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Is California’s prison system a money-sucking mess?
September 10th, 2009, 6:00 am · 70 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The good news? The number of prisoners in the California Department of Corrections decreased by about 1 percent over three years.
The, er, bad news? Its expenses increased by 32 percent over that time period anyway.
A damning new report on the state prison system by the California State Auditor’s office paints a disturbing portrait of a department reeling under the weight of spiking salaries, high overtime payouts, generous retirement benefits and a mandatory Three Strikes policy that its employee union fervently backed - and which has swelled California’s prisons to their breaking point.
The prison system also suffers from a general inability to track relevant data and get technology up to speed, even as a federal mandate to radically reduce the state’s prison population looms.
Officials at the Department of Corrections balked. “The report does not completely capture the complexity of many of these issues,” it said in an official response.
Stunning prison facts:
- The Department of Corrections consumes about $1 of every $10 shelled out by the state’s general fund budget.
- As of June 30, it was responsible for nearly 168,000 inmates, 111,000 parolees and more than 1,600 juvenile wards of the state.
- It costs $49,300 to incarcerate one inmate for one year.
- Nearly 25 percent of the inmates are there under the three strikes law.
- The increase in sentence length due to the three strikes law will cost an additional $19.2 billion over the duration of their incarcerations. (As these three-strikers age, the cost of their medical care increases as well.)
Stunning salaries:
- Correctional officers received six salary increases over the 30 months between July 2004 and January 2007 - raises totaling 26 percent.
- The maximum salary for a correctional officer increased from $58,600 in June 2004 to more than $73,700 in July 2007.
- These raises resulted in a corresponding spike in overtime costs, raising the maximum overtime rate from $41 per hour in June 2004 to nearly $52 per hour in July 2007.
- Corrections spent $431 million on overtime for staff in 2007-08.
- Nearly 4,500 correctional officers earned more than the top pay rate for captains - nearly $109,000.
- More than 1,600 correctional officers earned more than the $129,100 paid to wardens.
Stunning pensions:
- Correctional officers get 3 percent of pay for each year of service at age 50 (as opposed to 2.5 percent at 63, received by many other state employees).
- The cost of providing new correctional officers with these enhanced retirement benefits increases to $74 million a year in seven years; and reaches nearly $113 million a year in 10 years.
- Over the next 14 years, the difference between providing new correctional officers with enhanced retirement benefits as opposed to the retirement benefits many other state workers receive, will cost the State an additional $1 billion.
- Between fiscal years 2002-03 and 2007-08 the state’s pension contribution rate rose by 83 percent.
- A correctional officer whose highest level of compensation was $74,000, who retires at age 55 with 30 years of service, would receive an annual pension of $66,600. (That’s 50 percent more than the $44,400 that many other state workers earning the same salary, with the same number of years of service, would receive at the same age.)
There are many other generally stunning things in the report. Although Corrections’ budget for academic and vocational programs totaled more than $208 million last year, it was unable to assess the success of its programs.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
The Auditor doesn’t go here, but in a piece titled, “The Stakes of the Upcoming Prison Policy Fight,” David Dayen offers some interesting historical perspective on the “progressive” web site Calitics:
“California’s prisons were once the envy of the nation,” he wrote. “Then the Tough On Crime crowd got a hold of the levers of power, produced 1,000 laws expanding sentences over 30 years, pushed the public to do the same through ballot initiatives, increased parole sanctions, and the system just got swamped.
“In the early 1980s we had 20,000 prisoners. Now it’s 170,000. The overcrowding decimates rehabilitation, sends nonviolent offenders into what amounts to a college for violent crime, violates prisoner rights by denying proper medical care, and increases costs at every point along the way.”
Much of this can be traced to the prison guard’s union, and the political system that catered to it. “In three decades, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association has become one of the most powerful political forces in California,” the piece says. “The union has contributed millions of dollars to support ‘three strikes’ and other laws that lengthen sentences and increase parole sanctions. It donated $1 million to (former Gov. Pete) Wilson after he backed the three strikes law.
“And the result for the union has been dramatic. Since the laws went into effect and the inmate population boomed, the union grew from 2,600 officers to 45,000 officers. Salaries jumped: In 1980, the average officer earned $15,000 a year; today, one in every 10 officers makes more than $100,000 a year.”
CHANGE AFOOT?
