Pressuring Ahnold on Prisons

It's well-known that Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata wasn't particularly happy with the sellout prison construction bill that the Governor signed last week. It's also well-known that none of the "reforms" in that prison bill will do anything to lower the prison overcrowding rate before the fast-approaching deadline for the state to appear before a judge and prove that the situation has changed. So Perata is using some old-fashioned arm-twisting to get some real reforms in the corrections system.

The Senate Democratic leader is urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to use his administrative power to change parole rules to ease severe prison crowding, possibly by as many as 8,100 inmates.

Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata, D-Oakland, said Republican opposition kept parole reform out of a $7.8 billion plan to ease overcrowding through a building program and transferring some prisoners to other states.

Perata said speculation at the Capitol that the bill signed by the Republican governor last week includes an unwritten “side deal” to have Schwarzenegger bypass the Legislature and administratively enact parole changes is inaccurate.

“I wouldn't call it a deal,” Perata said of talks with the governor. “What we said is we couldn't put it in the bill because the Republicans wouldn't support it.

“We said further that if you don't do something with parole, you can't make any of this work,” said Perata. “So you've got the ability to do it. It's up to you to do it.”

Of course, I'd rather they tried to put this in the bill, dared the Republicans to block it, and then run on the consequences. But clearly, Perata is trying to leverage the judicial deadline (which is the only reason anything got done on a prison bill in the first place) to bring about a saner policy. I don't like that the Democratic leadership appeared to cave on this policy and gave the Governor most of what he wanted; I personally think that, without real reform, they'll have to do the same damn thing five years from now. But at least Perata is trying to use the deadline to his advantage, after it was used to his detriment previously.

Perhaps Perata could get Mike Jimenez of the CCPOA, who's disinclined to the Governor's plan, to join him in calling for parole reform. And he should go further and introduce Sen. Romero's legislation for an independent sentencing commission. But this is making the best of a bad situation.