For Immediate Release:
Contact: Seth Unger
September 26, 2007
916-445-4950

Transcript of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Signing Legislation to Create First Secure Community Re-entry Facility

 

Time:                10 a.m.

Date:                Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Event:               Bill Signing, Northern California Women's Facility, 7150 Arch Road, Stockton, CA

 

MAYOR CHAVEZ: 

 

Good morning, everyone.  Thank you for being here on this momentous occasion.  I'd like to thank Senator Machado, Mr. Tilton, and certainly the Governor, for the legislation that we're going to see signed today.  It's very important for our communities, very important to the state.  So with that, join me in welcoming the Governor back to Stockton.  (Applause)

 

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: 

 

Thank you very much, Mayor Chavez, for the wonderful introduction and for being here, and helping us so much with this.  I also want to thank some other people that are here today; Senator Machado, of course it's his bill, of course he's here, he's the champion of this.  I also want to thank Assemblywoman Galgiani -- did I pronounce it right, Galgiani?  Then Sheriff Moore, thank you, and then Joan Petersilia, Dr. Joan Petersilia, thank you very much for being here.  And Secretary Tilton, thank you also -- he's right over here, the champion, so thank you very much. 

 

This is really terrific.  Today we are here to sign Senate Bill 943 by Senator Machado, and I think this is a big day for California because this is actually our first creation of a re-entry facility, which is part of our overall prison reform package.  And I want to thank Senator Machado for his great work on this -- without him we wouldn't have been able to do it -- and also the great work that he has done for getting the community support, which is very important when you start a facility like this.  We also want to thank also our hardworking people from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, especially Secretary Jim Tilton, who has done an extraordinary job to make this happen.  And we would not have been able to do any of this if it wouldn't have been for two people here, which is, of course, Mayor Ed Chavez and San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore.  I want to thank you both also very much for your hard work.

 

Now, SB 943 is all about increasing public safety, and it will also stop the revolving door of repeat offenders and lowering our recidivism rate, which has plagued our prison system and our communities for decades.  Now, when I signed our historic Prison Reform Bill this last May, we made a commitment to increase our bed capacity by 53,000, and this here is a cornerstone, this plan to increase our beds by 16,000 for re-entry facilities.  They will house inmates who are close to their release date.  And what will make this different is that they will get great rehabilitation programs like counseling, anger management, substance abuse, job training, housing placement and so on, help that they really need to go out into society, return to society as law-abiding citizens. 

 

Today these inmates are being sent back to their communities normally, regardless if they have been rehabilitated or not, and they get their 200 dollars, they get a bus ticket, and they get sent out.  And we always hope for the best, but the fact is many of them commit new crimes, give California the highest recidivism rate in the nation.  Now, these old ways of doing things make our communities less safe, and it creates dangerous overcrowding in our prisons. 

 

Now, with this bill we will create the first re-entry facility right here at a former prison for women.  And the great thing about this also is that these re-entry facilities are becoming very popular for the counties.  A lot of counties want to partner now with the State of California.  Those inmates there will be given a chance to lead crime-free lives, and that will make everyone in California safe.  And this is what this is all about, is public safety.  It will also help reduce our prison overcrowding.  

 

Now, the sad story is that this prison problem that we have, and the crisis that we have in California, is something that has been swept under the rug for too long.  This is not anything new, it did not happen overnight.  This can has been kicked down the alley for too long.  But with our reform legislation, with our action that we are taking here today, California is well on its way to solve this problem once and for all.

 

And now I would like to bring out Senator Machado, who is really responsible for this bill, and has done an extraordinary job to make all of this happen.  Thank you very much.  Senator?  (Applause)

 

SENATOR MACHADO: 

 

Thank you, Governor.  I would like to thank the Governor and acknowledge his leadership in moving towards the reform of our prison system, and what he has done with the Department of Corrections, and with Secretary Jim Tilton, to put us on the road in responding to the problems that we have.  I also want to thank the Mayor, Mayor Chavez, the city council, and the supervisor chair, Victor Mow, and the board of supervisors, who supported the change. 

 

This community had a lot of anxiety over this facility becoming used as a prison for men. But when the community realized that we would be receiving these inmates who are being released, they realized that they needed to have the ability to have them continue with the type of programming and life skill development so that they could succeed in the community.  This now is not a State problem or a community problem, it is a partnership, and part of that partnership is the trust.  And the trust that this community has put forward with the State is that the State indeed will meet its commitments under AB 900, which will be to provide funding for the city and county of San Joaquin, the cities in this county of San Joaquin, to be able to have a new county jail to address the local crime problem, that will have programming money to come in, and assist the community to provide the continuing program for the inmates that will be released from this facility. 

