Ca. Prisons and there cost

[Mr. Fantastic]

Actually, the way to keep cost down would be to privatize the entire system. This would erode the power of unions (which are bilking the state of millions of dollars a year).

Also it would help if the "oversight" committee was full of blind old white guys who didn't care about how prisoners were treated or housed. We'd have enough money in the state budget left over to school and house 500,000 illegals for years to come.

[Think About It!]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

For some sex offenders, the sexually violent predators committed to state hospitals after serving their prison sentences, the cost is right around $170,000 per year.

<----- that's the perfect smiley face thing for this. That is out of control. I'm still mind boggled by the amount. How is it so much?

Our society is pretty stupid. Why are we paying $170,000 to keep a psycho locked up? It should cost no where near that. I don't want the violent sexual predator out amongst my family or anyone elses family but whatever they get for $170,000 is too much because they deserve less, way less.

[Think About It!]

Originally Posted by Inthesierras

Yards are also having lockdowns 2-3 times per week. Some daytime staff are being redirected to open positions in other areas of the prisons on those days. That is cutting down on overtime. The last time the state did that inmates rights groups filed lawsuits and it was stopped right away.

For the original poster, inmates in CA prisons do not get internet access. The few inmates that use computers are clerks and the computers they input information into are not internet accessible. Inmates get about 5-6 tv channels. Its a cable package that replaces programming brought in by antena. Believe it or not, the tv is a huge thing to inmates. They behave in order to keep that priviledge. I am not sure which luxeries you are referring to, is there something specific? My husband has been a CO for 12 years and waste is something he see's all the time.

Most prisons are heavy on upper management. Why does it take 10 associate wardens to run a prison? Aren't the captians and lt's able to do that? Cutting out those huge salaries would save money. Reducing visiting to just weekends would work too. Having visiting on holidays requires overtime to staff the visiting room and processing visitors. The overnight visits should also be cut. Why are taxpayers paying for that?

I put in bold the thing that irritates me the most. I hate lawyers. They are scum for the most part. What rights do inmates have? That's me being sarcastic because they shouldn't have near as much power and influence as they do. They are criminals not a person of integrity or nobility. They chose to ruin someone elses life so why can't theirs be ruined for their usually way to short stint in prison?

Thanks for clearing up what inmates actually get as far as computers and television.

I think all of our government is heavy on upper management and that is why we are going broke. I can see that across the board for the most part. All of the police departments, fire departments and other city departments are the same. They all have "too many chiefs and not enough Indians." (I'm sorry if that quote affects anyone negatively)

I think cutting down the visitation hours/days are a great idea also to save cost. We allow overnight visits? That's just absurd. It seems the more I know the more upset I get. Thank you again for your post.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Think About It!

<----- that's the perfect smiley face thing for this. That is out of control. I'm still mind boggled by the amount. How is it so much?

Our society is pretty stupid. Why are we paying $170,000 to keep a psycho locked up? It should cost no where near that. I don't want the violent sexual predator out amongst my family or anyone elses family but whatever they get for $170,000 is too much because they deserve less, way less.

It's that expensive because in order to meet the Constitutional requirements for keeping them in a secured setting past their prison sentences there has to be a treatment component. That means there have to be doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, psychiatric technicians, not to mentionm hospital police to keep them where they belong as well as the administration for a 1,500 bed accute psychiatric hospital. The full platter is to take care of their medical, psychiatric and psychological treatment needs, psychotropic medications, et al.

The kicker is, the majority of them refuse treatment because to acept treatment would be to acknowledger that they're an SVP with a mental disorder. But all that staffing has to be in place to meet the hospital licensing requirements.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Clarks

California total state and county tax burden 10.3 % of income on average
Texas total state and county tax burden 9.30 % of income.

A one percent difference.

Wrong. As of 2008, California's is 10.5%.

The Tax Foundation - State and Local Tax Burdens: All Years, One State, 1977-2008

Texas' is 8.4%.

The Tax Foundation - Texas' State and Local Tax Burden, 1977-2008


And Texas' budget problems aren't nearly as bad as California's, either.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Inthesierras

CA has the most violent street gangs and assults on officers are about 33 per day state wide. You never hear about that, but you sure hear about the inmates only getting one blanket and crappy pillows in their cells. CA officers are well trained compared to other states. High level inmates rarely escape. When was the last time CA had a Texas 7 incident? If that happened in CA, you can only imagine the outcry. In my opinion, my husband works a tough job for decent paycheck. Are there overpaid people working for CDCR? You bet there are. Is the union on the up and up, doubt it. But the average employee goes to work and does their job. No one wants those people out and ruining more lives. Someone has to be there to make that happen.

The prisons are currently closing down entire yards. Once an inmate is paroled or moved to another location, that bed is counted as gone. That is one way to reduce over crowding, just don't fill the beds and leave the inmates in county for a longer period of time. That will cost the counties more, so really is any money being saved? Its still coming from the tax payers, its just going somewhere else.

Yards are also having lockdowns 2-3 times per week. Some daytime staff are being redirected to open positions in other areas of the prisons on those days. That is cutting down on overtime. The last time the state did that inmates rights groups filed lawsuits and it was stopped right away.

