Prison Bill Passes Legislature and Goes to Governor

Mr. Russo, you have done a fantastic job covering this embarrassment which sets us all back to the dark ages. Would you be so kind as to list out the heroes who voted "NO" on this mortgage of our children's future so we can know who to support in the future? (unless of course their alternative suggestion was even worse than locking sick people in cages)

April 26, 2007

Senator Don Perata &
Assemblyman Fabian Nunez

Re: Prison Reform Package

Dear Sirs,

I was hoping for better from our legislators. I had hoped they really understood the problem and the solutions. However Legislators have proven unequivocally once again that they do not listen to their constituents or the qualified professionals they enlist. Many, many studies have been done on reforming our prison system, yet the package you have agreed to leaves out the two most important reforms. The Sentencing Commission and Parole Reform. I hope this legislation will become part of this package and SB110 will pass the houses.

At this point you have done exactly what I knew you would do. Throw billions more of Californians money into another black hole that the State has already proven they don’t have the ability to manage where and to what it goes. The CDC has been running amuck for years with no oversight. What will change by giving them billions more. More abuse of power and wasteful spending. Just look at the cost of a simple re-model of a Death Room at San Quentin was to cost. You could build a new 3000 sq. foot house for that. Do you really think we are all so stupid?

By-passing voter approval by playing games with lease bonds is despicable behavior for legislators that are elected to serve us. You knew you could never sell this package to the public. This is a complete sell out to big unions and big business, that’s all it is. By the time these bonds are repaid they will be triple the money. That’s only the beginning. This is why voter turn out dwindles every year. People know that legislators, once they are in office, ignore the people who put them there with their by promising to do right by them.

Housing Inmates in other states is a bad idea. It violates inmates rights in my eyes and is dangerous to them. Other inmates already occupying the facility don’t like the trespass on their facility. Look what happened recently in Indiana. Inmates are torn away from their families. This is just more of the same inhumanity prison inmates are forced to survive.

We absolutely need prisons, however we don’t need MORE prisons. The simple answers to solving this crisis have been dismissed by you and your fellow legislators. I hope the Federal Government sees through what California Legislators once again continue to do. The use of smoke and mirrors to keep the status quo.

I really hope you can prove me wrong.

Another disappointed California tax payer.

This is so like California Legislators not thinking in the long term. I loved California and would never of thought to leave. I am one of the many baby boomers, which are now looking into other states to spend their retirement years. The state fix of more construction for prisons is not the answer.The answer is to get these men and women into programs and drug rehab, and jobs. Federal Mandatory Sentencing and State Mandatory Sentencing (without parole)for non violent innmates has got to end. This Booker Law, has backfired in state and federal levels. This takes up alot of prison space. Yes they need to do some time, for crimes. But given the the tools and programs and with a chance of parole, this would clear prison space.
Save the space for the the hard core.
Hopefully the federal Judges will see that the proposals
that the legislators have passed is a quick fix at nothing.

Another tax payer of California

Dear Mr. Russo,

I am not just a disappointed tax payer, I am an outraged tax payer.
These wasted billions are going to have no effect on our broken system.
How can we, as California citizens allow this to happen?

I just retired from working with "at risk students" in a local school district. In a program that works!
But these programs are at risk of losing their funding.
I made a whopping 12,000 a year.
My son is a special education teacher. He works with SED (emotionally disavantaged) students.
If we do not put the money, time, effort, work into these young lives guess where they will end up??
My son lives in a converted garage, has an old car, and has 35,000 in student loan debt. He makes a whopping 25,000 a year! My other son is living in one of our state prisons serving a two year term.
His life is ruined. He is warehoused with 200 others in a gym. He has mattress space to call his own. The noise and lights keep you from being able to sleep. The families (if they can afford to) provide extra food, otherwise they go hungry at times.
There is no education, no rehab, no training, no humane health care, (He couldn't even get an aspirin for an absest tooth) The prisons are too understaffed to allow for some outside time. How long can a human endure this before they lose their minds??? This is the reality that no one wants to address. Yes, some have committed crimes which they need to be removed from society for.
But there are many low level, non violent, fixable human beings being caged like animals in these warehouses. How many deaths go unreported??? Why is the media excluded from the truth???
How many families must be destroyed just to build the careers of these politicians???

