California Issues - California Prison Reform

Bipartisan Reforms Will Increase Prison Capacity, Protect California Families

   California’s prison system is dangerously overcrowded and on the verge of collapse.

   Demanding solutions to prison problems that have only grown worse over the years, federal courts have now threatened to take control over the entire prison system. To avoid this nightmare scenario, California must clearly demonstrate that we have a responsible plan to solve these severe problems and the necessary financing in place to satisfy the concerns of the courts.

   Rather than let the federal courts take over, Republicans and Democrats took action to address our long-neglected problems. We worked together to expand prison capacity and improve rehabilitation programs – without undermining vital public safety protections.

   Lawmakers were faced with a stark choice when confronted with the problems facing California’s prisons. We could sit back and do nothing and allow an unaccountable federal judge to step in and order the early release of thousands of criminals, endangering our families, or we could step up to the plate and work together to build the increased prison space we need to protect our families.

   As your Assemblyman, I believe there is no more important issue than making sure our communities and neighborhoods are safe. All the opportunity and prosperity in the world means nothing if you are forced to live in fear in your home or neighborhood. That’s why I felt so strongly that our prison issues must be addressed by the Legislature, not the courts, and I am pleased that my colleagues showed the strong leadership necessary to get the job done.

   The bipartisan solutions contained in Assembly Bill 900 will pave the way for the construction of 53,000 new beds at state and local correctional facilities. These new beds will give us the increased prison capacity needed to house the thousands of inmates who belong behind bars and away from our communities.

   Under our plan, current prison rehabilitation programs will be evaluated to allow us to clearly see which programs are making the grade, which ones need to be improved upon and which ones need to be scrapped altogether. Improving these programs is the best way to make progress in reducing our unacceptably high recidivism rate. We will also expand prison vocational education and job training programs so we can give more inmates the tools they need to turn their lives around and prevent them from going back to prison once they have been released. I firmly believe that released inmates will benefit from being partnered with community nonprofit and faith based organizations to continue receiving guidance and assistance.

   When we began the prison debate a few months ago some Democrats were pushing for the release of “non-violent” and “low level” offenders and the creation of a sentencing review commission as their solutions for our prison crisis. Their objective was clear – weaken tough-on-crime public safety laws like Three Strikes and 10-20-Life, which have made a real difference in lowering the violent crime rate by more than fifty percent over the past decade.

   Assembly Republicans traveled to prisons across the state as a part of our ‘Keeping Californians Safe’ prison tour and made it very clear that any proposal that could threaten the public safety of our communities was simply unacceptable. As a result, we were successful in preventing the early release of prisoners and a sentencing review commission from being included in the final plan.

   With the very real prospect of federal courts stepping in and imposing their own solutions – without accountability to lawmakers or taxpayers – lawmakers set aside their differences and did the right thing for California. Had we not acted now, not only could the federal courts release inmates, they could also raid the state treasury without accountability.

   California’s overcrowded prisons are the result of long neglect but I believe the bipartisan reform plan we adopted represents an important first step to ensure that our prison problems never spiral out of control again.