Fighting Tough on Crime in California

by Matt Kelley · 2009-07-28 04:57:00 UTC
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign the state's messy new budget today, after marking it up with his line-item veto pen. The final budget will include deep cuts to the state's out-of-control corrections spending, but the decision on how to achieve those cuts has been pushed back into August.

The delay in handling the tricky politics of corrections cuts came after Assembly Republican leader Sam Blakeslee threatened to withdraw his support of the entire budget if the cuts meant that even a single elderly, drug-addicted, non-violent prisoner was released from prison before they had served every last day of their sentence.

In a great post yesterday on California Progress Report, David Dayen took the tough-on-crime crowd to task for their inability to see the disaster that tough-on-crime created. Dayen wrote:

Using the buzzword of "early release" of "dangerous prisoners" is an old Tough on Crime ploy from way back, evoking memories of the Willie Horton ad in the 1988 Presidential race. It's irresponsible and not relevant to what is being discussed. We have the perfect Tough on Crime prison policy right now - and it's not working in every respect, to the extent that federal courts have stepped in to take control of it.

Overcrowded prisons cannot fulfill their core mission of rehabilitating those jailed, and that's especially true where nonviolent offenders who need medical treatment for addiction and not incarceration are concerned. Brute force has not worked in making the state safer and has certainly caused our budget to skyrocket. And the truth is that more sensible policies can save money and create better prisons at the same time.

Dayen goes on to point out that this next month is the the crucial time for action in California:

With some good activism and common sense we can stare down the Tough on Crime crowd and post a needed victory for sensible criminal justice policies.

Amen.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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