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| Competing plans vie to fix prisons |
| By nctimes.com |
| Published: 08/14/2009 |
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With a $1.2 billion budget hole and a recent federal court order to address overcrowding, the pressure is growing to thin California's bulging prisons. Now comes the trick: figuring out how can it be done without jeopardizing public safety. California's 33 prisons house more than 150,000 inmates, almost double the amount they were designed to hold. Last week, a federal court ordered California to empty its prisons by more than 40,000 inmates within two years. The state says it will appeal. But the state has perhaps a more immediate problem: a $1.2 billion cut to this year's prisons and parole budget. Legislators will have to figure out the budget-cut details when they return from summer recess Monday. One plan would change how low-level, nonviolent felons are handled. It also would cut some slack, in the near future, to more than 25,000 felons. A second plan, coming from the Legislature's Republicans, is still under construction. It reportedly will target the high cost of medical care for inmates. "I think this is the year we are going to find significant savings in the way we incarcerate and run our prison system," said state Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula. "You can reduce overcrowding without early release." Something needs to happen quickly if the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is to start saving what amounts to $100 million a month this fiscal year. "If we don't get reforms in place, then we will have a very hard time achieving the budget-cuts levels," Seth Unger, the spokesman for the state's corrections department, said Tuesday. Early release plan controversial The first plan was culled from findings by expert commissions on prison reform. Under the plan, lower-risk inmates ---- 6,300 or so thieves or druggies ---- would serve the last year of their sentences at home under house arrest, with a GPS unit strapped to an ankle. Nonviolent illegal immigrant felons ---- the state says that could be about 8,500 people this year ---- would be shipped back to their homelands instead of serving out their prison sentences here. "There is nothing that says the status quo is in the best interest of public safety," Unger said. "(The proposal is) reasonable, smart-on-crime measures that can help the state reprioritize and focus on high-level offenders rather than dedicate so much time and resources to these lower-level property and drug offenders." But the proposal is not without controversy. Critics ---- and there are many ---- say it amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card. The plan would also mean far less supervision of some 5,300 low- or moderate-risk parolees this year. And it would strip prosecutors of their choice to charge certain crimes as felonies, sending an estimated 5,600 people to county jail instead of prison this year. Law enforcement officials, including San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco, oppose the plan. "It puts people in jeopardy for no good reason," Pacheco said last month. "Cut somewhere else. Don't put people in jeopardy. It is astonishing that they are having these discussions." A second plan in the works Discussion on the plan was tabled during budget talks in July when it became clear that it was a deal-killer as far as the budget was concerned. Instead, the Legislature agreed to slash the prisons/parole budget by $1.2 billion ---- and figure out the details later. Republicans in the Legislature will introduce a plan later this month to cut medical costs for inmates, and keep inmates behind bars. "Those that can't accept the rules of society shouldn't be in society," said Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad. Read More. |
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