In August, a three‑judge federal court ordered Corrections to provide a plan to reduce the inmate population over the next two years.
According to Corrections, that would require a reduction of more than 40,000 inmates.
California’s secretary of Corrections said the federal courts are exceeding their authority under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. It will continue to fight against a population cap or court‑ordered early release.
Go figure.
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our prison system is a joke. Almost $50,000 a year to house one inmate. In Florida it is a fraction of that to house an inmate. California needs to start looking at other states with lower costs and start to image that.
MAY the Higher Power Bless Buster Keaton whose image is the story here.
When you pay GED prison guards $200K per year (yes, they TOO have the 3%@50 scam), then it ends up costs $50K to house a dirtbag prisoner in a 8×11 cell.
It would be cheaper to put the dirtbags up at the “Four Seasons”.
What ever happened to the ball n chain? Maybe by cutting down on washing their clothes everyday, clean bedding or “jail” luxurys might reduce cost a bit? what do you guys think? They get real good treatment in there. A little too good.
what good treatment? How do you “know” this? Fatcs please!
I would not work in a prison for any amount of money. We are lucky there are those who will do it for only $78K a year before overtime.
I see what you are saying about retirement benefits, so create a new “tier”, where newer employees are not given the same benefits. This will save money, but the employees are not the only ones “sucking” up money. How about we only feed the inmates once a day, we can save money and hopefully they will be to weak to fight which means you won’t need as many guards on duty. Not to mention the $13,770.00 it cost a year, per inmate, for medical care. That is over double the amount the average Californian spends. So instead of blaming people who took a job, lets put the blame where it needs to be, on the criminal. Things need to change and until people get tired of paying for murderers, rapist, home invasion robbers and the scum of california they will have more rights than you and I.
A prison run by private industry can do the same job for substantially less money. Particularly if the facility is located out of state.
privatized prisons are not the answer and are just a bigger problem. When you let the prison system become privatized it becomes just like anything else. All about money. They will start finding reasons to house inmates so the corporations can make more money.
uhh, like it isn’t that way already. Did you not read the article on how much more the guards are making compared to other state employees!!! I guess the state needs to go BK like the auto industry to get out of those labor union favorable contracts.
California prisons used to be more self-sufficient. They had their own farms and livestock, but they did away with them about 15-20 years ago. Now they buy everything. If California would make it a real detourance to commit crime, then maybe the prisons wouldn’t be full of felons doing only a 1 or 2.
Prisons for these inmates is almost a luxury. They have tv’s, the gym, commesary where they can buy things with money deposited into an account for them. Too much bending over backwards to give these prisoners anything and everything. Over in Arizona the prisoners live in big tents outside and the cost is very low compared to California’s luxury prisons. They’re managed by the state so you can see why there are such problems. The state cant even manage itself.
I don’t know how far they go, but James A. Musick does some agriculture. But eliminate substance offenders from prisons, you eliminate James A. Musick and we’re back to square one. http://www.ocsd.org/divisions/jail_operations/james_a_musick/
Is there any doubt?
Strong union + worthless/pandering politicians = your tax increase.
Is there any doubt that the prison guard union is the sole source of this mess? BTW, the pay increases are not over. They tied their contract to what the CHP gets, and that keeps going up.
I began in earnest as a police science student at MT.SAC ,Walnut. It was then that I was appalled at (then) recidivism rate;plainly being reincarcerated! It has not changed since then (currently 70%),hmm will this further increase public response to accountability,I hope so;oh yes our legisltures too!
The whole state is a money sucking mess!
Only a matter of time before the feds will have to step in and try to run it
legalize marijuana….puts the illegal pot traffickers and their criminal cohorts out of business, reduces the prison population and financial strain on the justice system, and tax its sales to pay for prisons and law enforcement. It would still be illegal for minors to use or for people to drive or be in public under its influence, as is alcohol. It seems that we spend a lot of money and resources on a feeble attempt to reduce something that too many people use and most don’t consider a crime. I’m not pot smoker nor a pot advocate. I just see marijuana law enforcement as big waste of time and money as it currently stands when it could be a huge source of tax revenue.
Oc Dad you want to legalize pot and create a whole bunch of new problems.. increased crime, homelessness, DUI and so forth? Druggies are taking advantage of the legal loophole for medical marijuana but that’s not going to last very long. I don’t want a pot smoking teenager crashing into my car or robbing me to support his drug habit, no thanks..
