For Immediate Release–May 16, 2012

Press Contact:  Isaac Ontiveros

Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Ph. 510 444 0484

Oakland—California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) concluded that the Department of Corrections “has not justified the need for several costly prison construction projects that would add $76 million in annual debt-service costs to the General Fund” in a report on the CDCR’s “Future of California Corrections” plan. The LAO determined that the state “should consider less costly alternatives to the CDCR blueprint.” The LAO’s report comes amidst much analysis of California’s recently announced $15.7 billion budget shortfall and Gov. Brown’s plans to make $8 billion in cuts.  Advocates and activists across the state continue to point to the relationship between increases in prison and jail spending and cuts to vital educational, employment, health, and social services and programs.  While this month’s budget revise proposes slashing authorization to borrow over $4.1 billion from AB900 prison construction funds, it still allocates $800 million for new prison cells and an additional $500 million to counties to expand jail capacity, adding to the $1.2 billion already awarded to counties earlier this year.

Along with noting unusually high costs for prison construction projects already marked as questionable, the LAO also notes the CDCR’s “blueprint depends on the uncertain court approval of its request to raise the population cap to 145 percent of design capacity.”  The heightening of the overcrowding ceiling is nearly 10% higher than what was mandated by the US Supreme Court in last year’s landmark condemnation of the California prison system.

The LAO recommends that the Legislature closes California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, rejects construction plans at DeWitt juvenile facility along with infill projects at three other locations, and significantly reduces the state’s reliance on out-of-state contract beds. The LAO points out that CDCR’s plan for “infill beds” to house Enhanced Outpatients (EOP) ignores the fact that “According to the department’s most recent projections, there will be a surplus of over 100 EOP beds in 2016-17 without the construction.”

“While we appreciate the LAO’s calls to caution around the CDCR’s plan—especially when it comes to construction—we join communities all over the state who are demanding more thorough changes to the California prison system that would not only save the state billions of dollars, but also reunite thousands of people needlessly trapped in jails and prisons with their loved ones,” says Emily Harris of Californians United for a Responsible Budget.  “We want to push California’s decision makers to take up measures and reforms that would cancel construction funding, implement release programs for sick and elderly prisoners, and change draconian sentencing laws that got us into this mess.  These changes are not only doable and sustainable, but are in line with the desires of the majority of residents in this state.”

Today’s LAO report comes during demonstrations across the state against the grave impacts of budget cuts and as Gov. Brown reversed his promise to close the notorious Division of Juvenile Justice.

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For Immediate Release – May 14^th, 2012

Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros

Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Ph. 510.444.0484

Gov. Brown’s May Revise budget shows that the Governor and the Department of Corrections hope to make as few changes as possible to the bloated CDCR in order to come into compliance with the Supreme Court’s Plata ruling, advocates charged today.

“Of course we applaud the goal of reducing corrections spending, however the way to do that isn’t to increase the corrections budget,” comments Debbie Reyes of the California Prison Moratorium Project.   The Governor’s plan includes increasing Corrections spending from $8.082 billion up to $8.889 billion in this budget year, an increase of $807 million. “Why are we increasing General Fund spending on Corrections by ten percent while we’re cutting In Home Supportive Services, cutting funds for our public colleges, cutting Workforce Development and cutting Health and Human Services?” asks Reyes.

Despite the Court ruling and Gov. Brown’s criminal justice realignment plan, the May Revise calls for expanding California’s prison system.

“Building more prisons that we don’t need and can’t afford is the policy that got us into this mess in the first place,” commented Emily Harris of Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “CDCR’s approach to the intertwined budget and prison crises has been to hit the pause button, but now they’re ready to fast forward more prison and jail cells. It is past time to reverse a failed policy that has made California poorer at the expense of our most vulnerable residents.” The savings proposed by closing the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) are eliminated by plans to expand new infill beds at 3 existing prisons, convert the closed DeWitt Nelson Youth Facility to an adult prison, expand the Folsom Transitional Treatment Facility to house women, and open and operate the new California Health Facility.

