Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - The Prison and Education Crises in California: Is There a Connection?

Baraka_Guru · 12-05-2008, 06:54 AM

This story hit the CBC Radio headlines this morning:

Quote:

Judges weigh ordering release of Calif. prisoners

By DON THOMPSON – 5 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Three federal judges seem convinced that overcrowding in California prisons is so bad it leads to unconstitutional conditions. Now they must weigh whether ordering the release of nearly a third of the state's inmates would be a public safety nightmare.

The state stuffs its 33 adult prisons with nearly twice as many inmates as they were designed to house. Attorneys representing the inmates asked the judges on Thursday to order the state to trim about 52,000 inmates from the current population of 156,300 over the next two years.

The judges hearing the case brought on behalf of sick and mentally ill inmates may not make a decision until next year. The special three-judge panel is acting for the first time under a 1995 federal law designed to limit the judiciary's power in inmate rights cases, and any release order likely faces an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Several more weeks of testimony are scheduled this month on whether releasing inmates early will increase crime. The judges have already heard seven days of testimony on overcrowding.

"In the long run, does it make any difference to public safety if we release them 60 days earlier?" than their original sentence, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento wondered as the judges debated one hypothetical release order this week.

Attorneys for the inmates argued that releasing prisoners would reduce violence in prison and the spread of contagious disease, end the need for housing inmates in gymnasiums and other makeshift areas, and improve treatment for mentally and physically ill inmates who now suffer and sometimes die of neglect.

They produced criminologists who said the state could cut its population safely through steps such as reducing the number of parolees sent back to prison for "technical" violations like testing positive for drugs or failing to meet with a parole agent, and giving alternative sentences to criminals who currently serve short prison terms.

Inmates who participate in education and other rehabilitation programs — even some serious, violent offenders — could be released from prison earlier.

Better still, the state should be required to spend more money to keep people from going to prison in the first place, Jerry Powers, Stanislaus County's chief probation officer, told the judges.

Freeing criminals earlier gives them more time to commit new crimes, said Powers, who leads the statewide chief probation officers' association. He was not comforted by new scientifically developed questionnaires designed to predict which ex-convicts are most likely to commit new crimes.

Nonviolent inmates may be considered a lower risk to society, but they are statistically more likely to commit repeat property crimes. Murderers are more dangerous but are statistically unlikely to kill again, Powers said.

Attorneys for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state legislators and county law enforcement officials are presenting witnesses, including Powers, who say reducing the prison population would increase crime.

They say the state already is making progress in improving inmate care. More and better-trained medical and mental health workers have been hired under the guidance of a court-appointed receiver. The state is spending $2.25 billion this year to treat, house and guard physically and mentally ill inmates, or nearly $14,000 annually per inmate, according to the state Department of Finance.

That is an 81 percent increase over the last three years, yet Karlton called it "absolutely inadequate" to solve the state's problems.

Karlton and a second judge on the panel, Appellate Judge Stephen Reinhardt of Los Angeles, said they have little choice but to order a population cut because the state has not acted on its own.

Reinhardt noted that legislators this year stalled $8 billion in bonds to build medical centers for 10,000 mentally and physically ill inmates, and $7.4 billion for 38,000 additional prison and jail cells. With the state facing an $11.2 billion budget deficit for the current fiscal year, legislators are unlikely to approve more prison spending, he said.

"If the state were to wake up and start behaving in a rational way, we all wouldn't be here," Karlton said. "The question is, what can the federal courts do?"

The Associated Press: Judges weigh ordering release of Calif. prisoners

I've always been amazed at the prison population in the U.S. in general, but this is crazy. I then go to thinking why there are so many people in prison, and I came back to the thought I've always had: Problems with crime are partly related to problems in education.

There's this piece here:

Quote:

Education budget cuts are not in California's interest

Carlos Garcia,Mark Sanchez

Thursday, March 20, 2008

How is it that we have become so comfortable with the fact that our schools are woefully under-funded?

And now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that California is in a fiscal crisis, and proposed several spending cuts, including $4.8 billion budgeted for public education. All of us who have been in California for some time are veterans of fiscal crises. Although attempts were made in the past to save public schools from sudden crises by the passage of Proposition 98 - a clear statement from voters that they support public education, no matter what the economic state of the state - our legislators seem to be taking the easy way out in the face of hard times.

Suspending Proposition 98 and slashing the monumental sum of $4.8 billion from our schools is the equivalent of laying off more than 107,000 teachers; or gutting per-student funding by more than $800; or cutting more than $24,000 per classroom statewide; or increasing class sizes statewide by as much as 35 percent. It is equivalent to closing every California public school for one month.

Have we lost sight of this fundamental truth - when we invest in the education of our children, we are investing in everything we care about? Whether the environment, homelessness, crime or the economy; progress cannot happen without a well-educated citizenry. We can debate for years - and we have - the meaning of well-educated, but some things are beyond debate: Iit costs money to educate children, and the long-term return on that money is the world we live in.

Is there any coincidence that our prisons are rapidly growing when California spends only $8,500 per year in the classroom to educate a child and $35,500 per year to incarcerate an inmate?

Obviously, our schools are not working for every child now and they certainly can't work for children the way they may become. Since 1978, with the passage of Proposition 13, which eliminated local tax revenues for schools, the real problem has been that we do not have a steady flow of adequate funding to sustain public education. In January, Education Week reported that California spends almost $1,900 below the national per-student average, ranking us 46th in the nation for education spending. The 2007 "Getting Down to Facts" studies led by Stanford University concluded that if we are going to prepare our children to participate in the global economy, school districts would need several billion dollars more each year.

It is our belief that a society ought to be judged by how it treats its children. If California is receiving a grade of D+ in education spending on Education Week's 2008 report card, then it is clear that we will be failing our children if we further reduce funding for schools. We cannot allow this to happen. The time has come to stop talking about it and start acting to assure these cuts won't happen. We urge all of you to make your voices heard with our governor and other elected officials.

Yes, there are bound to be tough economic times ahead but we're the wealthiest state in the nation and the eighth largest economy in the world. If we allow this to happen here then we are all at fault. In the past, generations stood up for us, now we must stand up for the generations to come.

Carlos Garcia is the superintendent, and Mark Sanchez is board president, of the San Francisco Unified School District.

Education budget cuts are not in California's interest

So California is slashing their public education system while trying to figure out how to solve the overpopulation of prisons. Is this not connected in any way? Is California dropping the ball on their social programs?

You will find studies here (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California - Research) that reveal how crime prevention starts as early as pre-kindergarten. If the state slashes public education, what tends to go out the door are the valuable programs that help at-risk kids—kids who are victims of abuse and neglect. Teaching fundamentals is important, and should be left at the core despite budget concerns, but that's not the point here. The point is, California is letting the candle burn at both ends. They're not getting at-risk children the help they need via the education system and they're dealing with a prison population spiralling out of control.

Are the two not connected in any measure?