Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) is a broad-based coalition of over 40 organizations seeking to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in the state. We are fighting for a Budget for Humanity.
Jan 12
26
Avanza plan de más cárceles
Condado aprueba la solicitud de $100 millones en fondos estatales
- Jorge Morales Almada | La Opinión
- 2012-01-25
Los cinco supervisores del Condado de Los Ángeles parecían mostrar su rechazo al plan de expansión del sistema carcelario, pero de manera unánime y sorpresiva decidieron ayer dar el primer paso para ello al acordar que solicitarán 100 millones de dolares de un fondo estatal destinado a la construcción de prisiones.
La decisión, que parece estar acorde al plan de expansión de cárceles que promueve el Sheriff Lee Baca, se hizo a pesar de 75 comentarios públicos en contra y de una petición con más de mil firmas también de rechazo.
En la sesión de ayer de la Junta de Supervisores sólo hablaron a favor de construir más cárceles Jan Takata como representante del Departamento del Sheriff y el director ejecutivo del condado, William Fujioka, quienes aseguraron que era la alternativa más viable para aliviar el problema de sobrepoblación carcelaria que se avecina con los reos que enviará el estado.
El plan completo del Sheriff es de 1,400 millones de dólares, pero a decir de los opositores se elevará hasta los 2,660 millones debido a los intereses.
Tan sólo la construcción de una nueva cárcel para mujeres en Pitchess representaría un gasto de $194.7 millones, precisa la propuesta.
A ello habría que sumarle los gastos de mantenimiento y de operación, señalaron activistas de Californians United for Responsible Budget (CURB) y de Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) que realizaron una protesta afuera de la Junta de Supervisores para exigir un rechazo a ese plan.
Sin embargo Gloria Molina, Zev Yaroslaksky, Michael Antonovich, Mark Ridley-Thomas y Don Knabe dieron su voto a favor.
Molina fue crítica al señalar que la única propuesta que hay para solucionar el problema del manejo de población carcelaria es construir más instalaciones, mientras que Yaroslavsky apuntó que no se pueden permitir un gasto de 1,400 millones. No obstante, votaron a favor.
Los opositores al plan insistieron en que en lugar de gastar dinero en cárceles, deberían invertir recursos a educación, prevención del crimen, programas de rehabilitación y antipandillas, en centros juveniles, en el combate a la pobreza.
La ex asambleísta Jackie Goldberg se sumó a la protesta para criticar lo que llamó la creación de un imperio carcelario que sólo dará más dinero a las corporaciones.
“Este gasto de dinero no es por un asunto de seguridad pública, sino de hacer más grande su imperio”, mencionó Goldberg.
Esther Lim, abogada de la Unión Americana para las Libertades Civiles (ACLU), señaló que no es necesario construir más cárceles porque actualmente hay alrededor de 7 mil camas disponibles.
Para Emily Harris, coordinadora estatal de CURB, la postura de los supervisores que parecían rechazar el plan de expansión carcelaria, era sólo una simulación.
“Dicen que no quieren un plan de 1,400 millones, pero la decisión de hoy de los supervisores significa que planean avanzar en la solicitud de recursos para construir cárceles, y eso es el inicio de una avalancha de decisiones para otras propuestas de expansión”, consideró Harris.
También ayer se decidió que antes de pagar $5.7 millones a la compañía AECOM Services para que haga una evaluación de las instalaciones existentes y diseñar y programar nuevas cárceles, se tenga un plan de trabajo al respecto.
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Hundreds of protesters rallied Tuesday against a proposal to expand the Los Angeles County jail system. They say the nearly $1.5 billion on the table could be used to help prevent crime instead.
“If we provide the proper services for people, we need to prevent people from going into cages rather than building more cages” said protester Mary Sutton.
Susan Burton was among the demonstrators outside the Board of Supervisors meeting where the proposal was being considered.
