ShareThisMore than 170,000 inmates are locked up in California's prison system _ 450 inmates for every 100,000 Californians. That's the highest per capita inmate population of any state.
California taxpayers spent $7.3 billion last fiscal year to operate the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They will spend even more next year. Yet, prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. And California's recidivism _ the rate at which prisoners return to prison after release _ is the highest in the nation.
In short, our prison system is in chaos. Not coincidentally, it is also shrouded in secrecy.
Senate Bill 1521, by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, can help lift that shroud. It would improve media access to prisons and help expose what goes on inside.
There was a time when the media had broader access, and the veil of secrecy was pierced. But that degree of access ended in 1995, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson, embarrassed by media reports of brutality at Pelican Bay and other prisons, imposed restrictions on reporter access to prisons. His successor, Gov. Gray Davis, refused to lift those restrictions. So has Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The media have a legitimate, indeed a crucial role, to play in keeping both the public and lawmakers informed. When reporters are kept out of prisons, the public has no way to know what is going on behind the walls. Under current rules it can take months for reporters to get permission to enter a prison or to interview an inmate. Once allowed in, journalists are routinely denied the tools of their trade. Television reporters can't bring cameras. Print and radio journalists can't bring tape recorders. In some instances, reporters have been denied pen and paper.
As more public money pours into prisons with questionable results, the Legislature has become increasingly alarmed. Law-and-order Republicans who had opposed the media access bill now support it _ because, as they candidly acknowledge, they don't trust what the administration is telling them about prisons.
SB 1521 would allow reporters to bring paper, pens and electronic recording devices into prisons to aid them in interviewing inmates. It would also require wardens to process inmate interview requests from legitimate members of the media in a reasonable time period.
A similar measure went to Schwarzenegger last year, but he vetoed it. This bill has won approval of the Assembly and the Senate. If the governor vetoes SB 1521, the question that needs asking is, "What is he trying to hide?"
