While the Senate was successful in passing meaningful, albeit not the prettiest, prison reform , the Assembly has been stumbling over the task for a few days now.  They were going to try it on Monday again.  Needless to say, it hasn’t succeeded. They’ve pushed back the vote again, indefinitely this time.

“Work is moving forward on a revised plan to increase public safety, improve the effectiveness of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and reduce state budget costs” Speaker Bass said Monday.  “There were a number of calls and meetings throughout the weekend with various stakeholders, including law enforcement.  Those conversations are continuing. When we arrive at a responsible plan that can earn the support of the majority of the Assembly and makes sense to the people of California, we will take that bill up on the Assembly floor.  We will provide advance notice when a vote on the public safety package is to be scheduled.”

If you want to take your time, and get this right, that’s a great thing.  Unfortunately, I think this delay is less about getting this right than getting it wrong.  Weak-kneed Democrats are failing California when we most need them to stand up for sound policy. Like the lawmakers in Kansas were able to do a few years back:

“But you know the old ‘trail em’, nail ’em and jail ’em stuff doesn’t work. We want people to come out and stay out and become responsible tax-paying citizens.”

She says many ex-cons have learned their lesson and don’t want to go back to prison but others have so little to lose that they lack motivation.

Now her job is to give people like Lorelei, who has spent most of her life struggling with crack addiction and drifting in and out of penal institutions, fresh incentives.

*** *** ***

The new strategy seems to be working: five years ago around 203 parolees returned to Kansas prisons each month but by 2007, the number reduced by 100 per month and the number of new crimes – felony convictions that people pick up while they are on parole supervision- also nearly halved. (BBC)

Our prison crisis cannot simply be resolved with more beds, or harsher sentences.  These tactics have been tried for generations, and we are clearly losing the “War on Crime.” The more we see ourselves as fighting a war on our own people, the more we fail.  It’s a quicksand that you don’t get out of by just hitting the gas.

See, the thing about prison policy is that we have our whole system targeted at the wrong people.  Instead of simply looking to sate ourselves, we need to look to how we preserve the goals and institutions of our soceity. What works best for us moving forward?  That is what is sorely lacking in California that has been rediscovered in Kansas, even by the people who run the prisons:

Roger Werholtz, the secretary of corrections, was forced to examine how to spend criminal justice dollars more effectively. For decades, he says, policy in the US has been driven by the public’s emotional response to criminals.

“We are mad at them, frightened by them, frustrated by them, and so our typical response has been very punitive,” he says.

But Mr Werholtz argues locking people up is only a temporary solution since more than 95% of prisoners will eventually be released into the community.

“We have to think long-term and stop arguing about what criminals deserve. Instead we need to focus on what we deserve as citizens and that leads us to a very different set of interventions.”

But as we sit in limbo, waiting for the California legislators to look beyond 6 or 8 years, or whenever their next election is, we must remember that legislators are also accountable to us.  Take the current issue.  In the assembly we have three legislators who fancy themselves as excellent attorneys general of the State of California. That’s a gig that requires planning for a period beyond their own tenure.  Yet, it is widely speculated that these three Assembly members have been very reluctant to vote for a sentencing reform commission for fear of looking “soft on crime.”

The sentencing commission isn’t soft on crime, it is a policy board that will allow policy makers, not politicians, to make decisions on what is best for the state. Instead of grandstanding on penalties for each infraction, we can allow policy research and good solid ideas to take hold of California’s messed up sentencing laws.

Yet, the Democratic candidates for Attorney General must also pass through the Democratic primary, and there are alternatives for the job who have been quite up front about their position on ToughOnCrime^TM. This is about good policy, and good policy should be remembered by grassroots activists when the time comes around for donors and volunteers come primary time.

UPDATE: Whoops, I meant to include the target list for your comments. Over the flip I have now provided the list that Dave ID’d last week. If they represent you, call them early and often. If they don’t well, it can’t hurt can it? Tell them that you support a sentencing commission and the prison reform package as passed by the Senate. And if you really get going, tell them to restore rehabilitation funds.

If you’re in the districts of any of these lawmakers, contact them NOW and tell them to vote Yes on ABX3 14.

Alyson Huber (AD-10) (Calitics raised a fair bit of money for her)

Joan Buchanan (AD-15) (Does she want to win a liberal primary for Congress?)

Marty Block (AD-78)

Manuel Perez (AD-80) (Calitics raised a fair bit of money for him)

Ted Lieu (AD-53)

Pedro Nava (AD-35)

Alberto Torrico (AD-20)

Cathleen Galgiani (AD-17)

Anna Caballero (AD-28)