Arnold Schwarzenegger, recognizing that you don’t build prisons as quickly as one of his movie sets, understanding that the upcoming 3-judge panel decision on the prison crisis was bound to be punitive, is planning to dismiss 12% of the prison population.

In what may be the largest early release of inmates in U.S. history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration is proposing to open the prison gates next year for some 22,000 low-risk offenders.

According to details of a budget proposal made available to The Bee, the administration will ask the Legislature to authorize the release of certain non-serious, nonviolent, non-sex offenders who are in the final 20 months of their terms.

The proposal would cut the prison population by 22,159 inmates and save the cash-strapped state an estimated $256 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and more than $780 million through June 30, 2010. The proposal also calls for a reduction of more than 4,000 prison jobs, most of them involving correctional officers.

This seems to be as much about saving money as resolving the crisis.  Still, it’s a ballsy move.  Except it reveals the distasteful options that result when you let a problem go this long without doing anything.

Instead of releasing 22,000 prisoners who have had rehabilitation and treatment and education and the skills needed to rotate back into civil society, the Governor wants to release 22,000 prisoners who went in for nonviolent offenses, but who got caught up in a crowded system, completely lacking in the treatment services they needed, and who essentially were matriculating in Crime College.  A system as bad as California’s turns nonviolent offenders violent.  It doesn’t equip them for the real world.  And that can be witnessed by the nation’s largest recidivism rate.

This is the problem that has little in the way of good solutions.  Skimming off the top is something you can do, but its consequences are real, and the Tough on Crime folks will seize upon every offense made by these prisoners, and demonize Schwarzenegger as “Governor Pardon” (by the way, this is the END of his aspirations for higher office, this proves he’s not interested because this is such campaign fodder).  The best solution is a long-term one that doesn’t scoop out the nonviolent offenders, but fundamentally changes the sentencing guidelines so the clog becomes reduced, and taking advantage of less crowded prisons in the interim to implement real rehabilitation and treatment programs that can reverse this disappointing recidivism trend.

UPDATE: Skittish, afraid-of-their-own-shadow lawmakers predictably stand up in opposition to this plan, because the other option of having the courts mandate an even larger release is such a better idea.  I don’t think skimming off the top is such a bright idea either, but no legislator dares wrap it in a critique of the failed prison system.

(Xposted from mydesert.com.  Re full disclosure, BlueBeaumontBoyz is a supporter of Greg Pettis for the CA 80th Assembly District.

Although the Coachella Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) tops the list of California school districts facing state takeover, according to The Desert Sun, 98 districts statewide – including the Palm Springs Unified School District (PSUSD) – face sanctions because of lagging student achievement.

Interestingly, a Repugnant candidate for the CA 80th Assembly District to replace the termed-out Bonnie Garcia, is a board member of the PSUSD.  Gary Jeandron, is a board member of the PSUSD.  His website reads: Gary Jeandron, The Choice for Good Education.  Included in his list of endorsements are the now-discredited Arthur Block, Former PSUSD Board Member, Mike McCabe, Former PSUSD Board Member, and William Diedrich, Former PSUSD Superintendant.  Should we then laugh or cry.

Where was Jeandron himself during this developing crisis?  What has he or has he not contributed to the failure of the PSUSD to meet student achievement goals?  It seems that this is a collosal failure of leadership on Jeandron’s part.  Just sayin’.

First, it should be pointed out that this Field poll on health care (PDF) was taken before the plan was complete, so the recipients were only given an outline of what the plan really was. (The question is over the flip). And of of course, given that this legislative package is almost 300 pages long, any poll question will be fraught with simplifications. So, grain of salt there.  And one more thing that’s got a bee in my proverbial bonnet: the Field Poll seemingly also failed to poll for single payer. I understand that they are just trying to take the pulse on this plan for a possible initiative fight, but the question of how best to deal with health coverage can’t really be answered unless we have a baseline for, as Mayor Gavin Newsom pointed out, the best solution.

That all being said, the general concept of “universal health care” seems to be quite popular. And that in and of itself is a good sign.  The plan proposed by the Governator and the Speaker enjoys substantial support as well.  With approximately 2 in 3 voters giving their support to the plan, and a similar level of support for the $2/pack cigarette tax plan.

As always, the cross tabs are available at Capitol Alert. Unsurprisingly, the lowest support number is within Republicans, however, even that number is above the 50% mark at 52.4%.  Democrats clock in at 73.5%, the highest mark. Of course, without questions on other plans, this really tracks fairly well with the numbers who support the more broad concept of “health care reform.”

UPDATE: This isn’t really related to the poll, but the National Journal’s Ron Brownstein writes about California’s health care plan. It’s written with an eye upon the national debate, practically mocking John Edwards’ point that the insurance companies won’t give up power easily, and doesn’t really address the issues from the left. Rather, it focuses on how the plan tracks Massachusetts’ plan and how the California plan offers a “compelling model for Washington.” Oh, and he heaps praise on the Governator. I hope this gets him a ton of money for his first movie in 2011.  

