TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF INMATE INCREASES

Parole Violators, New Convicts Among Reasons

SACRAMENTO - While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes to trim $400
million from the state's prison budget, the Department of Corrections
on Thursday said the prison population has reached an all-time high.

As of April 30, the nation's largest correctional system swelled to
162,858 inmates, 355 above the previous record set in September 2000.

"It's very difficult for them to cut $400 million from their budget
if we keep piling prisoners in there," said state Sen. Sheila Kuehl,
D-Los Angeles, after the latest figures were disclosed at a Senate
budget subcommittee hearing.

Besides casting a cloud over Schwarzenegger's budget plans, the
mushrooming prison population raises questions about whether the
system can meet the challenge of successfully returning inmates to
society.

Next Thursday, Schwarzenegger is scheduled to disclose his revised
state budget, including details of a $400 million prison cut he
proposed in January. But the surging inmate population already has
caused his administration fits, especially since they expected the
numbers to fall.

The influx of convicts hit home last month when state officials were
forced to declare a state of emergency to move inmates around the
state's 32 prisons. It prompted triple bunking in cells designed for
two bunks and placement of more beds in corridors and gymnasiums,
raising health and safety issues.

Corrections officials know they are receiving more inmates, especially
from larger counties, but they are at a loss to fully explain what's
driving the growth. In the last six months of 2003, new admissions and
parole violators arrested on new crimes grew 12.5 percent compared
with 2002.

For the state's 10 most populous counties, the figures were all over
the map. For instance, Santa Clara County experienced an 11 percent
jump in new state prison admissions and parole violators arrested on
new offenses. Alameda County, however, saw an 11 percent drop. The
biggest jump was 50 percent in Orange County.

Wendy Still, the department's chief financial officer, said the
profile of new inmates shows they were imprisoned predominantly for
crimes related to drugs, violence and theft.

Violent crime in the state's largest jurisdictions last year actually
dipped 3.1 percent, while property crimes went up 2.8 percent,
according to recent figures from Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Still noted that incarceration rates typically swing up during
economic downturns. She also said the department is seeking to
determine whether some of the prison population increase is due to
people flunking out of Proposition 36 drug-diversion programs and
being sent to prison.

Proposition 36, a 2000 ballot initiative, removed a judge's option to
jail first- and second-time drug offenders who are deemed non-violent
and aren't drug dealers. They are automatically ordered into treatment
and remain free.

Still said the higher-than-anticipated prison population "doesn't put
a monkey wrench in our plans" to cut $400 million. In recent years,
the department has spent hundreds of millions over its budget, which
has hovered around $5.3 billion.

Another reason the population is higher than expected, Still said, is
that various parole reforms initiated last year have not fully kicked
in.

Steve Fama, an attorney with the Prison Law Office, which has sued the
state over the operation of Pelican Bay State Prison, said
overcrowding is causing security and cleanliness concerns. And, he
said, it will be harder to provide medical and mental health treatment.

Asked to speculate about what's behind the surge of inmates, Fama
said: "We have a sentencing scheme that in many ways is skewed toward
incarceration, and we have a parole-supervision process that in recent
years has been skewed toward returning people to custody."

A spokesman for the prison guards union could not be reached for comment.