Prison agency catches flak

A sub-unit of the state corrections agency is giving short shrift to a key rehabilitation component of a $7.9 billion plan to unclog California's prisons, legislative leaders have charged.

In a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the lawmakers said they fear that in doling out cash for county jails, the Correctional Standards Authority won't be giving enough weight to counties also willing to locate rehabilitation-heavy "re-entry" centers within their jurisdictions.

The multi-billion Assembly Bill 900 said that "funding preference" for the jails should be given to the counties that agreed to site re-entry prisons.

"We want to call your attention to this serious concern and hope that you will also contact CSA and express concern," said the Nov. 16 letter to Schwarzenegger signed by state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez of Los Angeles, Sen. Mike Machado of Linden and Assemblyman Jose Solorio of Santa Ana, all of them Democrats.

Their letter drew support Monday from the Governor's Office. In a prepared statement, gubernatorial spokesman Bill Maile said Schwarzenegger "believes strongly that new funding for jails should be linked directly to re-entry facilities as laid out in Assembly Bill 900."

"We want to ensure that the CSA ... grants sufficient preference for re-entry facilities," Maile added. "Re- entry facilities and rehabilitation are top priorities as we implement AB 900 and relieve prison overcrowding."

AB 900 financed 53,000 beds for prisons and county-run jails to help ease pressure on a state prison system crowded with 173,000 inmates to nearly twice its designed capacity. County jails are granting early releases to about 18,000 inmates a month due to overcrowding.

Under the AB 900 plan, about 16,000 prisoners are supposed to be located in re-entry mini-prisons holding up to 500 inmates each, to be scattered throughout the state. The smaller prisons will be designed for short-term parole violators and inmates who are in the final months of their sentences. Each will be infused with vocational, educational, drug and other programs to help the state knock down its recidivism rate of nearly 70 percent.

In asking counties to submit proposals for money for 13,000 jail beds approved in AB 900, the Corrections Standards Authority created a point system that went too light on the re-entry link, the lawmakers said in their letter. Only 75 of the 1,050 points available for jail projects will be allocated based on a county's agreement to accept re-entry prisons.

"The CSA has basically ignored all of the discussion that the administration and the department (of Corrections and Rehabilitation) had with the Legislature at the conclusion of this year's session that dealt with trying to implement re-entry facilities," Machado said in an interview. "And they have, it seems to me, failed to read AB 900 and the provisions within it."

So far, the only county that has agreed to take a re-entry prison is San Joaquin, in Machado's district. The facility is scheduled to be located at the site of a since- vacated women's prison.

The standards authority, formerly known as the Board of Corrections, is part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It is chartered to oversee construction and standards in the state's county jail and juvenile detention systems.

Ed Prieto, the sheriff of Yolo County and co-chairman of the authority's executive steering committee that established the point system on the jail bids, said his panel has since proposed a doubling of the score to be given to the counties that accept the mini-prisons. The leading criteria remains "project need," which gets 250 points.

"These are recommendations only at this point," Prieto said. "Nothing is final."

The authority will meet on Dec. 13 to finalize the jail-siting criteria.

Prieto said the scoring changes were enacted on Nov. 14, the day the legislators first notified the CSA they weren't happy with the system.

Machado was unimpressed.

"They're still playing games," the senator said.

Corrections Secretary Jim Tilton said he agreed with the lawmakers that the point system established by the authority wasn't "strong enough" in taking the re-entry prisons into consideration.

"If we don't bring the programs together, if we just build beds, it won't help" with the recidivism problem, Tilton said.

Tilton suggested there will be huge competition for AB 900's $1.22 billion in jail-bed money. The counties, he said, need about 80,000 beds, or six times the number funded in the legislation.

About the writer:

• Call Andy Furillo, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1141.