It appears Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be following the precendent of Carson Daly and going back to work. With or without their writers. Not sure if they are pleased about it, though.

“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” will resume production on Jan. 7 without their striking writers, the Comedy Central network announced Thursday.

***

In a joint statement, Stewart and Colbert said: “We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”(AP 12.20.07)

Speaking of the writers, it appears that Arnold is talking to some of them. From Past Deadline (via CA Newsladder), we hear that Arnold has been asking about a few vehicles to get him back into the action hero game:

Well, we hear from the folks who have been walking the WGA strike picket line that The Guv has floated word to his peeps to spread the message that once his last term as the state’s biggest cheese ends in January 2011, he would like to resume his role as a boxoffice superstar/film icon.

A few high-profile writers of action films who wished not to be ID’d (you know how that is) were heard conferring that before the strike hit, agents were putting out feelers for material and pitches to develop projects with Schwarzenegger in mind. Nothing specific yet. All just preliminary stuff. What this means is that Arnold isn’t so very interested in running for the Senate and potentially spending all of that time in boring old Washington, D.C., California/Austria boy that he is. (Past Deadline 12.20.07)

(Tragically, the girl in question, Nataline Sarkisyan, died yesterday evening after this diary was posted. nyceve at Daily Kos has more about the netroots’ role in forcing CIGNA to capitulate. – promoted by Robert in Monterey)

I am pasting a release below about the Dec. 20 “Patient’s Revolt” that forced heartless CIGNA corporation to approve the liver transplant that could save the life of 17-year-old Nataline Sarkysian.

It’s been an emotional day involving hundreds of people, but there are a couple of lessons I want to take away.

First–we have power.  We shouldn’t be afraid to use it.  A unique coalition of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, a union, together with netroots and the Armenian Community shamed a global insurance corporation into doing the right thing.

Second–we shouldn’t have to do this…and every candidate pushing to mandate individuals purchase insurance products from the likes of CIGNA, who would still be in the business of profiting through the denial of care, should think long and hard.  Are the CIGNA’s of the world really the people who should control our healthcare dollars?

Here is the full release.  Highlights:

CIGNA CAPITULATES TO PATIENT REVOLT

Following Massive Protest, Insurer Authorizes

Transplant for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkysian

CNA/NNOC-Sponsored Protest Sparks Flood of Calls from Across U.S.

In a stunning turn-around, insurance giant Cigna has capitulated to community demands, and protests that the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee helped to generate, and agreed to a critically needed liver transplant for Nataline Sarkysian, a 17-year-old girl in the intensive care unit at UCLA Medical Center.

A national web of friends and family of Nataline, CNA/NNOC registered nurses, doctors, members of the Armenian community, healthcare advocates and netroots supporters pitched in on an unprecedented national day of action on Nataline’s belief.  

The centerpiece of the protests was an impassioned rally today sponsored by CNA/NNOC with the substantial help of the local Armenian community that drew 150 people to the Glendale offices of Cigna. Hundreds of phone callers clogged the lines of Cigna offices around the country, all demanding that Cigna reverse its prior denial of care.  

“This is an incredible turnaround generated by a massive outpouring around the country that proves that an enraged public can make a difference and achieve results,” said CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. “Cigna had to back down in the face of a mobilized network of patient advocates and healthcare activists who would not take no for an answer.”

The netroot protest was organized by Eve Gittelson an influential health policy blogger who writes on Daily Kos as nyceve, and many of the calls were also the product of work by the Armenian National Committee.

“Natalie is now seriously ill and still has significant hurdles in her fight for her life, but thankfully our combined voices and protests have finally given her and her family hope,” said Geri Jenkins, RN, a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents who works in a transplant unit at the University of California San Diego Medical Center.

“However, it is deplorable and appalling that CIGNA needed to have hundreds of people pounding on their doors and besieging them with calls to take the humanitarian step they should have done long before today,” said Jenkins who spoke at the Glendale rally.

Nataline’s mother, Hilda Sarkisyan, expressed her profound thanks to CNA/NNOC. “We couldn’t have done this without you helping us to stand up against this insurance company and forcing them to finally do the right thing. It is not right in this country for it to take a rally, a protest, and a major press conference to get an insurance company to listen.”

“Every politician who thinks the answer to our healthcare crisis is more insurance should stop and think about Nataline Sarkysian,” said DeMoro. “Insurance is not care. Paying for insurance coverage is not the same as assuring you will receive appropriate care, even when recommended by a physician as it was for Nataline. Insurance corporations profit by denying care to the sick, and that is no way to run a humane healthcare system.”

DeMoro said that CNA/NNOC will continue to encourage patient protests and publicize stories about insurance companies’ denial of care, as it has all year through its www.guaranteedhealthcare.org web site, while pressing for real healthcare reform “that takes medical decisions out of the hands of insurers and places them where they belong, in the hands of healthcare professionals and their families.”