Matt Cate, secretary of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, may have the toughest job in state government. His mandate: overseeing a massive downsizing of the $10 billion agency by shifting some prison and parole tasks to counties. Cate lists three signs of potential success for the Sacramento Bee:
“We were facing a prisoner release (court) order on the magnitude of about 35,000 inmates. That’s (like) emptying seven prisons onto the streets. So if we avoid an early release order from the Supreme Court, that will be a sign of success. We know prison spending has been growing at an unsustainable rate. If we see that coming down [ ] hat will be a sign of success. And if we see recidivism rates reduced from the neighborhood of 70 percent, then we’ll know the counties are fulfilling their promise, which has been, “We can do this better.” He says prison workers “will have to get used to working in institutions without massive inmate turnover. Last year we had 47,000 inmates serve 90 days or less.”