“With crime up, Californians have a right to ask why the savings from prison realignment haven’t materialized and why an expected $100 million to $200 million in Proposition 47 savings has been budgeted by Gov. Jerry Brown at less than $30 million.”
“California has been down this road before. In the 1970s, the state closed mental hospitals on the promise of huge savings, much of which were to be spent on community-based clinical care. But state budgets almost magically soaked up the savings elsewhere, and with little clinic space available, thousands of former patients gravitated to the streets, the jails and the morgues. Some are the very same people who are now cycling in and out of jail and are about to be cheated out of treatment all over again.”
Source: LA Times Editorial Board (January 14, 2016)
Also of note…according to the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) of California, they don’t anticipate awarding grants until the spring of 2017. That is TWO AND 1/2 YEARS after Prop 47 was put into affect. And exactly what is happening to our communities in the mean time?