For the original poster, inmates in CA prisons do not get internet access. The few inmates that use computers are clerks and the computers they input information into are not internet accessible. Inmates get about 5-6 tv channels. Its a cable package that replaces programming brought in by antena. Believe it or not, the tv is a huge thing to inmates. They behave in order to keep that priviledge. I am not sure which luxeries you are referring to, is there something specific? My husband has been a CO for 12 years and waste is something he see's all the time.

Most prisons are heavy on upper management. Why does it take 10 associate wardens to run a prison? Aren't the captians and lt's able to do that? Cutting out those huge salaries would save money. Reducing visiting to just weekends would work too. Having visiting on holidays requires overtime to staff the visiting room and processing visitors. The overnight visits should also be cut. Why are taxpayers paying for that?

I worked in a prison in the mid 1990s and what Inthesierras says is accurate. The idea that inmates are living great lives in prison is a joke.

I'm not sure if the prisons are too heavy with upper management. It wouldn't surprise me, but I can't say it's a fact.

I do know, however, that prison guard salaries and benefits are way over generous. I know it's a crappy job, but it's a crappy job in other states, too, and they don't get the insane pay/benefits packets that prison guards get in CA.

This is an older article, but I doubt things have changed all that much.

Prison guards lock up bundle in OT pay | The San Diego Union-Tribune

[Inthesierras]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

I worked in a prison in the mid 1990s and what Inthesierras says is accurate. The idea that inmates are living great lives in prison is a joke.

I'm not sure if the prisons are too heavy with upper management. It wouldn't surprise me, but I can't say it's a fact.

I do know, however, that prison guard salaries and benefits are way over generous. I know it's a crappy job, but it's a crappy job in other states, too, and they don't get the insane pay/benefits packets that prison guards get in CA.

This is an older article, but I doubt things have changed all that much.

Prison guards lock up bundle in OT pay | The San Diego Union-Tribune

That article was from 2006. During that time frame, the gov had shut down the academy. So no new officers were coming into any prisons for more then a year. This was really hard on the rural prisons, alot of people transfer out after a few years. The prisons were already short staffed because of new building statewide. When you ad staff turn over, retirements, transfers, and injured officers, the job vacancies were incredible. A 24-7 institution has to legally staff a certian number of positions at any given time. That meant forced overtime 3-4 times per week. My husband was being held 3-4 times per week for about 6 months. You could refuse to stay and they would dock your pay 10% for a year. The second time you refuse, they fire you. That summer and fall we bascially never saw him. He would work 16 hours, come home, shower, eat, and sleep about 5 hours before going back to work another 16 hours. He was working 16,16,8,16,16 and then had his weekend which he slept most of the time. He made more money that year then he ever did before or since. After 2006, my hubby hates over time. He wants to do his 8 and hit the gate.

Once the academies opened again, the overtime went way down. So the number of officers making that kind of money is not like it was before. There are also transportation and officers out on fires. They make quite a bit of money on overtime. When the buses from LA travel up to the Bay, that is an all day drive. They makes stops in between to pick up more inmates and drop others off, your talking 16 hours easy. They sleep, then turn around and make the same trip back down. The officers that staff the fire camps get called out to the fires state wide. That creates over time too. The inmate fire fighters are a huge reason why forest fires get put out as fast as they do. There are thousands of inmate fire fighters and they can be anywhere in the state in less then a day to assist.

There are always over time hogs, they take OT as much as they can. If they are willing to not have a life outside the gates, more power to them. Right now there is not much overtime. With the closing of tiers and certian jobs being axed, its much harder for anyone to get overtime. With the furloughs, I really doubt many CO's are making big money this year.

[DMenscha]

Originally Posted by Inthesierras

T The officers that staff the fire camps get called out to the fires state wide. That creates over time too. The inmate fire fighters are a huge reason why forest fires get put out as fast as they do. There are thousands of inmate fire fighters and they can be anywhere in the state in less then a day to assist.

Usually CDC officers do not have to respond to fires with the CalFire supervisors, having said that, there are the larger fire incidents where CDC officers do have their place in the incident command system. The firefighting resources get paid from firefighting funds and are not part of the obligation of the general fund as far as I know.

A long time ago (A REAL long time ago) I supervised (not CDC) an inmate crew for what is now known as CALFire, I wouldn't trade those folks for any other group of firefighters in the world, pound for pound. They rock!

[esmith143]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Wrong. As of 2008, California's is 10.5%.

The Tax Foundation - State and Local Tax Burdens: All Years, One State, 1977-2008

Texas' is 8.4%.

The Tax Foundation - Texas' State and Local Tax Burden, 1977-2008


And Texas' budget problems aren't nearly as bad as California's, either.

The 2% difference is probably due to the fact that California Medicaid (which is partially state-funded) has relatively lax requirements, and Texas is infamous for having the largest percentage of people without health insurance in the country, somewhere around 25%.

[Huckleberry3911948]

when you factor in the court costs and arrest procedures. its alot.
jail is not working for most of us.
bagdad has a must more efficient system. and the prison population is far less.