Yesterday, Assembly Budget Subcommittee 4 met for a little over three hours.  It was the latest in a series of almost daily meetings on how to trim budget expenditures to reduce our burgeoning $14.5 billion deficit.  Budget Subcommittee 4 on State Administration oversees and votes on the $9 billion plus prison system budget, as well as the more than $2 billion for the Judiciary system, the National Guard, and the budgets for all the constitutional officers, such as the Attorney General, the Treasurer, etc. 

The bulk of Wednesday's testimony from Schwarzenegger administration officials, the Finance Director's office, and the Legislative Analyst's Office focused on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (prisons).  Here's where things get interesting (and the sausage analogy comes in).

At $9.1 billion in General Fund outlays, the prison system attracts a fair amount of attention.  In May of 2007, the legislature passed AB 900 by Orange County's own Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana).  A collaborative effort in the best of bi-partisan traditions, AB 900 was a comprehensive prison reform and construction program designed to head off a threatened federal judicial order to reduce California's 171,000 inmate prison population by several tens of thousands of inmates to reduce overcrowding.  I authored a section of the measure with Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton) that added 4,000 drug and alcohol rehab beds to the prison system to address California's chronically high recidivism (re-offending) rates in this area. 

So, in 2007 the Legislature voted to add resources to fix the prison system, including billions of dollars of lease-revenue bonds to build new prisons. 

Now, in early 2008, in response to a growing budget shortfall, the Schwarzenegger administration orders its departments to reduce spending by 10 percent - in most cases a small real reduction as the departments were allowed to grow their "workload budget" first, then reduce 10 percent from what was an average 7.3 percent increase.  These sorts of reductions in a prison system typically mean laying off some prison guards and not hiring others because the biggest variable operational cost for the prisons is the cost of the guards who watch and protect the inmates. 

Here's where things get real interesting.  To save money, the Schwarzenegger administration wants to release 22,159 "non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offender" felons 20 months early.  The administration thinks this will allow them to reduce prison staffing by 5,854 people, saving some $354 million dollars in the 2008-09 budget. 

Because of the huge policy implications in letting felons out of prison almost two years early, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) was allowed by subcommittee chairman Juan Arambula (D-Fresnso) to participate in the hearing.  Todd is, of course, the legislature's foremost Republican authority on the criminal justice system.  I'm more of a numbers guy and have only toured Folsom Prison - Todd has experience in the district attorney's office, was a reserve police officer for years, and has visited all of California's prisons. 

Todd's main line of questioning had to do with the extreme financial pressure the Schwarzenegger administration is placing on Secretary of Corrections and Rehabilitation James Tilton and how that pressure might result in cutting corners or fudging paperwork to result in the release of more serious felons back into our communities before they have done their time.  Further, how the pressure to reduce the prison budget was in direct contradiction with the Legislature's intent in passing AB 900, the prison reform bill, just last year. 

Set on top of the concerns Todd so clearly set forth there are three other factors as well. 

First, the three judge federal panel overseeing an overhaul of California's prison medical system just last week fired Robert Sillen, their prison receiver who had taken over prison health care.  Sillen was notoriously dismissive of the role of the Legislature, famously saying at one point that if we did not give him all the money he wanted to improve inmate health care that he would just back his trucks up to our treasury and take whatever money he needed.  I implored Sillen last year in a Sub 4 hearing to work more closely with the Legislature.  One of the federal judges cited Sillen's clashes with officials, including in the prison system and in the legislature, as a reason for his firing. 

Second, the Assembly Republican Caucus sued to have standing in a lawsuit trying to overturn the federal judicial takeover of our prison medical system.  We invited Democrats on board as well, but so far, they have refused.  The Republicans' suit alleges that our Constitutional rights as lawmakers and as a state were improperly signed away by Governor Schwarzenegger when he agreed to the federal takeover in the Plata lawsuit.  Some young lawyers with the California Republican Lawyers Association headed by Steve Baric are helping us out with the case.  Todd Spitzer is our lead in this effort. 

Third, an ongoing contract impasse with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) and the administration on pay and benefits could impact our ability to recruit and retain prison guards and other personnel in what can be a very, very difficult job. 

With all of these factors and conflicting signals, I am pleased to report that I have high confidence in Secretary James Tilton and the team he has assembled around him.  During the hours of Secretary Tilton's testimony and in the private meetings we have had together, I remain impressed with his can-do attitude in the face of a very, very tough assignment.

All the best,

Chuck DeVore
State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com