“We’re very disappointed that Gov. Brown has turned from the opportunity to continue to reduce the number of people in prison. Now is the time for a real overhaul of the sentencing and parole laws that fueled the growth of the system over the past three decades,” said Gail Brown of Life Support Alliance.  Today’s proposal suggests returning to the Courts to increase the population reduction benchmark from 137.5% to 145%. Gail Brown continues, “If we implemented the Alternative Custody Program and compassionate release, expanded medical parole, developed a geriatric parole process and actually released life-term prisoners who are being held way past their minimum release date as prescribed by law, we wouldn’t be trying to build all these expensive new prison beds.”

The budget proposes slashing authorization to borrow over $4.1 billion from AB900 prison construction funds but allocates an additional $500 million to counties to expand jail capacity, adding to the $1.2 billion awarded to counties earlier this year. “The Governor is not solving the prison crisis by encouraging a bigger jail crisis,” said Kevin Michael Key of Critical Resistance. “If more state money is to flow to the counties as a part of realignment, Sacramento should be encouraging counties to spend that money on social services.”

“Let’s invest our scarce tax dollars in Californians rather than sink it into building more jails,” added Key.

California Prison Moratorium Project, Life Support Alliance, and Critical Resistance are all members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a statewide coalition of more than 50 organizations working to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of prisons and prisoners in California.  CURB’s detailed response to the Corrections provisions of the May Revise and CDCR’s “Future of California Corrections” report can be found at http://curbprisonspending.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CURB-response-to-CDCR-Future-of-California-Corrections-Final-1.pdf

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CURB is an alliance of over 40 organizations from across the state.  We work to reduce prison spending, to reducing the number of people in prison and jail and the number of prisons in California. The positive steps forward taken in the CDCR’s report reflect at least a decade of tireless work by California communities to take on the state’s prison crisis.  CURB looks forward to working with decision makers to reprioritize jobs, housing, healthcare, education, and other institutions, programs, and services that make our communities safe and strong. 

Overview

On Monday April 23, CDCR released a detailed plan on changes to the Department in the wake of the Supreme Court overcrowding ruling, realignment, the budget crises, and increased pressure from communities across the state fighting against prison and jail expansion. The report, called The Future of California Corrections can be accessed at http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/2012plan/index.html.

The plan reflects some positive steps that CURB has been recommending for years, including cancelling $4.1 billion of AB900 funding, expanding programming for people inside and for people on parole, expanding the Alternative Custody Program, and remanding civil addicts to county supervision. However, these steps are very conservative given California’s ongoing budget crisis and they do not go far enough to address the needs of California communities.  In fact, CDCR is keeping in step with 30 years of disastrous policy by calling for only these two minor sentencing reforms, proposing to raise the overcrowding ceiling to 145%, and proposing $810 million in lease revenue bond authority to expand prisons.

Recommendations

Cancel All Prison and Jail Expansion

• Cancel 100% of remaining AB 900 prison and jail expansion funds, not just the proposed $4.1 billion. $1.9 billion of AB900 money, with added debt and future operating costs, is still a disastrous waste of resources that could go to – education, job training, healthcare and beneficial construction projects.
• Prevent any additional AB 900 funds from being directed toward jail expansion.
• Reject the request for $810 million to expand prisons.  The justification for this expansion is that the aging prison population will require more medical care. CDCR could eliminate their plans to build more medical facilities and make significant steps to reducing the prison population by instituting extremely modest geriatric parole and expanding compassionate release programs.
• Stop the conversion of Valley State Prison for Women to a men’s prison and close it permanently. The city of Chowchilla and the county of Madera have insisted that the prison not be converted to a men’s prison, and the CDCR itself said that 4,500 women prisoners do not need to be in prison.
• Do not repurpose Folsom Transitional Treatment Facility to hold women. According to the CDCR’s own recommendations, we can drastically reduce the number of women in prison now.

