The Tide of Crime Bills Still Flowing : Legislature: Voter fears and lawmakers’ survival instincts guarantee more law-and-order measures.

In late May, John Vasconcellos, the iconoclastic chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, announced he would stand fast against the tide of tough “law-and-order” bills flowing through the Legislature.

“I’m going to vote against any bill that adds to state prison costs,” the Santa Clara Democrat declared. The state, he explained, simply cannot afford to keep adding prisons and prisoners, particularly since it is faced with severe budget shortages.

He drove that point home Friday when he led a move in the Senate-Assembly budget committee to cut $42 million in funding for 900 extra state prison guards and to delete a $121-million allocation for a new prison in Los Angeles. The budget committee is trying to close a $3-billion gap between proposed spending and anticipated revenues.

But Vasconcellos’ position, though gaining support, appears destined to remain a minority viewpoint in the Legislature for the foreseeable future. This is an election year, and crime is a potent political issue. Already lawmakers have approved a variety of measures to get tough on criminals, despite the warnings from Vasconcellos and other critics.

Among the score of bills approved recently:

* The Senate voted 34 to 0 for a bill by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) that would increase the punishment for kidnaping for the purposes of committing rape to life in prison. Estimated cost: $2.4 million annually, starting at the end of the decade.

* The Senate voted 24 to 0 for legislation by Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park) that would increase the maximum penalty for manufacturing illegal drugs in prison by two years. Estimated cost: $1.4 million annually, starting in 1993.

* The Assembly voted 65 to 1 for a bill by Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae) to increase the penalties for engaging in looting during a state of emergency such as an earthquake or flood. Costs are “inestimable but potentially significant,” according to a Ways and Means Committee analysis.

* The Assembly voted 71 to 1 for a bill by Assemblyman Bob Epple (D-Norwalk) that would increase the penalty for distributing drugs to minors and increase the number of offenses covered by law. Estimated cost: $500,000 annually.

All of those measures are considered likely to pass the full Legislature and be signed into law by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Backers of the anti-crime measures argue that the legislation is necessary to deal with a rising tide of drug- and gang-related crimes.

They also point to surveys that show Americans are worried. In a nationwide Los Angeles Times Poll taken late last year, for example, 59% of those questioned said that they considered crime “the single most urgent problem facing this country today.”

“The state of California cannot afford not to take these measures,” said Nielson. “I never get constituent letters saying don’t lock them (criminals) up. I never get letters saying rehabilitate them. But I do get lots of letters saying keep them out of society longer. The public attitude remains tough.”

But critics charge that law-and-order bills are a flawed response at a time when the state’s prisons are bulging with inmates.

“Over a period of time people have to recognize that we can’t put all of our money into more and more prisons,” Vasconcellos said in an interview. “It’s breaking our backs and breaking our banks. I think it’s stupid. People just come out of those prisons worse than ever.”

During the 1980s, Deukmejian embarked on a massive expansion of the state’s penitentiaries, from 24,000 prison beds in 1982 to 51,000 today. Seven new prisons have been built, and a number of existing prisons have been expanded. About $3.65 billion has been authorized for prison construction, including a $450-million bond measure approved by the voters June 5.

Despite that construction, the state’s prisons are reaching a critical mass of overcrowding. The prison system now holds 92,000 inmates--175% of capacity. Experts say that increase has been fueled in part by a rise in drug-related crimes. But much of it can also be attributed to the Legislature’s get-tough attitude on crime during the last decade.

In 1977, the Legislature passed the Determinate Sentencing Law, which removed responsibility for setting sentences from the trial courts and gave it to the Legislature. Ever since, lawmakers have been approving hundreds of laws that increase sentence length or create new categories of crimes.

According to a study by Vasconcellos’ staff, the Legislature passed more than 221 law-and-order bills from 1983 to 1987. Aides said those laws are expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million annually by the mid-1990s for prison maintenance and $613 million for prison construction.

Although the Legislature approved a batch of similar bills this year, the number has dropped. “We haven’t put out as many crime bills this year as we have in years past,” said Geoff Long, consultant to the Ways and Means Committee. “It’s gradually started to sink in that these aren’t free bills; they’re driving (up) prison costs.”

Legislative aides also note that there is a major revision of the sentencing code moving through the Legislature. That bill, by Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), would reduce the hodgepodge of sentencing rules into five categories of sentences for all felonies.

Lockyer’s bill, which passed the Senate 35 to 0 and is now before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, would also drop the “cap” on consecutive prison terms in favor of allowing judges to sentence criminals to full jail time on each count carrying a conviction.

The California Assn. of District Attorneys, which is sponsoring the legislation, argues that Lockyer’s bill would not increase the total number of inmates in state penitentiaries because it would decrease the sentences of some petty offenders. That estimate is bolstered by a Department of Corrections study that shows a net savings from the bill.

But opponents--including the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Assn. of Public Defenders--argue that Lockyer’s bill would worsen prison overcrowding.

“It would lead to a tremendous increase in the sentences people receive by allowing full consecutive sentences for every offense,” said Ronald Abernethy, legislative director of the public defenders group. “It would increase the number of people sent to state prisons dramatically. And the prisons are already overcrowded.”

Whatever the case, a number of aides in the Capitol said that despite Vasconcellos’ efforts, they anticipate only a temporary drop in the number of anti-crime bills coming from the Legislature.

“Nothing demonstrates to me that we’ll see less crime bills in the future. It’s just too large an area to believe that people won’t legislate in it,” said one of the legislative aides who asked to remain anonymous. “(Many) legislators get beat up in their districts about crime and their first inclination is to raise sentences--that’s always going to be a perceived problem.”