California offers new plan on prison reduction

ShareThis

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate announced this week that the state has a plan to reduce the prison population that will satisfy a judicial panel of judges.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can reach the population goal the judges are seeking only with changes in state laws or federal court orders waiving laws now on the books, Cate said at a Thursday night briefing.

The Legislature already has turned thumbs down on some of the changes, such as increasing the monetary threshold for grand theft, offering alternative custody options for low-level offenders, and limiting sentencing options to county jail for certain offenses.

In an order last month rejecting a plan submitted in September by the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the three-judge panel directed administration officials to submit a plan identifying "those waivers of state law that would be required to implement their proposals to reduce the prison population," even if they believed such action was not permissible.

Cate said the plan filed Thursday cites a "panoply of state laws that would have to be waived, but we don't believe the (federal) Prison Litigation Reform Act allows it, and we will present our case on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The judicial panel, for example, would have to order his department not to accept individuals who fit a specified profile, such as those with no strikes under the "three-strikes" law who are convicted of simple drug possession or any one of a number of theft-related crimes, Cate said.

Another example, the secretary said, would be an order not to accept any person convicted of felony theft that did not meet a $950 threshold. Grand theft is punishable as a felony when the amount stolen exceeds $400. The administration failed in its bid for legislation that would increase the amount to $950.

"The court could direct us to use GPS bracelets instead of three-month prison stays in order to reduce the number of parole violators cycling through the system," Cate said.

The court could waive the July 1, 2011, expiration of Schwarzenegger's 2006 emergency proclamation allowing the transfer of inmates to out-of-state prisons without their consent. It also could order increased use of private in-state prisons.

The judicial panel, formed under provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, ruled in August that substandard health care received by inmates in California's 33 adult prisons violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that overcrowding is the primary reason.

The judges ordered the Schwarzenegger administration to come up with a plan "that will in no more than two years reduce the population of adult institutions to 137.5 percent of their combined design capacity."

The design capacity is approximately 80,000 and the population is 150,978. The court's order translates to a reduction of more than 40,000 inmates, to a population of 110,000.

The plan submitted by the administration in September and thrown back by the judges called for a cut to 166 percent of design capacity within two years. Thursday's plan calls for the court's demanded reduction to 137.5 percent -- 109,462 inmates -- by December 2011.

The measures enumerated to reach that pace include increased use of local lockups, more time off prison sentences for good behavior, expansion of out-of-state and private placements, release and presumed deportation of undocumented immigrants, parole overhaul and new construction.

"Although this plan meets the court mandate, we continue to believe our best option is the original plan being implemented by the state that reduces the prison population over time without compromising public safety," Cate said.

Reach Denny Walsh at dwalsh(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com

Must credit Sacramento Bee