Dear ACLU Supporter,
The California budget crisis is not about numbers.  It’s about lives.  And it’s not over.  The Governor and Legislature have yet to decide how they will make the next round of cuts to the prison system.
The ACLU and our allies are pressing for four key criminal justice reforms that would save the state $12 billion in five years while improving public safety.  Join us on August 18 in Sacramento as we bring our proposals to the Governor and Legislature, just as they are debating how to cut the corrections budget.
Last week, Governor Schwarzenegger chose to abandon children to abuse, neglect and illness, while protecting the state’s dysfunctional death penalty system. He gave the green light to spending $400 million on a new death row while vetoing nearly the same amount in funding for child abuse intervention, health care for children, and HIV/AIDS programs.
Send the Governor a message right now saying that his vision amounts to a direct attack on the most vulnerable among us.  Tell the Governor it’s time for a common sense approach to our priorities:
Solution #1:   Replace the Death Penalty with Permanent Imprisonment
Converting death sentences to permanent imprisonment will ensure that we keep our communities safe without wasting critical resources. Experience has shown that permanent imprisonment works—at a fraction of the cost.  Five Year Savings: $ 1 billion
Solution #2:  Close the Youth Prisons
California taxpayers currently pay $380 million each year to keep 1,624 young people in youth prisons. Instead, youth should be kept in local facilities where they have access to effective treatment programs for the entire family. Five Year Savings: $ 1 billion
Solution #3:  Keep the Response to Petty Drug Possession Local
We currently house 24,000 people in state prison for drug possession, at a cost of $1 billion a year. Instead, we should shift the response to non-violent drug crimes to the local level and provide effective drug treatment.  The Governor took one positive step in this direction earlier this week. Five Year Savings: $ 5 billion
Solution #4:  Fix the Three Strikes Law
If we reform the Three Strikes Law to require that the most recent felony be a violent offense—like every other state in the country—we would save $1 billion that we now waste housing people in prison as a result of non-violent offenses. Five Year Savings: $ 5 billion

Over the last 20 years, California’s corrections budget has increased by 450%. We are locking up more people, at greater expense, and have less to show for it.  Meanwhile funding for schools, social services and community protection is being slashed.
The budget crisis is an opportunity to adopt programs proven to increase public safety for our communities, and abandon the failed policies of that have led to mass incarceration.
Your presence in Sacramento on August 18  can help counter the cynicism at work in the budget negotiations with common sense and calculated hope.  
See you in Sacramento,