Men locked up for minor infractions need to go home. Their families need them.

Lawmakers and governor deny Californians right to vote on $7.3 billion in bonds for more prisons

Sacramento – In a disastrous deal for California’s future, legislative leaders and the governor announced Wednesday an agreement to build 53,000 new prison, jail and juvenile detention beds at an astounding cost of $7.3 billion for construction alone via lease revenue bonds which bypass voter approval, plus $350 million in general fund money. The agreement does not include any of the numerous reforms to parole or sentencing policies that have been put forward.

“California is again putting prison construction in front of reform. Real reform would mean no need for more prison, jail and juvenile detention beds,” said Rose Braz of Critical Resistance, members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a statewide coalition of 40 organizations committed to reducing prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and closing prisons.

“Last year the legislative leadership rejected proposals to build more cells because the governor offered no reforms of sentencing or parole policies,” said John Lum of Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “This deal doesn’t even pay lip service to reform. We’re back to the policy of taking more money from education and health care to lock up more and more people. “

“California voters have consistently rejected more prison construction, and we think they would have again – if only they had been allowed to vote on the $7.3 billion package,” said Vanessa Huang of Justice Now. “The only reason to build prisons using lease revenue bonds is because everyone knows voters oppose more prison construction. The polls say only 3 percent of Californians prioritize prison construction. Using a lease-revenue bond is more expensive, and, as Nunez denounced in floor session last week, allows politicians to make an end run around voters.”

Four recent statewide polls of likely voters all found that Californians favor cuts to prison spending over any other area of the state budget. A May 2006 poll found that 61 percent believed that “we have built enough jails in California and now need to consider alternative ways to rehabilitate non-violent criminals, including treatment programs that help them get back into society.”

“The governor and the Legislature have missed a unique opportunity to move toward the only solution to the problem that there are too many people in prison in California: That is to reduce the number of people in prison,” said Craig Gilmore of the California Prison Moratorium Project. “We could have enacted a moratorium on sending people to prison for technical violations which would have freed up thousands of beds. We could have followed the lead of other states in not placing so many people on parole, paroling geriatric prisoners or adjusting credits. Instead, we choose to invest even more in a costly system that has failed to provide effective public safety.”

At a Senate Budget Subcommittee hearing just this past Monday, the staff wrote that “parole reforms constitute the largest part of the Governor’s strategy to immediately reduce the inmate population …. Building capacity will realistically take three years to implement and transfers of inmates to facilities out of state have been halted by the courts.” Parole reforms would have been “the only option put forth in the Governor’s plan to immediately reduce the prison population.”

Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) is a broad based statewide coalition of over 40 organizations committed to curbing prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and closing prisons. Contact CURB at Californians United for a Responsible Budget, 1904 Franklin St., Suite 504, Oakland CA 94612, (510) 444-0484, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.curbprisonspending.org

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