[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Barbara Owen
Professor
Department of Criminology
California State University-Fresno

Introduction

As California leads the nation in irrational prison policy, a new report calls for major reforms to reduce the prison population. Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America's Prison Population, is co-authored by nine leading criminology and penal experts from around the country and relies on a thorough review of recent research into crime and incarceration. Several of these authors have researched the California system which serves as a cautionary tale of political and policy missteps.

Under current sentencing policies, the state and federal prison populations will grow by another 192,000 prisoners over the next five years, according to the report. Such an increase will force the nation to spend an additional $27.5 billion in prison construction and operation costs over the five-year period, in addition to the $60 billion now spent annually on corrections. In California, the annual cost is quickly approaching $10 billion per year. Recent legislation has called for many more billions to be spent on prison construction.