The Governor has released his summary on the spending plan for the 2006-2007 Corrections Budget, as well as his proposals for the future. In short, he has proposed a bond-funded, 10-year plan to spend $12 billion jail and prison construction plan that would do two things: shift short-term parole violators to county facilities instead of state prisons and increase private prison beds rather than construct new institutions throughout the state.
Schwarzenegger's summary states that his spending plan is a proposal to "pursue authority to secure additional inmate capacity through contracts with other providers" - AKA other providers outside of state correctional officers and institutions. He is calling to double the number of private prison beds from the current 8,500 to approximately 17,000 in the next two years.
This action of working with private prisons rather than state-run institutions would allow the governor to budget for the construction of only two state institutions rather than the seven that were originally considered to be constructed over the next decade. According to the governor's plan, the combination of the privatized prison bed increase and the movement of short-term prison violators, a projected 27,000 inmates in total, would create space for an additional 83,000 inmates.
Some media outlets, such as the Sacramento Bee, have written that the CCPOA is concerned about the proposals because they would "lose out on thousands of additional dues-paying members," but as usual they are missing the big picture. Mike Jimenez, President of the CCPOA told the press that he felt it was a "pipe dream" that the state could think that with growing prison populations and already under-staffed facilities that it could get away with only constructing two new institutions over the next ten years. Jimenez also said that he felt that Schwarzenegger's proposals were also a "payback to us" for the campaign waged by CCPOA and other employee unions against him during the special election back in November. "Clearly this is a shot back at us for opposing him as well as his reforms that never materialized," he said.
The proposed $8.1 billion budget represents a mere 8% of the state's total 2006-2007 budget, and includes a 5.5% increase from last year's spending for an inmate population that is expected to exceed 170,000 adults by the middle of 2007. It includes an increased $53 million for rehabilitation programs - as well as vocational programs such as masonry, forklift driving, carpentry, etc.
$128 million of the $8.1 billion budget will go to settlements in four federal court cases that include: $60 million for a juvenile justice remedial plan, $22 million for inmate dental care, $25 million for increased medical staff in adult facilities and $21 million more that will pay for defense lawyers representing parolees facing revocation. In addition, another $70 million was added to cover court-ordered pay raises for prison nurses and doctors. Together, court ordered settlements and raises comprise nearly $200 million of the state's total budget.
Proposal "A Complete Failure," Says Romero
State Senator Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) who has been an outspoken critic of the corrections department and is serving as chairwoman of the corrections oversight committee told the press that she has some "mixed feelings" about the governor's proposed budget plans for corrections. She appreciates that the "R" for rehabilitation is back, but called the plans for the Division of Juvenile Justice "a complete failure," because it doesn't provide any details on plans to overhaul operations in what used to be called the California Youth Authority. "They have no plan," says Romero.
The budget adds over 300 positions of staff to lower the ratio of staff to inmates, and opens more housing units within the system's 8 youth institutions, but it says nothing about changing the approach toward juvenile incarceration in the state and says nothing about reducing the population. It also has no plan written to facilitate the return of non-American juvenile inmates to their home countries for treatment and rehabilitation closer to home.
Other critics have chimed in saying that overall the governor's proposal for corrections is a "complete abandonment" of the governor's earlier pledges during his campaign to reform the corrections department state-wide. Rose Braz of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) said that she thinks the governor is "falling back on failed policies."