Legislative Testimony -- Secretary Tilton

 

James E. Tilton, acting Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) gave the Assembly’s Select Committee on Prison Overcrowding and Construction an overview of the problems facing the state’s prison system during its meeting in the Capitol on July 20, 2006.   Previewing issues to be addressed during the Legislature’s special session, Tilton emphasized the need to:

1. Build two new prisons to relieve inmate overcrowding in the long term, while finding up to 16,000 new beds as soon as possible for inmates who are being housed in gymnasiums, day rooms and other miscellaneous locations currently. 
2. Significantly increase education, vocation, and counseling programs for inmates to provide them with tools to lead productive lives when they leave prison, which would reduce recidivism.

In addition, the Committee was provided with an overview of California’s prison population.    For more information on Tilton’s presentation and to learn “the facts” that dispel the seven most common myths about the state’s prison population, please click on the above links.