Deukmejian Hoping to Expedite New Prisons

Hoping to boost his delay-plagued prison building program, Gov. George Deukmejian called Tuesday for expediting environmental reviews of new penitentiaries and spending more money on their construction.

Deukmejian said that reducing the environmental review process is aimed at preventing opponents from going to court to block the building of prisons, as a group of farmers has done in Avenal in the San Joaquin Valley.

“We are not seeking to avoid having environmental impact studies,” Deukmejian told reporters. “But we are seeking to try to speed up this process so that it cannot just be delayed by a few people and tied up in the courts for a year or more.”

The governor declined to say how much more money he would like to add to the $1.2-billion construction effort already under way. But he left open the possibility that he would support a prison bond issue on next year’s ballot.

Credibility of Witness

At a wide-ranging press conference, Deukmejian also challenged the credibility of businessman W. Patrick Moriarty, who recently testified in court that he may have given the governor illegally laundered campaign contributions.

“Mr. Moriarty’s credibility is not very high,” Deukmejian said, pointing to the acquittal Monday of a bank official charged with conspiring with Moriarty in an alleged money-laundering scheme. Moriarty was a key prosecution witness in the case.

Deukmejian received $17,000 in donations allegedly funneled through Moriarty associates. Moriarty recently filed for bankruptcy, and the trustee in the case has demanded that Deukmejian and other politicians who allegedly received laundered contributions refund the money so it can be turned over to Moriarty creditors.

But Deukmejian has refused to do so and told reporters Tuesday: “We have done absolutely nothing wrong. So what obligation is there for us to return the funds to him or his creditors?”

In his effort to bypass the state’s environmental review process for prison sites, Deukmejian said he would support either waiving the reviews altogether or letting a legislative committee--rather than the courts--decide whether a site meets environmental standards.

Bill Pending in Senate

Both proposals are contained in a bill by Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) that was approved Tuesday night by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 6-1 vote.

In part, the bill would waive the need for an environmental impact statement for the Avenal prison site in Kings County, thus making the farmers’ lawsuit moot.

Secondly, the bill would eliminate court jurisdiction over environmental reviews for a proposed prison in Corcoran, also in Kings County, and instead give the Joint Legislative Prison Committee authority to determine whether the site is appropriate.

Deukmejian noted that the state has been burdened with delays even though the elected officials of a community support construction of the proposed prison, as in the Avenal case.

“The (corrections) department will start to go forward and have widespread community support, but then four or five individuals who are opposed for a variety of reasons go to court, and then there’s a court order that prohibits the state and the department from going forward,” Deukmejian complained.

The state’s prisons now hold 47,083 inmates--or 163% of the system’s rated capacity. The Deukmejian Administration is already building four new penitentiaries that would house 6,132 prisoners at Tehachapi, Vacaville, Folsom and San Diego.

However, Department of Corrections Director Daniel McCarthy has projected that the state’s prison population will reach 56,335 by the middle of 1989.

Deukmejian said he would support the early release of some prisoners as an “option” to reduce overcrowding. He noted that he had supported that concept in the past but that it was rejected by the Legislature.

The governor also gave his personal endorsement to a controversial prison site in downtown Los Angeles, southeast of the Civic Center.

“I am in support of the department’s efforts to acquire that site (enabling) us to be able to go forward with the construction of a facility there,” he said.