PRISON CRISIS CRIES OUT FOR POLITICAL WILL

Independent Commission Better Than Court Action

If lawmakers can't bring themselves to end crowding in the state's
prisons, they should step aside and let professionals do it.

That's the harsh assessment of the Little Hoover Commission, the state
oversight agency. Its report should prod Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
and the Legislature to act quickly. If they fail to, the commission
made clear, a federal judge will step in as early as June. Taxpayers
will be sorry.

The Little Hoover report drew a parallel with the federal commission
that closed military bases in the 1990s. Congress knew it lacked the
discipline to close bases down, so it handed the responsibility to an
independent body. The recommendations automatically went into effect
unless Congress overrode them. The plan worked, and it can work for
California prisons as well.

Since the Legislature took away much of judges' discretion over
sentences 30 years ago, it has indiscriminately passed hundreds of
sentencing laws without regard to consequences.

Prison expenses doubled as a percentage of the state budget. They're
now 8 percent and this year may break the $10 billion mark. An
ineffective parole system -- "a billion-dollar failure" --
compounded the problem by sending 60,000 ex-cons back behind bars
every year, often on technical violations.

Governors and legislators have ignored past calls for reforms by the
Little Hoover Commission and others. But with 19,000 prisoners stacked
up in prison hallways, libraries and gyms, time has run out.

Ceding control of the prisons to an independent body would be
preferable to a judge's fiat. The courts already control prison
medical care, and Bob Sillen, the court-appointed receiver, has
threatened to "back up the truck to raid the state treasury" to
comply with the court order.

The governor does have authority to ease crowding, the commission
said, by expanding furloughs for low-level offenders and discharging
some offenders who have completed a year of parole. The Legislature
could authorize judges to steer some prison-bound offenders into
community-based programs. That will take political will that's been
missing.

Long-term answers are funding job training and alcohol and drug
programs and creating a sentencing commission. A commission is needed
to make sense out of parole policies and recommend smarter, not
necessarily shorter, sentences.

The Little Hoover Commission recommends an independent sentencing body
whose recommendations would be enacted as a package unless a majority
of legislators voted against them. Several states with successful
commissions do it that way. Democratic leaders back this model, but
Republicans are digging in their heels, saying it would usurp
legislators' authority.

Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger cited voter apathy for the prison
crisis. Legislators aren't inclined to act, he said, because voters
don't care about prison conditions.

That's disingenuous. For decades, legislators and governors fed the
public's fear of crime by promising "drive by" sentencing laws,
then closed their eyes to the results. They are now facing the
consequences of the mess they created.