Prisons

California Judge Blocks Effort to Transfer Prisoners Out of the State

A California state superior judge in February 2007 ruled that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could not order the transfer of several thousand inmates from California prisons to prisons in other states. Schwarzenegger's move was part of an effort to address an overcrowding crisis in the state's prison system. The judge who ruled on the case determined that Schwarzenegger had inappropriately declared a state of emergency when he made the decision to transfer the prisoners. Schwarzenegger said that he would appeal the ruling.

California has struggled with problems in its prison system for most of Schwarzenegger's term in office. In June 2006, he declared that the prisons were in a crisis, noting that the system was trying to house 171,000 inmates in facilities that were designed to hold only about 100,000. Many of the inmates have had to sleep in such places as gyms, dayrooms, and other areas that were not intended for housing purposes. The state has also had significant problem with recidivism, with an estimated 70 percent of inmates ending up back in prison.

Schwarzenegger has introduced a variety of proposals that have been designed to address the trouble that the state has had with its prison population. In 2004, he proposed a change to the state's parole policy that would send parolees who failed drug tests or committee other violations to rehabilitation programs instead of sending them back to prison. However, the state's prison guards union and victims' rights groups protested the move, and officials also admitted that the proposal had not been planned well. Later proposals included a plan to reshuffle responsibilities within the state's corrections department, but that plan was also never implemented.

Legislators have been skeptical of several of Schwarzenegger's proposals. In January 2006, he added the construction of prisons as part of a proposal to issue bonds that would also be used to fund new roads, schools, and levees. Another plan called for the transfer of some female inmates out of prison. The California Legislature rejected both ideas. Some lawmakers suggested that the state needed to change its policies in order to lower the prison population.

In June 2006, a special master working for U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson criticized Schwarzenegger for bowing to pressure from the state's prison guard union, which has been influential in the California Legislature. According to report from the special master, the governor had begun to retreat from prison reform efforts. Less than a week after the report was issued, Schwarzenegger convened a special legislative session in order to enact legislation that would order construction of new prisons in urban areas and the transfer of several thousand prisoners in an effort to free up beds.

The governor's plan resulted in a $6-billion proposal that called for the use of private facilities to house 4,000 low-security inmates as well as the for the transfer of 5,000 inmates who faced deportation to prisons in other states. Lawmakers, however, reacted critically to the plan, saying that it was hastily assembled and lacked basic pieces of information. Several bills were introduced as alternatives to Schwarzenegger's proposal, but state administrators said that the bills would not do enough to address the immediate need for more beds. "[T]hese bills do not solve the state's short-term capacity problem," said acting corrections secretary James Tilton. "The lack of a short-term solution will create an emergency situation whereby the department will run out of beds by June 2007. When that day comes, the department will be forced to stop accepting inmates, and will notify counties that (the prisons) can no longer accept felons sentenced by the courts."

In October, Schwarzenegger signed an emergency declaration that ordered the corrections department to send several thousand criminals to private prisons in other states in order to relieve the overcrowding. State officials had hoped that as many as 2,200 inmates would volunteer to be transferred, but fewer than 500 did. Thus, the state had to transfer the inmates involuntarily. In signing this declaration, Schwarzenegger acted under the state's Emergency Services Act, Cal. Gov't Code Ann. §8550 et seq..

Two unions, including the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the Service Employees International Union, challenged Schwarzenegger's actions in state court. The plaintiffs in the case argued that the governor had violated both the emergency act and the state's constitution, the latter of which prohibits the use of private companies to perform jobs that are ordinarily performed by state employees. The suit was brought in the Superior Court in Sacramento County.

Judge Gail Ohanesian agreed with the unions' arguments and ruled that the contracts with the others states were invalid. "Prison overcrowding in California is a crisis creating conditions of extreme peril, she wrote. However, "this is not the type of circumstance generally covered by the Emergency Services Act." Ohanesian also noted that "[t]he control of state prisons is exclusively within the purview of state government and not local government. The intent of the Emergency Services Act is not to give the governor extraordinary powers to act without legislative approval in matters such as this that are ordinary and entirely within the control of the state government."

Schwarzenegger said that he would appeal the decision, and members of the governor's administration said publicly that they thought the decision was wrong. Spokespersons for the unions who brought the suit disagreed and argued that the state should instead focus on long-term solutions to the prison problem. According to the unions, the governor's plans to transfer the prisoners would have only alleviated the problem on a short-term basis.

The dispute between Schwarzenegger and the guard union continued for several months after the decision. Commentators suggested that in order for Schwarzenegger to be successful in proposing a reform solution, he may first have to negotiate a new labor contract with the union, which has political power with both of the major parties. At the same time that the legislature was considering Schwarzenegger's proposal, the union was promoting its own proposed plan, which was created after the guards had several meetings with traditional adversaries such as defense attorneys and advocates for inmate rights.

