INMATE P0PULATION OUTPACES PRISONS, JAILS

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Despite a construction boom, California's prisons have
failed to keep up with a skyrocketing inmate population that has increased
sixfold since 1980, a watchdog panel reported Wednesday.

The Little Hoover Commission said county jails are in the same fix.

``The dramatic expansion of the state's jails and prisons has not kept pace
with the growing inmate population,'' the commission said in a 137-page
report.

``The state has two options: to rethink how it houses and deals with
criminals, or to redouble its financial commitment to building and
operating more jails and prisons,'' the commission said.

In 1980, California had fewer than 25,000 inmates in a dozen prisons.
Today, the state has about 154,000 prisoners in 33 prisons. The population
is expected to reach 200,000 within five years.

The jails have about 72,000 prisoners at any given time, with sentences
averaging about three weeks.

Since the early 1980s, California has spent about $5.7 billion to modernize
the prison system, and about $3 billion on jails.

About half the money was approved by voters; the rest was covered by
lease-purchase bonds not requiring voter approval.

Part of the crowding problem is that politicians, responding to voters'
fears, are approving longer sentences for inmates. Also, an increasing
number of inmates admitted to prisons are repeaters -- people who violated
the conditions of parole or who are back in for a new crime, according to
the commission.

During 1996-97, the state prison system admitted nearly 133,000 inmates. Of
those, only 49,000 were new prisoners.

More than 82,000 prisoners -- two-thirds of the total number admitted to
prison during that period -- were parole violators or repeat offenders.