Reduce Population

• Ensure that CDCR is help responsible for reaching the 137.5% population reduction benchmark, instead of raising the overcrowding ceiling to 145% of design capacity. In fact 137.5% of design capacity is too high and we the encourage CDCR to continue reductions well below 137.5%.
• Ensure every person in prison has access to programming and that everyone on parole gets services to help with their transition.  Programming and services are proven to dramatically reduce recidivism.  Demand that CDCR come up with a plan to guarantee access to programs for 100% of prisoners and parolees.
• Implement Geriatric Parole to address the rapidly aging prison population and reduce the need for high cost medical beds.
• Expand Compassionate Release to eliminate the need for more high cost medical beds.

• Expand Alternative Custody for Women eligibility to include women who have a prior conviction classified as “serious” or “violent”.

• Remove barriers to the Alternative Custody program and expand the program to include eligibility for people in men’s prisons and the elderly.

Other

• We support the plan to stop out-of-state transfers, and urge that the timeline be moved up.
• We support downgrading prisoners’ classification levels, but call for sweeping reform of California notorious Security Housing and Administrative Segregation Units.

PDF of the CURB response to CDCR Future of California Corrections.

This piece was originally posted by the San Jose Mercury News.

We hope you can join us for this great event that CURB is co-sponsoring in Compton this Thursday.

Thursday, May 10, 2012 4:00 pm — 7:00 pm

Come, Let Us Reason Together: Faith Communities Confronting California’s Criminal In-Justice System

Download the event flyer.

New Philadelphia AME Church
19100 South Susana Road
Compton, CA 90221

4:00 p.m.: Four simultaneous teach-ins on four topics
5:00 p.m.: Meet and greet with light refreshments
6:00 p.m.: Main Presentation with Professor Michelle Alexander

Co-Sponsors Include:

ACLU of Southern California
All Saints Church Pasadena
A New Way of Life
Archdiocese of LA – Office of Restorative Justice
Bend the Arc (formerly the Progressive Jewish Alliance)
Brotherhood Cruscade
California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Californians United for a Responsible Budget – CURB
Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement – USC
Center for the Empowerment of Families
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice – CA
The Committee for Racial Justice – Santa Monica
Drug Policy Alliance
Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes – FACTS
Friends Committee on Legislation – CA
Homeboy Industries
Islamic Shura Council of Southern California
LA Progressive
Los Angeles Urban League
Progressive Christians Uniting
SEIU United Long Term Care Workers – ULTCW
Register online at Center for the Empowerment of Families
www.cafaithaction.org/alexander, by email at admin@cafaithaction.org or by telephone at (213) 625-0149.

Residents Question Drain on Strapped County Budget

For Immediate Release—May 7, 2012

Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros

Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Ph. 510.444.0484

What:  San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Meeting

When:  May 8, 2012, 9am

Where: 400 County Center, Redwood City, CA  

Redwood City— On Tuesday, San Mateo’s Board of Supervisors will hear a proposal from Sheriff Greg Munks to grant an initial $20 million in construction funding for a $150 million jail plan.  Residents from around the county have voiced strong opposition to the plan, citing the county’s budget crisis and a need to reduce the current jail population.

Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors decision would push forward the construction of a new jail facility at a cost of $145 to $160 million for construction and an additional $30 million each year to operate, in addition to the Sheriff’s Office current budget of $17 million.  In a January op-ed in The Daily Journal, Tom Huening, San Mateo County Controller, wrote of the plan: “My job as controller is about county finance and, based upon our living off reserves for the last four years, I say we cannot afford a new jail. The $150 million to $200 million in potential lease finance (not voter approved bonds) is troubling, but the ongoing additional $30 million per year for operations is the budget buster.”

