FCL NEWSLETTER -- February, 2001

For more information on this request, view a letter delivered to the Governor by California Food Policy Advocates staff at . For more information on the SUA, visit and search for ?SUA?.

Source: California Food Policy Advocates

California adults with mental illness
All mental illness:	                      5,225,368
Severe mental illness only:	              1,343,666
Severe and persistent mental illness only:	646,950

Those not being helped
Seniors (60+):	                                230,118
Adults (18-59):	                                814,695
Children (0-17):	                        530,900

Source: Little Hoover Commission, 2000.

10:	Number of years term limits have been
        in effect for state officeholders

18:	Number of women serving in the state 
	Legislature 10 years ago

32: 	Number of women in the state Legis-
	lature today

7:  	Number of Latinos serving in the state 
	Legislature 10 years ago

27: 	Number of Latinos in the state Legis-	
	lature today

9:  	Number of African-Americans serving 
	in the state Legislature 10 years ago

6:  	Number of African-Americans in the 
	state Legislature today

47: 	Number of Republicans serving in the 
	state Legislature 10 years ago

43: 	Number of Republicans in the state 
	Legislature today 

   Source: California Journal
  

The Governor's Military Budget

In his proposed budget, the governor, himself a graduate of a military high school, reinforces his backing for two National Guard-run educational facilities: $9.2 million for the Turning Point Academy at the Guard's camp in San Luis Obispo and $1.3 million for the Oakland Military Institute at the former Oakland Army Base. The case for these two programs is weak: the California National Guard is being investigated by state auditors because of administrative irregularities and there is no research that shows that military schools produce higher grades, better test scores, and less delinquency. |

? Ken Larsen

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Do you have "This Life We Take"?

There's good news in the Governor's 2001-2002 Budget: the administration wants significant amounts of money spent to prevent unnecessary incarceration.

Declining CYA Population

Since 1998, the California Youth Authority has billed counties for the costs of housing juvenile court wards convicted of non-violent offenses. As a result, county officials have created cost-effective local alternatives to sending wards to one of the state's 11 institutions. By the end of the next fiscal year, the Youth Authority expects its ward population to drop to less than 7,000 from a high of 10,000 in 1996.

Paradoxically, relatively low incarceration rates trouble bureaucrats, who need budget increases to expand their domains. For years before the current CYA director, Jerry Harper, was appointed, the agency experienced morale problems and suffered attrition in its teaching staff. Now it must start talking with union negotiators about closing living units.

The proposed Youth Authority budget is $431.4 million, a 4 percent increase over the 2000-2001 fiscal year. It includes $4.3 million to eliminate deficiencies in mental health care by adding 95 treatment beds, aftercare counseling for 350 parolees, and a comprehensive assessment of the department's mental health services. In addition, $2.8 million is proposed for sex offender counseling, and $720,000 for expansion of the Substance Abuse Treatment Program. The average annual cost per ward in custody is projected to be about $43,300.

Crime Prevention

The budget provides $22 million to expand the ?After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnership Program,? currently funded at $87 million. This funding adds 350 schools and approximately 44,000 students to the very successful ?beacon school? movement that transforms schools into community centers before and after regular teaching hours.

Another piece of good news that could keep youth out of trouble is the $121 million for the second year of county juvenile programs under AB 1913, the Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act of 2000. This legislation funds community collaborations to deal with at-risk youth and offenders. While probation and law enforcement organizations have the inside track, it's also an opening for agencies working with high-risk youth who have never been arrested. County allocations under the legislation range from nearly $35 million for Los Angeles County to $4,200 for Alpine County.

Drug Treatment

The budget also reflects the policy change initiated by California voters last fall when they passed the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000 (Proposition 36). The measure enacts a harm reduction approach to drug use, effective July 1, 2001.

It directs officials to use probation and drug treatment in lieu of incarceration for conviction of possession, use, transportation for personal use, or being under the influence of a controlled substance, and related parole violations. The Act appropriates $60 million to establish treatment programs during the current year and $120 million annually through 2005-06 for treatment, probation costs, court monitoring, family counseling, vocational training, and literacy training.

The State Controller has transferred the $60 million appropriation for the current year into the new Substance Abuse Treatment Trust Fund administered by the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. Funding allocations to the counties have been announced, largely based on current drug program caseloads and population.

To qualify for funds, each county board of supervisors designates a lead agency, creates a local trust fund to receive the money, and adopts a resolution committing the county to implement Proposition 36.

State Prisons

The Governor's Budget for the Department of Corrections has not been adjusted for the effects of Proposition 36, so it projects a one percent rise in the adult prison population to about 164,000 beds. In May, when projections will take into account the approximately 7,000 people currently being sentenced on drug possession charges and parolees now being returned to custody for possession of drugs, the projected prison population could shrink by as much as 6%.

