“The Legislature has decided our enthusiasm for incarceration has outstripped our willingness to pay for it,” San Diego County Superior Court Judge David Danielsen said. Supporters of the changes say county prosecutors and judges now will have to take into account the financial burden their sentencing decisions create because more criminals will stay in the community for their punishment. That is more than the state spends on the University of California and California State University systems combined. The corrections department now draws $9.8 billion from the state’s general fund, or 11.4 percent of this year’s spending plan. In almost all cases, voters and lawmakers made the changes without a way to pay for the extra prison space or guards required to house the additional inmates, a scenario that left the state paying more for corrections while it cuts money for higher education, health care and other services.Ĭalifornia’s adult prison population has grown from about 97,000 in 1990 to nearly 161,000 today, while the cost of incarceration during that timeframe has risen from $20,562 per inmate to $49,190. That change set terms of incarceration by law rather than allowing a parole board to decide on a case-by-case basis when convicts should be released.Ĭalifornia’s prison population has exploded over the past two decades as voters and lawmakers approved numerous tough-on-crime measures, including life sentences for those convicted of a third felony and extended sentences for using a gun or belonging to a gang. The county expects more than 10,000 extra inmates or people on probation in the first year of the realignment plan.Ĭriminal justice experts call California’s shift the most sweeping corrections development in the state since lawmakers adopted determinate sentencing in 1977. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who runs the nation’s largest jail system, has said he has 4,500 spare beds and is confident he can handle _ at least initially _ the influx of new inmates. That dynamic could lead to more inmates being released early, as counties cope with the influx expected to peak over the next four years. While the length of sentences is to remain the same, jails in many counties are overcrowded and release inmates after they have served a fraction of their time. Those convicted of sex crimes or violent offenses will continue to be sentenced to state prison. The realignment will not affect inmates in state prison today, but rather will apply to those convicted after this week. Instead, nearly 26,000 convicts who would previously have gone to state prison are expected to serve their time in county jails where, proponents say, they will be closer to home, jobs and rehabilitation programs and so will be less likely to commit new crimes after they are released. Realignment means judges will no longer sentence non-violent, lower-level offenders to state prison for crimes such as auto theft, burglary, grand theft, forgery, counterfeiting and drug possession for sale. We have to do something, and this is the most viable plan that I have been able to put together.” But we can’t sit still and let the courts release 30,000 serious prisoners. “It’s bold, it’s difficult and it will continuously change as we learn from experience. “This is a bold vision of a different relationship between the state and local government,” Gov. The move is designed to reduce the state’s corrections costs so more money can go toward public education and other services while also reducing California’s prison population to accommodate a federal court order. But others say California’s counties can provide better rehabilitation and job training services that can only improve on the state’s recidivism record, in which nearly seven of every 10 ex-convicts are returned to state prison after committing a new crime. Some prosecutors and county sheriffs predict rising crime and other dire outcomes from what amounts to the most radical change in the prison system in decades. The so-called “prison realignment” beginning Saturday will transfer the state’s responsibility for lower-level drug offenders, thieves and other convicts to county jurisdictions. California’s correctional system is about to undergo an overhaul that could save money and reduce recidivism but also might lead to thousands of criminals spending significantly less time behind bars or in the parole office.
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