2010 Governor's State of the State speeches: on Crime

Ed Rendell: Fund education well, and we can cut incarceration costs

Dave Freudenthal: $50M for separate facilities for juveniles

Sean Parnell: Fill public safety officer & trooper vacancies

And we are beefing up public safety. We are funding new troopers, new sexual assault investigators, as well as 15 new Village Public Safety Officers.

We are increasing funding for shelters that provide a safe haven for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. And, we have asked legislators for $75 million for a much-needed new crime lab.

Joe Manchin III: Accelerated parole system for non-violent offenders

Tonight I am introducing a bill that will streamline our parole system and use our prisons to keep violent offenders where they belong--locked up. This accelerated parole system has been tested in other states and is one part of an overall plan to free up our prison resources.

This program would only be open to non-violent offenders and those convicted of crimes that do not involve a child. And, we will be working with West Virginia State University for the combined purpose of expanding our work-release program and renovating the former Rehabilitation Center in Institute. We are not being soft on crime--we are being smart on crime.

Pat Quinn: Alternative sentencing for low-level non-violent offenders

We are going to take a look at a Sentence Advisory Council. We want to make sure our prisons are always incarcerating hardened criminals; at the same time we want to take a look at how we deal with these low-level non-violent offenders who still must be punished. There may be other ways; there are other ways to do it, and I think that's something we need to embark on this year.

Pat Quinn: Sold unused state prison to federal prison agency

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Allow private prisons to compete, to spend less on prisons

Spending 45% more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future. What does it say about our state? It simply is not healthy. So I will submit to you a constitutional amendment so that never again do we spend a greater percentage of our money on prisons than on higher education.

And the way we get this done is to find more cost-effective ways to run our prison system and allows private prisons to compete with public prisons. Competition and choice are always good. I mean, California spends $50,000 per prisoner. The ten largest states spend $32,000 only.

If California's prisons were privately run, it would save us billions of dollars a year. That's billions of dollars that could go back into higher education where it belongs and where it better serves our future.