Governor Newsom Slashing Prison Population to Desperately Save Cash
California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed 2024-25 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget to continue the slashing daily prison population that has crashed from 157,000 a decade ago to 93,400 this year, and 74,000 in 5 years.
As of January 17, 2024, the State of California currently operated 32 prisons and 34 conservation camps, housing 89,100 men, 4,200 women, and 600 nonbinary people. The department also supervises and treats about 35,300 adults on parole and is responsible for the apprehension of those who commit parole violations.
With Newsom facing at least a $73 billion State of California deficit next fiscal year beginning July 1, and at least $30 billion deficits for each of the next four years, the governor is scrambling to maintain his liberal agenda spending on illegal-aliens by slashing essential basic public safety spending on legal California resident services.
Newsom is battling to maintain his liberal agenda because Democratic Party super-delegates have the power to substitute another Presidential nominee for the unpopular and mentally challenged Joe Biden before the August 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. If Newsom is “drafted” as the Party nominee, he can shift blame to his successor for the existential financial crisis he created in California.
Housing each 100,000 prison inmates, costs California about $16 billion a year according to a new report by the non-partisan By slashing the state prison population of convicted felons by 84,000, from 157,000 to 73,000, Newson can honestly claim he reduced the annual California state budget deficit by about $13.44 billion.
The governor’s budget proposes reductions in prison inmates and rehabilitation funding by deactivating a prison in March 2025, increasing the 2024-2025 number of empty prison beds from 15,000 this year to 19,000 in 2028, then deactivating another five state prisons. The move would drastically increase costs for the state’s 58 counties that operate local jails, who would have to pay for housing or releasing violent inmates.
The Legislative Analyst office is recommending that the California Legislature reject Newsom’s California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget plan, because there is no funding to mitigate releasing tens of thousands more dangerous convicted felons into the general state population.
