Prison Count Grows Despite Building Boom

Even though prison cells are under construction at nine sites in an unprecedented $1.8-billion expansion, about 20 more inmates enter California’s crowded penitentiaries than leave each day.

Criminals--many prone to violence--are forced to live ever closer, increasing tensions that further erode morale, jeopardize guards and often erupt in savagery.

State Department of Corrections officials estimate that there were nearly 2,000 incidents of violence during 1985--up from about 1,200 last year. Because of the swelling population, however, the rate of incidents apparently will drop from 4.7 per 100 inmates to about 4.2.

The flood of prisoners has raced so far ahead of prison staffing that the department hopes to hire 2,000 guards this year.

Department Director Dan McCarthy says that last month the number of inmates in the most populous state surpassed 50,000 for the first time--more than double the total just four years ago.

And those 50,000 inmates are living in a system built for 29,700.

Largest System in Nation

The state has the largest prison system in the nation by more than 10,000 inmates, California officials say. Texas, the second largest, has about 37,470.

The overcrowding “is a result of concerned voters, tougher laws and common-sense judges,” McCarthy said.

Under laws requiring mandatory prison terms for more offenses and longer mandatory terms for other crimes, judges are sending more people to prison for longer terms. Sentences average 50 months.

Meanwhile, some county jails--like state prisons--are under court orders to reduce inmate overcrowding, officials say.

The latest overcrowding surge began last February, when the state’s 12 prisons began receiving an average weekly net gain of 140 to 150 inmates, the department director says.

“If the current trends continue, we will gain more than 7,500 inmates in one year,” McCarthy said.

Personnel at the clogged intake centers at Chino and Vacaville, which process and distribute inmates, are compared to overworked air traffic controllers. Chino is at about 240% capacity, while Vacaville is at about 206%.

Officials Upbeat About Future

But top department officials and aides to Gov. George Deukmejian, who says he has made prison construction a top priority, are upbeat about the future.

The state, which had built no new prisons in two decades and no maximum-security penitentiaries in 100 years, expects workers to complete permanent space for 22,600 inmates by 1990.

The housing may be adequate--or not--depending on inmate population trends, which are tied to such unpredictable factors as the crime rate, demographic changes, potential new sentencing laws and court rulings.

But criminal justice experts believe that the increase may level off by 1988 because, at least in part, the number of people in the crime-prone 15-25 age group is diminishing. The average age of prisoners is 28.

“We are building new prison beds at a record pace to meet this challenge to public safety,” McCarthy said, referring to six prison ground-breakings that officials did their best to publicize in late 1985.

Officials say the state is building complexes that will provide permanent quarters for more than 12,542 inmates and temporary quarters for 3,621--more prison housing than exists in any of 41 other states.

California has completed accommodations for more than 3,720 inmates since January, 1984.

“Two new prisons--one in Vacaville and one in Tehachapi--are now open,” McCarthy said. “At Vacaville, we first occupied the prison in August, only eight months after construction began. The 2,400-bed prison will be completed in 27 months, while the national average is about 600 beds in 24 months.”

Prisons spokesman Les Johnson says ongoing projects, their capacity and scheduled dates for initial occupancy are: Vacaville, 1,200, March; Tehachapi, 1,000, February to June; Sonora, 500, June; Susanville, 500, June; at least five camps throughout the state, 180, August to October; temporary beds at various sites, 3,621, June; San Diego, 2,200, September; Folsom, 1,728, October; Stockton, 400, November; Avenal, 3,034, January 1987, and Ione, 1,700, March 1987.

A ground-breaking for a 2,900-bed prison at Corcoran in Kings County is planned for February or March. The complex will be occupied in August, 1987.

3,4000 Beds Planned

The state also is planning projects with 1,700 beds in Los Angeles and 1,700 beds in Riverside, along with another 500 beds at camps.

Officials say the modern design of the new prisons will make them safer for guards. For example, inmates will find smaller spaces through which weapons could be poked out of cells at officers.

The cost will be financed through $795 million in tax revenue bonds, $300 million in lease-purchase financing and $200 million from the state’s general fund.

The department expects to seek another prison construction bond issue on a statewide ballot in the next two years to continue the expansion.

Despite the urgent need for the additional space, the massive prison construction program has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, planning snafus, and legal and legislative challenges.

