HANDCUFFING THE BUDGET

Prisons Should Not Be Protected From Cuts; Davis Is Ignoring Chances To
Save Millions

IN a year demanding agonizing choices to close a $34 billion state deficit,
no department or program should be immune from scrutiny.

That includes money for state prisons, one of few areas in the state budget
that Gov. Gray Davis wants to hold harmless. He would slightly increase the
$5.2 billion corrections budget, even though the state's prison population
is expected to remain flat over the next five years.

Davis' corrections budget ignores opportunities for savings that would be
justifiable from a policy standpoint even if the state weren't in the hole.

* Hundreds of prisoners are in prison for committing a non-violent third
strike, including petty theft and forgery. Giving these inmates life
without parole wastes taxpayer money and lives.

* Because of their medical needs, the state's geriatric prisoners -- the
6,000 inmates over 55 -- are the most expensive to incarcerate. Many are
also the least dangerous.

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill estimates the state could save millions
of dollars by better managing them: assigning low-risk elderly inmates to
low-security prisons or to home detention through the use of electronic
bracelets.

* Shelving plans to build a new death row at San Quentin would save at
least $240 million in long-term financing.

* Granting early release to non-violent inmates would yield savings
immediately -- $17 million in what's left of this budget year and $70
million in the next -- if Davis signs a bill heading to his desk.

Currently, inmates who take academic courses or hold a prison job get
credit toward an early release. SBX1 15 would extend these credits to those
who are on a waiting list or stuck in a detention center awaiting prison
assignment, and thus are penalized for what the state can't provide them.
Sex offenders, lifers and those sentenced for violent offenses wouldn't be
eligible. The Department of Corrections estimates that SBX1 15 would cut an
average of 27 days off the sentence of an eligible offender.

Davis has threatened to veto any bill that shaves prison time. While that's
consistent with his tough-on-crime approach, the budget crisis demands
pragmatism. Early release time that does not jeopardize public safety is
preferable to laying off teachers or cutting payments to nursing homes.

Davis and legislators should view the corrections budget in the context of
other bleak alternatives.