$1.5-Billion Savings Seen as Prison Admissions Drop

A dramatic reduction in the number of drug offenders and parole violators admitted to state prison could result in a $1.5-billion savings to taxpayers by 1996, the Department of Corrections announced Monday.

Corrections Director James Gomez said the drop would result in savings of $1.45 billion in prison construction costs and $345 million in annual operating costs by 1996.

“This is good news,” Gomez said in a prepared statement. “The slowing growth rate will allow us to reduce the level of prison overcrowding to a manageable level.”

But those savings could be more than offset by Gov. Pete Wilson’s stated plan of sponsoring a crime initiative that would increase prison sentences for drug, sex and other violent crimes.

“The savings is based on what we know now and it could change if circumstances change,” said Christine May, information officer for the Department of Corrections.

Prisons are currently jammed to 182% of design capacity. Corrections officials estimate that the slowdown in inmate admissions--along with plans to build 14 new prisons--will reduce the overcrowding rate to a “manageable” 137% by 1997.

The slowdown in the inmate admission rate has been caused, for the most part, by a downturn in the number of narcotics offenders admitted to prison since the beginning of the year. Prison officials believe the reduction is related to a statewide decline in drug-related arrests over the last 18 months.

Prison officials say part of the trend is also attributable to fewer parole violators returning to the penitentiary. They say they are offering increased services--such as job and housing programs--to keep offenders from being returned to the penitentiary.

The decline in drug and parole violators slowed California’s burgeoning prison growth rate from 977 inmates per month last year to 677 per month this year.

As of Sept. 29, there were 101,566 inmates in the state prison system.

The prison population topped 100,000 on April 14, but soon after, corrections planners noticed the unexpected slowdown. They had predicted that 163,110 inmates would be housed in the state’s prisons by 1996, but have now revised the estimate to 132,972--a reduction of more than 30,000 convicts.

All that could change, however, if prison sentences are increased. Wilson has promised to take a crime initiative to the voters if the Legislature fails to increase penalties for rapists, child molesters and drug dealers who sell in the vicinity of schools. He is also seeking an end to “good time” and “work time” credits for violent offenders.

The state legislative analyst’s office says its initial findings show that so far unsuccessful legislation backed by Wilson could increase prison construction costs by $8.8 billion and annual operating costs by $2.2 billion.