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| Assembly pushes for major financial shift in Department of Corrections |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/30/2004 |
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The state Assembly voted last Tuesday for a massive attitudinal and financial shift in the California Department of Corrections, pushing prison officials to better educate inmates in hopes of reducing one of the nation's worst recidivism rates. By a narrow one-vote margin, the Assembly approved a multimillion-dollar expansion for vocational and other schooling for inmates with an average seventh-grade education and largely return to prison for new offenses after being released. Supporters said the added expenses inside the $6 billion-a-year state prison operation will help pay for themselves with more inmates returning to productive, crime-free lives. But opponents called it the wrong financial priority to boost education spending for prison inmates while state schools lack books and toilet paper for third graders. "I appreciate that men and women in institutions have needs, but I don't think they should have priority over my children, your children and children throughout the state," said Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City. Fellow Republican Tim Leslie of Tahoe City countered the argument, expressing support out of "self-defense." "Seventy percent come out come back out and once they're out they go back in," he said. "If we dropped it to 60 percent it would save us tens of millions of dollars at a time," he said. The bill was among dozens passed last Tuesday as the Assembly and Senate drove toward an Aug. 31 deadline to pass hundreds of bills and send them to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lawmakers approved a wide range of proposals affecting the state's 36 million residents -- from banning burning by cruise ships within three miles of shore to providing new rights to same-sex couples and girls who play on school sports teams. The prison bill, which is returning to the state Senate for a final vote, would make corrections officials identify inmate education needs and social skills within 90 days to one year after arrival and tailor a schooling program that includes vocational training and high school equivalency degrees. |
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