "a comprehensive public 
safety plan that cuts [the] corrections operating budget, builds more 
cells, reduces recidivism and meets court-mandated inmate healthcare."

But lawyers for inmates asked why the governor was unable to present 
the judges with a plan different from the more comprehensive one he 
advocated before the Legislature -- unsuccessfully -- only weeks ago. 
That plan was projected to reduce the prison population by 37,000 in 
two years, nearly what the court had ordered, but lawmakers adopted 
only a small portion of it after the Assembly stripped key provisions.

Donald Specter, a lawyer for inmates, said the proposal was "nowhere 
close to what the court required."

"How can it be a good-faith effort when just a few months ago Mr. 
Cate and the governor proposed a far more comprehensive package to 
reduce crowding in one third of the time?" asked Specter, director of 
the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit legal group based in Berkeley.

Michael Bien, a San Francisco-based lawyer for inmates, called 
Schwarzenegger's plan disappointing. "It's too little and too late, 
and it's just not enough of a reduction and it's going to take too 
long," he said.

The state incarcerates nearly 170,000 inmates, with almost 150,000 in 
its 33 correctional institutions and the rest in other facilities. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake