Voters Want Real Corrections' Reform

‘Three-Strikes Savings Are Just the Beginning’

While Budget Conference Committee Enacts Only Small Changes to Corrections, Field Poll Finds California Voters Eager for Real Reform

For Immediate Release
Contact: Coalition for Effective Public Safety Brady Openheim
June 14, 2004
(916) 326-4330

SACRAMENTO – As the Legislature moves toward a final version of the state budget that includes only minor Department of Corrections (CDC) reforms, a new Field Poll finds overwhelming support for an initiative restructuring the state’s three strikes law.

“California voters are ready for real reform in Corrections – reform
that could save millions of dollars in reduced prison spending,” said
Rose Braz, member of the Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS).

Released Thursday, the poll asked likely voters about a new state
initiative that would amend the state’s harsh three strikes law and save millions through reduced correctional spending. The initiative got a thumbs-up from an astonishing 76 percent of total respondents and garnered surprising bi-partisan support: 80 percent of Democrats favored the reform, and 74 percent of Republicans approved.

This most recent Field Poll confirms earlier findings of four statewide polls of likely voters: Californians want cuts to prison spending more than cuts in any other area of state government. CEPS’ own prison-reform proposal responds to that desire with a comprehensive plan – Lower Costs, Greater Safety – that offers a bi-partisan blueprint for change in CDC based on the simple tenets of reduced recidivism and increased public safety.

“Saving money by amending three strikes is just the tip of the iceberg,” said CEPS member Andy Hsia-Coron. “We’ve documented dozens of other reforms that, if implemented, could save California more than $1 billion a year while at the same time creating safer communities.”

States across the country facing similar, if less severe, budget crises have taken steps to improve rehabilitation programs and reform their prison and parole systems. As a result, these states were able to reduce prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison while maintaining and even improving public safety.

CEPS is calling on California to follow other states by enacting a
series of reforms that could save the state much more than the three strikes initiative alone. These proposals include:

§ Reforming and realigning the parole system.

§ Removing barriers to successful re-entry of former inmates
back into their communities.

§ Establishing an independent educational system for Corrections and revitalizing educational programming.

§ Restructuring educational and vocational credits.

§ Delaying opening of the Delano II prison.

§ Increasing the threshold value for grand theft to reflect
inflation.

§ Streamlining drug treatment furloughs.

§ Freezing correctional officer hiring.

§ Restructuring and reforming sentencing practices.

§ Downsizing the CDC’s Planning and Construction Division.

“Other states have successfully implemented these types of reforms under both Democratic and Republican leadership,” noted Hsia-Coron. “Improved public safety and reduced state spending are issues that all Californians can -- and do -- agree on.”

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To obtain a copy of the CEPS reform proposal, go to
http://www.seiu1000.org/ceps.asp
or call (916) 326-4224.