With an absence of fanfare, the Schwarzenegger administration complied with a federal court order to submit a plan intended to reduce the state’s prison population by more than 40,000 in two years.
The plan, filed with the court Thursday, Nov. 13, does not include any early releases and relies heavily upon several proposals recently rejected by the state Legislature, such as allowing sick or elderly inmates to finish their sentences in local confinement or house arrest, and sending criminals to county jails instead of state prison for crimes such as drug possession, bad checks and receiving stolen property. The plan proposes to send some high-security inmates to private prisons out of state.
The state plan includes adding beds at several existing facilities despite the federal panel’s prior warning not to submit any plan that includes additional construction because the building process takes too long.
Corrections Secretary Matt Cate asked the court to waive steps in the construction permitting process in order to streamline his building plans, as well as to intervene in over-ruling the Legislature’s earlier rejection of important reform elements in his reduction plan.
Although it met the federal panel’s deadline for a response, the state maintains that the court has exceeded its authority in ordering the reduction plan, and has filed a notice of intention to appeal the court’s order with the U.S. Supreme Court.
A longtime critic and skeptic of the state’s intentions, inmate’s attorney Donald Specter of the nonprofit Prison Law Office, applauded the state’s plan. At first glance, it appears the plan is “a reasonable and thoughtful way of approaching the legal issue,” said Specter.
Reactions from California lawmakers were predictably mixed, with state Sen. Mark Leno, Chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee criticizing the state’s desire to add more beds. “I think that doesn’t deal with the problem,” Leno said. “The overcrowding is a symptom. Building new beds doesn’t address the problem that caused the symptom.” Leno proposed a major overhaul of the state’s sentencing guidelines, something that is not a part of the state’s plan but has been suggested by the three-judge panel.
In contrast, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, said that the state needs to build more prisons.
There is no timetable for an expected response to the state’s plan from the three judges.
