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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2009 CONTACT: Margaret Dooley-Sammuli at (213) 291-4190 or Stephen Gutwillig at (323) 542-6510 California Budget Deficit Balloons, While Prisons on Schedule to Overspend by $1.4 Billion Advocates Condemn Sacramento’s Priorities: “California’s Incarceration Spending Locks Up Our Tax Dollars” SACRAMENTO – The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office announced today that it expects the California state budget deficit to exceed $20 billion by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year, and that the state will spend $1.4 billion more on prisons than was budgeted in 2009-10. Advocates criticize the state for failing to make real cuts to prison spending, while enacting brutal cuts to important social services. “California’s prison spending is totally out of whack and it’s locking up tax dollars that now aren’t available for education and other community services like fire protection and elder care,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance in Southern California. “Other states, like New York, have reduced their crime rates and their prison populations at the same time. California should follow their lead.” The Legislature and governor approved $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in late July. On September 11, the Legislature sent a bill to the governor that would realize just $200-300 million in cuts. According to the LAO’s report, prison spending will exceed its 2009-10 budgeted level by $1.4 billion. “Sacramento said that it would cut prison spending by $1.2 billion – but that was a lie. That should come as no surprise; the prisons have overspent their budget by hundreds of millions of dollars in each of the past several years,” Dooley-Sammuli continued. “With the state near fiscal collapse, this just won’t do any longer. Prisons, like other resources, should be used wisely. They simply aren’t the right place for people convicted of petty offenses, particularly low-level, non-violent drug law violations.” According to the CDCR, over 30,000 people are locked up in California state prisons for a non-violent drug offense – at a total cost of $1.5 billion per year. Instead of reducing costs by addressing the number of people incarcerated for petty drug offenses, however, the state recently announced that it would cut by 70% the amount of drug treatment offered behind bars and by 40% the amount of drug treatment offered on parole. The LAO report is online at: http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=2143 # # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2009 CONTACT: Tony Newman at 646-335-5384 or Roseanne Scotti at 609-610-8243 NJ Senate Judiciary Committee to Vote Monday on Groundbreaking Sentencing Bill that Would Give Judges the Discretion to Waive Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Some Nonviolent Drug Offenses Advocates Commend Legislation as Common-Sense and Reasonable Reform that Would Increase Fair and Effective Sentencing and Save Taxpayer Money On Monday, November 23, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider Senate Bill 1866, which would give judges the discretion to waive mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent drug offenses. The Assembly passed the companion legislation, A2762, last year and Gov. Jon Corzine has said he will sign the bill when it gets to his desk. This critically important legislation would be a groundbreaking first step in reforming New Jersey’s draconian sentencing laws for nonviolent drug offenses. Roseanne Scotti, director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey, applauded the committee’s willingness to consider the bill and urged passage. “Twenty years ago, New Jersey began implementing harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. These laws have been a spectacular failure. They have done nothing to decrease drug activity and have filled New Jersey’s prisons with nonviolent drug offenders at great cost to New Jersey taxpayers,” said Scotti. It costs New Jersey taxpayers more than $46,000 a year to incarcerate an individual and New Jersey spends about $331 million a year just to incarcerate nonviolent drug offenders. Allowing judges some discretion would guarantee that justice is done and that taxpayer dollars are not wasted. At a time when New Jersey is facing serious budget deficits and cutting spending on education, health and other critical programs, advocates say New Jersey needs to take a hard look at policies that have mandated the warehousing of large numbers of nonviolent drug offenders at enormous cost to taxpayers. S1866/A2762 is supported by a broad coalition of organizations including Volunteers of American Delaware Valley, Corporation for Supportive Housing, New Jersey Association on Correction, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Coalition of Community Corrections Providers of New Jersey, Women Who Never Give Up, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Hispanic Directors Association and Latino Leadership Alliance. Recently, both the Newark and Camden City Councils passed resolutions supporting S1866. When New Jersey adopted the Comprehensive Drug Reform Act in 1986, the state ushered in a radical era of harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. This led to unprecedented levels of incarceration and massive taxpayer expenditures. These unfair and ineffective laws have also had an egregiously disproportionate impact on communities of color. • In 1987, only 11 percent of the New Jersey prison population was incarcerated for drug offenses. Today, 29 percent of the prison population is incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses. • Twenty years ago, only 11 percent of individuals in prison were serving mandatory minimum sentences—today 69 percent are serving mandatory terms. • In the last twenty years, New Jersey’s Corrections budget has risen from $289 million to $1.3 billion. • New Jersey spends $331 million a year to incarcerate individuals for nonviolent drug offenses. • The budget for corrections has grown by a factor of 13 while the overall budget grew only by a factor of six. • In the 1980s and 1990s, the Corrections budget grew at three times the rate of the budget for education. • Although African Americans and Latinos account for just 27 percent of the population of New Jersey, they represent 81 percent of the prison population. # # #