CALIFORNIA INMATE PLAN DRAWS IRE

Amid Budget Woes, Schwarzenegger Proposes Steering Future Convicts to
County Jails

California spent the past two decades making criminals pay
ever-higher prices for their misdeeds, with stricter enforcement and
stiffer sentences. Now, the high price of housing its inmate
population has the cash-strapped state looking to dump thousands of
future convicts into crowded local jails. The proposal is part of
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to help Sacramento overcome a $21
billion budget deficit projected for the fiscal year beginning in
July. The governor wants to change sentencing guidelines so that
offenders who commit such low-level felonies as auto theft or drug
possession could be charged with only misdemeanors -- allowing them
to serve sentences in county jails instead of state prisons.

Local law-enforcement officials warn that an influx of new inmates
could force them to release their own prisoners to make room.
Changing sentencing guidelines would eventually steer 20,000 inmates
away from state prisons to county jails, Mr. Schwarzenegger
estimates. California's county jails now hold about 80,000 inmates,
according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Mr. Schwarzenegger estimates the plan would save the state about $1.1
billion over the next three years. If state lawmakers approve the
idea, along with a range of other options being negotiated -- such as
closing state parks and cutting school budgets -- it could be in
place as early as July. "To achieve the level of savings necessary
without borrowing or tax increases, there are only so many places in
the general fund to look," said Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for Mr.
Schwarzenegger. "These are proposals to save precious dollars without
endangering public safety." Local governments are hurting for money
as badly as the state is -- with some of the pain coming as a result
of reduced state funding. Many have cut budgets for their own local
jails and detention facilities. "It's like a double whammy the state
is sending our way," said Mike Reagan, a Solano County supervisor.
"More prisoners and less money -- this is going to hurt like hell."

Mr. Reagan estimated his county would need to take an additional
1,200 inmates a year under Mr. Schwarzenegger's plan. That would
overwhelm its jail system, which has reached capacity at 1,000
inmates, he said. Earlier this year, Solano approved plans to build a
1,000-bed facility. But the county scuttled the project after it was
forced to slash $33 million from its $266 million general fund. If
lawmakers approve Mr. Schwarzenegger's plan, Mr. Reagan said, Solano
will have to release low-level prisoners to accommodate the new inmates.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Friday that Mr.
Schwarzenegger's plan would "result in the undesirable release of
some offenders." Los Angeles County has the state's largest jail
system, with seven facilities housing nearly 20,000 prisoners.

The L.A. County system is already near its court-ordered capacity
cap, said sheriff's department spokesman Steve Whitmore. The
governor's proposal could result in about 4,000 more inmates sent to
county jails every year, he said, and "there is no place to put those inmates."

Larry Lees, a Shasta County administrative officer, said his county
didn't expect to receive new funding to deal with more prisoners and
also might have to institute early-release policies to make room.
Shasta's jails were already hurting. The county sheriff's department
issued 25 layoff notices in May after being ordered to cut 10% of its
$38 million budget. Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said he was
weighing whether to close a floor of his jail and release 150 inmates.

Paul Golaszewski of the state Legislative Analyst's Office, a
nonpartisan financial and policy-advisory agency, said counties also
might need to give probation to some criminals, rather than jail
sentences. Statewide organizations representing police chiefs, county
sheriffs, district attorneys and probation officers are pushing Mr.
Schwarzenegger to reconsider the proposal, saying it would be
disastrous for dozens of cities and counties.

Lance Corcoran, spokesman for the politically powerful California
Correctional Peace Officers Association, said the organization
opposed the governor's proposal. Mr. Corcoran said most of the
state's county jails can't support the potential influx: "It's at
best disingenuous and at worst a flat out lie to say local jails can
accommodate a host of new prisoners." The state spends $10 billion a
year on its 33 prisons, which house about 160,000 inmates.

In addition to changing sentencing guidelines, Mr. Schwarzenegger's
plan also calls for deporting 19,000 illegal-immigrant inmates, as
well as allowing some low-level offenders to serve the final year of
their sentences under house arrest. It also called for reducing such
inmate-rehabilitation programs as substance-abuse counseling and
vocational training. Together, the cuts would save California about
$3 billion over the next three years, says the state finance department.

The governor's plan also helps another problem: a federal court in
February ordered that the state-prison population be reduced by
55,000 inmates within three years to relieve overcrowding, as well as
poor medical and mental-health care.

"A lot of people just can't grasp how bad it is right now," said
Bernard Melekian, president of the California Police Chiefs
Association, "but when you look at the situation it's quite clear
what the governor is asking for is not realistic."