SACRAMENTO — Already under attack by Democrats, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is now taking fire from a traditional ally of his Republican Party, a victims' rights group that says the governor is endangering the public with his parole and prison reforms.
In a television advertisement unveiled last week, the leader of Crime Victims United of California said the governor "let us down" after promising to "stand with victims."
"We didn't want it to come to this," Harriet Salarno, the organization's founder, said in an interview, "but the governor said victims would be his first priority, and now we're being ignored.... We've got parolees running around all over committing crimes."
Salarno believes that Schwarzenegger is moving too hastily in refocusing the prison system on rehabilitation.
Despite the criticism, the governor's reorganization of the state's corrections bureaucracy -- which he calls a first step toward cleaning up the deeply troubled prison system -- is winning support in the Legislature.
Under a deal expected to be concluded next week, lawmakers would allow Schwarzenegger's plan for a new Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to take effect in May, with one exception. The governor had proposed merging the youth prison system with the adult offenders system, but critics -- including a state watchdog agency -- said juveniles' needs might be overlooked. The compromise would keep the California Youth Authority as a distinct division. Separate adult and youth parole boards would be maintained.
Democrats in the Senate and Assembly said Thursday they were ready to sign off on the deal.
"It's far from perfect, and a reorganization of the boxes won't stop the scandals," said state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who helped negotiate it. "But I give this governor credit for having the internal fortitude to deal with prison reform."
Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) said GOP members like the overall course Schwarzenegger is steering for corrections but need time to examine details of the compromise.
As that element of the governor's prison overhaul moved forward, another piece -- how the state handles ex-convicts who violate their parole -- continued to draw complaints.
Following the lead of other states, administration officials last spring began imposing different sanctions on parolees who violated terms of their release. In the past, almost any violation would have caused them to be sent back to prison for several months -- an expensive move that did little to prevent future criminal behavior.