“Do not build a new prison,” said Burton. “Because what I know is if you build them you’ll fill them, and you’ll overfill them.”
LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina also voiced concerns regarding the proposal inside the meeting.
“I’ve had a problem with the building of a new jail because I don’t think we have received a comprehensive report about the management failings in LA County,” said Molina.
LA County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Steve Whitmore said he understands Molina’s concerns.
“This is a very difficult budget time for everybody,” said Whitmore. “And so to be steward of the finances, they’re asking questions; we will certainly answer them.”
The expansion plan introduced several years ago by Sheriff Lee Baca includes tearing down the Men’s Central Jail and adding three new towers, as well as building a new women’s facility at Pitchess Detention Center.
For Immediate Release—January 24, 2012
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros, Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Ph. 510. 517.6612
Los Angeles— Over two hundred community members showed an enthusiastic display of opposition to the Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Department’s move to expand LA County’s jails. After noting much community pressure, the Supervisors immediately backed down from the $1.4 billion dollar expansion plan that Sheriff Baca proposed in October. While the supervisors did not decide to withdraw the county’s application for state AB 900 Phase 2 jail construction funding, they did slow the pace on the commissioning of a $5.7 million report on possible jail expansion.
Throughout the meeting a series of reports from the Vera Justice Institute, ACLU, and the anticipated report form expert Jim Austin were cited, outlining countless solutions to LA’s notorious jail conditions and overcrowding. “If the Board of Supervisors is so concerned about improving conditions in the jail then let’s do what we know. The only solution is to reduce the jail population, not to build more cells” notes Emily Harris, Statewide Coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “We know the
Supervisors won’t vote for an outright $1.4 billion dollar expansion, but moving forward with the AB 900 applications shows that the Supervisors are still investing in moving forward with failed expansion policies. We fear that in the place of a one-time massive allocation, they will try to deceive LA residents by pushing forward a series of small expansion plans that amount to the same thing.
Outside the Kenneth Hahn administrative building, nearly a dozen LA-based organizations rallied their people for two hours before entering the hall and giving an hour and half of public comment to the Board. “Obviously we want the board of supervisors to align themselves with the vast majority of LA residents in opposing any new jail cells in our county,” said David Chavez of Critical Resistance and the Youth Justice Coalition, two lead organizers of Tuesday’s mobilization. “While the Board voted against the voices of the people today, it is also clear that people are not going to back down from there demands that resources go toward reentry services, educating residents of this city, toward healthcare, toward jobs, not toward locking them up. We will certainly be back, and I am sure we will be back even stronger.”
Image: Los Angeles residents with the Californians United for Responsible Budget, CURB, alliance protest Sheriff Lee Baca’s proposal to spend $1.4 Billion to expand the county’s jail system outside the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
For Immediate Release—January 23, 2012
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros, Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Ph. 510. 517.6612
What: Press Conference, Rally
When: Tuesday January 24, 10am
Where: 500 West Temple St., Kenneth Hall Main entrance
Los Angeles—Hundreds of LA residents will be converging on Tuesday’s LA County Board of Supervisors meeting to protest Sheriff Lee Baca’s proposal to spend $1.4 Billion to expand the county’s notorious jail. As part of the statewide Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) alliance, organizations and community members will hold a press conference and rally before the meeting to speak out against the grave social and economic impacts of widening LA’s jail system. Residents and organizations will also advocate for alternative ways the county could use resources to address public safety, recidivism, and reentry resources without relying on incarceration. Press conference speakers will include Former State Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, “CNN Hero” Susan Burton of A New Way of Life and All of US or None, Mary Sutton of Critical Resistance, David Chavez and Veronica Martinez of Youth Justice Coalition, and Esther Lim of ACLU Southern California.
