Put Muscle Behind Reform

California’s top prison officials, Youth and Adult Correctional Agency head Roderick Q. Hickman and California Department of Corrections chief Jeanne Woodford, have admitted that the system they recently took charge of is riddled with flaws, and pledged a total overhaul.

But it would be a mistake to think that Schwarzenegger administration officials can, on their own, wrest control of the system from the prison guards union. The union, among the largest political contributors in the state, has defeated all major reform efforts for well over a decade.

Good intentions need muscle to back them. At least three bills scheduled for a vote in the Senate next Tuesday would provide it.

* SB 1342, by Sens. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) and Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) would fix the prison inspector general’s budget at a quarter of 1% of the total prison spending budget. That would create a stable foundation for the historically embattled office, whose budget was reduced from $9 million to $2.7 million last year after the guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., denounced investigations of its members.

* SB 1437 by Speier would require the prison system to report cost overruns periodically through the year to the state auditor. The federal watchdog, the General Accounting Office, has for years required federal agencies to admit their budget excesses. In Sacramento, auditors can pry the prison system’s books open only after an inquiry has been ordered. Fiscal disasters risk discovery only after the fact. Last week, for instance, the auditor discovered that three-quarters of the prison department’s healthcare contracts over the last four years had been signed without ensuring the state was paying a reasonable price.

* SB 1468 by Speier would create a 15-member California Recidivism Reduction Commission to develop benchmarks for judging the success of state prisons, county jails and other correctional facilities at preventing freed inmates from returning. The commission would be responsible for identifying cost-effective treatments. For instance, some job training programs save about $5 in prison costs for every $1 spent. The commission would also hunt for practices that boost recidivism, such as flagging inmates as potential gang members and putting them in gang cellblocks just because they have Spanish surnames. The result: new gang members, much more likely to return to prison.

Legislators have introduced a dozen prison reform bills in recent weeks. The onslaught of legislation may have helped inspire Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comment last week that the Legislature ought to consider taking half the year off.

There is no question, however, that the bills above are needed. Until the Legislature and the governor support a return to effective rehabilitation, California prisons will keep turning out better criminals.