Guards give, lawmakers take

The California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. has donated $100,000 to an initiative campaign that would alter the state's term limits law--and extend the power of Senate leader Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, both facing retirement from the Legislature.

Yesterday, the same day the $100K donation was publicly reported (PDF) by the union, Nunez and Perata unveiled a plan that would force 8,000 inmates into lockups out of state. The CCPOA, not surprisingly, hates this part of the Nunez-Perata prison overhaul--it takes away their best customers.

"We are going to do everything we can to point out the dangers of this plan," Lance Corcoran with the union told The Times. He said prisoners who don't want to move could create peril for officers: "We're going to have to fight them out of their cells," he said.

The CCPOA contribution to the Committee for Term Limits & Legislative Reform was made April 11, and reported yesterday.

'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)

Cast Away

Mike Jiminez, president of the Correctional Peace Officers Assn., won't shave his beard until prison guards sign a new contract with the state. It's been nine months.

Governor orders halt on death chamber

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered that work be stopped on a new lethal injection death chamber at San Quentin, after officials discovered the cost had jumped to $725,000 - well above the $400K limit that requires a financial review by the state Legislature.

"We are now going through the budget process and it will have to be vetted through the Legislature and approved as part of the governor's budget," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He said a review this week of the financial documents on the project showed the cost had jumped.

Construction of the death chamber has riled California lawmakers who say they were kept in the dark about the new facility - which was originally reported to cost $399,000, just under the legal limit before a legislative review. A federal judge ruled last year that California's death penalty system could be considered unconstitutional because prison officers were not adequately trained to conduct in executions, lethal drugs were not properly accounted for or were mixed improperly, and the death chamber was too cramped and the lights were too dim.

"The administration's actions seem designed to subvert the process of the federal court's review and the legitimate need for legislative oversight," said Assemblywoman Sally Lieber said last week. "This is a series display of bad faith on the part of the Administration. To build a new death chamber, using an administrative loophole to avoid informing the Legislature, is inexcusable."

Jim Tilton, Schwarzenegger's prisons secretary, says he had no idea that construction had started on the death chamber, although he knew it was going to be built to address the judge's concerns. Facing a May 15 deadline to show progress, the prison system has legal authority to build the new facility. But now, Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) is to hold hearings Wednesday to determine whether the corrections department did anything improper.

Danger zone

"We are very close to an agreement. If it doesn't get done this week, it will get done after we come back from Easter vacation." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a March 27 press conference in Fresno, promising a prison reform agreement with the Legislature.

• Number of days since the spring break ended: 9
• Schwarzenegger events since then: Speech in Washington D.C., speech in New York, Yom Hashoah commemoration in L.A., visit to  USC Cardiovascular Thoracic Institute.
• Schwarzenegger's schedule today: Emergency room tour, San Diego.
  

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, the Republican point man on prison reform, continued his rant against Los Angeles as being too dangerous to invite out-of-town guests. After L.A. lost its 2016 Olympics application to Chicago over the weekend, Spitzer took to the floor of the Assembly and said:

"And Los Angeles was not awarded the Olympics. And let me pause on that for a moment to say, it wasn't because Los Angeles didn't deserve to host the Olympics. ... Los Angeles isn't safe. And I don't blame the International Olympic Committee for refusing to award Los Angeles the Olympics, because it has an out of control gang problem, and we have absolutely no plan to make sure California is safe. And that in my opinion is why – and one factor that the International Olympic Committee considered – when it decided to send the Olympics to Chicago."

Spitzer (pictured) recently took a prison tour near Sacramento and emerged to say: "I personally want people to be scared, because that's going to motivate people to act." He also wrote a column for the FlashReport calling members of the Public Safety Committee "pro-criminal." Not surprisingly, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles thought this went too far. He printed out the column, confronted Spitzer about it and started yelling obscenities. And then he bounced him from the committee.

Everyone has their problems I suppose. For example, in Spitzer's district the cities of Norco, Corona, Rancho Santa Margarita, Anaheim, Orange, Mission Viejo, Santa Ana and Tustin posted the following statistics for 2005, combined:

• Murders: 38
• Rapes: 206
• Robberies: 1,558
• Aggravated assaults: 2,665

Secret death chamber outrages lawmakers

Given the history of the death penalty in California, this is surprising in the least: San Quentin prison officials have been building a new death chamber without informing lawmakers - or even the head of the Dept. of Corrections.

And it appears there was a deliberate effort to keep the cost below a specific price so lawmakers would not have to be informed. The Sacramento Bee says "paperwork indicates the price tag on the project is $399,000. Projects costing less than $400,000 can be financed out of Corrections' discretionary funds; legislators do not need to be notified of such projects."

A federal judge ruled last year that California's death penalty system could be considered unconstitutional because prison officers were not adequately trained to conduct in executions, lethal drugs were not properly accounted for or were mixed improperly, and the death chamber lights were too dim.