 

And if that trust is indeed kept, this will become a model for other locations within the state to further develop the re-entry facility concept, which will lead to, I think, the reduction of recidivism, a safer community, and a reduction in the population in our prisons, which is something the courts have said has to be done.  And in doing that we will be able to save valuable California budget dollars and put those monies back into programs that help children, help adults, help our education and other vital needed services. 

 

Again, I want to thank the Governor and his staff, and also the Department of Corrections, in particular Secretary Jim Tilton, for his cooperation in this matter, and I think we are well on our way to demonstrating that California can address the prison problem. 

 

I'd like now to introduce Sheriff Steve Moore from San Joaquin County.  Steve?  

 

SHERIFF MOORE: 

 

Senator.  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  I too wish to thank all of those present.  As you know, this has been an ongoing process, and we've been working very hard to make this happen.  With the passage of AB 900 we took the initiative to make sure that we got San Joaquin County in line for the additional funding to build a new facility that we so desperately need, and the cooperation from all the individuals you see here, from State Legislators to local government officials and members of the community at large, have made this happen.  With the signing today, with the Governor signing AB -- or correction, SB 943, it is a concrete step in making that reform in our prison systems and in our county jail systems a reality. 

 

So with that, I would like to thank you all, thank them, let them know that I am ready and willing to work with Secretary Tilton to work out the details to make this a great facility, and that example that the Senator spoke of.  I'd also like now to call up Joan Petersilia. 

 

DR. PETERSILIA: 

 

Thank you, sir.  I too am delighted to be here.  And it's unfortunate that we use the term 'historic' -- we overuse it, because today really is a historic day in California.  As somebody who has worked on trying to bring more balance to the California Department of Corrections, the opening of this re-entry center to me says that California can both create partnerships, which we've never done before -- to me, the real model program that we're creating, which is the partnership between the State and the local counties, around better prevention and better preparation. 

 

So to me, it's all about the Ps today.  We're going to try to do better preparation for re-entry.  And we talk a lot about better preparation, but to me it's not just about preparing the inmate for re-entry, it's about preparing the community for the re-entry of that offender.  We want to work with law enforcement, with parole, with local victims' groups, with family members, so that the community is prepared to receive that inmate.  There is nothing more dangerous than an inmate who comes out, unaccountable, in an anonymous situation, to that local community.  We want them better prepared, and we want the community to have the handoff. 

 

So I'm honored to be here.  I think this is a great, great model.  I commend those political leaders who took the tough road, who are often thought of that re-entry could be seen as soft on crime.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Good re-entry is all about public safety, and I'm delighted to be here today to support this bill and to support the Governor, and thank the direction of Secretary Tilton and the Department for making this happen.  Thank you. 

 

(BILL SIGNING)

 

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: 

 

If you have any questions, please feel free.  And if you have any detailed questions about prisons and so on, we have all the experts here that can answer also those questions, so -- please.

 

QUESTION/ANSWERS:

 

Q:                                            Governor, this presents a unique opportunity for the Stockton area, but in the past there have been a lot of cities with a lot of law enforcement saying that, "We don't want halfway houses in our community, it causes more problems, more crime."  Do you anticipate it being difficult to achieve the 16,000 bed, re-entry beds, that you're looking for in terms of communities just not wanting these facilities? 

 

GOVERNOR:                          I think that everyone knows that public safety is the most important thing.  And I think that we have to look at our history of our prison system, and we have failed for decades, the State of California has failed.  So the people that you see behind me here, these are very new thinking, visionary people, and they have made a great effort, we all have made a great effort to come up with new ways to copy other states and other places that have had a successful recidivism rate. 

 

And so we are trying to do something new here that works.  We know that recidivism is so high because we are not rehabilitating our inmates.  They are not ready to go out.  As I have said, they get 200 dollars, they get a bus ticket, and we send them out and hope for the best.  That's not good enough.  What we have to do is, we have to give them all the different treatments and all the different programs, rehabilitation, job training, education, drug programs, anger management, all of those things we need to give them so they are ready to go out.  And that will cut down the recidivism rate, that will save the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars, and makes, of course, the communities much safer.

 

Q:                                            The question is, though, will it take some convincing of other communities to buy into this concept, when in the past they're saying, "We don't want it"?

 

GOVERNOR:                          Well, the interesting thing is that there are more than 20, over 20 counties have already gotten in touch with us and want to partner with us.  They like this idea very much, so I think there will be a lot of communities that will come forward and say we want to partner with the State.

 

Q:                                            Governor, the special session -- it's about two weeks underway now, not a lot of visible progress taking place.  Is there anything you're going to be doing to spur some action for these lawmakers that are -- you know, some of them are like on trips around the world, not in Sacramento doing their job. 

