PREPARED TESTIMONY--SPECIAL SESSION PACKAGE
August 29, 2006
Acting Secretary James Tilton,
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on the crisis we currently face with our lack of prison capacity. I appreciate the hard work of the Legislature and their staff these last several weeks during the special session. We had originally asked for more than 34,000 permanent and 9,000 temporary beds, and this plan provides us with the authorization to proceed with over 34,000 of those beds.
What I want to briefly outline is what this package contains in terms of meeting our long-term, mid-term, and immediate needs.
Long-Term- Medical Beds – The bills give the Department the authorization we need to begin the planning and design of new facilities for 10,000 medical and mental health beds. We will work with the Receiver and the Special Master to develop these proposals and will return to the Legislature for full funding when the plans are complete.
- Re-Entry Facilities – This bill package represents a dramatic shift in the way California will house and rehabilitate inmates. This bill gives the Department the authorization we need to pursue 5,000 beds in re-entry facilities as we proposed. Of course, the Department will be required to return to the Legislature with specific projects for full funding.
Mid-Term
- Female CCFs – This bill package authorizes us to contract with 4,500 female community correctional beds for non-serious/non-violent female offenders. This ground-breaking reform package, which was produced by the Department’s Gender Responsive Strategies Commission, will provide comprehensive treatment and programming for a significant portion of the female population, thus aiding in reducing their likelihood of re-offending in the future. This program will provide women the opportunity to maintain their ties to their communities, thus aiding in their reentry to society. The Department’s plan was also supported by the Little Hoover Commission, Commission on the Status for Women, The National Center on Crime and Delinquency, and several other important stakeholders who are critically involved in improving the rehabilitative efforts of our female offenders.
- Building at Existing Facilities – This bill package provides us with planning, design and construction funding for 5,340 beds at existing prisons. With this funding and authorization, the Department will be able to immediately begin the construction of these beds. In addition, this bill package will allow the Department to use the design-build concept to construct these projects, which will allow the Department to more quickly complete construction of these beds as opposed to normal construction methods. This bill package provides us with planning and design money for the future construction of 8,423 beds at our existing prison facilities. The Department will return in the next budget year to receive the construction money needed to complete the building of these beds.
- Conversion of NCWF – This bill package provides us with the funding and ability to convert the Northern California Women’s Facility to a male reception center. This authorization is critically needed as the current facility has not housed inmates for several years. Conversion of this facility as a male reception center will also alleviate the crowding at the reception center in Tracy, California. We know this proposal is controversial, and will work with local legislators and community leaders to address their concerns.
- CRC – This bill package provides us with the funding and authorization to convert 800 beds in the California Rehabilitation Center to male beds. The Department expects that the provision which will allow us to contract 4,500 female community correctional beds will allow these beds to be utilized for male inmates. This conversion will also turn CRC into an all-male facility, and will simplify the operations at the prison.
Short-Term
- Out-Of-State Transfers – In the short term, however, this plan provides no immediate relief. It does not provide us with the ability to involuntarily transfer 5,000 inmates out of state, nor does it provide us with authorization to contract with public and private facilities to provide 4,000 male community correctional facility beds. The bill package only provides us with the ability to VOLUNTARILY transfer inmates out of state – something that the Department can already do under current law. As a result, these bills do not solve the State’s short-term prison capacity problem. The lack of a short-term solution will create an emergency situation whereby the Department will run out of beds by June 2007. When that day comes, the Department will be FORCED to stop accepting inmates, and will notify counties that they can no longer accept felons sentenced by the courts.
- As a result, the early releases happening in your communities every day in our local jail facilities will worsen. Currently, there are more than 18,000 inmates a month that are not incarcerated or are released early from jail sentences due to overcrowding. Under this bill package, our county jail overcrowding problem will worsen, and additional pre-trial and post-dispositional inmates will not be incarcerated, thus severely impacting the public safety of our communities.
- I urge the committee to consider the emergency situation faced by California today, and request that you reconsider the need to involuntarily transfer inmates out of state. There is no other short-term solution that can provide us with the needed space today, except for contracting with public and private facilities for male community correctional beds. This proposal, however, was also rejected by the Legislature. The lack of a response to our short-term, emergency situation will create a chaotic situation in our communities, and will impact public safety. Again, please reconsider this issue to ensure that the Department has sufficient capacity to house felons that are sentenced by the courts.