>Prisons for these inmates is almost a luxury<
For the Illegal Invaders who live in a cardboard shack with 20 kids scraping for your next meals in the mega corrupt home land, Kalifornia Prisons are a Luxury!
Thank you for paying for it.
All prisons should be moved to Virginia and run by the federal government. They prcticed on auto makers and health care, so surely they can pull off something as easy as watching some guys sit in a cage….
How about we outsource our prison system to some other country where cathy lee gifford get her sweaters done and feed them ramen noodles everyday!
wasn’t the state going to transfer prisoners to other states where it is much cheaper to warehouse them, like arizona?
Yep. It was all set , until the prison guard union went to court and put a stop to it. That is also the reason why the last privately run prison shut down a few years ago even though it was receiving high marks for efficiency and lower failure rates than the publicly run prisons. Unions hate competition.
I love how the watchdog always come down on the police, fire fighters,and corrections. How about these groups that come in and make it mandatory for corrections to give the inmates tv’s and comissary food. or how about the temperature inside has to be set at a certain degree at all times because the imates said it was cold. stupied things like this caused by stupied groups for dumb people.
So what… cops,ff, and corrections should only be paid $15k a year??? we dont care if they deal with the scum, the injuried the sick the dying!!? we dont care if the puplic servants get cut up, sick, jumped or have to deal with nasty blood/spit from inmates. screw them huh!!??
While all of these people can make over 100K selling and buying houses, or working a job at a desk in some office in comfort.
its not the public servants its the inmates, politicians, and these inmate rights groups who say everything is unconstitutional.
They (inmates) should not get any tv, gyms comissarys. they get treated way better and get much much much better medical then any normal citizen.
OC watch dog, you are a joke and just like to stir up the crowd. yet i will continue to check what you say so i can laugh at you ignorance.
(I know i got off topic)
ration alley says:
So what… cops,ff, and corrections should only be paid $15k a year???
==============================
Another GED cop making $200K per year, and claiming they only make $15K….while dodging bullets everynight too!
Has any state bureaucrat ever heard of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County Arizona, the one who put all his prisoners in tents in the desert? He feeds them cold cuts, took away salt, pepper and coffee and puts them to work on chain gangs. It should not matter that he runs a county jail, the model can still be applied to the state prison system. We certainly have our fair share of prisoners and desert land. Instead, we give the prisoners ocean views and expensive healthcare.
This is just like every other state agency; overfunded, underperforming, inept leadership and controlled by unions and other political interests. Just another failure that the taxpayers will have to pay for. I’m growing numb to this kind of news.
The problem stems from the fact that 30% of our prisons our privately owned and the three strikes law has been an abysmal failure. Can you guess who funded the campaign for passing the three strikes law? Of course you can, it was the same corporations that OWN THE PRISONS!!
Can you name even ONE privately run prison?
Badwolf says:
The problem stems from the fact that 30% of our prisons our privately owned
===============
There are no privately run prisons in CA.
How much of the increased cost of housing a convict in California is the result of court orders by Federal Judges telling the state how to run the system.
Why are inmates on death row dying of old age instead of being executed like they are in other states.
How much money is saved when convicts are let out of prison and commit numerous crimes before being caught, convicted and sentenced back to state prison. How much more will the average Californian be paying for insurance on their house, car and business when the crime rate goes back up. It’s just a property crime sounds not to bad until its your car, your store, your house.
Drugs, prostitution, and gambling should not be a law enforcement problem. Legalize, control and tax. Quit pretending that you can actually control these issues by making them unlawful.
And last of all. We ask prison guards to work with the people we have given up on. They do work most of us would not do for any amount of money. Pay them well they earn it.
California needs to follow in the footsteps of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and run our prison system like he does. The following is what he does:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!! He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but “G” movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn’t get sued for discrimination.
He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it’s gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.
He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them…..this is a good one……”This isn’t the Ritz/Carlton. If you don’t like it, don’t come back.”
He bought Newt Gingrich’s lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place. You have to love this guy!!
More on the AZ Sheriff:
With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports:
About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to
their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. “It feels like we are in a furnace,” said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. “It’s inhumane.”
Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is
not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and
they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn’t commit any crimes… so shut your damned mouths.”
I love this, where did you get the interview? Is there such thing as a prison Czar nomination? I was thinking replace those Arizona tents with California solar panels and we could have a hit in our own Mojave.
