Prison releases 'DOA,' foe says

Prison releases 'DOA,' foe says
Dems, Republicans blast governor's inmate budget cut.
By Andy Furillo - _afuri...@sacbee.com_ (mailto:afuri...@sacbee.com)
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, December 22, 2007

A Democratic legislative leader and a firebrand Republican promised tough
going Friday for a Schwarzenegger administration proposal to cut the state's
prison population by 28,000 over the next two years.
Early releases are "DOA" with Assembly Republicans, said Jose Solorio,
D-Santa Ana, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. He said Democrats'
reaction would range from raising questions to outright opposition of the
administration's budget proposal.
"Many of us are going to have some very strong concerns about whether it's
the direction we want to begin taking," Solorio said.
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, one of his party's leaders on
criminal justice issues, said the proposal to release the so-called
nonviolent, nonserious, non-sex offenders in the final 20 months of their terms would
undermine Assembly Bill 900. The $7.9 billion measure was enacted this year
to add 53,000 prison and jail beds and more fully establish rehabilitation as
the philosophical underpinning of California's correctional system.
"By letting people out 20 months early, which is supposed to be when they get
their re-entry skills, they're not going to get them at all, so recidivism
is going to get worse," Spitzer said. "This budget plan is a forfeiture of AB
900 principles, which was supposed to change how we treat criminality in
California."
Gubernatorial spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said Friday that the administration
still has not made a final decision on the budget proposal that would save the
state $1.112 billion over the next two fiscal years. The governor has called
for 10 percent spending cuts in every agency, which in the $9.9 billion
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, almost certainly would require
substantial reductions in the inmate population of about 172,000 and the parolee
population of 127,000, and in a labor force of 64,000.
Mendelsohn said that, with the state facing a $14 billion deficit, the
governor faces difficult decisions as he prepares to unveil his budget proposal
Jan. 10.
"With raising taxes not being an option," Mendelsohn said, "you have to look
at very severe cuts."
Schwarzenegger was re-elected to office last year on a campaign that included
a no-new-taxes pledge. Republicans in the Legislature have vowed – and have
the numbers – to block any tax increases, which require two-thirds support of
lawmakers.
Also on Friday, Schwarzenegger's office announced that the state is $3.3
billion in the hole in the current fiscal year and that the governor is calling
for a special legislative session to begin Jan. 10 to address what he has
declared a "fiscal emergency."
According to details of the corrections budget proposal made available to The
Bee, the administration's plan calls for the release of lower-risk offenders
in the final 20 months of their terms to reduce the prison population by
22,159 in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Schwarzenegger's budget writers also are proposing a shift to a "summary"
parole system that would result in far fewer offenders being sent back to prison
on technical violations and criminal infractions, but still would subject
them to searches by local police. That plan would reduce the prison population
by another 6,249 inmates.
Combined, the two proposals would reduce the payroll in the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation by 5,854 employees. The two proposals
would require legislative approval. The budget bill requires a two-thirds
vote.
Under the state Penal Code, about 35 crimes are listed as "serious" or
"violent" for the purposes of the state's "three-strikes" law. Those offenders –
convicted on charges ranging from murder to rape, robbery, burglary or sex or
firearm offenses – would be excluded from the early releases.
Victims' advocates say that the exclusions aren't wide enough and that other
convicts serving time for elder, child and spousal abuse, stalking, false
imprisonment, weapons and other charges could still get out before their
statutory time is up.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said local law
enforcement leaders have demanded that the administration "add exclusions" to the
definition of a lower-risk offender. As for early releases, Ramos said they
"won't happen without a fight" from county sheriffs and district attorneys.
Republican political consultant Ray McNally said that if the proposals go
through, Schwarzenegger's political career will be all but over.
"It's pretty clear, the governor has decided not to run for U.S. Senate or
other political office," said McNally, whose clients include the California
Correctional Peace Officers Association. "You can't release 22,000 people from
prison and expect to ever get elected to another office again. I think he's
made his decision to retire from politics."
The budget proposal came amid motions filed in two federal class-action cases
to cap the prison population because overcrowding is hindering the state's
effort to provide inmates with constitutionally adequate medical and mental
health care.
Inmates' rights lawyer Don Specter of the Prison Law Office, who is
representing plaintiffs in both suits, said the proposed early releases amount to
"nothing" as far as the federal cases are concerned.
"If and when it's part of the budget, we'll deal with it at that point,"
Specter said.
Trial on the motions had been scheduled for February, but the date was
vacated last week by a three-judge court that first must decide whether to order
the state to turn over thousands of documents to the plaintiffs.