Advice To Schwarzenegger: Don't Be a Captive Of Prison-Industrial Complex

by Vincent Schiraldi and Javier Stauring

(IPS) -- With a $4 million media blitz of ghoulish, fear-mongering ads, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger swayed just enough voters to defeat California's Proposition 66, which would have reformed Three Strikes laws that can mandate life terms for non-violent offenders. But Schwarzenegger should beware: he's in danger of getting caught in the same vice as his predecessors, with little room to cut the state's vast prison-industrial complex, let alone reform it.

During the Wilson/Davis era, prisons became the fastest-growing budget priority in California, outstripping expenditures on California's vaunted university system for the first time in history. California's prison guards, some of the best paid in the nation, were given raises by both Davis and Wilson when other government employees were living with freezes. The guards returned the favor in kind with millions of dollars in campaign donations, assuring that when scandals arose about guards beating youthful inmates or a prison abuse code of silence, they would be treated kindly by the governor's Office.

Gov. Schwarzenegger started with tough talk about the guards, shunning their donations and preaching prison reform. But during his first legislative session, no laws were passed to curb the growth of prisons or to reform abhorrent conditions. The governor vetoed a raft of relatively benign legislation, including a bill allowing the media greater access to cover prisons, and another protecting chaplains from reprisals should they speak out against prison abuses. Soon, the guards had negotiated one more sweetheart deal with one more resident of the governor's mansion.

Schwarzenegger's inaction was particularly disappointing given the scandals plaguing the California Youth Authority, including a lawsuit, multiple suicides and a videotaped beating of a youth by a facility counselor.

For the governor to avoid getting boxed into the same policies as his predecessors, he needs to act decisively to enact reforms. Ironically, he now has just such an opportunity. Having established his tough-on-crime credentials by opposing Prop. 66, he can now pursue more comprehensive reforms without being tagged as soft on crime.

There are several common-sense cuts to California's prison population the governor should consider, while simultaneously beefing up housing, employment and other supports for the over 100,000 parolees under supervision on any given day. According to the Department of Corrections, making county jail, as opposed to state prison, the most severe punishment for shoplifting would save about $34 million annually and another $172 million in construction costs. Simply by eliminating post-release supervision for nonviolent, non-serious, non-drug sale offenders with no prior record of violent or serious offenses, the state could save an estimated $114 million a year. Sending technical parole violators -- most of whom have tested dirty for drug use but haven't committed new crimes -- into treatment instead of prison would save another $40 million.

Enacting a narrower reform to the Three Strikes law so that it only affects violent offenders would save tens of millions initially and hundreds of millions a year eventually. Because nearly half of California's voters supported a much broader Three Strikes reform, surely large majorities would support a narrower revision, something the governor has indicated he would consider.

Schwarzenegger should then spend a portion of those hundreds of millions in savings on effective re-entry programs to help people return from prison in a manner that minimizes their likelihood of repeated offenses, reduces family violence and disruption and maximizes their chances of becoming law-abiding, taxpaying citizens. In this way, the governor would create a fairer and more effective system that holds the real potential to reduce crime in California. That is the kind of win-win situation that policy makers and the public could enthusiastically support.