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SACRAMENTO - The unexpected rise in the state's prison population was months in the making, not a sudden spike of new inmates, figures released Tuesday show.
Citing a surge in cases from large counties, Department of Corrections officials on April 1 declared a state of emergency as the prison population approached historic highs of more than 162,000.
Tuesday, however, the Senate Select Committee on California's correctional system released figures showing that a rise of new cases began at least as long ago as last summer.
In the final six months of 2003, for example, the prison system registered a 12 1/2 percent jump in new admissions compared with the same period in 2002, according to corrections department figures made public by state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who has been co-chairing prison oversight hearings.
``These are not spikes; these are trends,'' Romero said after a hearing on the prison state of emergency. Noting that the department is moving prisoners around the state to accommodate new inmates, she said, ``It's like shuffling chairs on the Titanic.''
Corrections Director Jeanne Woodford objected to that characterization, saying her department handles 80,000 new inmates a year. ``And this time we got surprised,'' she said, citing the influx of prisoners, especially from larger counties in Southern California.
As a result, some prisons, such as Folsom, are being transformed to handle tougher inmates, meaning they need extra security staff. However, the department could provide no cost figures for transporting the additional inmates or overtime for guards.
As lawmakers wrestle with budget cuts, the corrections department said last month that it may need an additional $238 million for an unexpected jump in its inmate population.
Lance Corcoran, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, testified the changes will ``drive overtime.'' He said the union had been notified by the corrections department of the need to trim 641 officers at a time when the prison population is rising.
J.P. Tremblay, a department spokesman, said the previous corrections administration had agreed to the cuts. However, he said they would not result in layoffs.
On the issue of prison population, Tremblay acknowledged there had been an increase in new admissions and parole violators with new convictions. That, he said, has offset an overall drop in parole violations.
Said Tremblay: ``That's why we haven't seen the reduction in population we had originally predicted for this year.''
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