SENATOR LONI HANCOCK TALKS ABOUT PRISON REFORM FOR CALIFORNIA

The U.S. Supreme Court decision that California's prisons have caused
"needless suffering and death" is an indictment we can no longer
ignore. Reform of the California prison system is long overdue.

Let me be frank: Our prison system is an expensive failure. It is a
threat to both the public safety and the financial well-being of
California. It costs $49,000 a year to keep a person locked up in a
California prison - almost seven times what we spend on each child in
our public schools - yet California is getting a disappointing return on
our huge investment of tax dollars in corrections.

Our corrections spending is:

-- Resulting in the highest recidivism rate in the nation. About 60
percent of the people released from prison are re-incarcerated within
three years, with more than half put behind bars again for a parole
violation, not for committing a new crime. The average recidivism rate
for the other states is about 40 percent. A high recidivism rate is one
of the primary causes of the overcrowding the Supreme Court called
indecent and unconstitutional.

-- Paying for graying prisoners. For example, sending an 80-year old
prisoner for kidney dialysis in an ambulance with two prison guards
(often being paid overtime), costs between $80,000 and $100,000 a year.
Last year the Legislature established a medical parole program, yet to
date, not one prisoner has been released due to management issues at the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

-- Taking state funds away from education and rehabilitation programs
that extensive research shows significantly reduce criminal behavior
and recidivism rates.

Report after report has identified what is wrong. What is now needed
to fix it is political will, public understanding and follow-through.

Other states are doing better. We can learn from them; we could have and should have done many of the things Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing in his state budget long ago. Now the Supreme Court has told us we have no choice.

Gov. Brown's public safety plan will redirect tax dollars to local
governments and communities and move more prisoners into local jails,
allowing the state to reduce its prison population without releasing the
most violent criminals. At the local level, law enforcement and parole
officials can more effectively and more directly alter criminal behavior
though programs that have been proven effective.

This plan will not only reduce prison overcrowding and achieve a
constitutional and humane level of medical and mental health treatment
in our state prisons, but it will lower prison costs and improve public
safety.

Right now, we're not tough on crime; we're tough on the taxpayer.
Every dollar we spend on prisons drains money from our ability to have
community-oriented police officers on our streets, more job training,
better education - investments that would truly lead to safer
communities.

Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, is the chair of the state Senate Public Safety Committee.

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SENATOR LONI HANCOCK TALKS ABOUT PRISON REFORM FOR CALIFORNIA