No surprise! When law enforcement is in control of more and more of societies issues. Such as, the mentally ill who are now treated as criminals when their illness leads them down the wrong path. Their put into the legal system and treated in jails and prisons. Also the cost to protect constitutional rights of immates adds to the overall cost, such as providing TV, cable, warm water, a/c and heating, three square meals, etc. Prison immates live better and have more basic needs than some free people, including entire families. My house did not have a/c in this last heat wave.
It’s the prison inmates that are sucking the system dry!!!! Start killing these dirt bags on death row…..oh I forgot this Liberal State has a bleeding heart. We the people passed laws for stiffer sentencing: 3-strikes,gang enhancements, to keep these dirt-bags off the streets!…ect What do you thinks going to happen? (more inmates)= more prisons. Keep these low life scum bags in prison, hope that your love one is not MURDERED by a paroled thug!
>It’s the prison inmates that are sucking the system dry!!!! Start killing these dirt bags on death row…..oh I forgot this Liberal State has a bleeding heart<
The solution is to triple the state and fedreal taxes paid by all bleeding heart liberal’s
They want the convicts to live long lives in comfort then let the bleeding heart liberal’s pay for it
And cut my taxes back to a more fair 20%
Why has not one politician ever suggested this?
Comfort???
“NORCO, Calif. — This is what conditions are like at one of California’s best prisons, the California Rehabilitation Center: Built to hold 1,800 inmates, it now bulges with more than 4,700 and is under nearly constant lockdown to prevent fights. Portions of the buildings, which date to the 1920s, are so antiquated that the electricity is shut off during rainstorms so the prisoners aren’t electrocuted.”
Washington Post.
Gosh it would be nice if we stuck to facts!! Prison is not comfy–over-crowded prisons are a long way from comfy.
I think people positng non facts here are the comfy ones, making self righteously indignant remarks without the discomfort of fact checking…
Duh?
What the State Auditor fails miserably to understand is the ancient responsibility of society in its compact with the individual. It was 4,500 years ago that the first law codes were instituted to bring law and order to society.
The State, as the organized structure of society, accepted the responsibility to provide the injured individual not only with protection, for to exact retribution against those who injured them. In return, the individual gave up his personal need for justice through retribution against the perpetrator.
If the State abdicates its responsibility not only to protect the individual, but to provide retribution, it has violated it social compact with the individual. The individual would therefore be entitled to return to the blood feud and seek the retribution that the State no longer affords him.
In recent years, the State of California, through its courts and its laws, has demonstrated an increasing unwillingness to exercise its responsibilities.
Reform of the penal system is essential if society is to honor its commitment to the individual. But reform is not reducing the number of inmates, but rooting out the wasteful practices that courts and the legislature have imposed on the system. “Crowding” is a nonsensical word that, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. Better to make the prison experience one that provides a lesson that it is not a pleasant place to be.
Putting a stop to recidivism is essential, and we need only look where it is the lowest. And in which State might that be? Mississippi, where where inmates are house in the infamous Parchman Prison. When an inmate leaves there, they usually vow never to return. Instead, they either go straight, or go to a more sympathetic state. Either way, Mississippi has found success in its problem!
.
Ship the illegals directly back.
Do not pass go!
Start up the death penalty and use it.
That should scare the crime right out of them.
And if not, then they deserve what’s coming.
We as a society have allowed people to get away with murder, both figuratively, and literally.
Time for a change.
And for all the others….
Bring back the chain gang.
That will make them think twice.
And tell the ACLU to step off.
,,,
If the state is spending nearly $50,000 a year per prisoner, it has to be for staff salaries. Private industry can do the same job for much less. I know some prisons are violent, but most correctional officers are high-paid babysitters.
Much of the costs are not prisoner related. It’s the ridiculous salaries, OT and pensions we pay to the high school graduate guards. Florida and Texas spends about $20k a year to care for a prisoner. We pay over $40k a year. But, of course, the guards in Texas and Florida are given rational comp packages. It’s the hogs at the trough, folks. We’ve all known about it for a long time. Not new news.
Average Income by state:
Ca $60,000
TX $47,548
FL 47,804
Average Home:
CA $532,300
TX$120,000
FL$ 230,000
Maybe there is a reason for the pay difference.
