LEGISLATURE MUST ACT SOON AS PRISONS RUN OUT OF SPACE

Sentencing Reforms Are Desperately Needed Before Crowding Ignites A
Violent Outburst

California is fortunate that conditions in its crowded prisons haven't
yet led to riots.

But by late spring, the acting head of prisons predicts, the system
will reach its bursting point. It will fill even makeshift beds in day
rooms and libraries and no longer be able to accept new prisoners.
County jails that serve as holding tanks and have their own caps on
the number of inmates they can safely house might begin releasing
other prisoners and suspects into the community.

Before adjourning last week, legislators ignored the problem, despite
the special prison session that Gov. Schwarzenegger had called in
June. If they continue to abdicate, the federal judge overseeing some
operations of the system will probably step in, with expensive
solutions the Legislature and taxpayers might not like.

Prisons must be a top priority when lawmakers return to Sacramento
next year. Parole and sentencing reform must be part of the solution.
Neither the governor's excessive $6 billion prison-building scheme,
nor the Senate's $918 million alternative, which the Assembly turned
aside, included it.

Experts like UC-Irvine criminologist Joan Petersilia say that as many
as 10 percent of the 173,000 inmates don't belong in the state's 33
prisons. They're non-violent repeat offenders who churn through the
system as a result of technical parole violations. Thousands more are
in for drug use.

Other states have taken different approaches to sentencing and parole,
including using more electronic monitoring. Parolees facing revocation
for drug use serve time in community settings and get treatment.

In California, parole lasts three years. Elsewhere, the seriousness of
an offense determines the length of time, allowing parole officers to
focus on the most dangerous.

Some prison construction will be unavoidable. Bob Sillen, the former
head of Santa Clara County's health system and now the court-appointed
overseer of prison's dismal medical care, wants two new facilities:
one for the sick and one for the aging. With the power of a federal
judge behind him, he'll get his wish. There's also some room for
expansion at existing sites; the Senate wanted to spend $600 million
to add 5,340 beds at 11 locations.

Schwarzenegger proposed one idea that deserved approval: transferring
4,500 non-violent female offenders -- 40 percent of women in prison --
to small, locally based facilities where they'd get job training,
counseling and substance-abuse treatment. Such a move would free up
more beds, though probably not before 2008, and would mark a big
policy shift after three decades of simply lengthening sentences
across the board and building more cells. The goal would be cutting
the recidivism rate, now the nation's highest, with 70 percent
returning within three years. Since the state spends $35,000 per year
to warehouse an inmate, the result would save money, too.

The state can't build its way out of the crisis. Legislators have only
a few more months to figure that out.