Schwarzenegger May Release 38K Prisoners Early To Save Cash

[babylonsister]

If budget ballot measures fail, governor may release 38,000 prisoners
By Andy Furillo

Published: Thursday, May. 14, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A


On Jan. 10, 2008, it was 22,000. This past New Year's Eve, it was 15,000. Two weeks ago Friday, it was 8,000.

Now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration – looking down the barrel again at a massive budget crisis – is talking about letting 38,000 inmates out of prison before their time is up.

Proposals 1 and 2 never got off the ground when the governor's budget writers eventually found the money to keep the prisons full. More recently, the administration never followed up with legislation to enact the early releases corrections Secretary Matt Cate announced on April 24.

The latest early release proposal has some legislators thinking they've heard this story line before.

"It reminds me of the saying, it's déjà vu all over again," said Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, the chairman of the lower house's Public Safety Committee.

Unlike its past early release plans, the Schwarzenegger administration says it can commute prisoner sentences under the California Constitution "on conditions the governor deems proper" – without buy-in from the Legislature.

Still, Solorio said there are enough legislators like him who are opposed to wide-scale early releases "that it would never be done in such a devastating way to communities." He contends that early releases should be coupled with an "incentive" plan that rewards good behavior in prison.

Illegal immigrants would account for about half the 38,000 inmates up for release under the Schwarzenegger plan. The state already has agreements to turn undocumented parolees over to the federal government for deportation. Remanding noncitizen prisoners would require another pact with the feds, administration sources said.

more...

http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1859909.html

[slackmaster]

1. Good - There are a lot of people in CA prisons who don't belong there

Non-violent drug offenders, tax cheats, etc.

[ThomWV]

2. But if one poor bastard from Afghanistan gets locked up in Kansas the world will come to an end.

[crimsonblue]

6. keep them terrorizers outta my state, ya hear!

:P

[Howardx]

3. arnold sounds increasingly desperate

this morning it was selling the la coliseum, now its letting prisoners out early.

[anigbrowl]

4. Well, have you looked at our budget lately?

Basically we're $42 billion in the red, we're not allowed to run a deficit, and the governor has relatively limited financial authority - pretty much all budgeting power is concentrated in the legislature. He can veto a budget (and has) but as governor he's more restricted in California than in lots of other states. Additionally, a lot of things in CA are governed by the results of ballot initiatives, and thus can't easily be altered by the governor or legislature.

So although the prices of CA real estate went through the roof over the last decade, for example, the state didn't collect that much extra money on it due to our weird property tax laws. The value of a house (for tax purposes) is only recalculated when it's sold, so if you had a house and loaded it up with refis and home equity loans yadda yadda, the state didn't see a penny for the money even though it was based on the likely market value of the property.

Thus, if you had bought house for $100,000 10 or 15 years ago (which in CA, would be pretty average as opposed to a mansion), the value might have gone way up and you could have taken out a line of credit worth $300k but you'd still pay property tax based on the $100k price. People who bought their homes recently (pre-crash) are thus subsidizing those who have owned property for longer.

It's a real mess, for which Arnold is partly but not solely responsible - far from it. The prison thing isn't a wholly new idea - he's been trying to do an end-run around the POA since he got into office but without much success. It incidentally gets him off the hook for CA's dreadful prison overcrowding problem. Remember, CA was at the forefront of things like mandatory minimums and 3-strikes = life sentence movements...again, often with the legal force of a ballot initiative behind it, so the policy can't be suspended by the governor or the legislator.

The weird thing is that a lot of Democrats hate Arnie because he's a Republican, while a lot of Republicans hate him because they think he's too liberal. So it's ended up as him vs the legislature - he doesn't go in for party politics nearly as much as he did when he first entered office. If he quit the GOP and declared himself an independent tomorrow nobody would turn a hair.

[thereismore]

5. he ain't so tough on crime no more. nt

[Bucky]

7. Well, now we know were Eric Holder can ship the Gitmo prisoners

Thanks, guv!

[lpbk2713]

8. He'll have to increase the law enforcement budget by a hell of a lot ...

... when all those gang bangers hit the streets.

[Swamp Rat]

9. I hope he frees the jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers.

:smoke:

[azul]

10. Is the governor starting to pardon people because the rule of law just when out the window

in the US? What a way to balance the budget, and get action on impeachment!

Kaliforneea leading the way again.



Really, we are spending more money on imprisoning people up than on educating them, and that says a lot about this society's mixed-up priorities.

The tipping point of ignorance hearkening to propaganda and salesmanship may have been reached in the prime example of CA bankrupting itself by partisan fools having at it. They are paralyzed.

[Joanne98]

11. YAY

[Lilith Velkor]

12. Is this in addition to the 57K released last year?