Four Years After Realignment, Prisons Are Less Crowded and Crime Rates Are Lower

Thursday marks the four-year anniversary of realignment, Gov. Jerry Brown's attempt to comply with a federal court order to lower the state prison population without the wholesale early release of prisoners.

The change in the law allowed nonviolent offenders to serve their time in local jails instead of state prisons, and shifted responsibility for many  getting out of prison to local probation departments.

Critics warned the plan would be a public safety disaster -- in the words of one Republican lawmaker, leading to "blood in the streets." But a new report from the respected Public Policy Institute of California shows the policy shift has largely achieved its goals without many negative consequences.

The report finds that realignment, four years later, significantly reduced the prison population -- though not quite enough to comply with the federal court order to bring prisons to 137 percent of capacity (they had been at more than 200 percent of capacity).

But combined with other changes -- including two voter-approved ballot measures that softened the state's three strikes law and reduced some felonies to misdemeanors -- the state has been within compliance since January.  Last year's Proposition 47, which reduced certain felony offenses to misdemeanors, has also helped jails that swelled to capacity because of realignment return to more manageable population levels.

Now prisons are at population levels not seen in 20 years -- before California voters and lawmakers embraced a series of harsh sentencing laws  -- while crime rates remain at historic lows, the report states. In all, 18,000 inmates who would have been incarcerated are outside prison walls because of realignment, the report found.

PPIC's Magnus Lofstrom said the findings are a vindication of not only realignment but the state's overall shift in criminal justice policies in recent years, away from punishment and toward rehabilitation. He credited counties, many of which have embraced progressive re-entry programs and other research-backed methods, for making changes that have helped keep the public safe and more former offenders out of trouble.

"We had an over-reliance on incarceration" prior to realignment, he said. "We now need to take a closer look at the variety of strategies that counties are implementing to learn what works well and what doesn't work, and determine to what extent we can replicate those efforts."

There has been one big crime jump, he said: auto thefts. Still, his research found that overall, locking up people isn't cost effective.

"If you spend one additional dollar on incarceration, the crime savings you can expect is only 23 cents," he said, adding that counties should instead look at putting more police on the streets, and investing in programs such as cognitive behavioral therapy for offenders, early childhood programs and targeted intervention for high-risk youth.

One thing the program hasn't done: Reduce prison spending. The state prison budget is $10 billion more than it was the year before realignment was instated, and the state is spending $1 billion to help counties cope with the effects of realignment. It has also budgeted $2.2 billion in bond funds for jail construction, and continues to spend more on medical and mental health care.

The report states the only way to truly reduce prison spending may be to close one of the state's prisons, but notes that a closure could take the state out of compliance with the court order.