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CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 07:49:21 AM EST
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by TChris

California's prisons are desperately overcrowded, a condition that guarantees full employment for members of the state's powerful corrections union. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency yesterday, prefatory to execution of a plan to send prisoners to rented cells in other states, away from family and support networks that might give them a chance of avoiding a return to crime when they're eventually released. This short-term thinking only perpetuates a long-term problem.

Donald Specter, director of the Prison Law Office, is right: "as serious reform, there is nothing about this that makes sense." Sending a few thousand prisoners to be housed in other states won't solve the problem. The governor should be exploring alternatives to incarceration so that drug offenders are diverted from the prison sytem, as well as early release programs for nonviolent prisoners, including those who are serving "third strike" sentences for minor crimes.

Here are more ideas that are better than the governor's:

[Assemblyman Mark Leno, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee] said the Schwarzenegger administration could have eased crowding early on through parole reform, specifically, by allowing thousands of low-level parole violators to face sanctions in their communities rather than returning them to prison.

California is housing 5,000 prisoners who will be deported at the end of their sentences. Why wait? If deportation is inevitable, send them home now. There's no reason to waste tax dollars warehousing offenders who won't pose a threat to California if they're released.

The most critical component of reform must be the repeal of the state's draconian sentencing laws. If that doesn't happen, every California taxpayer will be working full time to fund the incarceration of a growing percentage of the state's population.

By 2011, the forecast shows, California would have more than 193,000 inmates, equal to the population of Irvine.

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    CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform | 7 comments (7 topical)
    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 09:16:56 AM EST
    Californians demanding change to the Prison Industrial Complex? Californians standing up to an overbearing, Big Brother government? Here is an example (from elsewhere) of what may be ahead for "standing up". Unless California retreats from its penchant for damaging people, it risks more than a state of emergency. It risks becoming a failed state.

    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#2)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 09:46:06 AM EST
    a plan to send prisoners to rented cells in other states, away from family and support networks that might give them a chance of avoiding a return to crime when they're eventually released.
    Actually, I wonder if, in many cases, being away from the family and friends that didn't stop you from getting involved in illegal activities in the first place - or even enabled you in some ways in your involvement - might not be such bad idea...

    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#3)
    by Patrick on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 10:29:59 AM EST
    A point or two about this article. The CCOA doesn't necessarily represent the views of it's members. I am a member of PORAC out of necessity, but they very rarely endorse a republican candidate at the state or federal level. CCOA is much the same. Boxer, Feinstein, Thompson,Angelides...You are right about one thing. These unions are too powerful and need to be stopped. Same with the teachers union. They no longer care about the worker, they are in it for the power and access.

    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#4)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 12:32:01 PM EST
    It's the american way.

    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#5)
    by lilybart on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 08:42:31 PM EST
    Stop locking up people who use drugs of their own free will. If I want to smoke a weed that God himself gave us, how does the state have any interest in that> And is it helpful to lock up non-violent drug offenders? CRAZY

    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#6)
    by JSN on Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 08:42:31 PM EST
    Donald Spector is correct the search for empty prison beds in other states will turn out the same as the search for WMDs in Iraq. The only real option they have are to place more prison inmates on parole and not admit anyone who is sentenced for a class D non violent felony.

    Re: CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform (none / 0) (#7)
    by Tim on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 12:51:26 AM EST
    The "prison for profit" industry is an expanding outrage. It threatens the core of our democratic principles and definition of who we are as a nation. Do we stand for justice first OR profit? Patrick's comment about the CCOA and Teacher's union is off the topic and pure anti-union trash talk. We need stonger unions to bring back and maintain he BALANCE of democracy. Remember checks and balances?

    CA Prisons and Pretextual Reform | 7 comments (7 topical)