Friday, Jun. 13, 2008

California can't afford to rebuild death row at San Quentin Prison

The Legislature and the governor, like governors and Legislatures before them, are ducking hard decisions on what to do about the old death row facilities at San Quentin Prison in Marin County.

Now the state auditor has issued a report, "Building a Condemned Inmate Complex at San Quentin May Cost More Than Expected." That report, and another to follow in July on alternative sites, should cause the governor and Legislature to step back and chart a new course. San Quentin is the wrong place for a new death-row complex.

This report may surprise some, but it amounts to an "I told you so" for Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, who has been pushing for several years for the state to close San Quentin and to move death row to another prison. In a 2005 commentary he wrote for The Bee, Denham pointed out that it would cost more than $200,000 per cell to expand death row.

The state auditor now estimates that it will cost more than $515,000 per cell, or a total of $395.5 million, to build a 768-cell complex at San Quentin. And that complex would reach capacity in 2014, less than three years after it is expected to open.

So what's driving the high cost at this site? Instead of solid ground, it turns out that most of the site is bay muds. The unstable soils will have to be removed and replaced with rock. This will require 15-foot to 20-foot deep excavations and extensive measures to prevent seawater incursions. Oh, and they'll have to use a pile foundation, not the conventional spread footing.

Back in 2003, then-Gov. Davis proposed a new 1,024-cell death-row complex at San Quentin. That original proposal had countless problems, as the legislative analyst's office pointed out at the time. Legislators approved it anyway.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor, he could have taken a closer look at the project. Instead, his administration pressed ahead, asking for more and more money. The Legislature balked, so the project has been on hold. But now the governor is back again, asking for money so construction can begin on a 768-cell complex. Lawmakers should reject this proposal, too.

Legislators should bear in mind that this is only Phase I of the San Quentin project. If the 768-cell death-row complex gets built at San Quentin, you can be sure that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will return to the Legislature in two years for more money to build 260 more death-row cells.

As the state auditor has pointed out, the administration has failed to consider the ongoing operating costs for the proposed new 768-cell facility. The existing facility at San Quentin, which houses 635 men on death row, has 169 employees. To staff the new facility the state would have to hire 156 more prison guards, plus 180 other staff. In high-cost Marin County, that adds $39.5 million in new costs for salaries, benefits and overtime for 336 new employees in the first year of operation (and an average of $58.8 million a year thereafter) -- adding to already out-of-control prison system budgets.

Denham's last bill on this issue died in committee earlier this year. Perhaps his proposal is one to bring back. Whoever carries the legislation, it's time to end this nonsense and get some other ideas on the table.