Gov. Brown: Your prison expansion plan is a huge mistake

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Gov. Brown: Your prison expansion plan is a huge mistake

In January of 2013, Gov. Brown said "We can't pour more and more dollars down the rat hole of incarceration." Yet he's trying to do just that and spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on private prison expansion in 2014. It's an election year and it's clear that the Governor wants to appear 'tough on crime.'

A federal court has ordered California to reduce the number of inmates in its horrifically overcrowded prisons. Gov. Brown claims that his hands are tied. He claims the court order is forcing him to expand the prison system. Don't believe the spin. The Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee editorial boards don't; they've ripped apart the Governor's approach.

According to the Brown Administration's own proposals to the court, California can reduce its prisoner population by 10,000 through smart, proven, and most importantly SAFE strategies, such as:

Sentencing reform or a sentencing commission;
Increasing prisoner firefighting brigades;
Rehabilitation through "good time" credits;
And the release of elderly, sick, debilitated prisoners that pose no threat.

Sign our petition and tell Gov. Brown: "Your prison expansion plan is a huge mistake. There are smarter, more responsible ways to satisfy the court order. I'll have your back if you support 'smart on crime' strategies that don't expand California's prisons but instead reduce our inmate population through fundamental reform."