“Los Angeles County has the largest jail system not only in California, but in the entire country,” says Veronica Martinez a Youth Organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC). “Now the Sheriff is trying expanding these facilities without any input at all from the community. With so many cuts to education and other programs and services, with so many people out of work—this is an outrage.” YJC will be coordinating a visually stunning rally that will include artwork, costumes, and theater that will highlight the destructive impacts of the Sheriff’s plan and the spending trade-offs for LA communities.
The Sheriff’s expansion plan comes amidst massive budget shortfalls in education and other social services and just a week after the ACLU filed a lawsuit charging that “Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and his top commanders condoned a longstanding, widespread pattern of violence by deputies against inmates in the county jails.” After interest, the Sheriff expansion plan will cost the county more than $2.66 billion. $100 million of the proposal would come from Phase 2 of the controversial Assembly Bill 900, which provides over $7.4 billion in prison and jail expansion funds statewide—constituting the largest prison expansion scheme in human history.
Based on the landmark US Supreme Court decision earlier in 2011 ordering the California prison system to drastically reduce overcrowding, counties have been making plans to incorporate people with low-level convictions into their jail systems as part of Gov. Brown realignment plan. Brown’s plan also provides funds for alternatives to incarceration. “Instead on using funds for programs that actually work to keep people out of prison and jail—drug treatment, housing services, job training—Sheriff Baca’s plan marks a potentially disastrous trend that replicate the same conditions on the county level that led us to such massive devastation on the state level,” says Mary Sutton of CURB member organization Critical Resistance, an organizer of Tuesday’s rally.
On the heels of Tuesday’s meeting, recent reports have implied that Supervisors may be backing away from the $1.4 billion price tag of the proposal, but a revised proposal has yet to be put forward. The board will also be discuss spending $5.7 million on a report on overcrowding in LA’s jails. “We don’t need another million dollar report to tell us what we already know.” Says Emily Harris, statewide coordinator for CURB. “The only solution for LA is to reduce overcrowding immediately by abandoning all expansion plans and investing in programs and services that work in the short, medium, and long term.”
Among others, organizations involved in Tuesday’s mobilization will include Youth Justice Coalition, Critical Resistance, ACLU of Southern California, New Way of Life, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes, All of Us or None, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, Labor Community Strategy Center, TGI Justice Project, Decolonize LA, A New PATH, Los Angeles Reintegration Campaign, Enlace, Fair Chance Project, LA Poverty Department.
For more information view:
LA Jail Expansion proposal: http://curbprisonspending.org/
Expert Opinions on LA’s Jails: http://curbprisonspending.org/
Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB): www.curbprisonspending.org
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Jan 12
23
ALL OUT: SAY NO TO LA JAIL EXPANSION
RSVP on Facebook!
Sheriff Baca wants to spend $1.4 billion on jail expansion in LA County, but the Supervisors are already balking because of grassroots opposition!
WE NEED TO KEEP UP THE PRESSURE
LA has the largest jail system in the country, and its conditions amount to torture. Building more cells will only expand the problem at a time when we need education, housing and jobs.
Baca’s construction plan includes:
- using $100 million of state money for jail construction
- $1 billion in bond funding
- covering remaining costs from the County’s Capital/Refurbishment funds
$100 million is 1% of LA’s law enforcement budget. What else could that be used for, instead of cages?
- 500 full-time community intervention/peace workers in schools and communities
- 50 comprehensive youth centers in areas of the county with the highest imprisonment rates
- At least 25,000 jobs for youth returning home from lock-up
See the Youth Justice Coalition’s Welcome Home LA plan for more info!
Join us in the fight to save LA County
Baca’s plan includes spending $5.7 million of taxpayer dollars on a firm that will make recommendations on how to relieve overcrowding in the jails and whether it would be less costly to close some and build new ones.
We don’t need another million dollar report to tell us what we already know: the most cost-effective way to reduce overcrowding to have less people in jail.
AB 900 is the world’s largest prison construction plan, authorizing $7.7 billion of taxpayer dollars for prison and jail construction. It was passed in the dead of night with no public review in 2007.
