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Legislature Cuts Deal to Relieve Prison Crowding

Federal judges have threatened to order the early release of inmates or stop offenders from being sent to state prisons if the State does not address its prison crisis. In order to mitigate the judges’ concerns, the Legislature and Governor agreed upon and set in to motion a $6.1 billion plan to alleviate prison overcrowding. The plan would add 53,000 new beds and require the state's corrections department to shore up rehabilitation programs. Although the plan is not as extensive as the Governor’s original proposal ($10.9 billion and 78,000-beds), it has nevertheless drawn heavy criticism from numerous stakeholders.

The reforms would be put into place over two phases, with $3.6 billion in lease-revenue bonds, which do not have to be approved by voters, to cover 24,000 new beds in the first phase. The remaining money would not be spent, and construction halted, unless the department shows progress in developing rehabilitation services and anti-recidivism programs for substance abuse, academic and vocational education and mental health. A number of Legislative members have indicated their concern regarding the Department’s ability to implement the details of the plan.

The plan will be put to the test in June, during which time each of the three federal judges involved have scheduled hearings to determine if overcrowding is violating inmates' constitutional rights. Despite the plan, however, they could still decide to take over the system if they determine the plan is not adequate to address their concerns.

CVUC Response to the Prison Plan

Crime Victims United of California (CVUC) has walked the halls of the Capitol day-in and day-out for the last four months attempting to push the Legislature to address the prison crisis. While we commend the Legislature for working in a bipartisan manner to attempt to address the issue and the federal judges’ concerns, we have a number of concerns with the package.

The new package calls for 16,000 new beds in the existing prison facilities.

Our prisons are today overcrowded and bursting at the seams. Where will these new beds go? There has been no mention of opening the closed correctional facilities to house these new beds. CVUC is very concerned as to the location of these new beds and the added stress it will put on an already stressed system.

The package calls for 16,000 new beds at the county jails to house re-entry and parole violators.

The overcrowding issue is not limited to the state level but is a local issue as well. Again, county jails are grossly overcrowded and where exactly these new beds will go has not been addressed.

The package calls for 8,000 medical beds for hospital and mental patients.

Where are the new medical facilities located? Will there be new hospitals built or will they be utilizing closed hospitals?

The package calls for 8,000 inmates to be shipped out of state.

Out of state private prisons have requirements for inmates before they will accept them. They must be low risk and good conduct – “the best in their class,” so to speak. Shipping these lower risk offenders out of state will leave California’s institutions with the worst offenders who may be released on our streets locally.

Rehabilitation.

The answer we have heard most often for solving our prison crisis is rehabilitation. Crime Victims United has agreed that rehabilitation is an important component of addressing the prison crisis; however, we must understand and acknowledge that there are certain individuals who can never be rehabilitated. Identification of who can and cannot be rehabilitated is absolutely crucial to the success of any efforts toward rehabilitation. If we are shipping inmates out of state, will the facilities we are shipping them to rehabilitate them? Who will be monitoring how well the out of state rehabilitations are going? And, if we ship our low risk, good conduct inmates out of state, what are we left with to try and rehabilitate and release into our neighborhoods.

Understaffing at the prisons is another massive issue that has yet to be addressed.

This package adds 40,000 new beds and inmates to our facilities, yet it does not address the issue of who will guard these inmates. How can we add 40,000 prisoners to an already understaffed system and not provide for the safety and well being of the correctional officers in the prisons, law enforcement at the local levels, as well as the inmates themselves? Legislation is currently pending to abolish the Division of Juvenile Justice, resulting in juvenile offenders becoming the responsibility of local jails. Again, for the safety of all involved it is absolutely necessary to ensure that more law enforcement be added to these facilities. The issue of more correctional officers and law enforcement MUST be addressed for the well being of all involved in the prisons and local jails. And we cannot forget that there will be more administrative and clerical responsibilities that have again not been addressed.

A short-term package.