The $4.8 billion proposed for state prisons is considerably larger than the $2.7 billion allocated for the community college system and represents an increase of $221 million over the current-year's budget. It provides for 434 additional personnel years and reallocation of over 700 vacant jobs (presumably teaching and counseling positions), giving the department over 46,000 employees. The average annual prisoner cost is projected to be $25,600, but since this budget is very much a work in progress, it would not be surprising to see a rise in the average cost of confinement.

Years ago, California invested in a high-tech prison architecture as a way to cut staffing costs. However, when parolees return to custody at twice the rate of other states, it is time to ask whether such lean staffing ratios are good for public safety. In particular, we should question if it is good to eliminate teaching and counseling positions.

It is also important to consider the contrast between the state's policies regarding confinement of non- violent juveniles and adults. Whereas the counties are responsible to pay for any juveniles confined in state facilities, the State shoulders the entire cost for adults. This gives local authorities a cost-less place to send people convicted of drug dealing, auto theft, and other non-violent felonies.

These policies have influenced the decisions of sheriffs, prosecutors, probation officers and, indirectly, judges for decades. Local officials have allowed alternatives to incarceration to go undeveloped, while a flood of non-violent offenders have been funneled into state prisons. Legislators need to consider whether the cost allocation process used by the Youth Authority should not be applied to adult prisons as well.

Money for Prison Problems

The budget reflects several efforts to address problems that plague the state's prisons:

Violence

Increasing stresses in prisons have led to violence, including assaults and suicides. Much of the stress results from the loss of traditional outlets that enable self-expression, build hopefulness and absorb youthful energy. Well-developed work programs, education, athletics, art, and counseling are hallmarks of a safe prison, because they provide a context for reducing gang influences. However, these programs have been steadily cut to make prisons seem more forbidding.

The Department now proposes to spend $3.2 million to implement a pilot program, patterned on programs in New York and Connecticut, to offer prisoners in security housing units communication, conflict, and anger management skills. These valuable skills should clearly be offered to anyone who has a serious history of conflict. But why wait until a prisoner is facing the highest level of discipline the prison system has to offer?

It is important to integrate non-violent alternatives into prison experience from the first day of confinement. Staff and community volunteers can be used inexpensively as mentors and models, rather than allowing prisoners to suffer the substantial damages of prison discipline.

Emotional maturity is even more important than skill in transforming potentially violent situations. While all prisoners can be guided toward emotional growth and honesty, those qualities seldom become a way of life through exposure to a single course of study. This kind of growth by prisoners needs to become a core departmental value.

Training

Plans are in the works to extend the Basic Correctional Officer Academy from 10 weeks to 16 weeks. The 2000 Budget Act appropriated $10 million for the project, but CDC proposes to utilize only $2.4 million before July of this year and $6.3 in the next budget year. The remaining $1.3 million would revert to the General Fund.

To expand the Parole Agent Academy from 6 weeks to 10 weeks, the budget proposes $1.1 million. While these are not major cost items, they represent a gateway to significant improvements in public safety and reductions in recidivism ? if a high quality curriculum is adopted and energetic training standards are maintained.

Medical treatment

The budget augments prison health care by more than $87 million, bringing the total to $724 million, or more than $4,000 per inmate per year. While this money is welcome, it cannot of itself solve problems such as antiquated record-keeping, isolated and demoralized medical staff, custodial personnel serving as gate-keepers for prisoners needing care, and inaccessibility of aspirin and other over-the-counter medications.

When the state of Texas turned prisoner medical care over to its universities, there was a $25 million savings in the first year, and the cost per inmate was about $2000 annually. CDC has retained a consultant to explore the advantages of teaching hospitals, such as the University of California, providing a medical staff that is not isolated from community standards of care, and to give prisoners quicker access to medical specialists. It is unclear whether a recommendation will be ready in the current budget cycle, but the proposal should incorporate a plan to automate medical record keeping.

Peer review is essential for the maintenance of quality professional services. Regardless of any structural changes, it should be clear that funding is needed for medical services to become accredited by a national organization such as the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. |

? Steve Birdlebough

[Graph]
New Admissions to State Prison
Male felons: person, property, and drug offenses
rate per 100,000 California population
Calendar Years 1978-1998 [person] [property] [drugs]
SOURCE: CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

Find out whether your county is making the best use of its share of funding under AB 1913, or Proposition 36, and whether community-based organizations have an adequate voice in the process; let your legislator (and FCL) know what you discover

If you correspond with someone who is in custody, are part of a prison visitation program, or know the family of someone who is behind bars, you should take time to write to your legislators (and FCL) about the way prisoners are affected by current conditions, and the likely effect of the sit-uation on public safety in the long run.

If you have never visited a prisoner, contact the Match 2 Coordinator through the office of Community Services at your nearest prison.

TAKE NOTE!