Say NO to jail expansion in LA County and NO to jail expansion throughout California!
The ACLU has filed suit against the LA County Sherriff’s office for allowing a “culture of deputy violence” against inmates to flourish. According to the ACLU:
“Sheriff Lee Baca, Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, and Chief Dennis Burns are responsible for ensuring that their subordinates do not engage in a pattern of unspeakable acts of violence against inmates…in the face of a longstanding pattern of deputy abuse they have deliberately and knowingly failed to put in place the basic pieces of an accountability system…This suit is directed at them because they have allowed deputies to go unpunished, covered up their behavior and for years made no effort to reform this broken system.” Why would LA expand such a disastrous system?
TUESDAY JAN 24th: Tell LA County Supervisors NO to $2.6 billion for jail expansion!
Contact organizer Mary Sutton to find out how to give public comment against the jail expansion or support the mobilization.
Just how inhumane are the conditions inside LA County jails?
In the last two years alone, some 30 sheriff’s deputies have been disciplined for beating inmates or covering up abuse.
The FBI has been investigating brutality in the LA jails and have already filed charges against one deputy already.
According to Tom Parker, Former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI LA Field Office: “I have never experienced any facility exhibiting the volume and repetitive patterns of violence, misfeasance and malfeasance impacting the Los Angeles County Jail system.”
NO to jail expansion!
Watch what LA residents have to say about more jails
For Immediate Release – January 19, 2012
Los Angeles Residents Oppose $1.4 Billion Jail Expansion
1,000 Sign Petition, Urge Supervisors to Vote Against Sheriff’s Plan
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros, Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Phone: 510-444-0484
Los Angeles –1,000 individuals and organizations affiliated with the statewide coalition Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) submitted a petition this morning urging Supervisors to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to vote against a massive jail expansion plan at their upcoming meeting on January 24th. LA County Sherriff Lee Baca’s plan would cost $1.4 billion to build and $1.26 billion in interest payments.
According to CURB, Los Angeles County is ranked first in the 20 counties that submitted proposals for Phase II construction funding under the controversial lease revenue bond AB 900. Los Angeles is eligible to receive $100 million in jail construction funds from Phase II of AB900, to go towards the $1.4 billion dollar construction costs. Sheriff Baca will propose LA County apply for the AB900 money, though he has already submitted an application to state’s Corrections Standards Authority for the funds. The remaining costs would be covered by the county’s Capital Projects/Refurbishments funds, along with over $1 billion in bonds. Despite an ongoing fiscal crisis in California, similar costly jail expansion projects have continued to mount across the state. AB 900 allocates a total of $7.4 billion in construction funds for adding jail and prison beds and marks the largest prison construction project in human history. LA County already has the largest jail system in the US.
In a recent evaluation of realignment proposals in 13 Counties, CURB’s “Realignment Report Card” gave Los Angeles an “Incomplete” for investigating the potential for new jail beds. A vote to expand the jail would give Los Angles a “Failing” grade. The LA sherriff’s massive expansion proposal also comes amidst an ACLU lawsuit filed yesterday charging that “Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and his top commanders condoned a longstanding, widespread pattern of violence by deputies against inmates in the county jails.” The ACLU has documented dozens of stories of violence organized or condoned by sheriffs and deputies in the jail, including brutal beatings and sexual assault.
“The Sherriff’s expansion plan is a scandalous waste,” says Emily Harris, statewide coordinator for the CURB alliance. “LA residents are very clear that they need resources to go toward life-affirming projects like healthcare, education, and housing. The last thing LA County needs is to borrow against its future in order to expand this notorious jail. Next Tuesday, county supervisors have an opportunity to chart a new and better course for Los Angeles.”
As an alternative to jail expansion, CURB’s petition calls for prison realignment funds to be utilized to expand community programs and alternatives to incarceration, citing evidence that diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration save money and improve public safety in both the short and long term. CURB’s demands in LA County echo their calls for a prison and jail expansion moratorium and reinvestment in social services throughout California.
