California To Ship Out 8,000 and Build 53,000

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed a sweeping prison-reform plan that adds more than 50,000 new beds to an overcrowded system, even as key lawmakers and prison experts warned that it fails to solve the most pressing long-term problems.

Lawmakers reached the $7.8 billion deal last week in the hopes of satisfying federal judges who have threatened to release inmates early if California failed to address its severe overcrowding.

Schwarzenegger said the bipartisan plan should go a long way toward addressing the judges' concerns. He said the addition of 53,000 prison and county jail beds represents the biggest building commitment to California's corrections system in a generation.

High recidivism

The governor also said the plan contains provisions that will help prisoners break a cycle that sees 70 percent of ex-convicts return to prison after committing further crimes or parole violations. California's recidivism rate, one of the highest in the nation, is one reason the prison system is chronically overcrowded.

The plan signals "a monumental shift in how we manage prisons in California," Schwarzenegger said during Thursday's bill-signing ceremony.

"In the critical few months before an inmate is released, our re-entry facilities will focus on job training and placement, on education, on anger management, substance abuse and family counseling and housing placement," he said.

Critics said the plan, as ambitious as it seems, doesn't go nearly far enough.

Romero disappointed

The $50 million it adds for rehabilitation programs is merely "a drop in the bucket," said Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, one of the Legislature's experts on corrections issues.

"The bill that was passed was a prop that the governor asked for so he can walk into court and look like he's tough on crime," Romero said Thursday in a telephone interview. "The bill that the Legislature sent him was a fig leaf so he doesn't walk into court naked."

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