Jerry Brown's Prison Priorities Hurt California Public Schools

Governor Jerry Brown wants to reduce the California’s $9B prison budget by housing more state inmates in county jails and eliminating the Division of Juvenile Justice, formerly the California Youth Authority.

Reporters covering budget stories should ask if the time has come to re-examine current public policies that have resulted in California spending 6 times more on each prisoner than it does on each K-12 student.

In her inaugural address, Attorney General Kamala Harris said California “must recognize the connection between public safety and public education.”

Reporters should also look at the connection between how those policies result in African Americans accounting for nearly 30 percent of all prisoners, despite being only 12 percent of the state’s population.

The Public Policy Institute of California stated in its 2006 report, California Counts – Who is in Prison, “adult African American men are seven times as likely as white men and 4.5 times as likely as Latino men to be incarcerated.”

In 2009, California spent about $7,500 per student but $47,000 per prison inmate. It costs more than $200,000 a year to house a juvenile offender in the Division of Juvenile Justice.

“The irony of this is if we look at what it costs to lock up a Black boy, a Brown boy, an Asian boy in the juvenile justice system, we’re talking about $250-thousand a year to keep them incarcerated,” said Joe Brooks, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Policy Link, a national research and action institute based in Oakland.

“Just imagine if we were to just take a fifth of that -- $50,000, and invest it at the front end, in the education, in the after-school programs, in the tutorial services, in community health planning  -- the difference that could be made. That’s the kind of contradiction and backwardness of our current public policy approach.”

The governor plans to lower the prison budget by about $1B by sending non-violent offenders to county jails, directing counties to monitor adult parolees and cutting prison rehabilitation programs.

Journalists should look at how many African American male inmates are actually transferred to county jails, since more than half (52%) of the African American (and Hispanic) male inmates are convicted of violent crimes.

Brooks does not believe any of the prisoners can succeed if or when they do return to society, especially with the governor cutting rehabilitation programs.

“We’re talking about locking people up and, when locked up, nothing happens on preparing them to come back and, when they do return, we have un-receptive communities.”

He believes it’s the media’s job to make sure people understand why communities are part of the solution.

“The public will can sometimes be turned in favor of these problems when the public is properly informed about why it’s in their interest to be concerned.”

He believes journalists should be writing about how the inevitable consequences of concentrated poverty and the lack of education and opportunity lead to these kinds of outcomes. And he thinks they should take a close look at what’s going to happen if the Governor succeeds at closing the Division of Juvenile Justice.

“They’re talking about eliminating the state juvenile justice facilities and returning them (juvenile inmates) home. Where are they going to return home to, except to the adult county jails? That would be a travesty!

http://www.correctionalnews.com/articles/2011/01/11/calif-governor-announces-cuts-state-prisons

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/StateAgencyBudgets/5210/5225/department.html

http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/prison-industrial-complex-california/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/01/prison-spending-gets-a-boost-in-budget.html

http://www.thewip.net/contributors/2010/01/californias_prison_spending_gr.html

http://tinyurl.com/4n45ea4

http://www.mercurynews.com/california-budget/ci_17057801?nclick_check=1

http://tinyurl.com/4d3thhd