July 13, 2011 | 3:08 PM | By

CDCR Chief: “We incarcerate too many short-term offenders”

FILED UNDER: Community, Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Matthew Cate, Prisons, Realignment, US Supreme Court

CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate recently spoke with PBS NewsHour about the recent Supreme Court ruling that California must reduce its prison population. The full video, available here, is worth a watch, but here are some key points from Cate’s remarks:

  • On his initial reaction to the Court’s order in Brown v. Plata: “Well, it’s a mixed reaction. I fundamentally agree that our prisons are overcrowded and it makes life very difficult to run an effective, efficient prison system when you have 180% of what you’re designed to have. I disagreed with some of the particulars regarding the status of our medical and mental health care. I think we’re providing pretty good care now. But the bottom line is we had to agree that we’re overcrowded and have been for some time.”
  • On the inefficiencies in the California criminal justice system: “We’re spending almost $10 billion on prisons in California and far less than that on higher education. It used the be the other way around. And what’s really changed is that we incarcerate too many short-term offenders and low-level offenders in California. One example would be last year we incarcerated 47,000 Californians for 90 days or less. Incredibly inefficient, ineffective system.”
  • On Gov. Jerry Brown’s “realignment” proposal to shift low-level offenders to the county level: “The whole point of realignment is that counties elect sheriffs to make decisions about public safety and they hire probation chiefs to supervise their own offenders. The state has taken on more and more of this responsibility. We think, and [the county sheriffs] think, that they can do a pretty good job. … I think there’s about $1.5 billion coming their way [from the state], so we’re not going to short them on the money … We’re going to do some jail construction as well. The state’s agreed to fund 90% of jail construction in California.”
  • On public safety: “Well, there’s a lot of confusion about realignment and the U.S. Supreme Court’s order and you hear the term ‘inmate release’ all the time. From our perspective … anybody who’s in prison today is going to serve their full sentence. All of these changes will be prospective. So it’s diverting tomorrow’s inmate to jail instead of prison, for example, to serve their time.”

About the author

Sara Mayeux writes about criminal justice issues at Prison Law Blog and is a graduate student at Stanford University. View all posts by Sara Mayeux →