SPENDING MORE CASH ON CALIFORNIA PRISONS NOT ENOUGH

Lawmakers Ignoring Fundamental Problems

Bipartisan majorities in the Legislature have dealt with the state's
prison-crowding crisis the only way they seem to know how: building
cells and spending billions.

On Thursday, they rushed through a deal without a public hearing or
thoughtful debate. They offered no assurance that the atrociously
managed prison system can cope with the new drug and rehabilitation
programs and thousands more inmates they are piling on. Decades of
waste and ineffectiveness leave little cause for optimism.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators are truly in a bind:
Judges in three courts have given them a June deadline to reduce
crowding. If they don't, the courts will take over the prisons and
put a cap on the prison population.

The state's response is the largest prison expansion in state
history: $7.4 billion in construction, not counting billions more in
interest on the bonds, and 53,000 more beds.

This does nothing to end the policies of failure, and it may not
mollify the courts. It will take years to add cells. The judges want
immediate results. The state's answer - shipping 8,000 inmates out of
state right away - will be challenged in court and may be unconstitutional.

The deal ignores the primary cause of prison crowding: California has
the nation's highest recidivism rate. Nearly 70 percent of convicts
return to prison within three years because of new crimes or parole
violations, often minor.

The Little Hoover Commission and corrections experts for years have
been calling for fundamental change, including a review of parole
policies and community-based sentences for non-violent offenders.
They suggest naming a commission to make sense of the morass of
contradictory and counterproductive sentencing laws. Making sure
prisons hold only people who belong there would alleviate crowding.

But Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass the deal, opposed a
sentencing commission. They raised the specter that, failing a deal,
a judge would set thousands of dangerous felons loose in the
community. Democrats caved, although their leaders are promising to
consider more reforms later.

There's no question that more prison beds are needed, starting with
8,000 for inmates needing medical and mental health care. And the
approach to adding beds is more sensible than in the past. Rather
than just expanding in existing prisons, more than half of the 53,000
new beds would be added to local jails or built as transitional units
for inmates at the end of their sentences. This could mark an
important shift toward treatment and rehabilitation - but the deal
includes little money to set up what will be expensive programs, and
no money to operate them.

In a sharply worded letter to Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro
Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu'nez demanded assurances
that staff could be hired and trained, programs could be delivered,
and managers would stay long enough to oversee reforms.

"A quick fix without fundamental changes and effective reform is
simply 'running in place,'" they wrote. "Yet the Department (of
Corrections and Rehabilitation) repeatedly demonstrates it is flatly
unable to deliver on its promises. ... At this time, the department
is not prepared to manage the proposals now before the Legislature."

Even as they were urging legislators to fork over $7.4 billion, top
Democrats were wondering whether the money would be wasted.

That's hardly a vote of confidence.