The ACLU, which has worked with counties throughout the state to track and implement best practices for public safety realignment, wrote a letter to the Board of Supervisors explaining that San Mateo county’s decrepit Women’s Correctional Center could be closed without building a new jail by reducing the pre-trial jail population, expanding the use of alternatives to incarceration, and diverting people convicted of low-level offenses. The ACLU noted realignment “presents a valuable opportunity to implement creative alternatives to incarceration in San Mateo County…to best take advantage of the tremendous opportunity presented by AB109, San Mateo County should not waste scarce resources on incarceration when more effective and affordable alternatives exist.”

A recent report by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ), Jail Needs Assessment for San Mateo County: A preliminary analysis, found that crime has been steadily declining in the county since 1980. After analyzing San Mateo’s jail population, the report concludes, “CJCJ recommends deferring construction of new jail space until alternative pretrial release, expedited court processing and transfer, expanded probation supervision, reduced probation revocation, and expanded community treatment alternatives have been fully explored.”

As the CJCJ report found, 59% of San Mateo County’s adult arrests were related to drugs and alcohol. Long time San Mateo resident and community organizer Manuel La Fontaine comments, “I’d like to see San Mateo take a lead in California by offering more alternative sentencing to people who have problems with substance use. Rather than spend $30 million every year on a new jail, San Mateo should prioritize adding resources to community-based programs and institutions. If the Board goes forward with a new jail, it will be failing its residents, and push the county into further crisis.”

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April 22, 2012

County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors

Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration

500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles CA

Dear L. A. County Supervisor and Staff,

Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) organizations and allies request that you consider our recommendations on decisions that are now before the public and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in regards to AB900, jail expansion, and AB109, realignment.

CURB member groups in Los Angeles also request to meet with you and your staff in the near future, before critical decisions regarding jail expansion are made, and to be placed on an upcoming L.A. Board of Supervisors agenda in order to present you and the public with a comprehensive report showing how L.A. County can build safer communities without more jails.

There are certain measures that can be adopted immediately to move Los Angeles County away from the “cruel and unusual” business of mass incarceration and on the right track toward building real public safety and, at the same time, healthier, happier, more sustainable communities.

Please consider the following Recommendations:

1. The Board of Supervisors is responsible for allocating AB109 ‘prisoner realignment’ dollars, not the sheriff. This money can be spent on cost-effective programs proven to reduce incarceration and recidivism rather than on expansion of police forces and expensive high-tech tracking systems.

Our Recommendations to the Board:
Redirect 1^st year AB109 realignment dollars, $112 million, from the L.A. County Sheriff and Probation Department to community-based alternatives including drug treatment programs, health care, mental health care, job training, job creation, housing, schools, and transportation. This will help people in their re-entry process to succeed in making a new life.

There are many cost-saving measures that can be taken at a local level to reduce incarceration and eliminate the supposed need to build more jails.

- BAN the BOX—Remove artificial barriers like “the box” asking about former convictions on applications for public employment.

- Advocate to remove public housing restrictions and restrictions preventing those who were formerly incarcerated from applying for professional trade licenses.

- Implement measures proposed in the Youth Justice Coalition’s Welcome Home plan:

• Ensure that people released from prison or jail are given essential documents and critical resources: a California ID, social security card, a metro pass, birth certificate, medical records, prescriptions, and if applicable school transcripts and test scores.
• Match 1% of local law enforcement spending to provide funds for peacebuilders, intervention workers, job centers, and youth programs and community centers to provide support and referrals for folks returning to their communities.
• Mandate that companies who have contracts with the county provide jobs for people coming home from prison or jail.

2. Though the state approved L.A. County’s application requesting $100 million to build 1024 new jail beds for women, we know from the application itself that the construction budget is almost twice that amount, $194,000,000.  We also know that the $100 million from the state will be generated through the sale of high-yield Lease Revenue Bonds as legislated by AB900. The cost to taxpayers to repay those bonds will nearly double because of the high interest rate. In effect, the new women’s jail will cost no less than $300 million. Investors will double their money. On top of that, the annual cost to your constituents to maintain and operate this huge lock-up facility and the expense to run effective programming for all those inside has yet to be calculated.

