Governor Newsom’s revised 2019-20 budget for corrections has increased to $12.8 billion. While there are some good things included in the budget, we notice an increased capacity for health and mental health services inside California Prisons. According to a report by the California Budget & Policy Center, 80% of CDCR’s budget goes to operations and health related services. “People experiencing mental illness “are especially sensitive to the unique stresses and traumas of prison life, and their psychiatric conditions often deteriorate as a result.”[1]While people who are incarcerated are deserving health treatments, CURB maintains our position that prisons are not acceptable wellness or mental health facilities. Nobody can get well in a cell. Instead of wasting resources to stretch the span of destructive prisons, where individuals cannot be properly treated, there is an urgent need to reduce spending on corrections and increase community-based health and mental health related services so that people’s needs are addressed and they do not end up in a cage.
