Governor's Prison Proposals Fail to Produce Big Savings

July 2, 2004

OAKLAND, CA-Reacting to the release of the California's Performance
Review Commission's (CPR) recommendations for corrections, a commission named by Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a coalition of 40 organizations, charged that the governor's
administrative reforms will not bring prison spending under control.

"This governor said he was interested in breaking with the past, that he
wanted to blow up boxes, and his representatives have said that they
have turned this ship away from an iceberg," says Professor Ruth Wilson
Gilmore of the University of Southern California, one of 19 people named
to the CURB Commission. "But instead of implementing real reforms, the
CPR proposals simply rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic."

The governor charged the CPR with fleshing out his January budget
commitments to study and identifying prisons to close. However, the CPR proposals fall well short of what other states are doing to cut prison
populations and spending, including closing prisons and diverting
corrections funding to preventative measures like community resources
and treatment. This year, a variety of organizations, including the
Coalition for Effective Public Safety and CURB have proposed reforms
that would save California hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of
these proposals include closing prisons.

"If the Governor was serious about blowing up boxes, the CPR would have spent the last three months talking to experts, families and communities about how we can close prisons that this state does not need and can't afford, and how to reinvest those funds in neighborhoods," says CURB Commissioner Dorsey Nunn, a former prisoner and Program Director for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

"Given the composition of the commission, its recommendations are not
surprising," continued Nunn. The Governor's commission includes former
Governor George Deukmejian who oversaw the doubling of the state's
prison population, the opening of nearly a third (10) of California's 32
prisons, and an 81% increase in Corrections' share of General Fund
spending.

CURB recommends that, given the CDC's commitment to reduce its prisoner population by 15,000 by June 2005, the Delano II prison should not be opened and Pelican Bay, Valley State, Folsom State and the California Correctional Center, Susanville should be closed. The CURB proposal was endorsed by a diverse group of commissioners with direct experience in how the system works, including law enforcement, former prisoners, family members of prisoners, academics and policy makers.

For a copy of the proposal and a complete list of commissioners
appointed by CURB visit http://www.curbprisonspending.org Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a broad based coalition of 40 organizations, seeks to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in the state.
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