California prison reforms have reduced inmate numbers, not costs
Reuters quotes CJCJ’s Executive Director, Daniel Macallair, on why the costs of incarceration are increasing in California, despite the declining prison population.
“Some saw the move to standardized staffing as a thinly disguised way to protect the jobs of unionized prison guards, who otherwise might have opposed the reforms.
‘If they got that, they wouldn’t mount a campaign of opposition,’ said Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. ‘It’s what allowed Brown to move ahead with realignment.’
But those who were at the table during the discussions, including current and former department officials and the guards’ union, all insist that appeasing prison workers was not the reason for the shift away from the old, ratio-driven staffing model.”