Posted on 02/22/2005 6:45:49 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday triggered an up-or-down vote on his plan to reorganize the state's troubled $7 billion-a-year prison system, as a state senator began her own effort to rein in the Department of Correction's chronic overspending.
Schwarzenegger submitted his plan to the Legislature a day before the watchdog Little Hoover Commission votes whether to support the proposal and makes recommendations for improvements.
But legislators can now make no changes to the governor's plan, no matter the merits of the commission's critique. Under state law, the plan takes effect automatically unless a majority in either the Assembly or Senate votes to block the proposal within 60 legislative days.
Schwarzenegger called on lawmakers to "partner with me in reforming our broken prison system." If the plan is approved, he said, "California will once again establish a system that is a national model for corrections integrity, innovation and success."
The governor proposes to shift power from the Corrections Department and Youth Authority to the cabinet-level Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which would be renamed the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. That would end redundancies and ultimately bring cost savings, the administration says.
But it says the big benefit is a streamlining of responsibility that would end what have become routine budget overruns, pervasive scandals, and a "code of silence" that punishes whistle-blowers while protecting wrongdoers within the system.
Critics, including many lawmakers, say the plan merely shuffles organizational chart boxes.
One of the most vocal critics, state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Daly City, submitted seven bills Tuesday she said would force the department to control spending, trim the inmate population and cut health care costs.
The department confirmed it has overspent by $1.15 billion just in the last four fiscal years, Speier said, tracking an independent financial analysis last year by The Associated Press.
The bills require the department to use nearby hospitals and to seek discounted prescriptions to cut medical costs; to improve living conditions at women's prisons; to screen incoming inmates for drug and learning problems; to establish charter schools at every adult and youth facility; and to screen inmates and employees for illegal drugs.
The bills also would permit the department and county probation offices to use electronic monitoring devices for parolees, and require a legislative analysis of any future labor agreements with the powerful prison guards' union.
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On the Net:
Read SB616, SB617, SB618, SB619, SB620, SB621 and SB622 at www.sen.ca.gov
California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency: http://www.yaca.ca.gov
California Department of Corrections: http://www.corr.ca.gov
California Youth Authority: http://www.cya.ca.gov
Little Hoover Commission: http://www.bsa.ca.gov/lhc.html
California Correctional Peace Officers Association: http://www.ccpoanet.org/
I heard on O'Reilly last night that CA spends ONE BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR for prisoner medical services including plastic surgery and male breast augmentation??? whatever the hell that is! LOL
Californians are generous to a fault ,, with OPM.
Say a lot about liberal educations , huh?
And as California goes broke, we continue to be forced to house these criminals who shouldn't even be here in the first place.
well you'll get no argument from me...
ya know I have been preaching for years on this forum that the incarcerated illegals should all be deported. That's a third of the prison population! Just think of the savings!
I tell ya what, eliminating the waste fraud and abuse in Sacramento, deporting illegals and eliminating the state income tax and this state would balance the budget and NUMERO UNO in a couple of years!!!
Interesting poll about amnesty on
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=9415
Over 6 million people saying a big NO!
well ya know if Ahnold had used McClintock's "13 percent solution" when he got in office we would have had a balanced budget next year!!!
I caught the one gal on with O-Really.
This is what passes as a teacher these days?
We're doomed.
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