Pubdate: Tue, 08 Aug 2006
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2006 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Mike Zapler, MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Schwarzenegger
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?247 (Crime Policy - United States)

AMID PRESSURE, LEGISLATORS CONSIDER PLAN TO FIX PRISONS

Governor's Call for Special Session Follows Criticism

SACRAMENTO - The Legislature began a special session Monday to try to 
fix the state's broken prison system amid powerful competing 
pressures -- some that demand reform, but others that make sweeping 
change unlikely.

The pressures are both political and practical.

There is pressure on the prisons themselves, which are bursting with 
inmates -- more than 170,000 of them, or almost double the intended 
capacity. Thousands of prisoners are sleeping in double- and 
triple-bunk beds in gymnasiums.

There is pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, after vowing to 
stand up to the powerful prison guards union, has come under scathing 
criticism for allegedly cozying up to the union to enhance his 
re-election prospects.

There are money pressures. Schwarzenegger's prison reform plan 
carries a $6 billion price tag, at a time when the state faces an 
estimated $5 billion deficit next year.

There is pressure on prison officials from reform advocates who want 
more emphasis on rehabilitation. Seventy percent of inmates return to 
prison within three years, which is the highest recidivism rate in 
the country and a major contributor to overcrowding.

And there is pressure on the Legislature to show that it is capable 
of solving a seemingly intractable problem -- in the face of federal 
judges and court officials with sweeping powers to act if lawmakers 
do not. At the same time, prison reform has never been a big vote-getter.

"It's hard to think of any major California politician who's won an 
election by getting better treatment for prisoners," said John 
Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

The special session got under way Monday as Assembly Speaker Fabian 
Nunez announced the creation of a committee of legislators -- six 
Democrats and three Republicans -- to take up prison reform 
proposals. He said the panel would look closely at ideas to break the 
cycle of recidivism.

Schwarzenegger called the special legislative session in late June, 
just days after a federal watchdog accused him of reneging on crucial 
prison reforms. Schwarzenegger came into office in 2003 vowing to 
clean up the prisons, but court-appointed watchdog John Hagar wrote 
that the governor retreated under pressure from the California 
Correctional Peace Officers Association. The 31,000-member guards 
union is a legendary force in Sacramento politics, having helped 
elect governors and defeat unfriendly legislators with millions of 
dollars in campaign contributions.

Schwarzenegger's prison reversal, the special master added, led to 
the resignations of two prison chiefs in a span of two months this year.

Special Session

Schwarzenegger's staff denied the allegations, but the governor 
responded by calling the special session to consider a package of 
reforms. Politically, the move allows him to take credit if the 
Legislature passes his proposals or shift the blame if it does not. 
But politics aside, there is widespread consensus that prison reform 
can't wait much longer.

"We have a very serious problem on our hands," Schwarzenegger said in 
announcing the special session. He warned that the federal courts, 
which have been scrutinizing the management of state prisons, "may 
very well take over the entire prison system and order early release 
of tens of thousands of prisoners."

Schwarzenegger's plan includes building two prisons at a cost of $1.2 
billion; constructing 10 "community re-entry facilities" around the 
state to rehabilitate prisoners before they're released, for $2 
billion; paying other states to house 5,000 inmates scheduled to be 
deported once their sentences end; and moving 4,500 non-violent 
female inmates into community facilities.

"The point of the special session is to put a special emphasis on 
taking up reforms that will create the space necessary to alleviate 
the overcrowding crisis," said Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's 
communications director.

Some criminal justice experts have called the governor's plan a 
hasty, election-driven response to a complex problem. Robert 
Weisberg, law professor and criminal justice expert at Stanford 
University Law School, was more generous, calling it "a starting 
point in the conversation."

Weisberg, who directs Stanford's Criminal Justice Center, said the 
governor's emphasis on new facilities may be warranted but needs more 
analysis. What Schwarzenegger and others are neglecting, Weisberg 
said, is the effect that California's parole system has on 
overcrowding. Non-violent parolees, he said, are routinely sent back 
to prison for technical parole violations. One study found that 10 
percent of inmates cycled in and out of prison at least six times 
over a seven-year period.

"There is only a small core of state legislators who are interested 
in this and aware of it," Weisberg said.

The timing of the special session in the midst of the governor's 
re-election effort could complicate reform efforts. As he campaigns 
against Democrat Phil Angelides, Schwarzenegger is negotiating a new 
contract with the prison guards union. The union has yet to make an 
endorsement, but is prepared to spend millions on the race.

Schwarzenegger's dilemma: Offer too generous a contract, as his 
predecessor Gray Davis was accused of doing, and prompt charges of 
trying to buy off the union. Or fail to reach an accord and have the 
union work to defeat him.

Meanwhile, the Democrat-controlled Legislature may be reluctant to 
hand Schwarzenegger a victory on prison reform before the election.

"There's a great deal of politics wrapped up in solving the prison 
crisis," said prison guards union spokesman Lance Corcoran. Contract 
negotiations are at a standstill, he added, and the union began 
airing a TV ad Monday criticizing Schwarzenegger's record on prison reform.

'Illusion of Reform'

As for the governor's call for a special session, Corcoran said: 
"There is some talk that it is nothing more than a political 
exercise. We remain cautiously optimistic it is more than that." 
Corcoran joined victim and prisoner advocate groups at a news 
conference Monday and said Schwarzenegger has offered only "the 
illusion of reform."

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, set low expectations 
for the special session.

"I haven't seen anything right now that looks to me like a reform 
plan," Perata said of the governor's proposal. "The problem is, I 
think there's a little too much thinking on the run."

But Perata and other legislators face a real possibility that court 
officials will take matters into their own hands. It has already 
begun to happen: Robert Sillen, the federal receiver who in February 
was handed control over the prison health care system because of the 
substandard care it has been providing, suggested to the Mercury News 
last week that he would unilaterally seize state funds for two new 
prison hospitals if lawmakers don't agree to build them. "We're not 
dependent on the state," he said.

And a federal judge last week ordered the Schwarzenegger 
administration to present a proposal to the Legislature for 550 more 
mental health staffers in the prisons.

Meanwhile, overcrowding continues to escalate. Officials say the 
state is on track to run out of prison beds by the middle of next year.

"The fact is the Legislature has had almost nothing to say on these 
issues in recent years, and they're going to have to get involved," 
Weisberg said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake