Despite the revised 2013-2014 state budget adding $100 million to the prison budget of $9 billion, millions of dollars are being spent on the incarceration of Three Strikers who meet the criteria for release under Proposition 36 but are not re-sentenced and released.
Proposition 36, passed in Nov. 2012. It was touted as an aid in reducing the state’s prison population, according to its proponents.
Seven months later, 16 percent of the estimated 2,847 Three Strikers have been re-sentenced by the courts, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
However, even when a prisoner is re-sentenced, release is not immediate.
Todd Burke, 45, convicted of possession of drugs and a knife, was re-sentenced in Shasta County on April 10.
Burke’s sentence was reduced from 25 to life to six years and nine months. Under his reduced sentence, he has served more than enough time in prison; however, he had to wait until May 31 to be released.
The 51 days Burke stayed behind bars after re-sentencing costs taxpayers approximately $6,600.
He said his mother has dementia.
“My mom is sick in the hospital and she has nobody but me,” Burke said. “I’m trying to get home to her.”
Burke said he’s worried that he’s been in custody so long his mother won’t recognize him when he’s finally at home.
On average, the annually incarceration cost for a prisoner is $46,600 or $3,880 per month, according CDCR. However, because Three Strikers are part of an aging population, they have higher medical expenses, which inflate their incarceration cost, according to an ACLU study called The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly.
According to CDCR numbers, 2,445 eligible Three Strikers have yet to be resentenced. It cost taxpayers an estimated $9.5 million per month to keep these offenders behind bars. Under this cost analysis, if the re-sentencing and release process was completed seven months ago, the state could have saved more than $66 million.
The bottleneck in releasing qualified Three Strikers is costing the state more than money.
The state’s prison system is currently under a federal court order to reduce prison overcrowding and according to several experts, stuck at about 9,000 over the court imposed inmate population cap of 110,000. (See CDCR Population Cap on page 12.
If all the eligible Three Strikers were released it would bring this number down by almost a third.
Out of California’s 50 counties where offenders are eligible for resentencing, 23 of them have not resentenced a single offender , according to CDCR statistics.
San Mateo County has 20 Three Strikers who qualify for resentencing, but none has been resentenced so far.
Los Angeles County has by far the highest number of offenders who qualify for resentencing at 1,029, but only 62 have been resentenced. At this pace, it would take Los Angeles County more than eight years to resentence everyone who qualifies.
The only county to resentence all of the Three Strikers who qualify under its jurisdiction is Contra Costa County.