Lawmakers are particularly upset because a federal judge on Feb. 23 rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request to keep documents and information secret while the state's execution process is being reviewed. "At no time was the actual construction of a new death chamber even mentioned," said Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, who said she filed an amicus brief with the court "seeking openness on the part of the Schwarzenegger administration."

"The administration's actions seem designed to subvert the process of the federal court's review and the legitimate need for legislative oversight," said Lieber. "This is a serious display of bad faith on the part of the Administration. To build a new death chamber, using an administrative loophole to avoid informing the Legislature, is inexcusable."

Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, whose Marin County district includes San Quentin, told the S.F. Chronicle: "To sneak a project like this through is just outrageous. We will find out what kind of creative accounting they've done." And Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said the secrecy was insulting and questioned the price as well: "Why not $399,999.99?" he said facetiously. "The question is, was this price tag a coincidence?''

The Chronicle spoke late Friday afternoon with Tilton, who said he was "aware that the corrections staff was discussing whether to build a new death chamber in response to a ruling in December by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel that the state's haphazard process for administering capital punishment could be considered unconstitutional. But Tilton said he had not been told that construction had begun."

"I hate to admit it," he told the newspaper, "but I don't know everything that's going on in the department."

(Photo: Dept. of Corrections; AP)

Jerry Brown: Send inmates to Maine

Attorney General Jerry Brown - lamenting an "institutional conveyor belt" that perpetuates gang crime - told a Central Valley crowd that the prison crisis might be solved by moving California inmates far away from their homes. Very far away. The Fresno Bee:

"We have a paradox in that even the gang members we put in prison can still be in control of crimes outside by communicating with other gang members," Brown said. "Maybe some should be sent to Maine instead of Corcoran, so that they'd be further away from their crime network."

In a move that has angered the state's prison guard union, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order to transfer California inmates to out-of-state facilities. Currently, the state prison system has about 170,000 men and women housed in prisons built for 100,000. But shipping inmates to prisons in Maine might not work either.

According to Maine prison Commissioner Martin Magnusson, the state has its own emergency - overcrowding by a whopping 293 inmates. "The crowding is taking a major toll on staff, who are working so much overtime that some are sleeping in their cars after their shifts because they're too tired to drive home, said the commissioner, who met with 250 corrections staff on Monday to hear their frustrations," the Morning Sentinel reported.

Anyway, it's the concept that counts.

An empty prison in California

State officials could re-open a Stockton-area prison once used for women inmates - this time filling it with men. The women's prison closed four years ago "because of state budget cuts," and has been used for training ever since. Of course, local officials are balking using the empty space, even though California is currently housing about 170,000 inmates in facilities designed for 100,000.

But, according to state officials who spoke with the Stockton Record: In order to house men at the 800-bed facility, prison officials require approval from the state Legislature. No offense to the fine men and women in the Legislature, but why can't Schwarzenegger just open the facility himself under emergency orders? The state is, after all, facing a federal takeover if the prison over-population crisis is not resolved soon.

Powerful Union Opposes Prison Expansion

A day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured an overcrowded Norco prison - and while GOP lawmakers were taking their own Oz tour in Solano and Vacaville - one of the state's most powerful unions announced it would oppose Schwarzenegger's $10.9 billion prison expansion. The SEIU Local 1000 represents 87,000 rank-and-file state workers, including about 13,000 working in prisons.

The SEIU Local 1000 would instead expand rehabilitation programs, change parole and sentencing policies "to encourage rehabilitation of low-level offenders," and hire more prison workers. "We cannot not build our way out of California's overcrowding crisis," said Marc Bautista, Local 1000 vice-president for organizing and representation. "If we invest in rehabilitation and proper staffing levels, and if we put sanity into our parole and sentencing policies, our prisons will be more effective and our communities will see fewer and fewer repeat offenders."

(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

'Cracked Paint And A Faint Manure Odor'

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Guillermina Hall, warden of the state's Norco prison, on Monday toured the overcrowded facility for low-level offenders and drug addicts (pictured below). The buildings date back to 1928 when it was a luxury hotel, the governor noted, before it was transformed into a naval hospital during WWII, and then a prison in the 1960s. Ah, human progress!

Schwarzenegger is campaigning for an $11 billion reform and building package that he says will alleviate severe overcrowding at the state's 33 prisons and avoid a federal takeover. At the photo opportunity, the governor said "the Legislature has not really yet committed to really solving this problem."

State Senate leader Don Perata (pictured) said about the governor's visit: "I am disappointed that the governor today blamed the Legislature for the state's prison crisis instead of offering ways to attack the problem. As the governor said, we need to show the court short-term solutions.  But the governor's only short-term proposal has been ruled illegal. ... It's time to stop the antics and give the Legislature something to work with – not hyperbole or hastily crafted fixes. I am committed to working with the governor, but he must step up and show real leadership."

The Norco gym was evacuated and the entire prison was put on lockdown for the governor's visit. Complete report on the visit after the jump.

(Photos: Rich Pedroncelli / AP; Terry Pierson / AP)