The fleecing of California is being perpetrated under the guise of “prison reform.” Recently, there was a loud outcry over California’s overcrowded prisons. And once again our great governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has come up with a brilliant plan to reform the prison system. Or, should I say, fleece the public because he wants $10 billion to build more prisons. And common sense tells us that if we build-em, we’ll fill-em. In other words, no matter how many prisons California builds, the system will always be overcrowded because of California’s outrageous sentencing laws.

California is the only state in the country that warehouses its mental patients and nonviolent offenders under the “Three Strikes” law. Both men and women are serving 25- and 50-years-to-life terms for crimes like drug possession, receiving stolen property, petty theft and joy riding. In 2004, there was a tremendous statewide effort to change this law so that it only applied to violent offenders. But our governor went on TV and told the public that rapists, child molesters and murderers would be released. Schwarzenegger robbed the public of an opportunity to right a wrong because these were nonviolent offenders, most of whom have never killed, raped or molested anyone. They are drug abusers with petty drug-related offenses. With the proper drug and alcohol treatment, the nonviolent offenders in California’s prisons could become productive taxpaying citizens instead of tax burdens.

But the truth is California’s weakest and most vulnerable citizens are considered to be a commodity and job security for the prison system. Wake up, California, you are being fleeced.

One local newspaper put it this way: “Building more prisons is like telling an obese person that all he needs is a bigger pair of pants.” The prison system is obese and should not be allowed to continue devouring California’s resources. Education and treatment, not prisons, is the best investment for California’s tax dollars.

Larry Wallace is an inmate at the Folsom State Prison in Represa.