California Assembly OKs scaled-down prisons bill

SAN FRANCISCO Aug 31 (Reuters) - California's Assembly passed a bill on Monday that would cut prison spending to help bolster the state budget, but it falls short of the savings Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seeks and is at odds with a more aggressive prisons bill passed by state Senate.

Analysts said it is uncertain the bills can be reconciled -- or if lawmakers will press forward with cuts to prison spending by reducing the number of inmates after the arrest of a paroled sex offender last week for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl, holding her for 18 years and having two children with her.

Many lawmakers who had backed the early release of prisoners to shave costs may now retreat from the idea because of the kidnapping case that is garnering international headlines, said Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, which tracks state elections.

"It brings the crime issue front and center," Quinn said. "It's even forced Michael Jackson off the front page."

The Assembly passed its bill on a 41-35 vote. It would reduce prison spending by about $1 billion but scraps a number of the Senate bill's most controversial parts, including the early release of older prisoners.

Schwarzenegger had counted on $1.2 billion in savings on prison spending for the budget he signed last month after reaching a deal with the Democrat-led legislature to close a shortfall of more than $24 billion.

To achieve the savings, California would cut its prison population by 27,000 amid demands by federal judges that the state ease overcrowding in its corrections system by reducing it population by 40,000. California has about 170,000 inmates.

POLITICS OF RELEASING PRISONERS

A major riot earlier this month at a state prison gave momentum to a Schwarzenegger-backed bill aiming to reduce inmate numbers. It narrowly passed the state Senate twelve days later.

The Senate bill would allow for house arrest for frail and elderly inmates and those with less than a year left on their prison terms. Sentences for some crimes would also be reduced, allowing convicts to serve time in county jails. Undocumented immigrants in jail would be handed to the U.S. government.

Additionally, the Senate bill created a commission to rewrite the state's sentencing laws.

Democratic senators backed the bill, calling it a historic opportunity to overhaul a costly prison system -- especially a month after they slashed school and social services spending.

Republican senators voted against the bill, saying it would invite an increase in crime, a message that resonated with many Assembly Democrats seeking reelection or higher office.

Democratic Assemblyman Ted Lieu said that only serious offenders are in state prison and that the Senate bill failed to address California's 70 percent recidivism rate among released inmates. "To me early release is not reform," Lieu said.

Schwarzenegger responded to Assembly critics last week by charging the chamber lacked "guts" to follow the Senate. Then police near San Francisco found a girl abducted at age 11 in 1991. She was living with a paroled rapist who had fathered two children with her.

The 58-year-old man on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping for sexual purposes, while police searched his home for evidence related to unsolved murders.

Republican state Sen. Tom Harman said the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping case underscores the danger in releasing prisoners, even low-risk ones, early to cuts costs. Other spending should be cut to balance the state's books, he added.

"The individual that is accused of kidnapping her is a parolee," Harman said by telephone. "Here's an individual who was under extremely high surveillance and still went undetected over several years ... Now thousands of prisoners under low surveillance could be released."

The Dugard case doomed the Senate bill in the Assembly, said Quinn:"It's so bizarre and so horrific ... It couldn't have happened for the Senate Democrats at a worse time."