Deukmejian Defends Buildup of Prison System

Standing outside the state’s newest penitentiary, Gov. George Deukmejian on Thursday defended his unprecedented prison building program, saying Californians are safer today than they were a decade ago because he has doubled the size of the state prison system.

Deukmejian, speaking at the dedication of Pelican Bay State Prison on the north coast near Crescent City, also criticized Los Angeles-area officials for seeking to block the construction of lock-ups planned for downtown Los Angeles and Lancaster.

Officials here in Del Norte County, he noted, requested that a prison be built in their community because the sagging timber and fishing industries had left the local economy in shambles. But 50% of the inmates currently housed at the new facility come from Los Angeles County, which has no state prison, Deukmejian said.

“Los Angeles, rather than throwing up barriers to us, should be cooperative in supporting our effort,” Deukmejian told reporters after the ceremony.

In his speech, Deukmejian mocked those who have suggested that the state should seek less costly, and less restrictive, alternatives to prison. He said that approach was tried in the 1960s and 1970s but failed.

“While we were trying to ‘understand’ these criminals, California’s crime rate soared,”he said. “The number of major crimes quadrupled. By 1980, one in every 25 Californians was robbed or beaten, raped or murdered, their homes burglarized or their car stolen.”

During his term, Deukmejian has presided over the construction of 10 new prison projects, and four more lock-ups are under construction. The number of prison beds has climbed from about 24,000 when Deukmejian took office to nearly 51,000 today.

Deukmejian said it was “no coincidence” that during his tenure the state’s violent crime rate dropped and cited a decline between 20% and 35% in various types in the last decade.

“The message has been clear,” he said. “Commit these crimes and you will go to prison.”

Deukmejian also took the opportunity to fire the first salvo in a fight he will carry into the November elections, making a pitch for a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would allow the state to force prison inmates to work to help pay for their keep and pay restitution to their victims.

The Republican chief executive used the initiative process to qualify the measure for the ballot after the Democratic-controlled Legislature killed a more modest compromise proposal last year.

Labor leaders have complained that the proposal would exploit prisoners and deprive law-abiding citizens of jobs. But Deukmejian said the impact on the private labor market would be minuscule. He said that if half of the 92,000 inmates now imprisoned got jobs under the program, they would represent less than one-half of 1% of the state’s total work force.

“It is not going to have any significant impact at all on the work force,” Deukmejiansaid.