Calif Budget

Calif Budget – It’s finally done! Well sort of anyway. As a prisoner in a California state prison the yearly state budget “crisis” is of some importance, this year the prisons took a direct hit, $1.3 billion and the supposed release of 20,000 – 27,000 low level non-violent offenders – early. Too bad it’s just another illusion. Here’s how it will play out. 20,000 men and women prisoners will be released early. That will save about $1 billion. However; very shortly after getting rid of those prisoners (about 70% of which will be returned doe to parole violations) the various county jails will begin sending the convicted Felons, they have been holding, to the state prison receptions centers. The reception centers, in turn, will send inmates to other state prisons that now have room (due to the aprox 20,000 just released prisoners) – Thus in reality no money will be saved, except for the short time it takes the county jails to dump their felons on the state. It’s all an illusion. The only way to cut costs is to cut the amount of time a person spends in state prison. The easiest way is to cut sentence time from 85% to 50%. Other ways involve going in and changing the actual sentencing guidelines. The state of California is so far from any reasonable sentencing. I know a man who is doing 575 years – ya, that’s his actual sentence. That’s crazy! Come on, the state needs to be much more realistic in how its men and women are sentenced. This state needs leadership not petty politics. But that’s what we got. Politicians who get elected by selling the fear. Not all politicians do this but most stir up the electorate with tails of gangs running wild and a child molester behind every bush. They just sell the fear. That then translates into real laws that end up giving a person 575 years in prison. Train the prisoners in technical areas that will enable them to find meaningful employment upon release. What areas I’m talking about are – Green jobs – wind, solar, geo – thermal. Also Power lines and transmition grid education. Allow inmates to have computers so they are familiar with how to operate them. I know a few men in here who have been down over 30 years and have never operated a computer. How are they going to integrate into society? There also needs to be a real reform with the parole system. As I wrote before about 70% of all the early releases will be back in state prison within 3 years. Most will be back not because they committed a crime; no, most will be back for some violations of parole. Here are just a few examples of some common parole conditions. The violation of which will land a parolee back in state prison. The vast majority of parole officers have a “0” (zero) tolerance policy. Some examples are: 1) Any contact with law enforcement (this could be as simple as calling them and having them come over if your house gets burglarized) 2) Having any knife over 2” in length – you can have the knife in the kitchen if it is over 2” but not on the coffee table or garage etc. .. 3) Leaving the country you are paroled to. 4) Missing an appointment with a psychologist. 5) Not getting a job. 6) Not having a place to live. (this means a legal residence – such as a house or apt) 7) Moving from your legal residence and not telling the parole officer, And the list goes on… So how is a convicted felon with $200.00 gate money and no rehabilitative training supposed to get a job – in this economy – and get a place to live - $200 won’t cover 1st & last month’s rent. So as I said it’s just a political budgetary illusion. The early release of un-prepared men and women from the various state prisons will do nothing to save money. The whole thing shows a complete lack of leadership from the elected officials who when running for office say that they are going to “clean things up” and “stop the grid-lock”. I call on the elected “Leaders” of the state of California to do right by all the citizens of this wonderful state and stop the one time gimmicks – like the early release of 20,000 to 27,000 inmates who are sure to be back because the prison system is not doing anything to train or prepare these people for the world beyond the walls. Over the last several months I’ve written my blogs and I talk all the time about education and training. It must seem like I’m a broken record. Well maybe this is what it will take for the taxpayers in the state of California to wake up and realize – you are not getting any return on you considerable yearly investment. With a 70% return rate my god why aren’t the tax payers marching on Sacramento. Things can be done much better; all it takes it’s the will to change. With Respect, VERITAS

