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February 24, 2006
Take Action to Oppose the Governor's Prison Expansion
Dear FCL Supporter,
After suffering a humiliating political defeat at the polls last November, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to resurrect his political misfortunes by reinventing himself as the "build it" governor. The governor is proposing to spend $12 billion to build 90,000 new prison and jail beds in California. Schwarzenegger's proposal has been introduced in legislation as Assembly Bill 1833, by Juan Arambula (D-Fresno).
Now is the time to tell Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature that you want them to fix Corrections -- not make a broken system bigger. Consider the following:
Expanding prisons and jails does not make the public safer. Other states have had larger decreases in crime than California while reducing their prison and jail populations. New York State, for example, reduced its prison population by making more use of community corrections. As a result, New York City's local jail population also decreased significantly. The crime rate in New York state declined more so than in California (Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and Mass Incarceration, Michael Jacobson, New York University Press, 2005).
The governor has been unwilling to do the things that would make prison and jail expansion unnecessary. Shortly after Schwarzenegger was elected governor, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation predicted 15,000 fewer prisoners by June 2005 as a result of new parole reforms, releasing prisoners a few months early to supervised drug treatment and additional opportunities for prisoners to earn early release credits ("Steep inmate decline slated," The Sacramento Bee, November 13, 2003). In 2005, parole reforms were abruptly canceled following pressure from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (the prison guards union) and Crime Victims United ("Parole overhaul scrapped," The Sacramento Bee, April 12, 2005.
The State's prison population estimates are unreliable. The California State Auditor indicates that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's prison population estimates can accurately predict for a year or two at best. Beyond that, the estimates are notoriously inaccurate.
Building new prisons and jails is a drain on the state's economy. In addition to costing $200,000 per cell to construct, taxpayers will be asked to pay the operational costs of these new facilities. The governor's budget proposal includes only $53 million in new funding for rehabilitation; yet, in two years, the corrections budget has expanded by a third, from $6 billion to $8 billion. The State of California now spends more for incarceration than the amount of state support for the University of California and the California State University systems combined. Now, the governor wants $12 billion in bonds and other funding sources to build more prisons?
The governor's own Independent Review Panel said that "the key to reforming the system lies in reducing the numbers."
TAKE ACTION NOW:
Write letters (and make phone calls) in opposition to AB 1833 and send them to:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 445-4633
E-mail: governor@govmail.gov
Message Phone: (916) 445-2841
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez
State Capitol
Room 219
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 319-2146
E-mail: speaker.nunez@assembly.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 319-2046
Senate President pro Tem Don Perata
State Capitol
Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 327-1997
E-mail: senator.perata@sen.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 445-6577
Senator Kevin Murray, Chair
Conference Committee on Infrastructure Bonds
State Capitol
Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 445-8899
E-mail: senator.murray@sen.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 445-8800
Sincerely yours,
Jim Lindburg
Legislative Advocate
http://www.fclca.org
E-mail: JimL@fclca.org
Phone: (916) 443-3734
Fax: (916) 448-6109
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