Community groups in many cases have resisted plans for nearby prisons, filing lawsuits that cite potential adverse effects on the environment, property values, crime, and wear and tear on court systems.

Altogether, groups have filed lawsuits affecting seven locations, significantly setting back at least four sites.

Economic Boost Claimed

Prison officials have countered, primarily by claiming that a prison and its employees can boost the local economy by millions of dollars a year.

They have also cited recent legislative studies indicating that California cities with prisons tend to have lower crime rates than comparable cities without prisons, and that the location of a prison near a city has no significant effect on property values.

In some cases, state laws have been adopted to waive the process that requires assessment of environmental impacts.

The location of a prison in the Los Angeles area has been a long-term point of friction between Deukmejian and Mayor Tom Bradley, the governor’s as-yet-unannounced Democratic challenger this year.

Deukmejian favors a site in downtown Los Angeles chosen by state prison officials; Bradley favors a site in the county.

In the San Joaquin County community of Stockton, where ground was broken Dec. 18 on the 400-bed, $29-million Northern California Women’s Facility, prison manager Teena Farmon said the state and county are negotiating over costs.

The state did not appropriate funds for off-site improvements such as curbs and gutters, and the county does not want the expense, she says.

Traditional Conflict

“It’s traditional: Local government would like to have as much as they can when we come in,” department spokesman Bob Gore said.

The only remaining hitch in another project begun last month--a 1,700-bed, $144-million, medium-security prison in the Amador County town of Ione--is a legal proceeding to settle the sale price for the land, Gore says.

In the Kings County community of Avenal, the site of a ground-breaking last month on a $155-million, minimum-medium security prison, a lawsuit by farmers over the impact of the prison on water availability was finally ruled moot by legislation.

But it was in Avenal that officials staging ground-breaking ceremonies found their warmest reception.

With the high school band playing everything from the national anthem to football fight tunes, about 200 Avenal residents gathered in a bulldozed field to greet state officials.

City officials declared a holiday for the ceremony, at which residents found much to cheer about, including a state official putting on a cap emblazoned with the city logo: “Oasis In The Sun.”

Jack King, a 62-year-old elementary school teacher, said he believes that the prison “is the hope for the town.”

“It’s going to bring more civilization here--we might even get a pizza parlor. Right now, I drive 17 miles for a haircut.”

No Pollution

Businessman Nick Ivans, who promoted the idea locally, said residents “look at it as an industry that will employ a thousand people, without polluting.”

A few of those workers will be local residents, but many will enter from outside the area.

The state hopes to hire 2,000 guards this year to bolster its force of 9,550 correctional officers and staff new prisons, according to department spokesmen.

The hiring offers an opportunity to boost the number of women and minorities among the ranks of guards, an important factor because one-third of the inmates are black and 28% are Latino.

Currently, 22% of guards are black and 17% are Latino. About 17% of guards are women, compared to about 6% of inmates.

Meanwhile, correctional officers--wrestling with a major factor in morale--are seeking wage parity with top California law-enforcement agencies.

Prison expansion is expected to help morale, department spokesman Johnson said, because “inmates appreciate more space and more modern facilities . . . and when there is less tension among inmates, it makes it easier for the officers.”

Statistics show that that prison violence has risen year by year in the 1980s.

Violent Incidents Up

Department spokesman Jack Corrie said that in 1980, there were 3.31 incidents per 100 inmates; in 1981, 3.51; in 1982, 3.55; in 1983, 3.73, and in 1984, 4.69.

In 1985, although the total number of incidents increased to an estimated 2,000, the ratio of incidents to inmates has fallen--for the first time this decade--to about 4.2 per 100 inmates.

Three guards have been killed in the 1980s, while inmate deaths have fluctuated between 10 and 17 annually.

McCarthy told reporters recently that “all the ingredients are there” for a California prison riot, with overcrowding; insufficient training programs, jobs and education programs; inadequate quarters, and other aggravations, such as the conversion of classrooms and recreation rooms to dormitories.

Top prison officials have said they believe that some inmates stab other prisoners directly in view of guards for no other reason than to get moved from overcrowded general population two-man cells into one-man cells required for inmates involved in prison offenses.

McCarthy gives credit for the avoidance of a major riot to the skillful handling of explosive situations by individual guards.