The problem surrounding the prison debate and the solutions to it need to be extremely large in scope. There are budgetary concerns, civil rights concerns, recidivism concerns, legislative concerns, and population concerns surrounding the prison topics. Dealing with every issue at the same time is more than just a challenge.
We know our prison system is consuming roughly ten percent of the entire California budget [1] and is trying to expand with the addition of new convicts daily. Currently there is no way around spending billions of dollars to fix the situation. Prisons have tried by converting buildings such as gymnasiums into large unsecured dormitories, and now they have reached their limits.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) cite that they have a “lack of adequate prison and jail space, as well as correctional staff” [2], which is adding to the rising cost of corrections. Without enough correctional staff, employees need to work overtime every week in order to ensure that their job is getting done. More correctional staff would reduce the need of paying for overtime benefits and would save us money in the long run. However, building more prisons would only add to the budget. AB 900, which is the bill that allowedCalifornia to transfer prisoners out of state [3], was also designed to create more beds in jails, prisons, and mental health facilities. The state “authorized the issuance of $7.4 billion in lease revenue bonds in two phases to support the construction of 53,000 new [these] beds”. “Unfortunately, AB 900 has been held up by unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape” [4] and has done very little for correctional facilities.
Rather than spending billions of dollars on building new prisons, California should continue to transfer inmates to other facilities out-of-state. The bulk of the taxpayer’s money should then be invested in drug rehabilitation, educational, occupational, and other training programs within prisons. Currently the CDCR doesn’t have the means to fund effective rehabilitation programs for inmates and parolees [2]. “An estimated 70 percent of the juvenile justice population suffer from learning disabilities, and 33 percent read below the fourthgrade level.” [5] If Californians can focus on lowering recidivism by means of rehabilitating criminals, the overcrowding issue will attend to itself. Ideally, the issues with Three Strikes will fade as inmates who want to avoid further prison time will have the means to do so when they are released. With less people being held for extensive lengths of time, corrections wouldn’t need to worry about medical costs as much as they do currently.
The rehabilitation programs would not be inexpensive by any means. However, if California is willing to invest toward reducing recidivism, it can provide for a more productive population overall. Ex-convicts who work and pay taxes do much more than ex-convicts who reoffend and are eventually placed back into prisons. The costs would justify themselves by the success of the new programs. Rather than throwing money away along side of our prisoners, we can do what the CDCR was originally designed to do, rehabilitate.
[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] California Correctional Peace Officers Association. (January, 2010). CCPOA on Prison Reform. Accessed (April 19, 2010) from: http://www.ccpoa.org/issues/ccpoa_on_prison_reform/
[3] California State Senate Republican Caucus. (April, 2008). Briefing Report: The Prison Overcrowding Crisis - AB 900 One Year Later. Accessed (April 19, 2010) from: http://cssrc.us/publications.aspx?id=4083&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
[4] Runner, G., Spitzer, T. (July, 2008). A Look at AB 900 One Year Later... NOTHING. Accessed (April 19, 2010) from: http://www.flashreport.org/featured-columns-library0b.php?faID=2008072410585455
[5] Losen, D., Wald, J. (2003). Defining and Redirecting a School-to-Prison Pipeline. Accessed (April 19, 2010) from: http://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/74/07879722/0787972274.pdf
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