California governor increases funding for prisons, cuts everything else

California's Governor Gray Davis announced sweeping budget cuts in response to a huge budget deficit, but after cutting funds from nearly everything in the state, Davis announced a proposed 1% budget increase for the Department of Corrections. Davis has accepted more than $3 million in campaign contributions from the prison guards' union, so it is no surprise Davis wants to increase funding for the powerful union. This is contrasted with his proposed reduction in spending on education: a 4.2% decrease for the University of California and a 4.5% decrease for California State University.(1)

Davis justified the budget increase claiming it was necessary to increase spending on health care for inmates and to support the growing prison population. But as readers of MIM Notes Under Lock and Key news on prisons know, programs for prisoners, including health care, are practically non-existent in California.

In December The Legislative Analyst's Office made proposals to save DOC money, including letting nonviolent inmates out of prison one month early and releasing nonviolent offenders over 60. The suggestions would have saved more than $373 million.(1) But these proposals don't mesh with the powerful guard's union demands or the tough-on-crime image put out by the California government. An image that has resulted in a conviction of over 4000 people sentenced to life in prison for non-violent crimes under the state's Three Strikes law.

The guards union has a history of buying the loyalty of California lawmakers. The union secured their budget by inviting several key lawmakers to a conference it sponsored in Hawaii in December. Last year, as the state budget was sinking into deficit, Davis signed a new contract with the guard's union giving the guards large raises, which will result in annual salaries of $73,000 within five years. A few weeks later Davis received the largest donation check he has ever received from any group: $251,000.(1)

As California Lawyer explained in their November 2002 article, "The CCPOA's influence grew alongside California's phenomenal prison construction boom. From 1985 to 1995 the number of state prisons increased from 13 to 31 and currently house 160,000 inmates in the largest state system in the country. As the number of prisons
increased, so did the California Department of Corrections' (CDC) annual operating budget-from $923 million in fiscal year 1985 to $3.4 billion in 1995. Today it is $4.8 billion. From 1985 to 1995 the number of prison guards increased from 7,570 to approximately 25,000. Wages, benefits, and working conditions for officers improved remarkably: In 1980 the average annual salary was $14,400; by 1996 it had grown to $44,000; today it is $54,000.

"According to the anonymous criminal law attorney in Fresno, the CCPOA spends far more time urging DAs to prosecute assaults by inmates than defending allegations against officers. This lawyer claims the union pressures DAs to bring felony charges against inmates 'for every nickel-and-dime dispute'-which permits officers to threaten a third- strike conviction as a tool for controlling behavior. 'Scuffles where nobody gets hurt- things that should be handled administratively-the union wants them pressed as a felony,' the lawyer says. 'You read between the lines, and you see the guard pushed the guy [the inmate] to act.'"(2)

Gray Davis is an example of why MIM says the Democrats are just as much a part of the system of imperialism as the Republicans. Davis recently won re-election appealing to voters on typically Democrat issues such as abortion. But while Davis may pretend to be progressive on some issues he is increasing imprisonment faster than many Republican-controlled states. To fight the criminal injustice system we will have to dismantle the system that makes it profitable to eliminate any guise of rehabilitation in favor of raising the salary of guards.

Notes:

  1. SF Chronicle, January 13, 2003
  2. California Lawyer, November 2002.

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