Alexander: Jerry Brown is failing to deal with California’s prison crisis

Stewart A. Alexander
For California Governor
Peace and Freedom Party 2010
www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/

November 9, 2009

In 2006, while running as a candidate for California Lieutenant Governor, Stewart Alexander proposed an ambitious plan to release 50,000 California inmates to reduce the over crowded conditions in the California prison system. Now, running as a candidate for California Governor, Stewart Alexander says he is again committed to releasing 50,000 California inmates by the end of 2012.

During the month of August, a panel of three judges ordered the state to come up with a reduction plan to reduce the state’s prison population by 43,000 inmates. A more updated plan would require the state to reduce its prison population of 150,000 down to about 110,000. Removing 40,000 inmates would leave the prison system at 131 percent of the designed capacity of 84,000. Under Alexander’s plan, removing 50,000 inmates would still leave the California prison system at 119 percent capacity.

California has the most crowded and dangerous prison system in all of the 50 states. According to the opinion rendered by the three federal judges, U.S District Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton, and U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the state is accused of fostering criminogenic conditions that lead prisoners and parolees to committee more crimes, feeding a cycle of recidivism.

Evidence also revealed that the medical and mental health care in the prison system is among the worst in the nation. Over the years, billions have been spent on California prisons for incarcerations; however, state lawmakers have not made the necessary expenditures to insure the health and safety of prisoners. It is estimated that it will require more than $2 billion to provide necessary medical and mental health services that are presently needed for California inmates.

There are several elements involved in Alexander’s plan. The plan would implement a combination of early releases for prisoners serving time for minor drug offenses, changes in parole policies, and home detention for the non-violent elderly and the infirm. Alexander stated that inmates that have been convicted of sexual offences, offenses against children and violent crimes will be required to serve their sentences and will not be included in any early release programs.

As governor, Alexander would work with state legislators to develop work programs that would offer employment to all inmates involved in this state prison population reduction program. Participants would work up to four days weekly, up to 30 hours, maintaining freeway landscape, state parks and wilderness areas. Parolees would be under the supervision of the California Department of Correction (CDC).

Alexander has charged that California Attorney General Jerry Brown is part of the problem and has resisted any viable solutions to resolve California’s prison crisis. Jerry Brown stated that he would comply with the orders of the judges; however, Jerry Brown cited that the state has made significant improvements to deal with prison over crowding. Jerry Brown has also been a staunch supporter of the California Three-Strikes Law, a law that has increased the state’s prison population by more than 60,000 inmates, a majority of the offenders now serving lengthy sentences for minor drug violations.

By 1999, Joe Klass, the father of 14-year old Polly Klass who was kidnapped and raped by a violent parolee, reversed his position on the Three-Strikes Law, whereby Proposition 66 would have amended the law to apply only to violent and serious felonies.

Early into 2004, Joe Klass and the organizers for Citizens Against Violent Crime (CAVC) had the support of Jerry Brown which helped to place Proposition 66 on the November 2004 ballot. However, Jerry Brown surprised all the supporters of Proposition 66 and helped defeat this important ballot measure that would have significantly reduced over populated prisons in California.

Alexander says the most efficient means to deal with California’s over crowded prisons would require state lawmakers abolishing the Three-Strikes Law and remanding more than 30,000 non-violent offenders to their original courts for re-sentencing; however, “that will not likely occur because a majority of the state’s lawmakers are more concerned with protecting and preserving the prison industrial complex rather than dealing with this serious threat to human health and public safety.

For more information search the Web for: Stewart A. Alexander
www.stewartalexandercares.com/

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