Maybe it is time to rethink the “War on Drugs”? Tax them to pay for treatment of the addicted.
the state needs to do 3 things
1. eliminate the drinking and smoking age. kids get around it anyway, so we waste money on it.
2. deport every illegal aliem emeediatly
3. lergalise pot and tax it heavily.
if we did this, it would save lots of money in multiple categories.
I HAVE THE SOLUTION
soilent green!
Free everybody in jail for Marijuana and Cocaine. Tax the products. We will save a lot of money and increase our revenue.
The War on Drugs is a money pit with no end in sight.
There are a number of informed and enlightened comments here. California’s recidivism rate is among the worst in the nation. Its prisons are filled with ‘revolving-door’ addicts, many of them returned for minor parole violations. Extremely successful in-prison drug programs exist, e.g., even in the once-horrific Cook County Jail! These programs, with effective follow-up, have reduced recidivism and increased post-prison employment dramatically in ‘backward’ states like OK and KS, as well as in heavily populated states, such as PA. Models of these highly workable, affordable, and effective programs can be accessed at SAMHSA. Communities now really do have a choice between crime and rehabilitation–one or the other Politicians, Democrat and Republican, are so fearful of being accused of being ’soft on crime’ that they ridiculously believe that building more prisons and sentencing more criminals–half of the addicts or mentally ill–will eliminate crime. This may please the voting public, but it does not and cannot work.
The observations about our state’s prsion guard union are, sadly, very accurate. The guards are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution. This is morally shameful and politically compromising.
What we need to look at is why the USA has more people in their prisons than any othe country in the world.
Since 1986 our “industrial criminal justice system” has added 3,500,000 people to its cells, more than any other nation in the world.
Our prisons contain 3/4 of all humans in jail on the planet.
There is something wrong in our nation because our prison system is starting to resemble the Gulag in the former Soviet Union.
Where do you get your #s? They seem rather unreasonable considering some other societies out there and their lack of democracy and human rights.
Until we start making children (and I mean ALL children) a priority by providing opportunities for ALL, not just the one’s whose parents can afford it, we will continue to have more people incarcerated. We need to put money and efforts towards after-school activities, sports, classes, etc. that will keep kids busy and looking toward having a good future. Without hope, a lot of these kids turn to crime as their only way out.
We are such a greedy society, always looking out for number one, we forget that we all affect each other.
Maybe one day as a society, we will get it. One can hope.
Many good comments here but there are still alot who are drinking the law enforcement and Republican Kool-Aide. Keep it up and the prison budget will be climbing to 20 Billion in the near future when they begin to build more prisons and your kids school has a 4-rent sign on it. They know what is wrong with the system and have known for a decade. They have a stack of reports and recommendations 5 feet high and they use them for door stops.
It is all about the money and always has been. But you just keep thinking its public safety. Californians are gullable and they know that too. They can make you believe anything. Just scare you with some BS crime statistics because no one will bother to check them. What a laugh. We are stuck on stupid in this state and when the money runs out, which we can expect next budget to be at least 15 Billion more. Where you gonna get that money. Not the Justice system! Your jobs are next. If anyone votes for an encumbent next election they deserve what’s coming.
this was set up by “fiscally responsible” republicans and their tough on crime campaign. oh, we dare not spend a dime to help people afford health coverage if it raises taxes one iota, or if the defecit goes up one dime, but if it’s to put as many people in jail as possible–long term fiscal consequences be DAMNED! and the major solution from the oc fascists posting here is to put more people in jail and treat them more like animals to save a buck. screw human decency, the law, the constitution or human rights. the right-wingers wanted 3 strikes, they wanted term limits and in a few short years their policy ideas have done to california what bush did to america–drove it into a ditch.
gdb, you are blaming “fiscally responsible” republicans with being tough on crime for the mess.
So what is your solution? You cast blame, but no solutions.
I personally think 3 strikes was the wrong approach. We instead need truth in sentencing including on the 1st strike. All too often we read about someone who has committed a horrific crime, like some recently, who should have still been in jail on previous charges. And of course it seems that even though the person committed multiple crimes, they seem to plea bargain away many of them, sending a message to criminals that they can go ahead with additional violations since they likely will have it tossed before sentencing.
Rehab for drug abusers or the mentally ill who could benefit yes. But what about getting back to making them work for their keep? They used to make license plates. Surely there are things that they can be taught to produce that will teach them marketable skills as well as earn money to pay for housing and feeding them.
