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| Soaring prison costs worsen Calif. budget crisis |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 10/13/2003 |
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Rapidly escalating prison costs are worsening California's fiscal crisis, making Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's job of balancing the budget even tougher, state officials said last Thursday. "We are running our prisons at 191 percent of capacity and we have an aging population and a more violent population," said Stephen Green, assistant secretary of the California Department of Corrections. California is spending $5.2 billion on corrections this year, around 8 percent of the state budget and almost as much as it is spending on higher education. Schwarzenegger has promised to scrutinize every item of state spending to deal with a budget deficit of at least $8 billion. Officials say prison costs are likely to get an especially hard look. As of Oct. 1, California had 161,951 people behind bars. The number has grown massively in the past two decades. From 1985 to 1995, the prison system added more inmates each year than it had added in the average decade between 1950 and 1980.Corrections department spokeswoman Margot Bach said that 10 years ago there were around 10,000 people serving life sentences in California. Now, the number was close to 32,000. Over 7,000 inmates are there as a result of the state's "three strikes" law, under which people who commit three offenses receive mandatory sentences of at least 25 years. As the prisoners age, their health costs rise. Green said the state spent $1 billion on prisoners' health care alone last year but it was impossible to cut this amount because of court orders mandating health care standards for inmates. "We can't cut medical care, we can't cut staffing levels, we can't cut security. All we can cut is education services for inmates, drug rehabilitation programs and parole. This year, we are cutting all three but it's a very short-sighted policy," said Green. Prison experts say that cutting rehabilitation and education programs increases prisoner recidivism, which is already running at over 60 percent. Last year, the state fired 260 prison educators. With almost 50,000 on the payroll, the Department of Corrections is the largest state employer. But it is still facing a shortage of prison officers. Overtime costs have increased sharply because of the shortage. Defeated Gov. Gray Davis asked, so far unsuccessfully, for pay concessions from the prison officers' union -- the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Schwarzenegger has said he would ask all state employees to make concessions. Davis also proposed spending $220 million to expand California's death row, currently at San Quentin Prison just north of San Francisco. There are 622 people currently awaiting execution and the number grows by two or three a month. The state has only executed 10 people since 1992. California currently has only one new prison under construction -- a maximum security facility for 5,000 near the town of Bakersfield that is scheduled to open in April 2005. Officials said that without new building, overcrowding will grow worse which increases the risk of violence and of disease spreading. An average of nine prison officers are assaulted every day in California prisons, corrections officials said. |
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