Proposed CDCR budget about the same despite prison closures, inmate numbers declining
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday released a budget proposal that includes $14.5 billion for California prisons, nearly the same amount the state expects to spend through this fiscal year while the number of inmates is projected to continue to decline.
Newsom’s proposed $297 billion state budget includes $14.1 billion from the state’s general fund and $374.9 million from other funds for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The current budget, for fiscal year 2022-23, included $14 billion for CDCR.
Newsom’s administration has already decided to shut down three California prisons to save money. The California Correctional Center in Lassen County is expected to close by June, closed the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy in September 2021, and last month announced plans to close Chuckwalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County, along with cutbacks at six more prisons.
A prison closure advocacy group says it’s not enough. Amber-Rose Howard, executive director for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, said Newsom needs to pull more money away from CDCR and put that money directly into communities.
“More prison closures must happen in California,” Howard said in a news release. “What’s missing is a concrete road map for how California can close more prisons successfully and shift billions in cost savings away from wasteful prison spending and toward the communities most impacted by incarceration, including towns where prisons will be closed.”
California prison officials will be deactivating certain facilities at Folsom Women’s Facility; in Pelican Bay State Prison; at California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo; California Rehabilitation Center in Riverside County; at California Institution for Men in San Bernardino County; and at California Correctional Institution in Kern County. CDCR estimates $150 million in savings as a result of these facility deactivations.
A November 2020 report from the California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that closing five state prisons would save $1.5 billion a year.
Newsom’s administration says the Tracy prison closure created an annual savings of $150.3 million for the state’s general fund. The Lassen County prison closure is expected to produce an estimated $142.8 million in annual savings. It’s unclear exactly how much CDCR will save with the Riverside County prison closure.
State prisons last week held about 96,000 incarcerated people, about 3,100 less than this time last year and down from about 120,000 in 2019 and about 160,000 in 2011.
California’s average daily prison population for 2022-23 is now projected to be 96,157, a decrease of 6.6% since the spring 2022 projections. The population is projected to continue its long-term downward trend, dropping to a daily average of 87,295 in 2025-26.
The parolee population is projected to decline from the daily average of 43,668 in this fiscal year to 36,473 by June 30, 2027.
Howard, of the prison closure advocacy group, said Newsom proposes to add another $500 million to CDCR’s budget despite the continued projected decline in the inmate population. She said Newsom should be making further CDCR budget cuts and redirecting those funds to community infrastructure.
“The budget’s investments in positive programming for incarcerated people are important,” Howard said in the news release, “but the state must focus on life-affirming investments within the community in order to sustain reduced reliance on prisons and to increase public safety.”