Prison Health Care

Prisons- This blog is going to cover some things I wrote about last time---the RAND Corp. report on prison parolees. Also, I’m going to comment on the ongoing three judge panel and the pending federal takeover of the California State Prisons. First, the Rand Corp report. I was reading the Oakland Tribune on 6-30-09, in the Op-Ed section was a letter to the editor by Keith Barton of Oakland. He was commenting on the problems that parolees face with regard to health care when they are out there. His idea is to bring community based care directly into the jails. That would increase the likelihood of former inmates to keep follow-up appointments upon release. That is a great idea for the County Jails, but what about the State prisons? With high rates of Hep-C and TB the average parolee needs medical care urgently upon release. And it falls to the tax payers to pick up the tab. So it makes sense to have as much preventative medicine inside the prison walls as possible. That way there are less parolees who will need urgent medical care in higher cost settings. Let’s face it, the state has done as little as possible with regard to the health care (physical and mental) of prisoners. And that is missing an opportunity to treat serious medical and mental health conditions in a controlled setting and at a fixed cost. If done correctly the health care costs should be lower per capita of similar groups treated in non-controlled settings by various private, county and state health care providers. Yet, the State of California thinks it’s cheaper to not treat prisoners in prison and release them to get more expensive care outside. Paid for by the same people—The California Tax Payer. It is as I wrote last time, the whole prison system is an illusion. I say it is an illusion because as with not rehabilitating (Education and job training) prisoners. The State, by not providing proper health care simply shifts the cost burden from the Dept. of Corrections and (HaHa) Rehabilitation to the City, County and Federal health care budgets. So it’s still the tax payer who is on the hook. Just it now costs more. For example, a prisoner has Hepatitis C and the prison Health Care knows about it but does nothing to treat it. It is still in the prisoners system when he or she paroles. Now, you have added the cost of treating the Hep-C in a community setting and the danger of new transmission. The whole disease could have been reduced if it was correctly treated by prison medical staff. But this is not happening. So the cost just gets shifted to the city or county health program but the net result is it’s the tax payer who pays. The point is—it is easier to treat a prisoner in prison then it is after they are paroled. The danger of new transmission will be less and costs can be managed more effectively. However, that’s why the federal courts have and to come in to the State of California Dept. of Corrections and …take over health care, mental health care and treatment of disabled prisoners (Blind, wheelchair bound, hearing impaired…) The Dept. just did not want to treat anyone who was behind the walls. After ten years of wrangling, the state is now saying, “sorry, but we’re broke so we can’t do any improvements to health care, etc…” The only recourse the three judge panel has is to reduce the prison population. So into the perfect storm comes the uneducated untrained, un-medically treated parolees. What choice has the state left to the judges? The State and the Dept. of Corrections have fought each and every attempt to correct problems with the various prison medical and mental health systems. I have watched men die due to lack of medical care. I just watched a man go deaf in one ear due to a simple infection in a back tooth that went untreated. The panel has no other recourse but to cut inmate time and do a slow but accelerated inmate release; and a complete shutdown of the parole system except for sex offenders and active gang members. This is, in my view the only fix available to the panel in times with limited money in the state treasury and an unwillingness by state officials to make the needed changes. The three judge panel needs to act sooner rather than later. I’m just sick of watching men suffer both mentally and physically for now reason other than the state and the Dept. of Corrections complete indifference to the medical and mental health needs of prisoners in their care. I hope my message is filtering out. Please remember the failure of the State of California prison system to care for and rehabilitate the men and women on the whole of society. What happens in these walls will also happen outside these walls. Please push for reform and a quick end to the prison health care problem. With Respect, Veritas

