California Prison Budget Up By 79 Percent

December 26, 2007 8:16 a.m. EST

Sacramento, CA (AHN) - California's budget for prison maintenance is expected to go beyond $10 billion in 2008. The 79 percent hike compared to 2003's $8.5 billion allocation, is caused by an 8 percent rise in prison population, now more than 173,000.

Prison spending tops the state's budget allocation for any other major program, except public schools and healthcare for the poor. The budget hike for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is not expected to slow down. According to the Legislative analyst's office, California will have to adjust upward its prison spending by 6 percent per annum for the next 5 years due to the construction of new prisons.

With the prison budget increase and the state spending for other projects such as new ballot boxes, court buildings, bureaucratic waste and infrastructure maintenance, California is facing a $145 billion budget deficit for 2008.

The increase in prison population is spurred not only by a higher crime rate, but also stiffer penalties, longer sentences and inmate returnees. New state law, such as the Jessica's law, which restricts residential choice of released sex offenders and requires tracking by satellite for life, also contribute to the higher spending on prisons.

Also responsible for the increasing prison budget is the hiked in inmate healthcare, up by 263 percent since 2000 to $2.1 billion a year.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed releasing over 200,000 non-sex offenders who are on their last months of serving sentence to reduce the state budget deficit.

State legislators, meanwhile, are preparing to craft more laws that may further hike spending on crime prevention and solution. Among the measures the legislators will tackle during the 60-day session starting January is a set of recommendations for gang enforcement and intervention.

The bill proposes the creation of a state-wide database to track gang members, grants cities the power to file civil injunctions against gangs and sets up a state fund for intervention programs and graffiti cleanup.