Post by CCADP on Aug 26, 2005 7:34:13 GMT -5
Death row plan scaled back
Keri Brenner
A $45 million cost overrun in San Quentin State Prison's new death row plan has prompted state officials to cut the number of cells from 1,024 to 768, according to a state Department of Finance memo.
"Primarily due to extraordinary inflation in the construction industry, the recently completed preliminary plans estimate the project to now cost approximately $265 million," Finance Director Tom Campbell said in the memo, dated Wednesday.
Campbell said the cutback would drop the cost to $233 million - still 6 percent more than the $220 million appropriated. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to start construction on 40 acres next to the 153-year-old prison this fall.
But state Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, part of a contingent of local leaders opposed to the project, said the news is proof the planned death row is "another Bay Bridge debacle," referring to the much-publicized huge cost overruns on that bridge's planned new span.
"Here we are, before there's even been a shovel put into the earth, and we're already effectively 31 percent over budget," Nation said. "They're downsizing it by 25 percent, and with that, acknowledging a 6 percent increase."
But J.P. Tremblay, corrections department assistant secretary, said the revision was a prudent move to stay on track within the $220 million appropriation.
"We're living within our means - that's what this is about," Tremblay said. "We're not going to go back to the Legislature and ask for more money."
He said the new death row would still house more than 1,000 inmates because some cells will be double-bunked. The original project was expected to house 1,408 prisoners.
"We believe this plan, even with the scaled-back size, will address the needs and get us through the next 20 years," Tremblay added. "We still need this project - the current facility is not a safe facility for the population we're dealing with."
Nation and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, on Tuesday introduced a bill to require the state to contract an independent analysis of the cost to expand death row at San Quentin, as compared with other sites across the state.
"To spend more money on an outdated 150-year-old-prison is ludicrous," Denham said. "We cannot allow out-of-control spending to be wasted on this project when it is way over budget and will soon be beyond capacity."
Denham called for "the governor and Legislature to look for other alternatives to this mess - the time has come to deal with the sins of the past."
Tremblay, however, maintains the state has looked at alternative sites, but "the issue comes down as to where can we get a death row placed, politically speaking," he said. "You have to look at it logistically - it has to be near an urban area, where there's access to the courts and to attorneys."
Nation said he and Denham will schedule one or more public hearings in Marin after the end of the current legislative session Sept. 9 to discuss the cost comparisons.
"We want to ask the departments of corrections and finance to explain their rationale in continuing to push for a project that continues to break the bank and doesn't make any fiscal sense," Nation said.
Nation and Denham introduced Assembly Bill 1672 Tuesday after inserting the substance of the bill into the body of a former health-care bill. The new bill won't be heard until the Legislature comes back for a short session in early December.
"I think this is the first of many cost overruns on this project," Nation said, referring to a 20 percent cost markup already allowed in the project's scope. "I think this is only the beginning, and that's why they've scaled back to 768 cells."
Nation and other Marin officials, such as Supervisor Steve Kinsey, said the site is better used as a regional transit hub and deep-water ferry port.
The corrections department said security at the current death row is so lax it is unsafe for guards as well as prisoners.
Nation disagreed with Tremblay's estimate of the lifecycle of the downsized death row, saying the state would have to start double-bunking in four years.
"It makes no sense to spend this kind of money on a facility that will be full in four years," he said.
Nation's comments came as Marin County officials are in the preliminary stages of a lawsuit challenging the project's environmental impact report. The suit, supported by the city of Larkspur, says the report is inadequate and failed to address alternative sites.
Both city and county officials worry about traffic, views, the shoreline, lighting, noise and water, sewage and electric use.
County Counsel Patrick Faulkner said he didn't believe the downsizing was an attempt to appease the community by proposing a smaller project. "If they're doing that, it's because of something they're generating internally, not because of the lawsuit," Faulkner said.
"I think they're running into the same thing we're running into on all the bridges -the cost overruns."
Keri Brenner
A $45 million cost overrun in San Quentin State Prison's new death row plan has prompted state officials to cut the number of cells from 1,024 to 768, according to a state Department of Finance memo.
"Primarily due to extraordinary inflation in the construction industry, the recently completed preliminary plans estimate the project to now cost approximately $265 million," Finance Director Tom Campbell said in the memo, dated Wednesday.
Campbell said the cutback would drop the cost to $233 million - still 6 percent more than the $220 million appropriated. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to start construction on 40 acres next to the 153-year-old prison this fall.
But state Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, part of a contingent of local leaders opposed to the project, said the news is proof the planned death row is "another Bay Bridge debacle," referring to the much-publicized huge cost overruns on that bridge's planned new span.
"Here we are, before there's even been a shovel put into the earth, and we're already effectively 31 percent over budget," Nation said. "They're downsizing it by 25 percent, and with that, acknowledging a 6 percent increase."
But J.P. Tremblay, corrections department assistant secretary, said the revision was a prudent move to stay on track within the $220 million appropriation.
"We're living within our means - that's what this is about," Tremblay said. "We're not going to go back to the Legislature and ask for more money."
He said the new death row would still house more than 1,000 inmates because some cells will be double-bunked. The original project was expected to house 1,408 prisoners.
"We believe this plan, even with the scaled-back size, will address the needs and get us through the next 20 years," Tremblay added. "We still need this project - the current facility is not a safe facility for the population we're dealing with."
Nation and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, on Tuesday introduced a bill to require the state to contract an independent analysis of the cost to expand death row at San Quentin, as compared with other sites across the state.
"To spend more money on an outdated 150-year-old-prison is ludicrous," Denham said. "We cannot allow out-of-control spending to be wasted on this project when it is way over budget and will soon be beyond capacity."
Denham called for "the governor and Legislature to look for other alternatives to this mess - the time has come to deal with the sins of the past."
Tremblay, however, maintains the state has looked at alternative sites, but "the issue comes down as to where can we get a death row placed, politically speaking," he said. "You have to look at it logistically - it has to be near an urban area, where there's access to the courts and to attorneys."
Nation said he and Denham will schedule one or more public hearings in Marin after the end of the current legislative session Sept. 9 to discuss the cost comparisons.
"We want to ask the departments of corrections and finance to explain their rationale in continuing to push for a project that continues to break the bank and doesn't make any fiscal sense," Nation said.
Nation and Denham introduced Assembly Bill 1672 Tuesday after inserting the substance of the bill into the body of a former health-care bill. The new bill won't be heard until the Legislature comes back for a short session in early December.
"I think this is the first of many cost overruns on this project," Nation said, referring to a 20 percent cost markup already allowed in the project's scope. "I think this is only the beginning, and that's why they've scaled back to 768 cells."
Nation and other Marin officials, such as Supervisor Steve Kinsey, said the site is better used as a regional transit hub and deep-water ferry port.
The corrections department said security at the current death row is so lax it is unsafe for guards as well as prisoners.
Nation disagreed with Tremblay's estimate of the lifecycle of the downsized death row, saying the state would have to start double-bunking in four years.
"It makes no sense to spend this kind of money on a facility that will be full in four years," he said.
Nation's comments came as Marin County officials are in the preliminary stages of a lawsuit challenging the project's environmental impact report. The suit, supported by the city of Larkspur, says the report is inadequate and failed to address alternative sites.
Both city and county officials worry about traffic, views, the shoreline, lighting, noise and water, sewage and electric use.
County Counsel Patrick Faulkner said he didn't believe the downsizing was an attempt to appease the community by proposing a smaller project. "If they're doing that, it's because of something they're generating internally, not because of the lawsuit," Faulkner said.
"I think they're running into the same thing we're running into on all the bridges -the cost overruns."