Brown calls for elimination of youth prison system and shifting of state prisoners to county jails
By Karen de Sá
kdesa@mercurynews.com
Posted: 01/13/2011
Updated: 01/14/2011
The budget Gov. Jerry Brown presented this week calls for the most sweeping criminal justice overhaul in state history -- the elimination of the youth prison system and an end to prison terms for thousands of low-risk adult convicts who, going forward, would be housed in county-run jails instead of the state's teeming lockups.
Brown says the changes, if enacted by the Legislature in March, would save the embattled state almost half a billion dollars next fiscal year -- and $1.4 billion annually in the long haul -- while relieving prison overcrowding that has sparked federal lawsuits.
The plan responds to years of advice from criminologists, finance experts and justice advocates who say reducing the prison population could also enhance public safety by placing low-level offenders closer to their families and community-based treatment programs. In his budget message, Brown argues that local governments are better positioned to end "the revolving door of the corrections systems."
Many criminal justice experts agree. "This is just an incredibly massive shift for a state system that was sending everybody and their brother to prison," said Joan Petersilia, a Stanford University criminologist. Petersilia, who has worked with two successive gubernatorial administrations on the change, described it as "the most significant in California history."
But she offered widely echoed caution: "We shouldn't be naive and think we can do this on the cheap -- these offenders have serious needs."
California is already facing a federal court order to reduce its adult inmate population by nearly one-quarter; an appeal is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
If legislators agree with Brown's plan, the state would stop housing 37,000 adult convicts each year who are short-timers, low-level offenders and parole violators. Those groups instead would be held in county jails at a cost some experts say could be half the current burden.
Costs for housing juvenile offenders would plunge as well; the state has paid as much as a quarter-million dollars annually for each young inmate. Eliminating the entire Division of Juvenile Justice would save the state $250 million a year, Brown says.
While California's adult prison population has burgeoned, thanks in part to tough sentencing laws enacted in recent decades, the number of juvenile offenders in state custody has plunged, due to record-low youth crime rates and a 2007 law that shifted all but the most serious and violent offenders to counties.
Dan Macallair, director of the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, says that has left few justifications for the high cost of revamping the aging youth prisons, as a state court has ordered.
"We've spent too much time, energy and resources on something we could not fix," Macallair said. "There's no justification for this -- it's the definition of insanity."
Yet while Macallair represents one faction among youth advocates, even some of the most ardent critics of the youth prison system -- including attorneys behind the lawsuit charging inhumane conditions -- say the governor is going too far. They maintain that some state institution, however scaled-back, must be available for high-end juvenile offenders whose counties lack the appropriate treatment programs.
Similar concerns -- along with the entrenched power of California's prison guards union -- helped scuttle Republican former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to implement changes similar to parts of Brown's plan.
But the current economic crisis is kicking the push for an overhaul into gear and winning the support of earlier opponents such as local sheriffs.
County officials beaten down by budget cuts are cautiously embracing the change -- if they're given the resources to house more offenders in their empty jails and juvenile halls and provide addiction and mental health treatment and job training. Many counties have empty beds in their jails and juvenile halls.
But not San Mateo County, where the jail is currently 130 percent to 140 percent over capacity, said Sheriff Greg Munks. "If they ship people back in the near term we'll be in big trouble," he added.
However, San Mateo County plans to have a new $140 million jail open by the end of 2013. Construction has not started, but the county recently bought the land for it.
Munks said he and other officials around the state have been expecting some kind of prisoner transfer from the state.
According to statistics compiled by criminologist James Austin -- an expert in the federal court proceedings that found the state's overcrowded prisons violate the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment -- there are now about 12,500 jail beds available in California's 10 largest counties. Given a staggered release of inmates, those beds could accommodate the majority of those who would be moved under Brown's plan, Austin says.
Local facilities that could house the state's youth offenders also have capacity, according to Macallair's justice center. Thanks to a spate of juvenile hall construction in the late 1990s, Macallair's group reported that there are enough beds in county institutions to house the entire state juvenile justice population "and still have 200 to 1,000 empty beds remaining."
Nick Warner, legislative director for the California State Sheriffs' Association, said 34 counties are at capacity -- and if beds are not added in those jails, some inmates would have to be released early to make room. "If the money were there, we think there's a workable solution," Warner said. "But without the money, this is the worst public safety proposal the state of California has ever seen."
Indeed, funding could be key to the plan's long-term success. Brown is hoping voters will extend three statewide taxes in a June special election. If they don't, the administration says it can still pay for local jails to house state inmates, but there will likely not be enough for training and treatment programs to keep them from reoffending.
Despite that risk, Brown and experts say they can't defend the current high cost of housing so many state prisoners.
According to state reports, 11,000 prisoners served less than 30 days in 2009, and 47,000 served three months or less. These inmates spent most of their time in county jails before being shipped off to the state.
"The cost of sending people to state prison for a week or a month is huge," said Jeanne Woodford, former warden of San Quentin State Prison and now a senior fellow at UC Berkeley. At state reception centers, she noted, many of the same medical tests, psychological screening and caseworker reports done in the county jails are repeated.
The families of many juvenile offenders say the prospect of locally based programs is a blessing. Lourdes Duarte-Bailey, whose son spent five years in the state's youth prisons beginning at age 16 on drug and theft charges, said she is "rejoicing" over Brown's announcement.
Bailey says her son returned from the violent youth prisons hardened and ill-equipped to manage life on the outside.
"We've been paying $240,00 a year for one child," Duarte said. "So where was all that money going? I'm hoping counties will do better."
San Mateo County Times staff writer Joshua Melvin contributed to this report. Contact Karen de Sá at 408-920-5781.
