[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Beatrice Smith-Dyer

As Governor Schwarzenegger sifts through the bills before him the next few hours and days, he will find a rare opportunity to alleviate both the prison crowding and budget deficit our state has had to confront this year. This opportunity comes in Assembly Bill AB 1539 (Krekorian), The Fiscal Savings and Medical Release Bill, which streamlines the existing medical release process for people in prison who are terminally ill, relieving the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) of high medical costs incurred in caring for this population. AB 1539 also extends the reach of the law to include permanently medically incapacitated people in prison.

I am currently imprisoned at the Central California Women’s Facility, one of the two world’s largest women’s prisons, both here in California. Now that the state’s prison healthcare system is under federal receivership, it is common knowledge that medical care here is a joke. Since 2000, I have volunteered in the prison hospice, and have been a peer counselor there since 1996. I’ve seen so many people back there die this past decade. A young lady here recently passed away, all of a sudden. It doesn’t matter how old or young we are – everyone faces death. Some happen to know when their time is coming.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Paul Krekorian
Member
California State Assembly

California’s prisons are in crisis. The system is so grossly overcrowded that a federal judge is on the verge of taking control of it away from the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. If the overcrowding is not immediately remedied, the prisons may be forced to release felons early – possibly including murderers, gang leaders and others with a history of violence.

So why are we wasting bed space and guards on inmates who are in a coma?

The cost of imprisoning terminally ill and medically incapacitated prisoners is an unnecessary, exorbitant expense for California taxpayers, often exceeding $120,000 a year for a single inmate. Not only must the state pay for expensive end-of-life medical care, but also the cost of round-the-clock guards for a person who is incapable of posing any threat to society. Using correctional officers to guard such inmates also takes them away from more important security responsibilities, creating unnecessary risks to prison personnel, inmates and the public.

by dday [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

The State Legislature decided to run away from hard choices and add brick and mortar to simply delay our prison crisis without addressing root causes.

Legislative leaders brokered a deal Wednesday to add 53,000 beds to the state's prison and jail systems while increasing rehabilitation opportunities for inmates with added drug treatment, vocational and education programs.

The $7.4 billion agreement to help ease California's severe prison overcrowding contained no provisions for any early releases of inmates.

At the same time, it did not include any changes to the state's parole or sentencing systems. And it drew heavy criticism from the prison system's two largest public employee unions over a provision that would allow the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to transfer 8,000 inmates out of state in a program now on hold in the appellate courts.

The transferring 8,000 inmates part won't get through the courts.  And holding firm on sentencing and parole is lunacy, absolute lunacy.  It just means that we'll all be back here in 5 years.  Meanwhile construction money will be doled out and more nonviolent offenders will be locked up.  And the "increasing rehabilitation opportunities"?  Lip service.

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