The Stop Gap Measure

As of January 25th 2010, California has begun its promise to reduce the prison population by 6,500 inmates by the end of the year. The plan is to give inmates extra “good time” benefits, raising the original benefits from 33% to 50% reduced time [2]. Of course, not all inmates are eligible for early release; the low-risk offenders have the priority over the other inmates. Low-risk offenders can include non-violent criminals, older criminals serving life sentences for crimes done decades ago, and inmates in occupational or educational programs.

To further reduce the burden on our criminal justice system, the lower-risk offenders will not be supervised when they are paroled. However the same legal restrictions will still apply to them; they will not be able to vote, own firearms, and they can be searched without a warrant. Not only does this measure help to reduce prison population, it reduces recidivism and the work load on our parole agents. The law previously made all released convicts serve at least 3 years of parole, now only the higher risk convicts will be under the more watchful eyes of parole agents. Figures now estimate that they will now be responsible for an average of 48 parolees instead of 70 they had to manage before [1]. Parole agents can now focus on making sure the more dangerous parolees stay inline. As mentioned before, it helps to reduce recidivism by lowering the risk that a parolee will not be sent back to prison on a technicality.

Yet this is still only a stop gap measure, early released inmates are stigmatized to employers. With the economy the way it is, it is already very hard for the average person to find a suitable job. Those with the added taint of convict will have a much harder time [3]. Those lucky enough to get into an occupational or educational program in prison will stand a better chance in obtaining a livable salary. Those who can’t will most likely end up back in prison with even less hope of another chance.

The state estimates that these measures will save them roughly $1 billion over the next year. However, time will only tell how effective the new law will be, currently, it appears like a step forward in solving our immediate problem. And although our prison system will still be will over flooded, it buys legislature more time to develop long term solutions. After all we have at least another 160,000 more inmates to work with.

Associated Press. (2010, Jan 22). "California to Reduce Prison Population by 6,500 Inmates" Fox News Network. accessed (2010, Feb 22) URL: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583591,00.html

Furlio, A. (2010, Feb 20). "Judge switches, applies good-time release credits to jail inmates" Sacramento Bee. accessed (2010, Feb 23) URL: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/02/20/2551061/hed-here.html#Comments_Container

Tahmincioglu, E. (2010, Feb 17) "Unable to get jobs, freed inmates return to jail" MSNBC. accessed (2010, Feb 22) URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35263313/ns/business-careers/

The Problem at Hand

Today in California we are facing an impending crisis which threatens our way of life. In short, our prison system is overloaded. As of the end of the fourth quarter in 2008, California had over 300,000 offenders in the CDCR (California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation) system. Of those 300,000; about 170,000 were actual inmates serving time within institutions. The estimated cost of those inmates was $8,330,000,000; the budget proposed by the CDCR for the following year hovered around $10 billion. [1] The systemic problem Californian prisons are having is the high rate of recidivism; which as of April 2008 floated around 54%. [2] We are spending roughly $49,000 per year, per inmate only to find that they are committing more crimes and returning to prison. The more people fill our prisons the more resources out of the state budget they take up. If the cost continues to rise at $2 billion per year the entire system will crash the government budget altogether.

The budget isn’t the only concern Californians should have about their prisons. While the prison system is well underfunded, it is grossly overpopulated. Laws such as the Three Strikes have been used to put mild offenders away for life in addition to the violent offenders the law was intended for. This situation has created serious security issues within our prisons. Since prisons can’t afford new buildings, many prisons such as Solano State prison have converted gymnasiums into dormitories for lower risk offenders. Inside hundreds of inmates are supervised by three to four unarmed guards – depending on the level of security, one armed guard can be assigned to watch from an elevated position – supported only by radio. The picture above gives a slight example of such a conversion.

Beyond fiscal concerns of overcrowding, the conditions for the treatment of our prisoners have been deemed cruel and unusual by federal courts. Just last year the federal courts mandated that we reduce our prison population by 40 percent. [3] Considering the federal government has had to intervene in this situation, should clue us in that it is time to get everything sorted and solved.

Of course recidivism and overcrowding can be seen as symptoms of the true problem at hand. While stop gap measures such as early release of prisoners may lighten our burden temporarily, California is still set to overfill its prisons again and again. In order to understand how to fix our prison system we have to examine the reason why it became the way it is today. This blog is intended to sort out and reveal the issues at hand and hopefully provide some insight on how to solve our prison crisis.



[1] Fourth Quarter 2008 Facts and Figures. (2009). Retrieved February 5, 2010, from California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation website: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Divisions_Boards/Adult_Operations/docs/Fourth_Quarter_2008_Facts_and_Figures.pdf

[2] Recidivism Rates (June 13, 2008). Retrieved February 7, 2010, from California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation website: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Offender_Information_Services_Branch/Annual/RECID2/RECID2d2005.pdf
[3] California may have to cut prison population by 40 percent. (February 10, 2009). Retrieved February 5, 2010, from CNN website: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/10/california.prisons/