Going through a state funds deficit of at the least $38 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom ought to be rethinking his costly dedication to the state’s conventional system of mass incarceration. Whereas insisting he’ll create a kinder, gentler model of California jail, the governor has approved $1 billion in raises for corrections officers and a whole bunch of tens of millions extra for jail buildings regardless of a gentle decline of the incarcerated inhabitants and skyrocketing prices.
Jail growth hasn’t simply contributed considerably to our funds deficits for 3 many years. It’s additionally triggered intergenerational hurt to Black communities and different marginalized Californians regardless of unprecedented public consciousness of the systemic issues and wasteful spending endemic to state prisons.
It’s not as if California voters, activists and legislators haven’t taken steps to deal with this. The state’s 2011 jail realignment was a turning level in lowering incarcerated populations, although the financial savings had been typically mismanaged and diverted to regulation enforcement somewhat than simpler group initiatives. It was buoyed by voter mandates, legislative reforms and tradition shifts that lastly confronted draconian sentencing practices. Hundreds extra had been launched from overcrowded prisons on the top of the pandemic, bringing the state’s jail inhabitants under 100,000 for the primary time in 30 years.
And but the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation continues to wrestle with such fundamentals as offering psychological well being care, costing taxpayers tens of millions in fines, and stopping sexual violence. Jail guards’ pay, in the meantime, continues to climb at triple the speed of inflation, driving annual prices previous $130,000 per prisoner.
Newsom’s experiment with Nordic-style incarceration, dubbed the California Mannequin, doesn’t adequately confront the issues plaguing California prisons. It’d even be a Malicious program for extra irresponsible jail spending.
Whereas an overhyped retail crime wave has been used to justify large regulation enforcement spending in Newsom’s 2024-25 funds proposal, crime charges stay close to 30-year lows. Reviving “powerful on crime” insurance policies and dumping extra billions into jail programs ought to be nonstarters in a supposedly progressive state — particularly whereas evidence-based options that may really enhance public security stay severely underfunded.
California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Workplace anticipates a surplus of 20,000 state jail beds by 2027. Closing 10 state prisons might save billions to deal with fiscal challenges and fund simpler public security measures.
Newsom touts the potential financial savings from three jail closures on his watch however has been silent on plans for extra, ignoring fellow Democrats within the Legislature and funds analysts who’ve known as for closing an extra 5. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s resolution to shut as much as 5 extra state prisons — for a complete of 11 — is daring. Newsom ought to be main on this, not taking part in catch-up.
However jail closures alone gained’t be sufficient to deal with out-of-control corrections spending. The state additionally has to tackle particular curiosity teams such because the California corrections officers, who wield outsize energy in Sacramento, to make sure that staffing and pay ranges don’t undo any future financial savings.
Given the deficit, the corrections funds ought to be prioritizing the wants of incarcerated folks and aiming for his or her profitable reintegration. The governor’s proposed new $360-million constructing at San Quentin, the price of which has been criticized by his personal advisory council, would quantity to a misallocation of funds. True rehabilitation is difficult inside jail confines and never served by costly infrastructure tasks.
A accountable funds proposal shouldn’t abandon folks at society’s margins. It’s unacceptable to make use of jails and prisons as stand-ins for supportive housing or psychological well being services, warehousing individuals who have nowhere else to go. The answer to homelessness is housing first, and the reply to the psychological well being disaster is accessible care. Meaning spending on social welfare and infrastructure tasks: remedy services, inexpensive housing and community-based reentry packages.
California has a chance to shift its focus earlier than the funds is revised in Might and accepted by the Legislature in June. Closing prisons and increasing public providers would replicate the wants and values of our state whereas serving to to place our funds so as.
It is a ethical in addition to a fiscal situation. There are too many prisons and jails in California, and regardless of our progress, there are too many individuals locked up in them.
Brian Kaneda is the deputy director of Californians United for a Accountable Price range.