How many of these inmates will live on our streets as the homeless??? With no where to go, with no jobs, with no money, what will become of them??? What will become of our children, when we have no money to educate them?
These are some of the questions I have for our so

called leaders.

All this excess spending could be avoided by simply instituting sentence reform and effective rehab. I am one taxpayer who still hopes the federal judges will take over the prison system. They have been successful with the takeover of the prison medical system, looking at results, not just dollars. One hopes they have more vision than our legislators who once again demonstrate their complete lack of comprehension of the inhumane system that they continue to force on 170,000 californians.

These inmates have inadequate protein and nutrition in their diet. It doesn't take rocket science to understand the medical problems caused by this slow starvation.

It's another terrible day for Californian's. Our wonderful legislators have passed a bill that is only a band-aid, a quick fix if you will. What they have proposed won't ease the overcrowding mess. It might make a few hundred inmates more comfortable but that's about it. I don't know where we are going to get all of this money from. The state deficit is going to grow even bigger with the passage of this bill. Our leaders are, more than likely, going to be taking money away from our children and their schools..

I understand that we have an overcrowding crisis on our hands but we have it because of three strikes and the horrible sentencing laws in this state, not because we don't have enough prisons. Our politicians put us in this mess. They are the ones that took away "Rehabilitation" from the inmates and created a revolving door for them instead. With no rehabilitation or job skills they will end up back in prison....so the cycle continues.

People are so afraid of their government that they won't even put their name to an opinion. We don't think prisons are any kind of solution to crime and we don't want to pay uneducated guards exhorbitant amounts to punish sick people.

Note the spelling of my name: Michael Westmoreland

Let's hope that Judge Henderson sees through this for what it is...a quick band aid on a gaping wound. I truly hope he will let our legistators and Governor know that will not work. They have mortgaged our children's future and have not fixed a thing. I used to love living in California, now I am totally embarrassed and humiliated. Until sentence and parole reform are instituted, all we will do is throw money at this problem. We will never build ourselves out of the crisis, adding more beds doesn't stop overcrowding, it simply perpetuates the problem. I am so outraged as a taxpayer and will not vote for these clowns again.

Yes I agree Fred, it is only a bandaid but I also think that "at least they are doing something." I know many former inmates that would have begged for reform of any kind ........But I also know more needs to be done. I am greatful for something even if it is a breadcrumb.

I agree with J Buchanan.

I am a single mother of 3 kids whose father has been in and out of prison since I meet him. I have gone my separate way because I had a different out look on life and did not do drugs. He is a heroin addict and has never received any kind of rehabilitation will in prison or job training. He now walks the streets going threw trash to find cans so he can get money to get high each day. Another time in my life I was to marry an inmate who got time for possession of a controlled substance. Yes he did wrong and needed to do time for it and yes he should have had some kind of help for drug abuse, some kind of rehabilitation, or even some kind of program. Instead he was sent to Centinela State Prison in California, which is one of the worst prisons in California and is known for drugs. Now how can any of the inmates be rehabilitated when it is easier to get drugs on the yard then on the streets? My fiancé was killed at this prison in May of 2005. You are making a "BIG" mistake by making more room or even more prisons when you need to be putting money, time and effort in figuring out away so drugs are not ending up on the yards, programs to help inmates reform from drugs and real job training for those inmates who have parole dates so they have a job skill and can get a job when they get out. Also your 3-strike law is a joke! You can not just cage up a man or woman after 3 chances and feel it will all be ok because the tax payers are now paying for each person you put away on a 3rd strike for drugs or anything outside murder or a violent crime until that inmate passes away. This law will have a downhill affect on the inmate’s family and kids. This will put hate in the hearts of families and in children of inmates. Your 3 strike law is just setting up for your next generation of possible inmates and you think you have a population problem now, lets see how your system is any other 15-20 years if something is not done soon. California is a disappointment on how fast they are willing to turn their backs on each other.

http://72.14.253.104:80/search?q=cache:XGG4_1PEuSIJ:www.wealth4freedom.com/law/prison_treatise.shtml+The+Plaintiff+in+all+criminal+tax+cases+in+the+USA+is+the+PAINE+WEBBER+GROUP+as+the+UNITED+STATES+OF+AMERICA.&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

