California: Sweeping Plan to Save Billions in Corrections Costs and End Court Oversight of State Prisons

Article Tools Print This Page | Comments(3) | Suggest a Story

By California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Published: 07/03/2012

Sacramento – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Wednesday signed into law an historic reform of California’s penal system. Known as the blueprint, the plan will cut billions in spending, comply with multiple federal court orders for inmate medical, mental health and dental care, and significantly improve the operation of California’s prison system. The Governor’s approval of the blueprint follows its release by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in April and its approval by the State Legislature yesterday.

The multi-year plan for CDCR will cut billions in spending, enable the State to comply with multiple federal court orders concerning inmate health care, and significantly improve the operation of California’s prison system.

“We appreciate the confidence of the Legislature in our plan for a safer and more efficient correctional system,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate. “The passage of our blueprint will show the federal courts that California is serious about ending the long-standing lawsuits overseeing much of our operations.”

Highlights of the CDCR blueprint include:

Spending less taxpayer money on prisons. The operational General Fund budget of CDCR falls next year to $8.55 billion, nearly half-a-billion dollars less than the current year. When the blueprint is fully implemented, CDCR’s budget will fall by more than $1.5 billion.
Improving and expanding health care facilities and rehabilitative programming. CDCR has achieved and will maintain constitutional levels of medical, mental health and dental care, thus ending the significant cost of litigation and court oversight.
Building and staffing a more efficient prison system. CDCR is changing its staffing levels and ratios to take into account the falling inmate population. In the 2012-13 budget, CDCR also gets authority to start work on more cost-effective prison housing. Infill projects will replace California Rehabilitation Center, and old and costly prison in Norco to be closed by 2016.

Many of the improvements in California prisons are due to the reduction in overcrowding made possible by Public Safety Realignment signed into law by Governor Brown last year. Since Realignment took effect, CDCR’s offender population has dropped by approximately 23,000 inmates. Overcrowding has been reduced from a high of more than 200 percent of design capacity to approximately 152 percent today. These declines are projected to continue through further implementation of Public Safety Realignment.

The blueprint, titled “The Future of California Corrections,” can be read at www.cdcr.ca.gov.

Read More.

Comments:

hamiltonlindley on 04/10/2020:
Have you been hurt in an accident in Waco Temple or Killeen? Our personal injury lawyers will review your claim to examine if there is enough evidence to support a lawsuit. You may be eligible to file a personal injury claim if you were involved in an accident that was caused by the negligence of someone else. Our neck injury attorney work with personal injury experts to understand how the accident has changed your life and what money you need to go forward.
Fred Davis on 07/05/2012:
Everyone should be getting out of California. Too many do-gooders. Once all the businesses move out of there will be no more taxpayers for the vultures to drain.
CaseGame on 07/03/2012:
this is nothing more then musical chairs with people who do not belong in prison. Just because California has found a cleaver way to hide prisoners in county jails, that is no way to jump up and down on this "Blue print." I am sure no one cares that I am remaining homeless until real prison reorm comes to California. However, this YouTube video http://youtu.be/tkIWen_wHuM hints at the problem. Santos Reyes is serving a 26-year to life sentence for lying on a DMV form. He and approximately 8000 other nonviolent California inmates will not be touch until they serve their full sentence under what California is call "Serious" about prison reorm. The proposed amendment to the Three Strikes law up for vote in November is just as deceptive and should be rejected on decption alone and yes it does help a little. There is a better way to have real prison reform if we are willing to create a new clemency process that will release those who are currently rotting in prison as a part of reform.

Login to let us know what you think

MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search