PRISONS: THIS TIME AT THE TROUGH, BIG SPENDERS HIT A SNAG

Oops! The prison system has overspent its budget again. But don't worry,
it's only $277 million. This has happened before, all too often in fact,
though you'd think this year would have been different. The state already
is $20-22 billion in the red, and the prison population is declining.

But the prison system always seems to get its way in Sacramento. In
2000-01, the prison deficit was $52 million, and in 1998-99 it was $106
million. Both times, the Legislature promptly paid up. As state Sen.
Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) told the L.A. Times, prison officials know
they can come to the trough and get automatic approval for whatever they want.

What's going on here? Well, the prison bureaucracy has a secret weapon for
the budget battles: payoffs. The legal kind.

The union for prison guards, the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association, is financing its own rapid expansion by spreading political
contributions all over Sacramento, starting at the top. The union gave $2
million to Gray Davis in his first campaign for governor, and contributes
generously to legislators of all stripes.

In return (not directly in return, of course, because that would be
illegal), legislators are generous with the prison establishment. The union
gives state legislators millions, and the legislators give state prison
employees billions.

The current prison budget is $4.8 billion and rising. Operating costs
aren't just rising, they are soaring. Our generous governor, despite the
staggering budget shortfalls, plans to give prison guards a pay raise that
will cost $500 million a year now, and more like $1 billion by 2006. That's
quite a return on the original investment.

Fortunately, there are signs that legislators are beginning to resist
opening the cash drawer for the prison bureaucracy. A state Senate
subcommittee Wednesday rejected the governor's proposal for a $500 million
prison that would cost $100 million a year to operate. Sen. Polanco is
chairman of the subcommittee.

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) describes the $277 million deficit as
shocking. He and Polanco also oppose Gov. Davis' plan to shut down five
privately operated state prisons, which would please the prison-guard union
but would add millions more to the cost of the prison system.

Polanco and Dunn are raising the right questions about the prison system.
Other legislators must look beyond the campaign contributions and make
decisions based on what is right, not just for prison guards but for the
penal system, and for the taxpayers who support it.

Critical Resistance
1212 Broadway, Suite 1400
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510)444-0484
Fax: (510)444-2177
rose@criticalresistance.org
crnational@criticalresistance.org
criticalresistance.org