Deadlock in the California Legislature over prison cuts is costing taxpayers millions per day as lawmakers debate changing tough-on-crime policies that have sent prison populations and costs soaring.
Democrats, who control the Legislature, are divided over exactly how far to go in easing punishment or supervision of low-level offenders, while focusing resources on dangerous criminals.
The fiscal crunch grows by $3.3 million per day because the state budget anticipated that a deal on how to cut $1.2 billion from prisons would be struck in July, not mired in politics for months.
"It's not just about a budget," said Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles. "It's about systemic reform of a broken sentencing system."
As California faced a federal court order to reduce its overcrowded inmate population by 40,000 within two years, the Assembly last week rejected a budget-cutting effort approved by the Senate, instead adopting a pared-down version of the plan.
The houses disagree in these areas: allowing some low-level offenders to leave prison early under house arrest; creating a sentencing commission; and redefining receiving stolen property and two other "wobbler" crimes as misdemeanors.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is withholding concurrence on the Assembly plan, saying it does not go far enough.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports the Senate version, which would meet the $1.2 billion budget cut and reduce the inmate population by 27,300 this year, compared with lesser Assembly totals of roughly $965 million and 17,000, respectively.
Steinberg said Democrats dragging their feet makes no sense with "maybe a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to get a law-and-order Republican governor to sign sweeping sentencing and prison changes.
Proponents say an overhaul is long overdue. Inmate population has soared from about 22,000 in 1970 to nearly 167,000 today, partly because of determinate sentencing, "three strikes" and other tough-on-crime measures.
Prison costs have risen by more than 120 percent over the past nine years - from $4.8 billion to $10.8 billion last year. Yet those costs have yielded little success in altering behavior: Seven of every 10 parolees commit a new crime within three years, records show.
State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, characterized the federal court order as "a hammer over our head."
"It's time to act," he said.
But Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, counters that Democrats are using the fiscal crisis as an excuse to "make changes in sentencing that would never be considered (otherwise)."
Both legislative houses agree that parole should focus on serious, violent or sex offenders.
Low-level parolees would not be supervised, but police would retain the right to search their property without a warrant.
Parole officers would each oversee about 45 felons, far less than the ratio of 70-to-1 now.
Both plans call for allowing inmates - each of whose upkeep costs $49,000 annually - to earn an additional six weeks of sentencing credits and to allow some felony probation violators to be housed in jails or treatment programs.
Schwarzenegger is expected to turn over thousands of noncitizen felons to federal authorities for deportation under either plan.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said that two of the most contentious proposals stripped from the Senate bill - creation of a sentencing commission and an alternative custody program - will be considered in separate bills.
Supporters tout a sentencing commission as a way to reconsider myriad sentencing laws passed through the decades, often with little regard for equity or cost.
The panel would have 13 voting members, including the governor's corrections secretary, the state public defender, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, an appellate judge, a trial judge and eight gubernatorial appointees subject to Senate confirmation.
The governor would be required to appoint a district attorney, chief probation officer, county sheriff, police chief, public defender, two academic experts in criminal justice policy, and a legal scholar with expertise in sentencing law.