This plan is merely a short-term package. What are the long term goals? There has been a promise of new prisons being built; however, no date has been set for the ground breaking. When will construction on these new facilities begin? There has been much talk about the sentencing commission, including 2 bills in the legislature; however the courts have yet to weigh in on this crucial issue. Will simply releasing the inmates be the final answer? What are the plans for our next step?

Crime Victims United of California (CVUC) is very concerned that the “solutions” that are part of this short-term package and those that are currently being discussed in the Legislature to address the prison crisis may have devastating effects on all Californians.

April 22-28, 2007 – Crime Victims' Rights Week

Crime Victims United of California, in concert with the 2007 national theme of “Victims’ Rights: Every Victim. Every Time,” celebrated Crime Victims’ Rights Week April 22 – 28th in California with a week of honoring victims and their families across California. Most noteworthy of the events was the XXXth annual March on the Capitol, sponsored by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). Their generous support of CVUC and victims across the state makes this rally possible each year.

CVUC was pleased to host its Legislators of the Year including Senator Jim Battin (R-Palm Desert), Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani (D-Tracy), and Assemblymember Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton). These members have proven tireless advocates for victims’ rights and public safety in California.

Additionally, CVUC was honored to have Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attend his first Victims’ March on the Capitol since his time in Office. The Governor spoke of his Administration’s commitment to remain tough on crime as well as announced that inmates convicted of violent crimes will only be able to keep half of any money they earn, the other half of which would be directed to their victims or the victim’s family in the form of restitution.

On behalf of Crime Victims United of California, thank you to all victims and victim’s family members who were able to attend the rally. Lending your voice and presence is critically important and makes an impact on the work that CVUC does in the Capitol each and everyday on your behalf.

AB 426 (Galgiani): Felonies: Serious & Violent– SUPPORT/SPONSOR

CVUC’s sponsored bill, AB 426 (Galgiani), passed out of the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, April 25th on a unanimous vote of 7-0.

As you know, for years CVUC has urged the Legislature to define “non-violent” and “non-serious” as it relates to various classes of offenders. In the past, this has included attempts to alter three-strikes and this year conversations dealing with the prison crisis has included talk about releasing non-violent, non-serious offenders. CVUC has argued that these terms are misleading as many inmates that are considered “non-violent” or “non-serious” have has previous convictions for serious or violent crimes or there case was plea-bargained to a lesser, nonviolent crime that is truly violent or serious.

While CVUC attempted to add a number of crimes such as “child abuse likely to produce great bodily injury or death,” “stalking,” “pimping/pandering a minor,” and more to the list of serious and violent felonies, we narrowed the bill to focus on “human trafficking” and “solicitation of murder.” The addition of these crimes to the serious and violent felony lists will help to ensure that they are treated as such under the law. Unfortunately in today’s political climate, the Legislature was not ready to address the full list of crimes CVUC has argued should be added to the serious and violent lists. Nevertheless, this is a major victory for CVUC in 2007.

AB 426 is now pending hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Stay tuned for updates on this very important piece of legislation…

AB 1133 (Dymally): Three Strikes – OPPOSE       **DEFEATED**

AB 1133 (Dymally), which would have altered provisions related to Three Strikes, failed to pass out of the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, April 10th after the Committee opted to avoid taking a formal vote.

AB 1133 (Dymally) would provide that if the current felony is not a serious or violent felony the person would be sentenced to the enhancement under the 3 strikes provisions that is applicable to a person with one prior conviction. Under this legislation, three strikes would not apply if the current conviction is for a drug offense, a felony sex offense, involved the use of firearms or deadly weapons, or involved great bodily injury, or if any of the prior offenses was a sexually violent offense, any of certain sex offenses involving a child, homicide, or a serious or violent felony punishable by life imprisonment or death. Additionally, it would provide a procedure for individuals to petition for re-sentencing to a lesser sentence.

CVUC vigorously opposed AB 1133 along with a number of law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies across the state.