Get them involved in meaningful, required activity that is producing something. That is better for them mentally and physically and has the potential for earning income to offset the costs of their incarceration. And if they are being productive it could raise their self respect and desire to continue to be productive when they are released.
I know that low level offenders can sometimes serve on fire crews and have read that they develop skills and pride that carry over later. There ought to be other types of activities for those who can not be given that amount of freedom to also put them to work doing something productive, that will help train them for something they can do on the outside–besides return to crime.
This is what happens when you put the unions in charge of the inmates (referring to the legislature).
Our other prison system aka public skools consume over 40% of the state budget.
By law.
Hurray, we are the Land of the Incarcerated and the Home of the Imprisoned. The good old USA has more prisoners the red commie China. We are Number One. Keep it up, keep spending more on prisons than schools. And kudos to those who make cruel inhumane comments supporting the unconstitutional treatment of prisoners. Its people like you that made death camps possible. Fascists everywhere salute you.
It amazes me how the prisoner rights crowd are so concerned about how their precious little convicts are treated. Parental guilt perhaps? I for one will be much more concerned about their victims past .present and future.
And if China has fewer inmates than we do. It probably has something to do with the fact they execute people there by the bus load.
Where do you get your figures for that? Of course again as ace chapman says, they do execute people for relatively minor things, whereas we often don’t even for very serious crimes. And the death penalty in CA is a joke. they need to speed things up so that death sentences can be properly reviewed and make sure that they are not innocent, but not take 20 years and more to execute people. Cruel murderers should not live longer in prison than their victims whole lives.
Maybe they should get some of those students who could do work like the innocence project here to help review cases to make sure they aren’t innocent but if confirmed, speed up the process. Of course as they review DNA evidence they might find matches for other unsolved crimes.
They need to fast track those appeals. If someone is innocent, then they would be freed faster, but the length of time it takes on death penalty cases is ridiculous. from what I have read, part of it at least is due to unnecessary delays with them just waiting after sentencing before they get started on the next step that is required.
Rates of execution
Considering the size of the Chinese population the relative number of executions in China is still large. Even by the confirmed numbers, the rate of executions in China (0.07 per 100,000 people) is higher than the United States (0.02 per 100,000) and Pakistan (0.05 per 100,000), though Iran (0.25 per 100,000) executes more prisoners per capita. Dui Hua Foundation declares that the true figures were higher; they estimate that China executed between 5,000 and 6,000 people in 2007, down from 10,000 in 2005.[6]
The exact numbers of people executed in China is classified as a state secret;
How many hundreds of millions could America save by paying foreign countries to hold their citizens in their prisons. Say we give them a 10% premium over their true costs. In Mexico, I doubt they spend $10,000 a year, compared to our $50,000 costs. We provide air conditioning, exercise rooms, and color television. In Mexico, they probably give them flour tortillas and beans. Might be even cheaper for example in Kenya, home of the Fullerton “student” who just drowned his own 4 year old son.
You people are funny, Have any of you ever been to State Prison here in Californai? Well I have and let me tell you the truth about your prisons and your prison guards. One, have you people relized that the prison system has taken away from schools more than 2.5 billion dollars in the last three years? No. Did you know that in the last three Budget debaits that the CCPOA recieved their pay raises for their guards while teachers got laid off? No. Did you know that in 2008 CDCR bought over 40 medical vans $4.5 million and 34 personal Medical cars for the head Medical person at 250.000.00 and what do you see if anything is wrong with that picture? One, There’s only 33 prisons where did the other car go? Two, Three Vans from ford went to each prison, where did the last van go and why did they during a budget battle go out and spend over 5 million dollars that California doesn’t have? Hmm, How about all the monies spent on the over time? Enstead of highering staff, they would rather pay over time and let me tell you. I used to do alot of their over time cards at a fire camp and in one good fire a guard can make up to 25.000.00 in one good fire as they call it. And it’s the Inmates that are fighting these fires at $1.00 an hour. Not the Guards. Lets see. California has over 190 thou in the prisons and over 75 thou are violaters on parole for what ever reason. What I don’t understand is this. You are sentanced to 16 months and then you do 12 months of that and you still have to do 3 years parole and if you should mess up by saying, Giving a dirty test or moving out of your house or what ever the reason, you can go back to State for up to one year and one year only. and you can get an extenton