U.S. Prison Population Continues to Rise

According to a report issued by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics in November 2006, the prison population in the United States grew 1.9% during 2005, which was less than the average annual growth during the past decade. By the end of 2005, one in every 32 adults was in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole. Despite the decline in the rate of growth in U.S. prisons, however, another survey showed that the U.S. correctional population reached a total of more than seven million for the first time.

For a number of years, the United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world. In 2003, the U.S. first released statistical estimates of the number of people imprisoned. According to that report, more than 5.6 million Americans were in prison or had spent time there. At that time, one in 37 adults had served time in prison, which led all nations. Racial minorities made up a significant percentage of the total number of current and former inmates. According to the trends, a black male in the U.S. would have a one in three chance of going to prison during his or her lifetime. For a Hispanic male, the odds were one in six. A white male's odds were one in 17.

Advocates for prison reform have noted that the disparity in the race of prisoners demonstrates an underlying problem in society. "For the generation of black children today, there's almost an inevitable aspect of going to prison," said Marc Mauer, assistant director for an advocacy group that focuses on reforms for sentencing. "We have the wealthiest society in human history, and we maintain the highest level of imprisonment. It's striking what that says about our approach to social problems and equality."

According to the report issued in 2005, the U.S. had a total of more than 2.3 million people incarcerated at the end of 2005. The overall incarceration rate was 491 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, which increase from a total of 411 per 100,000 in 1995. More than 1.4 million of those inmates were housed in federal and state prisons, while 747,529 were housed in local jails. Others were incarcerated in territorial prisons, immigration facilities, military facilities, jails in Indian country, or juvenile facilities.

Federal prisons had the highest population, with a total of 187,618 inmates. Among the states, California and Texas had the highest prison populations, with both having close to 170,000. Florida and New York had the third and fourth highest populations, respectively, among the states. Among those four states, only Texas was also among the top five in the number of inmates per 100,000 residents, with 691. Louisiana led the nation with 797 inmates per 100,000. Following Louisiana and Texas were Mississippi (660), Oklahoma (652), and Alabama (591).

Several of the southern states saw their prison populations decrease in 2005, including Georgia (down 4.6 percent), Maryland (down 2.4 percent), Louisiana (down 2.3%), and Mississippi (down 2.2 percent). Meanwhile, fourteen states, including several of the smaller states, saw increases in their prison numbers. These include South Dakota (increase of 11.9 percent), Montana (up 10.9 percent), and Kentucky (up 10.4 percent).

Other small states had the lowest overall prison populations as well as the lowest incarceration rates. North Dakota has the smallest population with 1,385 prisoners. The number was followed by Maine (2,023), Wyoming (2,047), Vermont (2,078), and New Hampshire (2,530). Maine, New Hampshire, and North Dakota were also among five states with the fewest number of prisoners per 100,000 residents. That list also included Minnesota and Rhode Island.

The total number of persons held in state prisons, federal prisons, or local jails increased by an average of 3.3 percent per year. The number of federal prisoners increased at a higher rate per year (7.2 percent) than the total number of state prisoners (2.5 percent) or inmates in local jails (4.0 percent). The percentage of women who made up the total number of inmates increased from 6.1 percent in 1995 to 7.0 percent in 2005. A total of 107,518 females were incarcerated by the end of 2005.

Due to the rise in the number of prisoners, several states operated above capacity. According to the report, federal prisons operated at 134 percent of their highest capacity. Twenty-three other states also operated above their highest capacity. Among those states with overcrowded prisons were Massachusetts and Illinois, which both operated at 133 percent of their highest capacity. Nevada was on the opposite end of the spectrum, operating at 56 percent of its highest capacity.

Commentators have noted that the focus on drug crimes and the imposition of tougher sen-tences has increased the numbers of prisoners in the U.S. The International Centre for Prison Studies has concluded that the U.S. has by far the highest prison rate of any other country. China (1.5 million prisoners) and Russia (870,000) follow the U.S. About 29 percent of the seven million people who are imprisoned, on probation, or on parole were convicted of drug-related crimes.

Those who advocate a different approach to the war on drugs say that the United States has missed the mark in combating these violations. "The United States has five percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population," said Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. "We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens. We now imprison more people for drug law violations than all of western Europe, with a much larger population, incarcerates for all offenses."

Supporters of U.S. policies say that the focus on the incarceration statistics misses the point, emphasizing that the increase in criminal convictions has led to a decrease in the overall crime rate.