SACRAMENTO, CA - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, under mounting pressure to produce prison reform, asked state lawmakers Monday to approve a sweeping plan that would build more prisons, shift some non-violent female inmates out of prisons and move soon-to-be paroled inmates to new facilities that provide counseling.

Schwarzenegger called lawmakers into a special session, beginning today, to address the issues. The proposal comes less than a week after a special master ap- pointed by a federal court blasted the governor for failing to enact reforms and at a time when the federal government has threatened to take over the system.

The plan, however, was met with sharp criticism from reform advocates who say it relies too heavily on adding cells and not enough on keeping people out of prison.

Schwarzenegger proposed financing two new prisons -- at a cost of $500 million each -- with bonds that would allow them to be built quickly.

The state's prison population is at an all-time high of 171,527 in a system built for 87,250, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The crisis has come to a head, Schwarzenegger said, with double-bunking and inmates being housed in prison gyms and day rooms.

"Our prisons are at the crisis point because the state of California has . . . not faced up to the need to build new prisons,'' Schwarzenegger said. "By building more prisons, managing the inmate population more effectively . . . we can greatly improve our prison and rehabilitation system.''

Schwarzenegger also proposed establishing new community-based prison facilities to house criminals who are months away from being released. These new centers would provide inmates with "counseling services and other help to re-enter society safely and productively,'' according to the plan.

The plan also would move 4,500 non-violent women who are near their time of release into community correctional facilities that are closer to their families.

Still, criticism was swift among inmate advocates.

"It's time to stop pretending that increased capacity is part of the solution,'' said Sitara Nieves of Critical

Resistance, an Oakland-based prison watchdog group. "The governor's plan would put us right back in the thick of the Wilson and Davis years -- we know that a policy of expansion is a guaranteed disaster.''

What's "fundamentally missing'' from the proposal is a plan for rehabilitation, said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, chair of the Select Committee on the California Corrections System. "The real issue is sentencing reform and parole reform.''

If the focus was on cutting back on recidivism -- the rate of parolee returns after three years out of prison is 57 percent -- there would be no need to build prisons, Romero said.

"If we cut the recidivism rate in half, that's 60,000 beds,'' she said. "We're never going to get out of this if all we do is build prisons. We've got to focus on rehabilitation. We've got to look at sentencing reform.''

But Democratic Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez of Norwalk, who chairs the Select Committee on Prison Construction and Operations, supports the plan, and noted rehabilitation will be an essential component to reform. 

"It's what goes into the buildings,'' he said. "Appropriate staffing leads to reducing stress on inmates and provides an atmosphere conducive to one desiring to be rehabilitative.''

The governor's plan would allow private companies to build and run the prisons, though state correctional officers would guard the inmates, administration officials said.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland said Schwarzenegger needs to address the leadership problem in the Department of Corrections, where there have been three directors in the past two years and numerous other administrative posts have yet to be filled.

"A special session is only of value if it addresses the true problems in the system,'' Perata said, ``if it includes sufficient information and discussion and, most important, if its results can be given to permanent leadership at the CDC.''

Laws passed in special session take effect 90 days after the session's closing.

Lance Corcoran, chief of Governmental Affairs for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said it's obvious the state can't build its way out of the crisis, but new prisons are unavoidable given population growth and tough sentencing laws.

"We're the dirty part of the law enforcement picture,'' Corcoran said, "but the reality is we're as necessary as those other infrastructure needs. I don't want to have to build new prisons, but we're not standing on a corner recruiting inmates. If you can get courts to quit locking 'em up, more power to you.''