Garamendi Urges Repeal of ‘Inmate Bill of Rights’ : Politics: Gubernatorial candidate says parole board should be able to hold some prisoners after terms are over.

Arguing that convicts often enjoy more security and privileges than law-abiding Californians, Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Garamendi on Tuesday proposed the repeal of the “inmate bill of rights” and said violent felons should serve their full terms in prison--and in some cases longer--without any time off for any reason.

Garamendi accused Republican Gov. Pete Wilson of lack of leadership and said that nearly 12 years of tough talk from GOP governors has produced $5 billion in new prisons--he derided them as “concrete palaces”--but no real reduction in crime.

“I want to rethink our entire approach to fighting crime,” said Garamendi, the state insurance commissioner, at a sidewalk news conference outside the Criminal Courts Building in Downtown Los Angeles.

“I want to spend less money on convicted criminals and more money on reducing crime,” added Garamendi, who said he will formally declare his candidacy for governor next month.

Garamendi, 48, joined the other two major candidates for governor--Wilson and state Treasurer Kathleen Brown--in making crime and public safety a major campaign theme even before the election year has begun.

Garamendi and Brown are expected to contend for the Democratic nomination for governor in the June 7 primary. Wilson is not likely to have any major challenge to renomination for a second term in the GOP primary.

On some points Tuesday, Garamendi went a step further than Brown or Wilson.

They have also proposed eliminating the inmate bill of rights, signed into law in 1975 by former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., Kathleen Brown’s brother. They have endorsed the concept of “three strikes and you’re out,” the proposed ballot initiative that would mandate a life prison term for a third conviction of a violent felony--as did Garamendi on Tuesday.

Garamendi went further in proposing a total elimination of time off for good behavior or for work done while in prison. Also, he said that the state parole board should be given the authority to keep potentially dangerous convicts in prison beyond the expiration of their full terms.

Brown and Wilson have said a convict should have to serve at least 85% of his full term, earning no more than 15% off for good behavior or for working. Under present law, convicts can cut their actual time served by as much as half.

Garamendi also got in a few indirect cuts at Kathleen Brown. He blamed the inmate bill of rights on her brother, Jerry Brown, and on Rose Elizabeth Bird, whom Brown appointed as state chief justice. Garamendi said inmates’ rights were expanded under a 1986 state Supreme Court ruling by Bird, who subsequently was voted out of office.

Garamendi acknowledged that he voted for the legislation “that created this monster” when he was a first-term member of the state Assembly in 1975, but said he is willing to repeal laws if they do not work.

“Over time, the original intent of the inmate bill of rights has been enormously expanded,” he said. “The intent of the law has been changed by the courts and it’s time for this law to be repealed.”

Garamendi based part of his argument on economics, saying that security requirements and privileges provided by the law greatly increase the cost of running California prisons to more than $21,000 per convict a year. That is about four times as much as the state spends annually on each public school pupil.

Because all the tough-on-crime proposals would increase the prison population, Garamendi proposed that many nonviolent convicts be housed in cheaper “boot camps.” The savings would offset the higher cost of housing more violent criminals for longer periods in regular prisons, he said.

In attacking the inmate bill of rights, Garamendi--motioning over his shoulder toward the Los Angeles County Criminal Courts building--said that California convicts “have a heck of a lot more security than you do, and have on that street right behind this courthouse.”

“It’s time to recognize that when our kids have schools that are as good as the prisons, when they have libraries, when they have computers, when they have access to cafeterias, when they have access to gymnasiums and playgrounds that are safe, then we can talk about what prisoners have a right to,” he said.

Garamendi said “I want to put the heat on the governor, plain and simple.” Although Democrats control which bills pass the Legislature, a GOP governor ought to be able to get such legislation passed through negotiation and the power to discipline legislators, he said.

“It’s time for the governor to be an effective leader,” Garamendi said. But he added: “In fact, it’s hard to imagine Pete Wilson leading a Boy Scout troop home from a rained-out wienie roast.”

Wilson spokesman Dan Schnur welcomed Garamendi’s support for elimination of inmate rights, adding, “The governor has already called for the repeal and has made the passage of this legislation one of his priorities for the next legislative session.

“We’re optimistic,” Schnur said. “But we’ll be even more optimistic if the insurance commissioner uses his influence with the Democratic members of the Legislature to pass this. And we hope that Kathleen Brown will join us in efforts to repeal her brother’s inmate bill of rights.”

Wilson outlined a number of tough-on-crime proposals in recent weeks, including mandatory life terms for “sexual predators and other violent inmates.” After the kidnaping and strangling of Polly Klaas in Northern California, Wilson said he would support legislation to send first-time convicted rapists and child molesters to prison for life.

Brown outlined a 33-point anti-crime program in a major campaign speech in mid-December. It combined a tough approach on convicted violent criminals with a variety of preventive programs, drug treatment and other features aimed at preventing youthful offenders from becoming career criminals.