Projects funded with Lease Revenue Bonds do not require a vote from the public for approval because they are supposed to pay for themselves–like a toll road. Yet, prisons and jails do not pay for themselves—instead they suck the life-blood from local communities. History shows that when given the chance, California residents vote no on spending more money for prison and jails.

And, recent polls show that American voters believe there are too many people locked up and they overwhelmingly support policy changes that shift non-violent offenders from prison to more effective, less expensive alternatives.

Our Recommendation to the Board:

It is not too late to do the right thing. Reject this  grant and its conditions. Do not sink L.A. County into this disastrous debt for lock-up facilities we do not need.  Instead, demand that the state help counties with constructive programs like drug treatment programs, health care, mental health care, job training, job creation, housing, schools, and transportation.

3. The C.E.O. wants to justify spending $5.7 million to hire A.E.C.O.M. to assess existing conditions in L.A. County jails, help propose the direction of future programming inside jails, and present preliminary designs for construction. A.E.C.O.M. is primarily a group that engages in prison construction; they are not a group that develops creative alternatives or positive programs that will result in depopulating prisons or jails. There are well-founded reports from the ACLU; Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB); Justice Policy Institute; Youth Justice Coalition and the VERA Institute that present proven measures that can be taken to safely reduce prison and jail populations, thereby eliminating the supposed need for prison and jail construction. The VERA Institute report was commissioned by the Board itself and paid for by L.A. County residents and has been on the table for months.

Our Recommendation to the Board:
Say NO to spending $5.7 million to figure out how to jail more people in L.A. County.  Instead, spend a fraction of that money to make a plan to adopt the recommendations presented in these reports, many of which have been used successfully in other counties. Use the rest of that money to begin implementing those recommendations ASAP.

Any talk of jail construction before you have studied, discussed, and experimented with expert-recommended measures is a disservice to the county.

4. Los Angeles County is expending vital resources and using jail space to detain people for civil immigration purposes.  Currently, Los Angeles County complies with every immigration detainer request from Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), despite the fact that such compliance is not mandatory.  According to a recent JFA Institute report, approximately 2,100 inmates have ICE holds each day.  On average a person with an ICE hold spends 39 days in custody.  The federal government  does not reimburse the County for this significant cost.   ICE frequently issues immigration detainers in error, resulting in the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants by Los Angeles authorities before ICE assumes custody.

Our recommendation to the Board:
Adopt a policy to limit the circumstances where the County will detain individuals on an ICE detainer.   Adopting a policy will limit County detention of individuals unlawfully and unconstitutionally for ICE, save the County millions of unreimbursed dollars, and free up many jail beds.

5.  L.A. County Supervisors have considerable power to influence state government actions and current legislation that will take steps toward reducing the rate of incarceration. Use your power to steer the state on a better course.

 Our Recommendation to the Board:

Speak out for current legislative options that propose—though sometimes meager—positive changes to harsh sentencing laws including:

- Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 1506 to make possession of small amounts of drugs a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

- Senate Bill 9, the California Fair Sentencing for Youth Act, which will give individuals convicted to life imprisonment as juveniles an opportunity apply for parole after 25 years.

- The Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 will allow prisoners currently serving a life sentence, under the 3-Strikes Law, for non-serious, non-violent crimes to apply for a sentence reduction. An estimated 3000 individuals will be eligible for a new sentence under this initiative.

Support the campaign to repeal AB900 and save the state and California counties billions of dollars.

Call for investment in people across the state, not jails and prisons.

 6. The troubling jail violence problem is now under study, with allegations of outrageous behavior by deputies going back for years.

Our Recommendation to the Board:

Erecting new jails is not the solution.  Reduce jail violence and overcrowding by reducing the jail population and holding the Sheriff accountable for abuse.

