California is radically revamping its prison system in response to a national movement to reduce mass incarceration.
After decades of being tough on crime, the state is shifting to an emphasis on crime prevention and criminal rehabilitation, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
The state was forced to change by a panel of three federal judges who declared California’s prison overcrowding was so severe it was providing prisoners with an unconstitutional standard of health care, states the Chronicle.
“I’m a little surprised at how much the tenor of things has changed, but it’s clear that the public’s mood has shifted,” said Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
“It’s clear that the public is saying…let’s try a little more rehabilitation, drug treatment, mental health treatment,” he stated.
Voters showed they were ready for a change in November 2014 by passing Proposition 47. This initiative reclassified some drug and property crimes as misdemeanors, reported the Chronicle.
Realignment reduced the number of state prisoners by more than 30,000 inmates. Most studies don’t show an increase in state crime because of realignment, the report said.
While California had one of the highest recidivism rates in the nation, it is currently at 54.3 percent with room for improvement. The price tag for housing, feeding and caring for an inmate in the state is nearly $64,000 per year, reports the Chronicle.
There are about 127,000 inmates in the state prison system, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Scott Kernan.
The decrease, which affects what Kernan calls “the pure density of the population,” has allowed rehabilitation programs to be started. He said the state’s 35 prisons have a long way to go. They have established substance-abuse treatment at nearly every institution.
“I hope the people of California understand that just locking people away and not giving them any incentive to rehabilitate themselves is not good public safety,” Kernan said.
“We can no longer afford to lock up large segments of our population for extended periods of time,” the Chronicle wrote in an editorial.
“When someone’s in custody without any services, that is not a situation that’s going to get them ready to re-enter society safely,” said Mary Butler, president-elect of Chief Probation Officers of California.
“What we’ve really learned is that we have to develop programs that allow people to start to change their way of thinking about crime and their life, so that they can make changes that will let them become a productive member of society,” she said.
Another step is being taken by Gov. Brown in the form of a proposed November ballot measure. It would allow nonviolent felons who have earned enough credits through good behavior and rehabilitative achievement to spend less time in prison.
While reforms have reduced the prison population, they may not result in major cost savings, stated the report.
“I think there’s an unreasonable expectation of budget reductions,” Kernan said. “We haven’t closed a prison, and there are other things that have imposed on our budget.”
Some of those things, such as improved medical care, were court ordered. Improvements in mental health care will improve public safety in the long run, said the Chronicle.
“We need to shift money from the criminal justice system and put it into the mental health system, especially in poor communities,” said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.
California’s decision to pursue a punitive criminal justice policy for decades carried huge social costs for families and communities. That’s a cycle that has led to more crime, more recidivism and more generational poverty, said the report.
“We have a three-judge panel who’s told us that there’s a limit to the number of people we can have in California prisons. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of prison building…. It takes a lot to reduce recidivism, especially with people who may not have hopefulness after experiencing extreme poverty,” said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley.
“There are a lot of steps to reducing recidivism and, right now, it’s our job as leaders to maximize our efforts there,” O’ Malley said.
