California lawmakers approve prison plan (~$7.3 billion plan to add beds, beef up rehab programs)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/26/07 | Don Thompson - ap

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Legislators hoping to avoid a federal takeover of California's overcrowded prisons approved a $7.3 billion plan on Thursday to add beds and beef up rehabilitation programs.

The bill, negotiated by Democratic and Republican leaders, passed unanimously in the Assembly but barely got the required two-thirds majority in the Senate with a 27-10 vote.

The plan, which now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would add 53,000 beds for inmates, including 13,000 at county jails. It would also boost rehabilitation programs, including education and job training, and let the governor continue to transfer thousands of inmates out of state.

Proponents said the combination would reduce overcrowding in state prisons and county jails, while trying to end the cycle that sends seven of every 10 ex-convicts back to prison soon after their release.

"We are not treating a symptom, we are proposing a cure," said Republican Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, the bill's co-author.

Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the bill, which must still pass muster with the federal courts.

The Legislature was under a June court deadline to come up with a plan to ease its severe prison overcrowding, which is at the core of problems including poor inmate health care and high suicide rates.

The state's 33 prisons were designed to hold about 100,000 inmates but now house more than 172,000, and some prisoners must sleep in hallways or gyms.

If the state had failed to act, it faced the prospect of federal judges ordering early release of inmates or stopping convicts from being sent to state prisons, adding to the backlog in county jails.

Under the new plan, the state would contribute $6.1 billion and the counties $1.2 billion. Almost all the state money would come from lease-revenue bonds, which do not require voter approval.

Some Republican senators questioned the cost of the bill and the way it was handled, bypassing the normal committee hearings and given to lawmakers just hours before they were scheduled to vote on it.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, a Democrat, said no one liked voting for the bill but that it was necessary to head off a federal takeover.

"You think you're writing big checks now — wait until you write one at the direction of the federal government," he said.

Schwarzenegger acknowledged the plan's high cost during a news conference after Thursday's Assembly vote.

But, he told reporters, "with the decision they have made today ... we are actually investing so we can cut down the cost of our prison system."

Critics of the plan emerged immediately. The union representing state prison guards and a coalition of interest groups said it focuses too heavily on construction and not enough on long-term sentencing and management.

"California is again putting prison construction in front of reform. Real reform would mean no need for more prison, jail and juvenile detention beds," said Rose Braz, a spokeswoman for the group Critical Resistance, which opposes prison construction.

Over the years, lawsuits have led to a patchwork of federal judges being put in charge of many aspects of California's prison operations, including employee discipline, parole and the treatment of sick and mentally ill inmates.

Three federal judges have scheduled June hearings to determine whether the persistent overcrowding violates inmates' constitutional rights.

[NormsRevenge]

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, center, answers a question concerning the agreement reached by legislative leaders to ease the overcrowding in California prisons, while talking with reporters at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, April 25, 2007. Perata; Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, left; Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, right; and Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, not shown, met for almost an hour before announcing the agreement that includes adding beds at state prisons and county jails, as well as improving rehabilitation programs to help inmates transition back to society. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

[NormsRevenge]

caption above..

The Feds made us do it.

[NormsRevenge]

The last 10 years, how many billions were squandered in bunko energy de-regulation, mishandled gubamint social programs for anyone that can crawl into the state,, ad nauseum.. and now .. an electorate is stuck with a Post-Partisan regime that owes no one anything.. and governs as a No Fault entity

[starbase]

What are they going to use for money? Whose $7 billion is it? I know! Bonds, bonds, let’s sell bonds! (and pay them back when California freezes over)

[Publius6961]

At the risk of pissing off everybody who reads this, that comes to...

Ta-daaaaaH!

$137,735.85 per bed

Wouldn't it me cheaper to offer each criminal $10k a year for 15 years so long as they are not arrested?

No property purchase.
No maintenance.
No interest on an outrageous future liability for current expenses...
No staffing or support expenses (including retirement and bennies...)

Just saying.

[TheBattman]

I guess it is so much more economically feasible to spend a billions of dollars to build more prisons than it is to just boot out the illegals that are filling the existing prisons to overflow.

What ever happened to deporting them? How about implanting them with a tracking chip, and giving them a tattoo to identify them and send them home to Mexico (or wherever they come from).

[Popocatapetl]

No reason in the world why they can’t do what Sheriff Joe Arpaio has done in Arizona. Put inmates in large military tents, with field kitchens, latrines, chain link and barbed wire fences, etc. Put them out in the middle of the desert.

The inmates that have to be in the rear for high security, medical reasons, court appearances, etc., you put in the brick prisons. But most of them can be out in the boonies.

International law is clear that military field garrison conditions do not violate any human rights.

Ironically, being out there is not a punishment, it is a reward, because they get fresh air and sunshine, and are not crowded together like they are in brick prisons. And by being out there, the brick prisons are better, as they are not as crowded.

[NormsRevenge]

sounds good to me... sunshine and fresh air can do folks a world of good..

[NormsRevenge]

7.3 Billion more in borrowing..

—

Details of the prison reform plan approved by lawmakers

http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/128871.html

Assembly Bill 900, approved by state legislators Thursday, allows the construction of 53,000 new prison and jail beds in two phases.

Total state spending amounts to $7.75 billion, including more than $6.1 billion in borrowing for state prison construction, more than $1.2 billion in borrowing for county jail construction, $300 million in general tax money for prison infrastructure improvements and $50 million for rehabilitation programs.

Counties would have to contribute 25 percent matching funds if they want the state’s help in building more jail cells, for another $300 million in local money.

Construction would be in two phases. The second phase is contingent on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation improving education, job training and other rehabilitation programs. The state must have started building half of the Phase I beds before it can begin Phase II.

The bill lets the state transfer 8,000 inmates out of state for up to four years. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is appealing a state judge’s ruling that the transfers are illegal under existing law. Officials could not immediately say how the new law would affect the appeal. Among the details:

Phase I

- State borrows $3.6 billion to build 12,000 beds in new cell blocks at existing prisons; 6,000 beds in smaller regional prisons for parole violators and inmates nearing release; and 6,000 medical beds.

- State pays $750 million and counties contribute 25 percent of the cost to build 8,000 county jail beds.

- The department gets $300 million to improve water, sewer and other infrastructure at prisons where new cell houses are to be built.

- The department gets an additional $50 million to improve rehabilitation programs, drug treatment and vocational education.

Phase II

- State borrows $2.5 billion to add 4,000 more beds at existing prisons; 10,000 more beds at regional prisons; and 2,000 more medical beds.

- State pays $470 million and counties contribute 25 percent of the cost for an additional 5,000 county jail beds.

The borrowing is through lease-revenue bonds, which do not require voter approval.

[Rembrandt]

Just watch. They will vote to turn down the inmates top sheets before bedtime, place a chocolate mint on the pillow, ask them what time they’d like a wake-up call and deliver USA Today to their cells every morning.

Conjugal visits to each male cellmate by Rep. Bawney Fwank also included on a daily basis.

[raftguide]

“Conjugal visits”

I run a children’s home in CA. We recently had a boy who was conceived during a conjugal visit, was born in prison, and then was whisked away to become a social problem, costing the taxpayers about $60K per year to raise. While I hold no grudge toward the child who had no choice, I wonder at the insanity of a society that rationalizes away the creation of more costly social problems for itself!

[calcowgirl]

Borrow, borrow, borrow... More calbondage!

[NormsRevenge]

Expediency Expediency Expediency

It’ll end up costing us twice the money they are doling out here.. The Fed Judges should just say No and make them seriously deal with all the orison issues (which are born ouit of social issues they also run from)in the spirit of reFoRm.... but we do have an election coming and Global Warming is all they seem to care about anymore..