And both are skyrocketing. That we are unable to control our prison spending will lead to just one more in a laundry list of budget disasters in the coming years, but nothing in our budget has been so spectacularly mishandled like the prisons. They are our third rail: we are terrified of doing what is best in terms of public policy because the issue might be misunderstood by the voters. But ignorance of the voters can’t be a justified excuse if we are drilling the wrong policy messages into the minds of voters.

There are a number of reasons for the growth in the prison budget, but not all of them are necessarily tied to the growth of the prison population:

The prison population has grown by 8% since 2003, to more than 173,000. But the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s budget has exploded, increasing 79% to $8.5 billion, and is expected to top $10 billion next year.

Prison spending now is greater than that for any other major program except public schools and healthcare for the poor. The nonpartisan legislative analyst’s office projects 6% annual increases in prison spending for the next five years as a new prison and dozens of building additions are constructed and opened. (LA Times 12/26/07)

So, we’re trying to build out of a disaster that has served to only increase the dangers to public safety. And in order to correct our past sins, we are having to spend to fix the prison healthcare system. And spend. And spend some more. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t; we need to fix that system, it was disgusting and needed to be overhauled. But the problem is that we can’t bring ourselves to the inevitable solution: real sentencing reform.

And I have another solution that would help the budget and the prison system immensely: Stop the Legislators Runner.  Seriously, take away their pens, ban them from writing initiatives, put a cap on legislator initiatives, toss them in prison (I bet they have lots of friends there), whatever.  They are having a devastating effect on public safety and the state budget. Jessica’s Law has already had disastrous effects for cities like San Francisco, where sex offenders are now just declaring themselves homeless.  And now they are getting ready to put another initiative on the ballot:

Another initiative is being readied for the ballot next year by the authors of last year’s measure: Sharon and George Runner, two Republican lawmakers from Lancaster; she in the Assembly and he in the Senate. The proposed initiative, which has not yet qualified, would require the state to spend nearly $1 billion to combat gang crimes and lengthen some prison sentences.

“People are trying to do one-upmanship to claim ‘I’m tough on crime,’ and it has a cost to it,” said Sen. Michael Machado (D-Linden), who oversees the corrections portion of the state budget.

The Runners are idealogues who have obviously either failed to grasp that ToughOnCrime^TM has totally failed, or they are so cynical as to manipulate our prisons, the lives of thousands of Californians, and billions of our general fund dollars for their own political gain.

It is this type of cynicism that has gotten us to where we are. It is not this type of cynicism that will resolve the issues. If the Governator has the courage to address prison population, I will be duly impressed. Because if we do nothing, we are not only failing the prison system as an institution, but we are failing ourselves in the form of public safety and economic efficiency.

I was rendered almost ill by John Edwards’ stance in the debate against the decriminalization of marijuana because “it would send the wrong signal to young people.”  Chris Dodd made a strong response that cut to the heart of our failed prison policy.

DODD: Can I respond, I mean just why I think it ought to be? We’re locking up too many people in our system here today. We’ve got mandatory minimum sentences that are filling our jails with people who don’t belong there. My idea is to decriminalize this, reduce that problem here. We’ve gone from 800,000 to 2 million people in our penal institutions in this country. We’ve go to get a lot smarter about this issue than we are, and as president, I’d try and achieve that.

This, of course, is most acute in California, where we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop on a federal court order that could potentially force the release of thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding.  State Sen. Gloria Romero held her ground and didn’t allow the usual spate of tougher sentencing bills to pass the Legislature this year.  So once again, George and Sharon Runner will go to the ballot with a punitive measure designed to make themselves look tough while further battering a crippled prison system.

A year after bringing to California Jessica’s Law, the crackdown on sex offenders, the husband-and-wife team of state Sen. George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner announced Monday a new initiative that would target gang members for tougher prosecution and dedicate nearly $1 billion annually to enforcement and intervention.

The Republican legislators from Lancaster hope to collect enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2008 ballot, and they have the backing of the father of the state’s three-strikes law as well as law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

The Legislature has already rejected this bill, and it would again constrain the state budget with another walled-off mandate while doing nothing to address the major crisis in overcrowding.  It’s feel-good nonsense for “tough-on-crime” advocates.

By the way, let’s see how the last initiative the Runners promoted, Jessica’s Law, is working out:

Hundreds of California sex offenders who face tough new restrictions on where they can live are declaring themselves homeless, making it difficult for the state to track them.

Jessica’s Law, approved by 70 percent of California voters a year ago, bars registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children gather. That leaves few places where offenders can live legally.

Some who have had trouble finding a place to live are avoiding re-arrest by reporting that they are homeless – falsely, in some cases.

Experts say it is hard to monitor sex offenders when they lie about their address or are living day-to-day in cheap hotels, homeless shelters or on the street. It also means they may not be getting the treatment they need.

“We could potentially be making the world more dangerous rather than less dangerous,” said therapist Gerry Blasingame, past chairman of the California Coalition on Sexual Offending.

I agree with all of that except the word “potentially.”  We felt good about “getting tough” on sex offenders, and now we have them living under bridges and untrackable.  How do you think “getting tough” on gang violence is going to work out?