on your parole up to two years. Now California does not have the most prisons in their State. Ohio does. Ohio has 33 prisons and look at the size of that state compaired to california. Per capita Ohio has more and are not faced with the over crowding nor the money problems, why? Becuase they have no parole if you’ve done your time. I am seen by three agents and guess what? I am in a program doing good and what I’m asspost to be doing. Lets see. Did you also know that California Prisons are recieving monies for programs that they don’t even have or money recieved by the parole that is aspost to go to the parolee that never finds it’s way to he/she and is spent on new cars for the agents and also. California spends up to 2.5 mill a year on amo that is use in target practice ant one prison not the wole 33 that California has. They spend and don’t care what the out come is. How about paying the Wardens a clothing, food and gas bill when you already pay he or she over 150 thou a year to do his or her job? Ow forgot, that car is the states and and that means that he/she doesn’t have to drive their own car untill they are removed from their job. Plus you know when they travel they have to stay at the best hotels and eat at the best places that you flip the bill for. See California would rather spend money on the guards and staff than to spend it on schools and teachers. Guess what people, those kids do grow up and guess what, they will be the future of this country, most uneducated thanks to the spending from prisons and the greed from the State Gov. Very Fucking SAD if you ask me. And this is comming from an exconvict/Inmate. Funny that a person such as myself should be the only one saying this and feeling this way. Ow and yes I have proff. All Inmates do.
No one will believe this, but some of eht facts presented here are true.
The prison system also suffers from a general inability
to track relevant data and get technology up to speed,
even as a federal mandate to radically reduce the
state’s prison population looms.
kaizen7
In answer to the headline of this article. DUH, Yes!
Actually only a very few of the comments were written by anyone who actually knows anything about the Constitution or the prison system. To the rest, before you spout off on what the state should do about the prison system learn something about it and don’t rant without facts. The scare tactics in the media and promoted by the politicians and paid for by the union have sucked you into their imaginary world.
The prison system also suffers from a general inability to track relevant data and get technology up to speed, even as a federal mandate to radically reduce the state’s prison population looms.
kaizen7
This article proves once again that the Register is wasting it’s time with words since it’s obvious that most of it’s readers don’t understand what the words mean.
And as for Joe Arpaio, all the good things you hear about Joe Arpaio always seem to come from, Joe Arpaio. Check http://www.arpaio.com for another picture of the good sheriff. See what a Google search has to offer about a guy who’s own employees say, “lives in a fantasy world of self-importance”.
Legalize , govern, & tax all drugs. let out all the non violate drug offenders. Look online and find the answers yourself. join together to make it happen.
Its about $19 Billion a year to house drug offenders. And must be in the billions for all the paper pushing civil servates we could do without.
By legalizising all drugs it could create tillions of $ in revenew for the US. No more drug cartels, gangs, and alot of other crime would be minimized. No need for alot of wasted money spented on enforceing these laws now.
We could use the money for homeless houseing and end homelessness altogether, plus make jobs that could be more positive and helpful for those in need. Shit we’d be albe to give free medical to just about everyone.
I truely think there more positive than negitive that would come from doing this.
Why would anyone want to pay $50′000 to house a inmate thats there for a non violate drug conviction? That may be as little as a $50 sack of dope. Plus where paying all the countless county worker, judges,gaurds,paper pusher salarys. This alone could be in th billion.
Legalize, govern, and tax all drugs. and will have make this work. People have used drugs for 1000 of years. Lets be the ones that truely control these markets. Shit alcohol and presribtion drugs are just as bad. LETS ALL START THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX.
If I were rich I dedicate the rest of my life and time to make it happen.
Hi there, its Rick again. OK the subject is about drugs and rights.
OK there was the womens right movement, proabition movement for alcohol, gay rights movement, and whatever movement people wanted legalize. So many fought for them and now there here. With new laws and jobs to protect and help them in a positive way.
Lots of people still don’t agree with them. But they are here now to stay.
So I know that there are as many people that do illegal drugs out there that it should to be a movement too, for people who wish to do drugs.
So lets call it, the people who want drugs “movement” and than make laws that will protect people who want to do them. Just like alcohol and prescribed drugs.
There are way to many people that feel this way. And it would reduce crimes, & prisoners that don’t belong behind bars.
And again buy legalizing it, would create Tillion of dollars for the US if done right.
WE GOT THINK OUT SIDE THE BOX PEOPLE.