Education for Prisoners

I came across an interesting article in the Oakland paper. On 6-11-09, in an article by Josh Richman, he cites a RAND corp study that tracked parolees and what kinds of services they get when they are paroled. The RAND report (which was done for the California Dept. of Corrections and (HaHa) Rehabilitation) found: Approx. 2/3ds of California inmates reported having a drug abuse or drug dependence problem, yet only 22 % reported that they received any treatment while in prison. Also, about 50% reported having a mental health problem, yet only about half of them received any care while in prison. To add to all this, our esteemed leader Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to cut all in prison substance abuse treatment. No amount of projected savings was mentioned but I really don’t think it will be a drop toward filling the $24 Billion sink hole this state is in, with regard to its budget. It’s bad in here already. I’ve watched men parole from prison just to come right back. Revolving door is true: Because there is absolutely NO effort to help any prisoner not to come back. The whole system is a JOKE. Unfortunately, the Joke is on the California Tax Payer. YOU—the tax payer are getting no return on your investment when it comes to state prisons. Don’t we all want men and women not to commit more crimes when they get out of state prison? Of course we all want that so why isn’t it? It’s because the prison system is not designed to help our fellow citizens: It’s designed to ensure they keep coming back. Think about that. The state of California is willing to parole completely unprepared men and women knowing full well that about 70% will return to prison. The state is knowingly putting you, the reader, and your friends and your family at risk because they, the state and prison system, fail to even attempt to rehabilitate a captive group of people who want nothing more than to never come back to prison. I’ve read about various European prison systems and the crime rates and how those countries deal with their prisoners. The differences are stark. Which I put a lot of thought into why our prisons cannot achieve the levels of success that the other western democracies achieve. I think we, as Americans, are not being educated at the same level as the other countries are. We are allowing a government to educate our youth and when the government does a crappy job, as too often happens in poor and minority neighborhoods, the kids or failed adults are simply locked up in jails and prisons. The whole cycle of bad education and worse treatment in prison of course is going to produce a person who is prone to crime as a way to survive. The difference between the US and Europe is when a youth or adult is sent to prison-Generally—that person is given serious attention to whatever problems that person may have. The goal is to return a youth or person back to society that can function. The education plus job skills learned will give that person an excellent chance to rejoin society. In California I’ve not seen a serious attempt to rehabilitate a prisoner in the 12 years I’ve been in various prisons. One example: A person got his GED (high school equivalency). He was so proud. Then about a week later he came to me to help him figure out how much he had spent on the months canteen purchase—I had to add up the items for him! And he just got a GED! What’s wrong with this picture? Do you, the reader, believe that the person I just wrote about is going to succeed when he is paroled? I don’t and I like the young man, but he has very little chance of NOT coming back. All of this is a rip off on the tax payer. NO ONE is safer. It’s a great big illusion. You, the tax payer are told, “Lock ‘Em Up” and “Tough On Crime” And yeah, that’s great but now what? There are about 170,000 men in California State Prisons and about 95% are going to get out. Yes, out on the streets and just think, the majority have no marketable job skills; about 75% have drug problems. About half have a mental health problem—That’s the man or woman sitting next to you at the intersection. Do we Californians want this to keep going? I don’t. I want real education reform not just in the prisons but at the local school level. That might keep a few poor and minority men and women from ever coming to prison. What is also needed are half-way houses. Right now there is no way to slowly and under controlled conditions get a prisoner used to free society. Think about it: A man has been in prison for 20 years, that’s before cell phones, how well will his adjustment go? It will be like stepping in a time machine and going twenty years in the future. We in this state need a way to slowly introduce men and women back into society. The Federal Prison System does it-Why aren’t we? These few ideas in this blog are just the tip of a huge political and bureaucratic organization with all the turf wars, egos and agendas that make change a near impossible task. However, change has to take place simply because the cost of the California Prison System is unsustainable—currently $10 billion plus budget and the recidivism rate twice what the next state is. This clearly shows a need for improved, in prison rehabilitation programs. The Tax Payer should Demand it! Long sentences are NOT the solution. I know my suffering will never leave me, in prison or out. All that is being done is spending $40,000 a year to torture me. You don’t need to torture me I do a good enough job on myself, Please turn to education and rehabilitation. I believe they are the keys to saving the lives of millions of men and women, and, it will stop turning petty criminals into big time gangsters. Until Next Time, Peace. Veritas