PRISONS IN CRISIS, GOVERNOR DECLARES

Schwarzenegger Orders a Special Legislative Session to Tackle Chronic
Overcrowding

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared California's prison
system dangerously overcrowded Monday and ordered a special
legislative session to enact proposals to build new prisons and shift
thousands of inmates from mostly rural prisons into new housing units
in urban areas.

Less than a week after a court-appointed watchdog blasted the
governor for abandoning prison reform, Schwarzenegger guaranteed a
spotlight on prisons this year by calling for the special session,
which will begin today and will allow bills to advance through the
legislative process more quickly.

But administration officials conceded they had no legislation ready
and details of the proposals -- such as how much the governor wants
to spend and how many new cells they hope to create -- were not
available. Some lawmakers reacted with skepticism.

"It seems like a rather obvious response to the report from last
week," said Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the
Assembly's Public Safety Committee.

Speaking at a conference of state district attorneys in Newport
Beach, Schwarzenegger characterized jam-packed prisons as being in
crisis and warned that courts could take over the system and "order
the early release of tens of thousands of prisoners."

He noted that a system designed to hold about 100,000 inmates houses
more than 171,000, and more than 16,000 inmates are sleeping in gyms,
dayrooms and other areas of lockups not intended for housing.

The governor proposed a four-pronged approach: building at least two
new prisons; enacting rules to suspend some state laws to allow the
new prisons to be built quickly; shifting 4,500 female inmates from
prisons to community-based facilities closer to their families; and
opening new facilities designed to help male inmates adjust to life
outside prison.

The new housing for male inmates would serve inmates about to be
paroled and would provide them with programs to help them get jobs
and steer clear of crime.

The re-entry proposal and the idea to move some female prisoners
would be a major change for the system, creating thousands of spots
for inmates who would receive services like drug rehabilitation and
job training that are not widely available in prisons. It could also
shift a substantial number of inmates from rural areas, where most
prisons are located, to urban areas, where the bulk of the prison
population comes from.

That could lead to battles with local governments and residents about
where the new facilities are located. Administration officials said
the new lockups could house as many as 500 people. Acting Corrections
Secretary Jim Tilton said he hoped to locate them in warehouse
districts, not residential areas, and he admitted that finding sites
for the mini-prisons would be a significant issue.

New community prisons could be built or run by private companies,
although Tilton said state prison guards would provide security.

Schwarzenegger said his proposals were aimed at two critical
problems: overcrowding and a recidivism rate he called the highest in
the nation, noting that 70 percent of inmates end up back in prison.

The new proposals mark at least the third time Schwarzenegger has
tried to revamp state prisons.

His administration promised to reduce the inmate population in 2004
when it unveiled changes to parole policy intended to send parolees
who failed drug tests or committed other parole violations to
programs instead of back to prison. But that idea was scrapped amid
opposition from victims' rights groups and the state's prison guards
union and after Schwarzenegger's corrections secretary admitted the
proposal was not well thought out.

Last year, the governor proposed a bureaucratic reshuffling that
changed the name of the corrections department and gave more clout to
the head of the department.

Legislators were quick to remember those moves.

"The track record of the department of corrections has not been
stellar," said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, who acts as the
Assembly Republicans lead negotiator on prison issues. "They've come
up with reforms in the past, where they weren't capable of implementing them."

Spitzer said he would evaluate the new proposals with significant skepticism.

Schwarzenegger has pitched some of the proposals before. He included
prison-building in his January proposal to issue bonds for new roads,
schools and levees, and he also proposed moving some female inmates
out of prisons.

The Legislature balked at both ideas, and whether there will be more
interest now remains to be seen.

Some lawmakers said more policy changes were needed to lower the
inmate population.

"We can look at bricks and mortar, but we have to look at sentencing
reform and parole reform -- that's where change is needed," said
state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who carried unsuccessful
legislation this year that would have amended the state's
three-strikes law to lessen the use of lengthy sentences for some
non-violent offenses.

Romero was also critical of the governor's proposal Monday to use a
specific type of bond, called a lease-revenue bond, to build prisons
that wouldn't require voter approval. The bonds could be issued with
approval from lawmakers.

"That's just a way of getting around voters, with polls showing no
one is interested in building more prisons," she said.

A spokesman for the prison guards union, which has considerable clout
in the Legislature, reacted more positively.

"Given the overcrowding, this is a welcome signal from the
administration," said Lance Corcoran, executive vice president of the
California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Administration officials said they had been contemplating calling a
special session on prisons for several weeks and denied the
announcement Monday was a response to the report issued last week. In
the report, a special master working for U.S. District Judge Thelton
Henderson criticized Schwarzenegger for bowing to pressure from the
state's politically powerful prison guards union and warned that the
governor was retreating from reforms.

The governor was quickly attacked Monday by his adversary in this
year's gubernatorial election, who noted that calling a special
session would likely allow bills to become law only one month earlier
than they would have under the normal legislative process.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides said Schwarzenegger was taking
cosmetic action after presiding over a "meltdown of a prison system
that is threatening our public safety."

Angelides offered no specifics as to how he would fix the system if
elected, however, saying he would conduct an audit after taking
office and then come up with a plan.

[sidebar]

PRISON PROPOSALS

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Monday for a special session of the
Legislature to deal with state prisons. He proposes four ideas for
lawmakers to consider:

. Issuing bonds to pay for new prisons.

. Suspending of state construction laws to speed prison building.

. Moving 4,500 nonviolent female inmates from prisons to
community-based facilities.

. Moving male inmates who are about to be released on parole into new
housing units designed to help them adjust to life in their communities.