Yesterday, in his State of the State speech, the Governor endorsed a constitutional amendment that would require the state to spend more money on higher education than it does on prisons.  A nice idea, and one that would likely have the support of most progressives.

“Thirty years ago 10 percent of the general fund went to higher education and 3 percent went to prisons” Schwarzenegger said. “Today almost 11 percent goes to prisons and only 7½ percent goes to higher education. Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future.”

Schwarzenegger wants a constitutional amendment to prevent California lawmakers from ever spending more on prisons than on higher education. But California already spends more on education than on anything else. (KPCC)

But it’s more complicated than that, isn’t it. And of course, there’s this, the hubris of the legislature:

“Every legislator would tell you that they value higher education more than they do prison spending,” Hollingsworth remarked. “The fact is we would be spending a lot less on the prisons than the university system if we had our own control over it.”

That would be really nice, if it were remotely true.  Up until this point, the Legislature has shown no willingness to break from the failing policies of the past that have given us a 70% recidivism rate, spiraling costs, and an increasingly dangerous prisons environment. The court decisions haven’t been in effect for all that long, in the grand scheme of things.  The decisions that brought us to this point were made over decades, and blaming the courts is a cheap political move. A throwaway line, really.

Interests

Now, you can’t really consider the costs of the prison system without looking at CCPOA. The prison guards’ union does have vastly different goals to either the governor, the legislature or the people. Of course, when Arnold speaks of taking the prison system private, that is who he is targeting. From my perspective, I deeply believe in the rights of workers to unionize and to bargain collectively. And given the conditions at a typical prison in the state, the protections a union offers are important. But their goals are simple: more prison guard hours.  That means more overtime, more guards, and when following the logic: more prisoners.

But the problem with privatizing the prisons is a similar one: the more prisoners, the more profits for the privately held prisons.  It is essentially the same motive that CCPOA has, but this time they have Wall Street looking over their backs.  I’m not sure that is really the answer either.

The real solution to this mess requires an incredibly courageous stand by a few critical elected officials that are willing to prioritize policy over politics. Don’t laugh, it’s possible. Only then can we follow states like Kansas, yes Kansas, in rethinking how our prisons can and should work.

Priorities

This is, as the Governor pointed out yesterday, all about our priorities.  When the Governor stands up and says that we will not cut education, he is saying something about CalWORKS as well. And IHSS. And CalGrants. You get the point.  It is critical that we protect education, of course. But when the problem is a pot that is too small, you don’t solve the problem by saying that you will not skim any liquid off and focus on the carrots floating on the top.  No, you look for a bigger pot.

Why is California, saddled with perhaps the worst prison system in the US, perhaps the ONLY state not to understand that adding more beds is simply not a solution to the crisis?  Many other states are understanding that rehabilitation and treatment, which addresses the root causes of crime and seeks to lower recidivism rates, is the only way to get a handle on the growth in the prison industry.  And I’m not talking about some crunchy-Granola blue state like Vermont.  I’m talking about Kansas and Texas.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) last month signed into law a prison plan that is winning accolades for its creativity. Among other measures, the $4.4 million package provides financial incentives to community correctional systems for reducing prisoner admissions and allows some low-risk inmates to reduce their sentences through education or counseling while behind bars.

Under the plan, the state offers grants to localities for preventing “conditions violations” such as parole or probation infractions – a leading cause of prison overcrowding in Kansas and nationwide. To qualify for the grants, communities must cut recidivism rates by at least 20 percent using a variety of support tactics […]

In Texas, which houses 153,000 prisoners, the Legislature recently approved a plan that lawmakers have characterized as one of the most significant changes in corrections in a decade. The package, part of the state budget awaiting Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s approval, would divert thousands of inmates from prison to rehabilitation facilities, where beds would free up twice a year as offenders get help and re-enter society. Notably, the focus on rehabilitation would put off construction of costly new prisons.

The plan includes a new 500-bed treatment facility for those incarcerated for driving while intoxicated (DWI) – offenders who often have substance-abuse problems but receive no rehabilitation and face stiff sentences without the possibility of parole, according to one state Senate aide.

“We have changed the course of the ship substantially in the state of Texas,” said state Rep. Jerry Madden (R), chairman of the House Corrections Committee and an engineer of the prison plan.

22 other states (warning, PDF) have undertaken sentencing reforms between 2004 and 2006 which will reduce incarceration rates.  In Nevada, they have recently reinstated a sentencing review commission that can recommend changes in sentencing laws (a similar measure passed the CA state Senate, but it’s unclear whether or not the Governor will sign it).  There is a growing feeling that the goal of reducing the prison population must be attacked at the level of rehabilitation and reducing sentences for nonviolent offenders.

Meanwhile, in California, we’re wedded to the same old failed solutions that have given us a broken system and the highest recidivism rate in the land.  I guess that’s post-partisan.