New Directions A blueprint for reforming California’s prison system

A blueprint for reforming California’s prison system to protect the public, reduce costs and rehabilitate inmates

California Correctional Peace Officers Association 

January 2010

CALIFORNIA’S PRISON SYSTEM is failing at every level. The cost to taxpayers and public safety for this failure is staggering. More than 170,000 inmates are now being warehoused in facilities designed to accommodate 80,000 inmates. Coupled with severe staff shortages, this overcrowding is inordinately jeopardizing the safety of inmates and correctional officers, while straining prison resources and infrastructure to the breaking point. Today, an average of nine correctional officers are assaulted every day inside California prisons, while tens of thousands of inmates are being denied the help and incentives needed to help make them productive citizens.

Inmate rehabilitation programs are failing, turning prison gates into revolving doors, giving California one of the nation’s highest recidivism rates. Thousands of inmates who have served their sentences are being released without the education, job training or basic life skills needed to function in society. With few chances to succeed, they have little choice but to return to crime.

California’s parole policies are also failing. Parole officers are overworked and overwhelmed. Parolees are receiving neither the services nor support they need to find jobs, deal with substance abuse or resolve psychological issues. This is wasting their lives, bankrupting taxpayers and endangering public safety

Following is our blueprint for fixing California’s broken prison system — a plan that offers relevant reform at multiple levels. Together, these reforms will save billions of tax dollars, protect the public and help inmates turn their lives around.

MIKE JIMENEZ, President 

California Correctional Peace Officers Association  

Special to the Bee: A Letter from Chuck Alexander

While Sacramento police and firefighters are receiving accolades from local officials for making contract concessions during tough times, our governor has summarily rejected any and all attempts by California correctional peace officers to do the same.

With California now reduced to passing out IOUs to cover its growing debts and its credit rating in free fall, the governor's refusal to even consider, let alone enact, any of these cost-saving proposals is puzzling.

We recently offered to reduce future pension obligations, alter sick leave provisions and make other contractual changes that would save California taxpayers more than a billion dollars annually, all of which were flatly rejected by the Schwarzenegger administration.  

Cut the Fat Not The Muscle

While California's inmate population has grown by less than six percent since 2002, the Department of Corrections' administrative bureaucracy has doubled. Billions of dollars could be saved by streamlining operations, reducing bureaucratic staff and eliminating waste and inefficiency - without jeopardizing public safety or increasing the dangers for prison officers and parole agents.

Prison Reforms: Achieving Results

In the past year since lawmakers agreed on a comprehensive corrections overhaul and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 900, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has made great progress. As this document illustrates, there is a significant amount of oversight and direction that has been provided to this agency. My staff is fully committed to being responsive and accountable in meeting the benchmarks and expectations that have been laid out. CDCR has kept pace with AB 900 and has completed or is on track to complete each of the 13 progress benchmarks mandated by the bill..