June 8, 2012
To: The Hon. Jerry Brown, Governor
Senator Mark Leno Assembly Member Robert Blumenfield
Chair, Senate Budget Committee Chair, Assembly Budget Committee
Re: Corrections Spending (May Budget Revision),
Dear Governor Brown, Chairman Leno and Chairman Blumenfield,
The positive steps proposed in the recently released Futures of California Corrections report by the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation encourage us. These changes reflect at least a decade of tireless work by California communities to take on the state’s prison crisis. We support many of these proposals, but we also know that we could do far more to reduce prison spending by further reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prison beds in the state. Moreover, we oppose requests to raise the overcrowding ceiling to 145%, and for an additional $810 million in lease revenue bond authority to build more prison beds. These requests are in direct contradiction to measures that aim to shrink our bloated prison system.
On Monday April 23, CDCR released a plan in the wake of the Supreme Court overcrowding ruling, realignment, the budget crisis, and increased pressure from communities across the state fighting prison and jail expansion. The majority of the changes outlined in the report are also found in Governor Brown’s May Budget Revise.
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 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 requesting an additional $810 million in lease revenue bond authority to build more prison beds.
Given our $15.7 billion budget deficit, the huge rounds of harmful budget cuts made in recent years to the state’s safety net and to higher education, along with those yet to be made, it is inconceivable that the Legislature would approve new prison and jail beds. As you work to finalize the 2012-13 budget we urge you to adopt the following 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.
- Reject the Administration’s request to authorize an additional $500 million in lease revenue bond authority to expand county jail space. The purpose of the Realignment Act of 2011 was to encourage counties to make smart, effective decisions about incarceration, not punt the State’s overcrowding problem to fifty-eight separate counties. Providing funding for more county jail space – at significant State expense – sends a message that even though CDCR could not build its way out of unconstitutional prisons, the counties can. Instead, the Administration should be encouraging, even mandating, independent jail population studies, pre-trial services and release, and community based alternatives to reduce their jail populations.
- Reject the request for $810 million to build more prison beds. The justification for this expansion is that the aging prison population will require more medical care. CDCR could cancel 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 itself, we can drastically reduce the number of women in prison now.
- The Legislative Analyst’s Office and California Voters Agree. In The 2012-13 Budget: State Should Consider Less Costly Alternatives to CDCR Blueprint, the Legislative Analyst recommended closing prisons, and action on alternatives to CDCR’s plan to build more.[1] A Lake Research Partners poll released in May of 2011 shows that 72 percent of California voters favor allocating tax dollars to alternative custody programs for people convicted of “nonviolent” offenses rather than building more prisons. Furthermore, this May, a poll by Tulchin Research showed nearly unanimous sentiment that jails are overcrowded and we should find other ways to deal with people imprisoned for “non-violent offendes” (87 percent agree, 61 percent strongly agree).
Reduce Population
- Ensure that CDCR is held responsible for reaching the 137.5% population reduction benchmark set by the court, instead of seeking to raise the overcrowding ceiling to 145% of design capacity. In fact 137.5% of design capacity is too high and we 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. Order CDCR to develop 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 and Medical Parole to eliminate the need for high cost medical beds.
- Expand Alternative Custody for Women eligibility to include women who have a prior conviction classified as “serious” or “violent”.
- California Voters Agree. 75 percent of voters are less likely to favor putting women convicted of non-violent crimes in state prison when they hear it costs approximately $50,000 per year to keep one woman in prison.
- 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 also call for sweeping reform of California notorious Security Housing and Administrative Segregation Units.
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.
Respectfully,
Ron Ahnen, California Prison Focus.
Vanessa Aramayo, California Partnership
Pat Aties, Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Fanya Baruti, All of Us or None – Southern California
Morgan Bassichis, Community United Against Violence
Gail Brown, Life Support Alliance
Susan Burton, A New Way of Life Reentry Project
Dolores Canales, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Katina Castillo, Community Justice Network for Youth
Manuel Criollo, Labor/Community Strategy Center
Kim Carter, Time for Change Foundation
Cynthia Chandler, Justice Now
Orlando Chavez, United for Drug Policy Reform
Craig Courtney, Conservatives for Social Change
Charli Eaton, Grandmothers of the Light
Tommy Escarcega, Projecto Common Touch
Linda Evans, All of Us or None
Frank Fontes III, California Prison Moratorium Project – Fresno
Amanda Garces, Enlace
George Galvis, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, the Graduate Center, CUNY
Stephen Gutwillig, Drug Policy Alliance
LeaJay Harper, Center for Young Women’s Development
Emily Harris, Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Kenneth Hartman, The Other Death Penalty Project
Dolores Huerta, The Dolores Huerta Foundation
Gloria Killian, Action Committee on Women in Prison
Jim Lindburg, Friends Committee on Legislation California
Liz Lozano, Juvenile Offenders Committee (JOC) – California Central Women’s Facility
Laura Magnani, America Friends Service Committee
Miss Major, Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex (TGI) Justice Project
Marc Mauer, The Sentencing Project
Kim McGill, Youth Justice Coalition
Jacqueline Miller, Women for Change Foundation
Marilyn Montenegro, CA Chapter NASW Women’s Council
Julia Negron, A New PATH LA – Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing
Vanessa Nelson, Life Support Alliance
Dorsey Nunn, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Savannah O’Neill, Berkeley Needle Exchange Emergency Distribution
Mary Ratcliff, San Francisco Bay View newspaper
Debbie Reyes, California Prison Moratorium Project
Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal
Leah Sakala, Prison Policy Initiative
Penny Schoner, Prison Activist Resource Center
Geri Silva, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes
Isaac Lev Szmonko, Critical Resistance – Oakland
Elizabeth Stewart, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes – San Diego
Jesse Stout, Drug Policy Committee of the National Lawyers Guild
Mary Sutton, Critical Resistance – Los Angeles
Raphael Sperry, Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility
Diana Sylvestre, OASIS Clinic
Jimmie Thompson, Fair Chance Project
Nichola Torbett, Seminary of the Street
Sumayyah Waheed, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Mailee Wang, Community Works West – Project WHAT!
Deirdre Wilson, California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Clarissa Woo, American Civil Liberties Union of California
Chuco’s Justice Center
Development Services
Dignity In Schools: Golden Gate School of Law Chapter
El Cerrito Democratic Club
Free LA Highschool
Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal
Interfaith Communities United for Peace and Justice
Iraq Veterans Against the War – San Francisco
Justice Policy Institute
Occupy for Prisoners
Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains
Quaker Friends – Santa Cruz
RUACH
San Gabriel Valley Progressives
Sisters of St. Joseph – Los Angeles
Southern California Library
Students for Sensible Drug Policy – National Board of Directors
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – Santa Cruz
Youth Communist League of California
cc: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker John Pérez, Senate Sub 5 Chair and Senate Public Safety Committee Chair Loni Hancock, Assembly Sub 5 Chair Gil Cedillo, Senate Sub 3 Chair Mark DeSaulnier, Assembly Sub 1 Chair Holly Mitchell, Assembly Public Safety Committee Chair Tom Ammiano.