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_17091138
kdesa@mercurynews.com
Posted: 01/13/2011
Updated: 01/14/2011
The budget Gov. Jerry Brown presented this week calls for the most sweeping criminal justice overhaul in state history -- the elimination of the youth prison system and an end to prison terms for thousands of low-risk adult convicts who, going forward, would be housed in county-run jails instead of the state's teeming lockups.
Brown says the changes, if enacted by the Legislature in March, would save the embattled state almost half a billion dollars next fiscal year -- and $1.4 billion annually in the long haul -- while relieving prison overcrowding that has sparked federal lawsuits.
The plan responds to years of advice from criminologists, finance experts and justice advocates who say reducing the prison population could also enhance public safety by placing low-level offenders closer to their families and community-based treatment programs. In his budget message, Brown argues that local governments are better positioned to end "the revolving door of the corrections systems."
Many criminal justice experts agree. "This is just an incredibly massive shift for a state system that was sending everybody and their brother to prison," said Joan Petersilia, a Stanford University criminologist. Petersilia, who has worked with two successive gubernatorial administrations on the change, described it as "the most significant in California history."
But she offered widely echoed caution: "We shouldn't be naive and think we can do this on the cheap -- these offenders have serious needs."
California is already facing a federal court order to reduce its adult inmate population by nearly one-quarter; an appeal is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
If legislators agree with Brown's plan, the state would stop housing 37,000 adult convicts each year who are short-timers, low-level offenders and parole violators. Those groups instead would be held in county jails at a cost some experts say could be half the current burden.
Costs for housing juvenile offenders would plunge as well; the state has paid as much as a quarter-million dollars annually for each young inmate. Eliminating the entire Division of Juvenile Justice would save the state $250 million a year, Brown says.
While California's adult prison population has burgeoned, thanks in part to tough sentencing laws enacted in recent decades, the number of juvenile offenders in state custody has plunged, due to record-low youth crime rates and a 2007 law that shifted all but the most serious and violent offenders to counties.
Dan Macallair, director of the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, says that has left few justifications for the high cost of revamping the aging youth prisons, as a state court has ordered.
"We've spent too much time, energy and resources on something we could not fix," Macallair said. "There's no justification for this -- it's the definition of insanity."
Yet while Macallair represents one faction among youth advocates, even some of the most ardent critics of the youth prison system -- including attorneys behind the lawsuit charging inhumane conditions -- say the governor is going too far. They maintain that some state institution, however scaled-back, must be available for high-end juvenile offenders whose counties lack the appropriate treatment programs.
Similar concerns -- along with the entrenched power of California's prison guards union -- helped scuttle Republican former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to implement changes similar to parts of Brown's plan.
But the current economic crisis is kicking the push for an overhaul into gear and winning the support of earlier opponents such as local sheriffs.
County officials beaten down by budget cuts are cautiously embracing the change -- if they're given the resources to house more offenders in their empty jails and juvenile halls and provide addiction and mental health treatment and job training. Many counties have empty beds in their jails and juvenile halls.
But not San Mateo County, where the jail is currently 130 percent to 140 percent over capacity, said Sheriff Greg Munks. "If they ship people back in the near term we'll be in big trouble," he added.
However, San Mateo County plans to have a new $140 million jail open by the end of 2013. Construction has not started, but the county recently bought the land for it.
Munks said he and other officials around the state have been expecting some kind of prisoner transfer from the state.
According to statistics compiled by criminologist James Austin -- an expert in the federal court proceedings that found the state's overcrowded prisons violate the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment -- there are now about 12,500 jail beds available in California's 10 largest counties. Given a staggered release of inmates, those beds could accommodate the majority of those who would be moved under Brown's plan, Austin says.
Local facilities that could house the state's youth offenders also have capacity, according to Macallair's justice center. Thanks to a spate of juvenile hall construction in the late 1990s, Macallair's group reported that there are enough beds in county institutions to house the entire state juvenile justice population "and still have 200 to 1,000 empty beds remaining."
Nick Warner, legislative director for the California State Sheriffs' Association, said 34 counties are at capacity -- and if beds are not added in those jails, some inmates would have to be released early to make room. "If the money were there, we think there's a workable solution," Warner said. "But without the money, this is the worst public safety proposal the state of California has ever seen."
Indeed, funding could be key to the plan's long-term success. Brown is hoping voters will extend three statewide taxes in a June special election. If they don't, the administration says it can still pay for local jails to house state inmates, but there will likely not be enough for training and treatment programs to keep them from reoffending.
Despite that risk, Brown and experts say they can't defend the current high cost of housing so many state prisoners.
According to state reports, 11,000 prisoners served less than 30 days in 2009, and 47,000 served three months or less. These inmates spent most of their time in county jails before being shipped off to the state.
"The cost of sending people to state prison for a week or a month is huge," said Jeanne Woodford, former warden of San Quentin State Prison and now a senior fellow at UC Berkeley. At state reception centers, she noted, many of the same medical tests, psychological screening and caseworker reports done in the county jails are repeated.
The families of many juvenile offenders say the prospect of locally based programs is a blessing. Lourdes Duarte-Bailey, whose son spent five years in the state's youth prisons beginning at age 16 on drug and theft charges, said she is "rejoicing" over Brown's announcement.
Bailey says her son returned from the violent youth prisons hardened and ill-equipped to manage life on the outside.
"We've been paying $240,00 a year for one child," Duarte said. "So where was all that money going? I'm hoping counties will do better."
San Mateo County Times staff writer Joshua Melvin contributed to this report. Contact Karen de Sá at 408-920-5781.
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_17091138
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