CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS BALLOT MEASURES : Lonely Prop. 120 Foes Seek Alternatives to New Prisons

In this busy primary election season, Emma Childers, a lobbyist for the Friends Committee on Legislation, has to be one of the loneliest people around.

She has some allies, to be sure, in her fight to defeat Proposition 120, the $450-million prison bond issue on the June 5 ballot. But her phone isn’t exactly ringing off the hook.

On the other hand, Gov. George Deukmejian and members of the Legislature who put Proposition 120 on the ballot have history and what seems like the unshakeable support of California voters on their side.

Speaking last week to 1,100 people attending a luncheon of the California Federation of Republican Women, Deukmejian ran down a list of propositions he wanted GOP women to vote for and failed to mention the prison bond measure. Probably because he knew he didn’t have to.

Voters have never rejected a prison bond issue. The last one, an $817-million bond issue in the November, 1988, election, passed with 60% of the vote.

Mervin Field, who runs the California Poll, said, “We haven’t seen any weakening in the public’s desire to put ‘em away, or, if they are guilty of brutal, heinous crimes, to execute them. The public is in a very punitive mood. They are for more and more incarceration. Those are very strong feelings.”

But that does not deter Childers, whose Quaker group has opposed other prison construction bond issues.

She and other opponents of Proposition 120 are firmly convinced that the money being used to build more prisons could be better spent on rehabilitation and drug treatment.

To the degree that there is any kind of debate over Proposition 120, it centers on the question of whether alternatives to incarceration should be pursued, an issue that takes on a measure of urgency because of the huge numbers of prisoners entering the state penal system.

When the primary ballot was put together earlier this year, there were 88,000 prisoners in the state’s 19 correctional facilities. By April, the number of inmates had grown to 90,813. And the state Department of Corrections estimates that by 1995 there will be 153,370 adults in California’s prisons.

All those prisoners will need to be housed somewhere, and that is what Proposition 120 is all about. Of the $450 million it is designed to raise, $194 million will go for a 2,200-bed prison being built in north Imperial County. The rest will go to buy land and construct, remodel or maintain various other youth and adult correctional facilities.

Most of the increased prison population has come since Deukmejian, one of the sponsors of Proposition 120, took office in 1983. When he was sworn in, there were 34,640 prisoners.

Under Deukmejian--the father of the state’s death penalty law and supporter of the numerous new laws to stiffen sentences that are said to have triggered the huge jump in the prison population--construction of six prisons has been completed, major expansions were undertaken on six others, and ground has been broken or plans drawn up for nine more.

Still on tap, for future bond issues, are two prisons in Los Angeles County, others in Wasco and Delano, a women’s prison in Madera County near Chowchilla, a second prison in Imperial County and one in Coalinga.

State officials figure that even if Proposition 120 is approved, the prison system will need at least $4 billion more over the next five years to keep up with increases in inmate populations. Since 1980, the Legislature has asked voters to approve $3 billion in prison construction bonds.

The most recent figures show that most of the growth in inmate populations has been in the area of nonviolent crimes, such as theft of property and drug-related offenses.

As of the end of 1989, 41.8% of those in state prisons were there for violent crimes; 28% for crimes against property, such as burglary or car theft; 25.6% for drug-related offenses, such as possession for sale, and the remaining 4.5% for such things as parole violation, arson or driving under the influence.

The characteristics of the prison population have changed substantially since Deukmejian took office. At that time, 61.7% of all prisoners were there for violent crimes and only 6.2% were doing time for drug-related offenses. The other categories were about the same as they are now.

Childers points to the figures and says: “We oppose more prison construction as long as we have more than half of the people in prison today there for nonviolent offenses. They could be in community correction centers that would cost less money.”

She argues that whether the prisoners are violent or nonviolent, most suffer from alcohol or drug addiction and that the drugs played some role in their crimes. “All these drug addicts should be treated. It doesn’t make sense to put them in prison and then let them come right out with their same addictions. They only end up right back in prison. There are numerous alternatives to prisons that are less costly and more effective to reducing recidivism,” she said.

Supporting one of her arguments is a study by the state legislative analyst published in February that found that “76% of state prison inmates have a history of substance abuse.” The analyst quoted a U.S. Department of Justice study of county prisons that produced estimates that 48% of convicted persons had used alcohol before committing their crimes.

During the 1989-90 state budget year, the analyst estimated that the state spent $500 million, or about one-quarter of the Department of Corrections’ budget of $2 billion, incarcerating drug offenders in state prisons. In contrast, the state spent only $1.5 million on treatment programs for inmates.

There are signs that lawmakers are listening to such arguments, although the trend toward building more prisons is expected to continue in the near future.

Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), the chief legislative sponsor of Proposition 120, said, “We are trying to figure out ways to put more nonviolent offenders in community-based programs. I agree that we don’t have to house some of these people in expensive state prison cells. On the other hand, as the population of California keeps growing--some estimates are that we will be growing by 700,000 to 750,000 persons a year--we know that a large number of those people are going to be involved in criminal activity.”

In the November general election, Presley, the governor and others are going to ask voters to approve a second $450-million prison construction bond measure.