California to expand its packed prisons

California's solution to desperately overcrowded prisons seems simple enough: Expand the prisons.

By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the April 30, 2007 edition

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Sacramento, Calif. - Faced with prisons so overcrowded that the federal government is threatening intervention, California has opted for a massive expansion of existing facilities.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) this week is expected to sign a $7.4 billion bill that will primarily add 53,000 beds, with a $50 million sliver going to rehabilitation programs. California's state prisons currently house 172,000 convicts, nearly twice the system's capacity.

The bill's passage last week breaks a long stalemate over how to handle the overcrowding crisis and enhances Governor Schwarzenegger's get-it-done, "postpartisan" image.

But the bill's critics – and even some lawmakers who voted for it – decry the lack of changes to sentencing and parole policies, and the proportionately small funding increase for rehabilitation.

California has long championed tough sentencing, including its first-in-the-nation "three strikes and you're out" law, and the deal reflects politicians' and the public's faith in that approach. But it's a costly solution, one falling out of favor in many other states with overstuffed prisons, some experts say.

"There is a growing bipartisan consensus across the country on these issues and a realization that getting tough on criminals has gotten too tough on taxpayers," says Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Public Safety Performance Project. "States from Connecticut to Alabama to Texas and Kansas are coming up with solutions that control costs and control crime."

One idea not included in the final deal on the prison bill was to create a sentencing commission. Democratic lawmakers and Schwarzenegger had expressed support for such a commission, and more than 20 states have introduced them, but Republican lawmakers fought it. Sentencing commissions analyze data on which types of offenders are filling up the prisons and, using that data, specify narrow ranges for prison terms.

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