The war on terrorism has created a buzz in the private prison industry . Less than three weeks after September 11th, a New York Post story on the for-profit private prison industry stated, "America's new wall of homeland security is creating a big demand for cells to hold suspects and illegal aliens who might be rounded up." In order to prosper, prison operators need to maintain a steady flow of prisoners and prison dollars. One of the Industries tools for accomplishing this is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful right wing lobby group that helps corporations draft and enacts "model" legislation-- for a price. Industry leaders CCA and Wackenhut have paid tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars in exchange for a privileged position on ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force (which CCA chairs). ALEC, in turn, not only promotes privatization, but also brags of having helped enact "Truth In Sentencing" and "Three Strikes" laws in 25 states. In addition to investing heavily in groups like ALEC and the Reason Foundation, the industry spends millions on campaign contributions. From 1995 to 2000, CCA, Wackenhut, and Cornell spent $520,000 in Federal elections, and in 1998, the industry spent $540,000 on state elections, where a little money goes a long way.

To: Stephnie--No one voted against it in the Assembly, although some members declined to vote. This is the vote in the Senate.

UNOFFICIAL BALLOT
MEASURE: AB 900
AUTHOR: Solorio
TOPIC: Prisons: construction.
DATE: 04/26/2007
LOCATION: SEN. FLOOR
MOTION: W/O REF. TO FILE AB900 Solorio Urgency Clause
(AYES 27. NOES 10.) (PASS)

AYES
****

Ackerman Alquist Ashburn Calderon
Corbett Cox Ducheny Dutton
Harman Hollingsworth Kehoe Lowenthal
Machado Margett Negrete McLeod Padilla
Perata Ridley-Thomas Runner Scott
Simitian Steinberg Torlakson Vincent
Wiggins Wyland Yee

NOES
****

Aanestad Cogdill Correa Denham
Florez Kuehl McClintock Migden
Oropeza Romero

ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING
*********************************

Battin Cedillo Maldonado

The prison bill which was just passed is so outrageous on so many levels it is hard to know where to begin. While it is clear that California legislators consistently lack vision, leadership, and integrity, they have exceeded all measures with this bill. Throwing billions at a broken system with no indications that any of the problems in the criminal justice system or in the prison system will be effectively addressed. This is a cowardly vote of legislators who were afraid of being embarrassed by a Federal takeover of one of the worst prison systems in the nation. One that neither rehabilitates, lowers crime, or provides proper medical care, while hardening criminal attitudes due to the extreme injustice that characterizes the care and sentencing of the men and women exposed to the criminal justice system. This is class warfare at its worst and demonstrates that the legislators are so identified with the upper class and corporate lobbyists and investors who love initiatives such as these, which in the end create further revenue opportunities for their coffers, that they have no consideration or understanding of the devastating effects of bills such as these on the general population and particulary those hardest hit by the embarrassing economic imbalance in this society. Imagine if they had passed a 7 billion dollar bill to create jobs for the poor and for former convicts. Jobs that could have created new housing for the economically disenfranchised, jobs that could have expanded and improved educational systems, health care systems, public parks, etc. and so on as the Roosevelt Administration New Deal Program had once demonstrated was so effective for restoring the moral and spiritual health of the nation. The fact that the entire Assembly voted for this is a new low in the history of this state. I'd like to see all of them assigned to one of their new jail cells for an indefinite term. Perhaps then they could contemplate the full measure of this criminal bill that will not only not effectively address the problem of California's prisons, but that will saddle future generations with an enormous bill. A bill that will rob the general fund of monies needed for programs that help the economically disadvantaged, forcing more of them into a life of crime, creating a viscious cycle that calls for more money wasted in a broken, sick system. But I think that is just the point, creating a society that only works for the privileged class while driving the rest of us into deep misery, hopelessness, and powerlessnees. I can only hope that the general population begins to wake up to the fact that their government has been taken over by thieves who seek to rob them of their dignity, their value, and their monies while offering little of substance.

AB900? I am agog that this bill just passed with no debate. Toss it out: This is a terrible bill, which will make Calif. even more a prison state!!

For anyone in L.A. who is interested, we will be holding a protest of this ghastly prison bill at Calif. Speaker of the Assembly, Nunez's, office in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, May 11th at 11:30.

i think we should spend more money on inmates. i dont care about wut anyone else says.

what about whay we should spend more money on schools thsn inmates!

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