Locking Out the Prisoners

At the California Institution for Women near Chino, the women sleep where they can--in the dormitories, the auditorium, the gymnasium, the television room. In the prison’s worst case, 32 inmates share two rooms, one toilet and one sink. While prisoners triple up at the state’s only prison devoted solely to women, 400 bunks go begging at a completed but unopened women’s prison near Stockton. A turgid political stalemate keeps those new beds empty.

California taxpayers paid $34 million to build the new women’s prison near Stockton. They spent $154 million to build a new 2,200-bed men’s prison in San Diego. Both prisons have been ready to accept inmates for months, but only a long-awaited compromise by the governor, top Democrats and top Republicans on the site for a new prison in Los Angeles County can fill the cells.

Savvy state lawmakers who were interested in guaranteeing that Los Angeles County would finally share the unpleasant burden of housing inmates linked the location of a Los Angeles prison site with the opening of new prisons elsewhere in the state. The negotiations have dragged on for years; patience has lost its virtue in the Capitol.

State Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), the dogged lawmaker who refuses to give up, held two more meetings last week with a representative of Gov. George Deukmejian, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), Senate Minority Leader Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) and State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), who represents the Eastside--the base of community opposition that has fueled the stalemate. Although the key players are at least talking again, little progress is expected.

While the stubborn politicians dicker, the state’s prison population swells--fed by tougher judges, tougher laws and a tougher economy that propels dishonest opportunists toward lives of crime. Although male convicts outnumber women by more than 10 to 1, the number of women inmates is growing at a faster rate.

California has the nation’s largest prison population and its most overcrowded facilities. There is no sign that the numbers are shrinking. The state’s leaders must finally find the key to the two new prisons. Every bunk is urgently needed, today.