State’s Prisons Declare a Crisis

The state prison system has declared a state of emergency and begun triple-bunking prisoners in two-person cells in response to an increase in the number of inmates, which is approaching historical highs.

In a memo obtained by The Times, the Department of Corrections says 1,200 unexpected inmates, most of them destined for maximum-security facilities, are streaming in from financially strapped counties that can no longer accommodate them in their jails.

The emergency declaration took effect April 1 but was never made public. It sparked angry criticism from lawmakers who learned about it only Monday and highlighted concerns about continued cost overruns at the department.

As a result of the declaration, the department is enacting emergency overcrowding measures in five facilities, a move likely to drive up overtime for prison guards as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to dramatically cut back on those costs.

“The counties are moving inmates into prison more quickly than they generally would because they have no room,” said Margot Bach, a department spokeswoman. She said the department has yet to determine how much the extra overtime will cost. Officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said an increase in arrests is also contributing to the overcrowding.

California has the largest state prison system in the nation. The department memo, signed by Chief Deputy Director Richard A. Rimmer, said “spring projections indicating a decrease in population” have not materialized.

As of April 14, there were 162,456 inmates in the state prison system, an increase of 2,592 over the same time last year. With the influx from the counties, Rimmer said the prison population “is approaching historical highs.”

The unusual declaration said “these precautionary measures are deemed necessary in order to accommodate the receipt of county jail inmates and to preserve the safety and the security of staff, inmates and the department.”

J.P. Tremblay, a corrections department spokesman, said the declaration was necessary to suspend rules that require the state to give inmates three days notice that they are going be moved. “This allows us to move them right away,” he said.

When there is an unexpectedly large influx of inmates, declaring an emergency helps the department cope with it, he said. Using Los Angeles County as an example, he said, “they are going from sending us five or six buses a week, up to 10 buses.”

The department has declared such an emergency five times in the last eight years, he said, although legislative staffers said they could never recall such action.

The news comes as the Schwarzenegger administration is working on a plan to cut $400 million from the corrections department as part of the administration’s proposal for closing the state’s projected $14-billion budget gap in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Officials at the Department of Finance are in the process of trying to determine the cost of the emergency measures and what effect they will have on the revised budget the governor presents in mid-May, according to spokesman H.D. Palmer.

Cost overruns that are largely the result of pay hikes, overtime and other benefits granted to prison guards have already resulted in the prison system being $544.8 million in the red for the current fiscal year.

Lawmakers, who have accused the department of gross fiscal mismanagement, reacted angrily upon learning of the latest news from the beleaguered department.

“This is exactly the kind of thing we are concerned about,” said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). “Emergency declarations without notifying the Legislature? This is not good.”

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who has been co-chairing oversight hearings on the state prison system, said she plans to hold an emergency hearing on the order next week “to get testimony on what is going on and tell corrections officials, ‘You have to be open with us.’ ”

Bach said state law does not require the department to inform lawmakers about the order to triple-bunk low security prisoners at Avenal State Prison, Chuckawalla Valley State Prison and California State Prison, Solano and to make other changes at Folsom State Prison and Pleasant Valley State Prison. She said even though the move could involve the state having to pay increased overtime costs for prison guards, it will not result in the department needing more money in its budget.

Steinberg was skeptical of the claim.

“I have a difficult time understanding how 1,200 additional inmates will not put pressure on the budget,” he said. “This begs a lot of questions. If their projections were wrong, why were they wrong? I don’t think there have been major changes in our sentencing laws in the last six months.”

According to Bach, the move was made to alleviate pressure on county jails. Facing budget cuts of their own, she said, they need to move inmates through the system and into state prisons as quickly as possible.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said county budget cuts have resulted in 5,000 fewer beds in his jails.

“The reality is we just don’t have the jail space for the increasing numbers of state prisoners,” he said.

Baca and other county officials were unaware of the state order.

Chief Chuck Jackson, who oversees the Los Angeles County jails, said the increase has nothing to do with budget problems, but with the fact that arrests are up about 10% in Los Angeles County.

“This is not something where the L.A. County Sheriff is trying to dump out prisoners,” Jackson said. “We’re only moving the inmates who have been convicted. They’re sentenced to state prison. They are supposed to go there.”

Over the last year, the county has released thousands of low-level offenders to save money. But inmates headed for state prison are felons convicted of more serious crimes, or parole violators.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are skeptical of the corrections department’s reasoning. Romero pointed out the order was drafted around the same time the governor’s staff was working on his revised budget proposal.

She questions whether it is part of a ploy to avoid budget cuts: “I am just suspicious of the timing,” Romero said.

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Sue Fox, Dan Morain and Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.