- Letter to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors: http://curbprisonspending.org/
?p=1216 - Online Petition to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors: http://signon.org/sign/la-
supervisors-stop-the-3 - Counties’ that Submitted applications for AB 900 Phase II Construction Funding: Applications Received – January 11, 2012
- Californians United for a Responsible Budget’s Realignment Report Card can be found at: http://curbprisonspending.org/
?p=790
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January 19 , 2011
Los Angeles Board of Supervisors
383 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
500 West Temple Street
Los Angeles 90012
executiveoffice@bos.lacounty.gov
Fax: (213) 633-5100
Via facsimile and email PDF.
Dear Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors,
We, the undersigned, write to you in strong opposition to the proposal to expand Los Angeles County’s jail capacity in response to realignment (AB 109). We are affiliated with Community Based Organizations and Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) a broad-based statewide alliance of organizations committed to reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in the state, our members live and work in Los Angeles County.
We have been made aware that the Corrections Standards Authority has invited Los Angeles County to apply for $100,000,000 of AB 900 Phase II funding to add 393 beds to our County jail capacity. In order to receive AB 900 money Los Angeles County must provide a 10% match or $10,000,000 and all annual operating costs. We are also aware that L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca has proposed that beyond the $10,000,000 and annual operating costs, Los Angeles County residents foot the additional construction costs of $1.165 billion. We do not support any efforts to expand the jail in our County. After reviewing Los Angeles County’s Realignment Plan we have strong concerns with using realignment funding or any County general fund money to expand the jail capacity. Instead, we believe the realignment funding should be utilized to expand community programs and alternatives to incarceration.
As you are probably aware, California counties are already spending anywhere from 70% to 80% of their general fund budgets on public safety and using realignment plan to expand jail capacity could mean the elimination or further reduction of city parks, schools, libraries and municipal support services for youth and elderly populations in the state.
Expanding incarceration has failed to reduce recidivism rates in California and will only create incentives for the Sheriff to fill the new beds, and to incarcerate rather then find other safe options. The Board of Supervisors has the opportunity to use realignment dollars to increase access to rehabilitation services for people in and outside of our jails, while protecting public safety and reducing costs. There is clear evidence that diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration save money and improve public safety in both the short and long term. The people who will be returning to your county are in need of educational, physical and mental health services, substance abuse and treatment services, and life skills services that could be provided much more cheaply, effectively and comprehensively outside of jail. Strong, independent re-entry services are proven to reduce recidivism and save public dollars.
The State of California decided to fund prisons over all else, it’s time for counties to make a different choice. Making bold moves to stop jail expansion now means counties will have more resources to solve our problems creatively. We urge you to not seek AB 900 funds or to use any of the realignment funding to expand the Los Angeles County’s jails.
Thank You,
Residents:
Nyabingi Kuti, Director of the Los Angeles Reintegration Campaign
Community Based Organizations:
A New PATH LA - Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing
A New Way of Life Reentry Project
Action Committee on Women in Prison
All of Us or None
American Civil Liberties Union Southern California
CA Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers
California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
California Partnership
Conservatives for Social Change
Critical Resistance
Drug Policy Alliance
Enlace
Fair Chance Project
Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes
Justice Policy Center
Labor/Community Strategy Center
Moms United to End the War on Drugs
Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
Sisters of St. Joseph – Los Angeles
Southern California Library
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Women for Change Foundation
Youth Communist League of Southern California
Youth Justice Coalition
Californians United for a Responsible Budget
1322 Webster St. #210
Oakland, CA 94612
Additional Signatures can be found on our online Petition: LA Supervisors: Stop the Costly Jail Expansion in Los Angeles!