 

GOVERNOR:                          Well, the people that are negotiating are in Sacramento, and they are working very hard.  As you know, that it's not the 120 legislators that are all sitting down at the table and negotiate.  So we have the experts there on water -- as a matter of fact, I want to have Senator Machado come out, because he really is working very hard on water, to talk to you a little bit about that.  We are working on health care.  All the experts are at the table every day working very hard, and there is a great, great atmosphere of working together, Democrats and Republicans working together.  So really I think a lot will be accomplished.  People will be amazed.  So don't be fooled by someone maybe outside the country right now and having some educational trips.  But Senator, if you want to just come out and fill them in a little bit about water?

 

SENATOR MACHADO:        Thank you, Governor.  The plan is for the Senate to convene on October the 4th for the hearing on the bond proposals that are being developed, and it's anticipated that there will be a bill moved from that that would go to the Floor to be heard in early October.  The collaboration that's existing between the Legislature and the Governor's Office now is very productive, and there is a sense of urgency.  But there's also a sense of urgency and quality, to make sure that the package that get's put forward before the people in February is indeed going to address the problem of the Delta and water supply beyond the Delta.  So yes, there is a lot of work being done, and there will be a Legislature back in time to be able to act on it.

 

Q:                                            Governor?

 

GOVERNOR:                          Yes?  Thank you, Senator.

 

Q:                                            One of the things that has had this community a little bit nervous about opening this facility for men is the idea that it could become a place where inmates from, say, Los Angeles, or the Bay Area, or Fresno, or somewhere not from this area, will be here.  I think a lot of people that I've talked to over the years covering this want to hear from someone like yourself say no, this will only hold San Joaquin/Calaveras/Amador inmates, and I'm wondering if you can make that pledge.

 

GOVERNOR:                          Well, first of all, let me just say to you that this is the idea, to have those re-entry facilities so we can send the inmates to those facilities, because they will be then in this neighborhood, in this county.  So I think that is the idea, that they are going to be sent back where they came from, and where they will be located.  And I don't think there is any plan to go and use Los Angeles, the people that are from Los Angeles, here in Stockton, or to mix them up all over the state.  That is not the idea.  And I think Secretary Tilton, if you want to come out here and just also address this issue, because we have talked about that at great length.

 

SECRETARY TILTON:          I think the message is clear; those populations will not come here.  This is only for those three counties.  There are plenty of folks in my system -- I wish there weren't -- from these areas.  But this is dedicated.  It won't be re-entry if these are LA inmates, so this is just for those three counties. 

 

Q:                                            And how long will it take to incorporate them in California?

 

SECRETARY TILTON:          Well, we have authorization for 16,000 beds; there are over 60,000 inmates that meet the definition for these.  So we're pushing forward on 16,000 where it's very aggressive.  One comment I want to pass on is that when the Governor, or the bill was put to the Governor's desk, that night I had a call from counties, and they were afraid they were missing the window of the opportunity, because they recognize that this is a huge value to the communities, to provide a better inmate coming out who can be more successful.  And those communities that don't stand up and have re-entry facilities will have a different inmate coming out of the prison system.  So I think this is very much a positive step, that communities recognize we need to work together in planning re-entry. 

 

Q:                                            Governor, the three-judge panel that's considering a prison population cap -- good morning.

 

GOVERNOR:                          Good morning.

 

Q:                                            Said that they are interested in having you settle the lawsuit.  They're not convinced that AB 900, or even these re-entry facilities, will do enough to reduce the prison population quickly enough.  What could you say to them to convince them that it is the solution that California needs?

 

GOVERNOR:                          Well, first of all, public safety to us is the most important thing.  We don't want ever to let any criminal out of the prison, or out of any prison, because we are running out of space.  That is the wrong motivation.  People have to be kept in prison, they should serve their term, then they should go and get the rehabilitation, training and educational programs and all of those things, anger management, whatever it is, to get them ready so they can go out into society and be again law abiding citizens.  But to release someone just because judges say, you know, you should cut down by 40 percent your prison population, or by 20 percent or whatever, and let them out, will be the wrong move to make.  And we're going to fight that all the way.  There will be no one let out because we are running out of space.  That won't happen.

 

Q:                                            It seems like they're looking for just one more piece of this AB 900 plan, that they in general like it, but they want more on the rehabilitation, and more of this, but perhaps sooner, faster.

 

GOVERNOR:                          We will work with the judges.  We respect them, we want to work with them.  This is a team effort, everyone has to work together here.  But this crisis has developed over a period of decades, and you can't solve a crisis that has developed over decades, to solve that in one year.  This is a systematic approach.  We have done everything we can that within 18 months, from the time we have signed this bill, that we would have already the first facilities available.  Like this facility will be available by the end of the year 2008, so it is very quick action here.  And also, our parole reforms that we have, and building new prison beds, sending inmates out of the state, all of this will contribute to bring down the prison population.  And so we just have to do a good job, but it does not go from one year to the next. 

 

Thank you very much.  Thank you.