Getting Smart on Crime Could Help Save State Budget

The seemingly never-ending state budget dilemma has completely preoccupied legislative affairs in Sacramento this year.  Our legislators have been forced to come face to face with a  budget shortfall of $26 billion even after dramatic cuts were made in February to close the $40 billion gap.  Unable to raise revenues because of the refusal of the Republicans and the Governor to consider new taxes, the legislature will be making drastic reductions to existing state programs.

You have read about the billions in cuts to education, along with proposals to eliminate Cal-Works, health care for poor children and college grants for students, among other severe cutbacks.  The legislature is unlikely to completely eliminate the most important of the safety net programs, but the consequences of the economic downturn will impact all Californians and be felt most severely by those most in need.

Now for the glimmer of hope: for the first time in memory, it appears the legislature will be making significant cuts to the Department of Corrections. It’s about time. Shortly before I began my tenure as an ACLU lobbyist, the prison population was  59,000 inmates. Now it stands at 170,000. California is spending $10 billion annually on our prison system,  more than double what was spent just five years ago.   

As reported recently by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project,  for the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison.  In California, almost two-thirds of the people sent to state prison are for drug and property crimes. The report concludes  that, “for all the money spent on corrections today, there hasn’t been a clear and convincing return for public safety… More and more states are beginning to rethink their reliance on prisons for lower-level offenders and finding strategies that are tough on crime without being so tough on taxpayers.”

Fiscal realities may finally motivate elected officials to become “smarter on crime.”  In California, the ACLU actively lobbied for parole and sentencing reforms as part of the budget solution. Any dollar saved could be allocated for more pressing social needs. 

The latest indications are that the budget of the Department of Corrections will be cut by approximately 10% budget.  Some of the proposed “savings” are problematic - cuts to inmate vocational and educational programs - but others will come from legitimate reforms, including  parole reforms intended to lower our recidivism rate.  (The recidivism rate in California stands at 70%, by far the worst in the country.)  

The Governor has also proposed reducing certain low-level crimes, such as petty-theft with a prior conviction, from “wobbler” to misdemeanor status, thereby eliminating state prison time for these offenses. (There are currently 2,400 inmates serving time in our state prisons for petty theft.)  While no one should expect significant sentencing reforms from the Legislature or the Governor anytime soon, these initial reforms are important steps in developing a fairer and more just system.