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.