California’s prisons facing major crisis

More than 36 million people live in California. The state recently averted a financial collapse by enacting a budget that cuts $15 billion in services. More than half of those cuts came from education.

California’s prison budget was cut by $1.2 billion. California’s prisons house approximately 171,000 inmates, more than three times as many inmates as Ohio. However, California’s prisons were designed to hold only about 84,000 inmates. On Aug. 8, the state prison in Chino, Calif., which currently houses about twice its normal capacity, erupted in a violent riot. With ongoing staff and treatment cuts, as well as oppressive living conditions, Chino may be just the beginning of a tumultuous era for California prisoners and the men and woman who oversee them.

To complicate matters, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is under federal court order to reduce its prison population by 43,000 inmates. According to Time, California spends nearly $10 billion a year to operate its prisons. The average cost per inmate is $49,000 a year, significantly higher than the national average of approximately $29,000. With all those inmates and all that money California has one of the nation’s worst recidivism rates.

How did California’s prison system get to this surreal state of dysfunction? A recent jaw dropping case in California may provide some insight. Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender was arrested last month for the abduction of an 11-year-old girl from a bus stop in South Lake Tahoe. The abduction occurred in 1991 and the victim was held hostage for 18 years. Garrido is accused of repeatedly raping the victim resulting in the birth of two children now ages 15 and 11.

Garrido’s crimes are appalling, but obviously extremely rare. Yet, reform-minded Californians are fearful that efforts to relieve prison crowding may be in jeopardy because of Garrido’s high profile crimes. Their concern is warranted.

The New York Times reported that GOP Sen. Tom Harmon, in referring to Garrido, said, “This demonstrates the problems that we’re going to have if we release thousands of prisoners into our local communities.” Harmon was also referring to legislation that would erase the $1.2 billion budget shortfall for corrections by releasing 27,000 non-violent, low risk, non sex-offenders.

In the wake of Garrido, a watered down version of the prison reduction bill was passed by the legislature which is about $233 million under the $1.2 billion mark. According to the blog California Reports, no GOP member voted for the prison reduction bill.

Knee-jerk reaction

The Garrido case is just the most recent example of knee-jerk reactionary politics that has taken headline-driven public sentiment over best practices to address complicated criminal justice problems.

Elected policymakers loathe being labeled “soft-on-crime.” Modern political history is replete with examples of political careers being sunk by the mere appearance of coddling criminals. Mike Dukakis had Willie Horton; Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Mark Singel had Reginald McFadden; and countless legislators who voted to increase prison treatment, scale back mandatory sentencing, or early release for non-violent offenders have also paid the price.

California legislators have watched their prison costs rise by 216-percent during the last 20 years. Prison medical costs alone have risen by 210-percent since 2000. They have also presided over a prison recidivism rate that has soared to 70-percent and a crime rate that is ranked in the top ten nationally for robbery, the top 15 for violence and the top 20 for murder.

California’s “lock’em up” strategy to fight crime is a failure, but as the Garrido case makes painfully clear, it remains an effective re-election strategy.

X Matthew T. Mangino is the former district attorney of Lawrence County and a featured columnist for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly.