By: JULIET WILLIAMS
Associated Press
09/11/09 7:55 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The state Senate on Friday approved nearly $1 billion in cuts to California’s prison system, resolving a key piece of the budget-balancing plan lawmakers struck earlier this summer.

The amount is less than lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had intended to cut but represented a compromise between a more ambitious bill passed previously by the Senate and a watered-down version approved by the Assembly.

The 21-15 vote sends the legislation to the governor. Rachel Cameron, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor will sign it.

“While we are disappointed the legislation fell short on budgetary savings, the centerpiece of this legislation is the parole reform that protects public safety, avoids early release and saves the state nearly $1 billion,” she said.

The spending cuts will reduce the prison population by about 16,000 inmates through a variety of steps. Among them is a change in parole supervision that will focus on only the most violent offenders, giving parole agents fewer cases but concentrating their efforts on the most dangerous ones. Nonviolent parolees who are considered a lower risk will no longer be subject to having their parole revoked and being sent back to prison.

It also expands the availability of credits for inmates participating in rehabilitation programs and changes some property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The version passed by the Senate would have reduced the inmate population by 27,000.

“At least it’s a start in the right direction to get this reform … (and) keep our budget under control,” said Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego.

The vote was a holdover from the grueling negotiations earlier this summer to revise California’s budget and close a $26 billion deficit. The deal struck in July relied on cutting $1.2 billion from the corrections department but did not say how those cuts would be made.

In August, the Senate passed spending cuts that paralleled a plan promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It called for reducing the prison population by 27,000 inmates through early releases, lowering some property crimes to misdemeanors and easing parole conditions.

It then failed to get enough support in the Assembly, which instead passed the version that returned to the Senate on Friday. It will lead to the release or diversion from state prison of 16,000 inmates.

Because the amount of the prison cuts was less than lawmakers had agreed to in July, more than $200 million will have to taken from elsewhere in the state budget.

At the time, Schwarzenegger criticized the Assembly, saying its lawmakers lacked the guts to approve a comprehensive plan for reducing prison costs.

Republicans remain opposed to any plan that would allow inmates to get out of prison before they have served their full sentences. Part of the plan passed in the Senate drew particular criticism: It would have granted early release to certain inmates with less than 12 months to serve, who are over age 60 or who are medically incapacitated.

That provision was stripped from the final version, but GOP lawmakers and some Democrats said the bill sent to the governor would still endanger public safety.

Sen. George Runner, R-Antelope Valley, said the legislation changes the rules that allow inmates to get early release credits for completing educational or rehabilitation programs. He said they could now get those credits “simply for showing up” and said it would lead to sentences being reduced by half for about 40 percent of current inmates.

“We are just asking for trouble,” said Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach.

Schwarzenegger has said the corrections department would not consider sex offenders or violent convicts for early release.

The final bill also omitted another provision sought by Democrats and agreed to by Schwarzenegger, one that would have created a commission to establish sentencing guidelines. Tough sentencing laws such as Three Strikes have been blamed for the overcrowding in California’s prisons.

Such a commission has been sought for years by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles. She reluctantly voted for the bill but criticized the removal of the sentencing commission.

“What’s not in the bill is a resolution and a solution to this urgent crisis,” she said, referring to overcrowding in California’s 33 adult prisons, which has led to a series of lawsuits on behalf of inmates.

Complicating the debate over whether to release inmates early to save on prison costs is a federal court ruling ordering California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 over the next two years. The courts have found that overcrowding is the main reason for substandard health and mental health care.

The plan proposed by Schwarzenegger — and approved by the Senate — would have reduced the inmate population by 37,000 inmates over two years. While Schwarzenegger has supported the plans to cut the corrections budget, his administration has filed a notice with the U.S. Supreme Court indicating it will appeal the federal courts’ early release order.