Fall 1983 – Issue 30 - Stanford Lawyer - Stanford University

After a spurt of expansion in thepost-war years, prison industriesbegan to experience a slow andsteady decline. Convict labor becameunfashionable in a time ofgrowing emphasis on "medicalmodel" rehabilitation programsstressing counseling and therapy.During the administration of then­Governor Reagan, several agriculturaland industrial operations wereactually abandoned. From the highwatermark of the mid-1960s, when3,300 inmates were employed in 45separate enterprises, "correctionalindustries" was reduced in 1981 to2,300 inmates employed in only 34enterprises.In the past three years, however,interest in prison labor has revived,due in part to the rapid expansion inthe number of prisoners. The Californiaprison population has almostdoubled in the last decade and todaystands at 35,000 inmates, an all-timerecord. And the CDC predicts, giventhe accelerating increase, that thefigure will reach 60,000 within fiveyears.At the same time, the state governmenthas been undergoing fiscalcontraction. The CDC is scramblingto find money to build enough newprison beds and hire enough stafftorun its institutions. Although in June1982 California voters approved abond issue to finance construction ofnew prisons, the amount authorized- $495 million - will actually payfor only one-quarter of the facilitiesneeded by the end of this decade.The cost of housing a prisoner inCalifornia today is $13,000 a year.The cost of new prisons, accordingto CDC plans, is between $80,000and $100,000 per cell!The necessity for cutting correctionalcosts is apparent. TheLegislature has recently turned toself-supporting prison work programsas one way to do so. The ideais to cut costs both directly by increasingthe self-sufficiency of prisonsand indirectly through sale ofconvict products or services. Twosignificant legislative actions weretaken last year to help put Californiaprisons back on a productive footing.The first was to create work incentivesfor inmates. A new time-creditsystem, called "worktime," was substitutedfor the previous "goodtime"system (which had been awardedautomatically whether or not a prisonerworked). Under the newsystem, a prisoner can earn one dayof credit for every full day of work.Thus, a prisoner who chooses to remainidle will receive no credits andwill serve his full sentence. In addition,the amount of time credit aprisoner can lose for misconductwhile in prison was lengthened from45 days to a year.The second legislative act abolishedthe old Correctional IndustriesCommission (which had beencharged with limiting the size andrevenues of prison industries) andcreated a new Prison IndustryAuthority. The Authority was givena mandate to expand prison laborprograms, the power to borrow privateor public funds, and the abilityto fashion its own personnel andprocurement policies outside of thenormal civil service system.The paramount question whichmust now be answered is what sortof work can inmates do that will notbring them in competition with(continued on p. 67)Fall 1983 Stanford Lawyer27