Governor confirms he wants inmates released

There were expressions of fear and disbelief, and promises of danger. One man said the best way to deal with 22,000 early prisoner releases is for society to lend a hand to its incorrigibles. Others said the proposal is long overdue.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made it official Thursday – he really does intend to open the prison gates next fiscal year to 22,159 lower-risk inmates and enact new parole policies that could result in some 6,249 fewer reincarcerations the year after that.

His $1.1 billion corrections budget-cutting proposal would mean 6,000 job cuts in the prison department, including 2,000 layoffs, although attrition could knock that number way down.

But if the day of reckoning is at hand for California's tough sentencing policies, somebody forgot to tell the Republicans.

Some were restrained and some were bombastic, but all were definitive: Letting prisoners out in the final 20 months of their term, even if they're low-risk, as the governor is proposing, is about the worst way imaginable to fix the state's $14 billion budget deficit.

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, the GOP point man on corrections, said the proposal amounts to a sucker punch to Republicans who last year supported Assembly Bill 900, the $7.9 billion prison expansion and rehabilitation plan.

"It's a betrayal," Spitzer said. "AB 900 promised us no early releases, and that's why Republicans voted overwhelmingly for it. Now, some people will be doing less time if they're sentenced to prison than if they're sentenced to county jail."

Schwarzenegger, Spitzer said, "reneged on a promise."

The Republican governor said that with the prisons packed and the federal courts "breathing down our neck" by considering early release motions of their own, the only "fair" thing to do – without raising taxes – is to spread the budget pain around.

"You will have people coming out of this room afterwards and spinning why all this is terrible," Schwarzenegger responded when asked about the early releases. "But the bottom line is, I think this is the fairest way to go, and we wanted to show and send a signal that we don't cut back on what is popular amongst Republicans, or cut back on what's popular amongst Democrats."

The governor's proposal would save the state $17.9 million this fiscal year, $378.9 million in 2008-09 and $782.7 million in 2009-10. But his declaration of fiscal emergency and call for a special legislative session would require legislation no later than March 1, and with a two-thirds vote of the lawmakers.

With Republicans bombing the proposal, finance director Mike Genest sounded dubious about the administration getting support from its own party.

"I don't know," Genest said. The budget's overall cost-cutting and avoidance of new taxes ought to be enough to get GOP support, he said. "I don't think you can have it both ways," Genest said of the Republicans.

Democrats weren't exactly thrilled with the idea of early releases, either. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez of Los Angeles said raising taxes should at least be part of the discussion "when you're talking about making the types of cuts that … in the end is going to put our public in danger."

Corrections Secretary Jim Tilton said the releases will only be available to inmates classified as non-serious and non-violent who are not sex offenders – including their prior convictions. Qualifying inmates will be placed on summary parole, meaning no supervision, and can be returned to custody only if they get convicted of a new crime and are sentenced to more than 20 months.

Tilton said that 75 percent of the 6,000 "position reductions" will fall on custody staff. Some 1,500 of those 4,500 positions are currently vacant and another 1,000 are filled through overtime, Tilton said, leaving 2,000 employees facing layoffs.

Attrition, however, will cut into that number, the secretary said. The agency's sworn staff of 32,722 has an annual attrition rate of 3 percent, corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said.

California Correctional Peace Officers Association spokesman Lance Corcoran said the department "cannot function" minus the 6,000 jobs.

"The system will fail," he said.

Christine Ward of the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau said the releases are "going to put the citizens of the state of California at risk."

But Jim Lindburgh, a lobbyist for the Friends Committee on Legislation, said the releases are a consequence of 25 years of prison-packing legislation like the "three strikes" law that has run its course.

"I think the message is we have to be much more selective in our use of incarceration," he said.

Out on the streets, the consensus reaction to the proposal was something to the effect of, "The governor is doing what?"

"Prisoners being released? It sounds scary," said K Street Mall pedestrian Tamara Johnson, 21, of Elk Grove. "It's going to mean more crime, probably."

Dave Dutton, 62, a culinary worker and Old Sacramento resident wearing a Marine patch on his black leather jacket, said the plan can work, but that the released offenders "will need a lot of help."

"It's just going to take a 100 percent voluntary program to help these guys and gals get back into the system," Dutton said.

About the writer:

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