SACRAMENTO—As California legislators return to work this week, the People’s Budget Fix coalition today presented California lawmakers with alternative proposals to achieve long-term improvements in public safety and actual savings in prison costs. The alternative proposal comes after lawmakers cut an unallocated $1.2 billion from the FY 2009-10 budget for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). The CDCR’s plan for achieving these cuts, which is backed by the governor, will not add up to $1.2 billion and may actually increase prison costs over time.

In a rally at the State Capitol and in meetings with legislators today, the groups presented their alternative budget proposals on prison spending and called on the legislature to “reject the budget gimmicks” in favor of real reform. The groups include the ACLU of Northern California, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Drug Policy Alliance, and Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes. The coalition’s platform, part of The People’s Budget Fix, is a series of smart criminal justice reforms that would save the state $12 billion while increasing public safety and protecting the social safety net.

“The CDCR’s plan to reduce the prison population contains some good ideas, but it won’t add up to the $1.2 billion in needed savings. There are also serious flaws with the plan that will actually cost the state more money,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, Deputy State Director of Drug Policy Alliance.
“Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to the state prison budget slash funds in too many of the wrong places. Legislators must protect rehabilitative programs and insist on reforms that make our communities safer,” said Zachary Norris, Director of the Books Not Bars program at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

Key goals of the People’s Budget Fix proposals are to reserve prison for serious offenses and focus resources on recidivism-reduction. This must include preserving the limited, but vital, rehabilitative services currently threatened by the CDCR proposal. Strategies for achieving these goals include:

• Convert More Petty Offenses to Misdemeanors: Dozens of nonviolent offenses can still result in lengthy and expensive prison sentences including nonviolent property crimes like forgery, embezzlement, and vandalism. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, converting a larger number of wobblers into straight misdemeanors will reduce state prison spending by $700 million each year.
• Keep Response to Petty Drug Offenses Local: Incarceration of low-level drug offenders remains a significant drag on the state’s criminal justice system, diverting law enforcement resources, as well as clogging courts, jails and prisons. People convicted of simple drug possession, or drug possession with intent to sell, should be handled at the county level, whether through community service, treatment, probation or some combination of those. (Estimated General Fund savings of $1 billion annually.)
• Respond to Youth Offenders Closer to Home:  With an annual budget of over $436 million and an astronomic recidivism rate of 72%, California’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) youth prison system drains state resources and offers little to nothing in return. Youth currently housed in state DJJ prisons should be diverted to county and regional custody options, phasing out DJJ prisons in three years. Half of the current DJJ budget would be allocated to counties as well as a state oversight and enforcement office in order to ensure best practices. (Estimated General Fund savings of $200 million annually.)  

(The full alternative budget proposal is available online.)

Other solutions from the People’s Budget Fix include maintaining effective anti-recidivism programs, replacing the death penalty with permanent imprisonment without the possibility of parole (five year savings of $1 billion), and reforming the Three Strikes Law to apply only to violent offenses (five year savings of $5 billion.)

“California’s prison system and our economy are in crisis. We will not fix either unless we seriously overhaul our failed criminal justice system,” said Natasha Minsker, Death Penalty Police Director at the ACLU of Northern California.

“It’s time to reject the gimmicks and the political posturing and implement real reform that actually improves public safety,” said Annette Summers of Families to Amend California Three Strikes.  

###

View the full budget proposal here.