7. The Sheriff and Board are considering contracting with the state to house L.A. County prisoners in state prison facilities. If this happens, prisoners will be farther away from their families, attorneys, and support networks.

Our Recommendation to the Board:

Drop the idea about exporting County prisoners to state facilities. This is just another form of county jail expansion. Sending people farther from home undermines all the options provided by AB109 Realignment to reduce the jail population and recidivism rates.

Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) is a statewide alliance of over 40 organizations seeking to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and jail and the number of prisons and jails in the state. curbprisonspending.org

We look forward to speaking with you in person to talk about all of our recommendations in more detail.
Please contact us if you have any questions.

We will follow up with you soon.

Sincerely,

Dolores Canales, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement

David Chavez, Critical Resistance, Youth Justice Coalition
dchavez625@yahoo.com

Emily Harris, Statewide Coordinator, CURB, Oakland

emily@curbprisonspending.org

Los Angeles Coffee Party

Joe Maizlish, Critical Resistance

Kim McGill, Youth Justice Coalition

Kevin Michael Key, Los Angeles Poverty Department

Kwazi Nkrumah, Martin Luther King Coalition of Los Angeles

Nyabingi Kuti – Executive Director, LA Reintegration Campaign

Occupy the Hood

Sheila Pinkel, Professor, Pomona College.

geri silva, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes

Carol Smith, Executive Board, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles Chapter

Mary Sutton, CURB, L.A.
Masutton2@earthlink.net

Molly Talcott, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, CSU Los Angeles

Danae Tapia, Youth Justice Coalition

Jimmie Thompson, Fair Chance Project

John Thompson, USC School of Social Work

Carol Watson, Former Board President, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles Chapter

Julia Negron C.A.S., Director, A New PATH – Los Angeles

Women’s Council of the CA Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers

For Immediate Release—April 26, 2012

California Coalition Stops Prison Construction Plan in Its Tracks

Press Contact:

Isaac Ontiveros

Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Ph. 510 517 6612

California—Members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) acted swiftly this week to defeat Assembly Bill 2587, known as the Knight bill which would have rammed forward the quarter-billion dollar construction of a medium and maximum security prison in the city of Adelanto.

“This is just one example of how this state got into this crisis,” said Emily Harris, statewide coordinator for CURB. “Despite the overwhelming opinion of California residents being against prison construction, massive prison construction projects are still being whipped up and rushed through the approval process.  And as we’ve seen for the past 30 years, it’s Californians who bear the brunt of the devastating social and economic cost of these terrible schemes.”

CURB, a statewide alliance of over 40 California organizations working to end the expansion of prisons and jails and to reduce the number of prisoners in the state, has been meeting with legislators in Sacramento for the past two days to discuss the CDCR’s recently released, The Future of California Corrections plan and to push for the more comprehensive steps outlined in the coalition’s Budget for Humanity.  The Budget for Humanity (available here: http://curbprisonspending.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Budget-for-Humanity-2-Final.pdf ) calls for an immediate end to all prison and jail expansion, reductions to prison and jail populations, progressive revenue measures, and strong reinvestment in life-affirming programs like education, healthcare, housing, job training and transportation.

“Another prison is the last thing our town needs,” said Daletha Hayden, Adelanto resident working with California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, a CURB member organization.  “Building another prison in Adelanto would have made this place the High Dessert Prison Capitol and would have sent a message to the Governor and the CDCR that the Legislature want to continued down the failed construction path.”

The bill went through the Assembly Public Safety Committee unopposed just last week, but was stopped today in the Assembly Local Gov. Committee.  Authored by Assemblyperson Steve Knight, the defeated prison would have cost an estimate $250,000,000, would have held 3000 prisoners, and would have joined at least 3 other correctional facilities in the small San Bernardino County city of 30,000.   The CDCR’s own Future of California Corrections plan shies away from construction of stand-alone facilities.

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