State Senate wants more cuts for prisons, fewer for courts

The California Senate is pushing back against some of Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed budget reductions -- including cuts to the courts. Much of the difference would be made up by further cuts to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The governor proposed $283.3 million in cuts to the court system earlier this month. This was part of a plan in his annual May budget revision to offset an estimated $54.3 billion budget hole caused by the economic effects of the coronavirus-related shutdowns, which have slashed state revenues while imposing new costs.

The Senate countered with just a $100 million cut to courts, in a document posted Wednesday by the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. "Pending Senate Version of the Budget 2020-21" lays out a very different version of how to meet the historic shortfall than the governor's.

Senate Budget Chair Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, said the Senate Democrats' plan uses "Newsom's framework" for cuts "with a couple of key differences." She also noted that because of the coronavirus the Legislature has drastically cut the amount of time it has to debate the budget, with just over two weeks left before the constitutional deadline of June 15.

With most of the debate focused on big-ticket items like education, the court funding changes were listed as "vote-only" items on Thursday's agenda and were still pending as of press deadline. Lawmakers are also working with two different budget scenarios, depending on whether the federal government ponies up more support for states.

The Senate version of the court budget states, "The reduction cannot impact Dependency Counsel, Court Interpreters, Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, Model Self-Help Program, Equal Access Fund; Family Law Information Centers, and Civil Case Coordination." Newsom had proposed taking $15.2 million from a pot of money that supports these programs.

The Senate version calls for lawmakers to reject "$166 million in cuts for the state-level judiciary, the trial courts, and other Judicial Branch local assistance programs." It would also opt to not make "$37 million in cuts to grants that continue to support the warm hand-off and reentry of offenders transitioning from state prison to communities."

This would fit with what Mitchell identified as one her top goals in the overall budget: "To not make things worse for California's most vulnerable residents."

"At this point, the Legislature's work on the budget is ongoing so the situation is fluid," said a Judicial Council spokesperson by email, when asked about the Senate proposals. "The Judicial Council is providing information and reviewing any new proposals coming out of the Legislature's work."

Much of the difference would be made up from $146 million in cuts to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that were not proposed in the governor's May revision. The Senate version would also permanently stop intakes to the state's Division of Juvenile Justice on Jan. 1 and calls for the closure of two prisons in the next three fiscal years.

The proposed cuts also contain a $600 million reduction to the legislative augmentation to county realignment funds. This did not sit well with some Republicans, including Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, who requested realignment be brought up for debate.

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said they "cannot comment on pending budget proposals."

Many of these changes emerged in recent days from budget subcommittees in each house, such as one held last week by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. As chair of the Senate subcommittee covering public safety, she implied the Senate Democrats' proposed cuts to the prisons department are in part a matter of fairness and encouraged the department to find further "efficiencies."

"When you look at CDCR, it is only experiencing a less than 1%, a 0.7% general fund reduction," Skinner said. "All other agencies are significantly larger. The next lowest is on the order of about 6%, then it ranges all the way up to 90%."

This led to a back-and-forth with Moorlach, an accountant and former Orange County treasurer who has often taken on an informal role as budget spokesman for his caucus. He said some of the budget changes proposed by his Democratic colleagues appeared to be an "emotional" reaction and added that proposed changes to public safety appeared to be "theatrics" designed to elicit more federal funding.

"I see it as a bluff," Moorlach said.

This led Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, to jump in. Like Skinner, he was a member of the Assembly during the last budget crisis which began more than a decade ago. He urged reductions to the prisons department be made more strategically than last time. Beall said cuts to mental health and reentry programs led to greater recidivism and more mentally ill people behind bars, ultimately resulting in increased costs.

Beall, who will term out of the Legislature at the end of this year, said he fears similar mistakes are being made now with COVID-19 in prisons. "What is the impact of the virus spreading in the prisons?" Beall asked. "How much testing is being done?"