Prison Budget Cuts Into Other Needs, Study Says

A criminal justice study released Wednesday contends that California’s prison system is expanding at the expense of state programs that stand to be cut under the proposed budget awaiting Gov. Pete Wilson’s signature.

“Under present revenue constraints, every dollar spent on prisons is a dollar lost to something else” the report says. The study was commissioned by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, an organization that advocates alternatives to prison expansion.

“In the last 10 years, (the Department of) Corrections’ share of the state’s general fund has risen from 3.9% to . . . 8.2%, while higher education’s share declined from 14.4% to 9.3%, with the threat that it may well end up even lower,” according to the study, conducted by Caleb Foote, a professor emeritus of law at UC Berkeley.

The study points out that the system’s budget--driven by an unprecedented prison construction program--skyrocketed from $300 million to its current $2.7 billion under the proposed budget. It is expected to hit $3 billion next year.

Most state departments face cuts, but the Department of Corrections is slated to receive $200 million more than in the 1992-93 fiscal year.

It costs as much to keep an inmate in state prison as it does to educate 10 students in the community college system, five students in state universities or two students in the University of California system, the study says.

The study argues that the growth of the inmate population--from 19,000 to 114,000 in a decade--is driven largely by politically motivated get-tough legislation.

“Crime is a serious problem, especially for those who live in the ghettos of big cities,” Foote wrote. “But . . . reactions of outrage and fear . . . have been inflamed by a political structure which has deceived the public.”

The study said that even as the state’s prison population grew, the crime rate from 1977 to 1991 remained virtually steady with population growth. (The State Department of Justice reported an increase of 8 % in the major crime rate from 1985 to 1990.)

Foote recommends several alternatives to continued prison construction, including setting a cap on the number of inmates incarcerated, establishing sentencing guidelines, setting up community corrections facilities, increasing credits toward release for prisoners willing to work but who have no assignments, and releasing some nonviolent offenders early.

Wilson’s office has rejected the proposals--some of which had previously been urged by Democrats--on the grounds that they would cause an increase in crime.

“These are the same distorted and dangerous arguments that (the Center of Juvenile Justice makes) every year,” said Franz Wisner, spokesman for Wilson.