Parole in California: It's a crime

CALIFORNIA'S prison system is reeling. The corrections chief and his acting replacement have both quit in the last two months. But a major cause of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's growing dysfunctionality has nothing to do with how it runs its prisons and administers parole. Rather, it's the state's laws that determine the lengths of prison terms and inmate-release policies. Only the Legislature can fix that problem.

Many say the system doesn't work because California puts too many people in prison, especially nonviolent offenders. The facts state otherwise. On any given day, 456 out of every 100,000 people are behind bars in California, compared with an average of 432 per 100,000 for the nation generally.

This ratio is not disproportionately high, given the state's crime rate. The chance that a person who is arrested for a serious crime will end up in prison is about 5%, close to the national average. And the special consequences of our three-strikes law -- a sentence of 25 years to life for a third conviction -- notwithstanding, prison terms in California are no longer, on average, than those imposed in other states for similar crimes.

Nor do nonviolent drug offenders account for recent increases in the state's inmate population. A snapshot view of our prisons shows that the proportion of prisoners serving time for possessing and selling drugs is lower than it was in the 1990s. Two-thirds of the overall growth in the prison population since 1994 stems from such violent crimes as robbery, assault and homicide. Drug crimes account for only 10% of the increase.

And California's spending on prisons -- about $7 billion annually, or 8% of the general fund -- is not disproportionately higher than that of other states.

So what's the real crisis?

It's this: More parolees return to prison in California than in any other state.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released data last week showing that recidivism rates declined last year. But the figures were only for prisoners released the first time. When all parolees are considered, the picture is much bleaker. Of the approximately 115,000 inmates annually released, about 70% of them are back behind bars within 24 months -- nearly twice the national average. Worse yet, about 10% of these prisoners will repeatedly return -- six or more times over a seven-year period, according to one study. No other state reports such a high inmate-churn rate.