Jan 12
17
Activists Oppose LA County Jail Expansion, Call for Release of Prisoners Instead of More Prisons
From today’s segment on Uprising Radio:
Feature Stories | Published 17 Jan 2012, 11:24 am | No Comments -
Listen to this segment | the entire program
Based on a US Supreme Court decision in 2011 to uphold a ruling for California to reduce overcrowding in its prisons, twenty five counties in this state are being invited to apply for billions in funding to expand their jail systems. The money is being distributed state-wide by the Corrections Standards Authority, which has already awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to more than 10 California counties for a first phase of jail construction. Chief among the counties for phase 2 funding is the LA County Jail system, picked to top the priority list because it has the most prisoners in the state to begin with. Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca, notorious for reports of torture and harsh conditions in his prison system, and under local and federal scrutiny, has applied for a sum of $2.6 billion. The LA County Board of Supervisors is due to vote this month on approving Baca’s application. But groups like the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Youth Justice Coalition, and Californians United for a Responsible Budget, are collecting signatures to petition the County Board of Supervisors to vote against the deal. They say LA has enough jails and that the best way to ease overcrowding is to stop imprisoning so many people in the first place. Violent crime in Los Angeles and nationwide is at an all time low. A new report by the LAPD and LA Sheriff’s department found that crime in 2011 was significantly lower than in 2010. The LA Times quoted a spokesman for Sheriff Baca who said, “[c]ommunities seem to be banding together to fight crime. We can’t take the complete credit.”
GUEST: David Chavez, Movement Builder with the Youth Justice Coalition
Visit www.curbprisonspending.org to sign a petition to the LA County Board of Supervisors.
The LA County Board of Supervisors will be reviewing Sheriff Lee Baca’s application for billions of dollars of prison construction funds on Tuesday January 24th at 9:30 am at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St. Los Angeles, CA 90012.
Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle
The Vacaville California Medical Facility moves ahead with its new project while other prison construction plans have come to a stop under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to cut spending.
Images
View All Images (5)Gov. Jerry Brown wants to cut state prison spending next fiscal year for the first time in nearly a decade, a departure from the goals of recent administrations, which consistently increased corrections spending and pushed for prison expansion.
Brown’s budget would save California $1.1 billion on housing inmates and hundreds of millions more by allowing the state to halt some prison construction – savings largely due to his administration’s recent overhaul of the state’s criminal justice system.
General fund spending on prisons nearly doubled under Brown’s Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, from $5.2 billion in 2004 to $9.5 billion in 2011, when Brown, a Democrat, took office. The increase in spending was largely caused by an exploding inmate population and a court order to improve medical care in prisons.
The general fund is backed by statewide taxes and pays for most of the government’s basic programs, including schools, police, welfare services and other programs. A cut in prison spending makes more dollars available for other programs.
“We’re knocking it down, and we’ll knock it down further,” Brown said Friday of the prison budget. “A lot of the problems come from the fact that they built (too many) prisons in 20 years – it was too fast, they didn’t know what they were doing, and now we have to clean up that mess. We made good progress the first year.”
$1 billion savings
Under Brown’s spending proposal, released Jan. 5, general fund spending on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would decline from this year’s budget of $9.8 billion to $8.7 billion, largely because the state prison population has fallen nearly 1,000 a week since Oct. 1, when the state shifted responsibility for lower level offenders to county law enforcement, a policy known as realignment.
“I don’t think there’s any question we’ve turned a corner here … just by the fact that we are significantly reducing the prison population,” said Daniel Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, a nonprofit that conducts policy analysis on criminal justice issues.
But Republican Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, a former parole board chairman who has been a vocal critic of realignment, predicted the savings would not last, particularly without more investment in rehabilitative services for criminals. He said that counties will ultimately have to raise local taxes to fully pay for realignment, eliminating any savings for taxpayers.
“It’s frankly not a long-run savings for the state,” said Nielsen, of Gerber (Tehama County). “Corrections spending will go down a little and then creep back up.”
