'Healing' California inmates

When he was a bodybuilder and actor in the 1970s, Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger would make low-profile visits to California prisons to talk about lifting weights and other life lessons. This week, Schwarzenegger made a special point of saying he wanted comprehensive reforms to California's prison system that would enhance rehabilitation for inmates. That presumably would include drug treatment, counseling and job training.

The governor's New Age language (which has not been backed up with concrete proposals) comes in stark contrast to prison guard officials who tend to characterize California inmates as animals. Schwarzenegger said yesterday:

"I think it is wrong to think that when you lock up people, that after 20 years that they have now been healed of the problems that they have, and now they are ready to go out. No, it only means they have served their term, their time. But we have to heal them. We have to get them ready to go out so they can get a job, connect with society, and never commit a crime again. We have to help them. [Snip.]

"We want to make sure that they learn something while they're in prison.  We want to make sure that they are capable of connecting and getting a job.  By giving them a $200 bus ticket--I should say a bus ticket and $200--and hope for the best, hasn't worked. ...  I used to, in the '70s, go around and visit all the prisons in California, and bring weight training into those places, because I got a lot of letters from inmates.  You know, 'Can you come in and show us how to train, and inspire us,' and all of those kinds of things. So I visited a lot, so I'm very familiar with this subject.

"And I think that people make mistakes, people commit crimes.  So before we send them back out into society, we need to fix those problems, what caused them to commit the crime in the first place.  I think it's very important." [Emphasis added.]

What does the proposal by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, Senate leader Don Perata, Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines (pictured above) and Senate GOP leader Dick Ackerman say about rehabilitation?

According to some prison advocates, not much. In addition to $7.4 billion in spending to build new jails and prisons, it would allocate just $50 million in the first year on substance abuse, education and mental health services. The system currently has about 170,000 prisoners, and a recidivism rate close to 70%.

The program does, however, include thousands of beds in new, transitional rehabilitation facilities with job training and counseling. A Schwarzenegger administration official said, "This is a very significant  rehabilitation part of the proposal."

Jenifer Warren reports today in The Times that prison officials would have to meet other benchmarks to receive half of the construction funding: the creation of 4,000 drug treatment slots; formation of a California rehabilitation oversight board to monitor the department's progress; individual inmate assessments to ensure that each receives suitable education or mental health treatment; and overall expansion of vocational and academic training behind bars.

(Photos: Rich Pedroncelli/AP; AP)