Just one year ago, California was grappling with a court order to reduce its prison population by 33,000 inmates and was moving forward with 13 construction projects to expand prison capacity.
Now, the prison population is at 130,000, a decrease of 11,000 in six months. State officials met the first benchmark set by the U.S. Supreme Court to reduce the prison population and say they are on track to meet the next one as well, as thousands of offenders that would have flowed into the overcrowded system are staying in county jails instead and being supervised by local probation officials rather than state parole officers.
In addition to halting construction projects, Brown next year wants to begin phasing out the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice and place the state’s most violent youth offenders in county facilities. And after years of cuts to rehabilitation programs in prisons, Brown wants lawmakers to restore about $100 million in funding for drug treatment, education and other services.
The governor’s budget proposal, like most criminal justice issues, has prompted mixed reactions.
Worries over funding
Republican critics of the governor’s realignment plan continue to warn that the change will have dire public safety consequences, while county law enforcement officers are still worried about whether realignment funding – $400 million this year and nearly $860 million next year – will be consistent or adequate to meet their expanded responsibilities.
County officials and juvenile justice experts are glad that the governor has proposed putting off severe budget cuts to the juvenile justice system this fiscal year, but they worry about the ability of counties to handle the population in the future.
Advocates who oppose prison spending are heartened by Brown’s decision to scrap several construction projects, but say the governor isn’t going far enough. Under Brown’s proposal, the state would stop the conversion of two former juvenile facilities into adult prisons, which together would have cost nearly $500 million to build. Officials expect to save about $250 million a year in debt service on bonds by canceling those projects.
“For us it’s a mixed bag,” said Emily Harris of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a coalition made up of liberal groups that advocate for less prison spending. “They are canceling two (prison) expansion projects, and we see that as an important first step toward addressing the bloated corrections budget. … And I think it’s exciting and important that he wants to close the Division of Juvenile Justice.”
She also praised a nearly $50 million investment in grants for county probation departments that are successful in reducing recidivism among offenders.
The proposal to shutter the Division of Juvenile Justice is also significant, said experts in the field. The number of youth offenders in the state system has declined from a high of 10,000 in 1996 to its current 1,100. Now, counties handle most juvenile offenders while the state is charged with overseeing only the most violent juveniles.
Last month, Brown caused alarm among counties and juvenile justice experts when he instituted a $72 million budget cut that would have forced counties to either take back all of their youth offenders or pay the state $125,000 a year to house them.
After hearing the concern, the governor is now proposing to “delay collection” of those payments and work to phase out the Division of Juvenile Justice entirely. Under his proposal, counties would get $10 million to prepare for that change, and, starting next January, youth offenders would no longer be placed in the state system. Those currently in the system would serve out their sentences.
County officials and juvenile experts said they are not ready to support the governor’s plan without more details but are encouraged that he is willing to work with them on developing a way to handle the difficult population.
“We interpret it as a good faith effort on the part of the administration to work with us to mitigate our concerns,” said Elizabeth Howard Espinosa, who handles realignment issues for the California State Association of Counties. “What we saw in the governor’s budget is a willingness to say, look, DJJ is going to be phased out at some point, and let’s use this as an opportunity to plan and develop some programs.”
Taking steps
Macallair, the criminal justice expert, said that all of these changes would not have occurred without the U.S. Supreme Court stepping in but credited Brown for “taking the steps he needs to take.”
The governor agreed and said more work is ahead.
‘Merry-go-round’
“We wouldn’t even be here if the Supreme Court hadn’t issued a definitive order,” Brown said. “It was a big nudge. We still have district attorneys and Republican legislators that get hysterical. … But we have created some stability, we are reducing the head count, we are saving money, and I believe we can be more effective in terms of helping people re-enter society and live more productive lives, instead of being on a merry-go-round of prisons the way it’s been the last 30 years.”
E-mail Marisa Lagos at mlagos@sfchoronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/14/MNEM1MNAFQ.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1jjhAk6eh
