SACRAMENTO, CA – An audit requested by Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) on building a Condemned Inmate Complex at San Quentin has been released today by the Bureau of State Audits.  This is the second part of its San Quentin audit outlining the cost implications of alternative inmate housing locations and delayed construction scenarios.  The report found that the state could save $18 million a year if construction is delayed at San Quentin while alternatives are explored. 

In Part one of the report released June 10, 2008 the State Auditor projected the actual cost of the proposed death row facility at San Quentin to be $136 million more than originally expected--a 62 percent increase from the Department of Corrections original proposal.  And, if the Corrections’ plan to double-cell up to two-thirds of the condemned inmates does not turn out to be a feasible approach, the Condemned Inmate Complex at San Quentin will reach its cell capacity in 2014—just three years after it is projected to open.

“Taken together with the previously released chapter, today’s Auditor’s report gives us a more complete picture of this controversial and ill-conceived project, and helps point the way to a solution.   The most important finding is that, according to the Auditor and the correctional authorities she consulted, the proposed expansion at San Quentin is likely to run out of room in just three years after it opens, putting the state back at square one to figure out how to house the additional condemned inmates.   Thus, even the huge $1.6 billion final price tag for this project understates the real cost of starting down this road.   In addition, the report confirms that despite all of the cost overruns and controversies, the Department of Corrections has ignored recommendations by the Auditor and others to consider alternatives.    Numerous viable alternatives exist, including housing most condemned inmates in the current San Quentin facility and housing the balance of the inmates elsewhere, an option which the Auditor unfortunately did not consider.   The Department of Corrections has been remarkably stubborn, myopic and disingenuous in selling this project, and I have no doubt they will point to selective parts of today’s report to argue that their preferred project makes financial sense.  However, the report is clear that the only reason San Quentin expansion could even arguably be deemed “cheaper” than the alternatives is the delay caused by the Department’s foot-dragging, and the Auditor’s assumption that ground would be broken at San Quentin this year.  Had the Department started the planning and review process for any of the other locations, the alternatives would clearly be cheaper.   And if ground isn’t broken at San Quentin this year, the alternatives likewise become cheaper.  It’s now time to step back and use some common sense.  We shouldn’t rush into a $1.6 billion project with a three-year shelf life.  We should take the next few years to do what the Department has stubbornly refused to do:  develop alternatives that not only make fiscal sense today, but which address our long-term condemned inmate housing problem.  The good news is that the Auditor’s report shows a savings of $93 million in avoided costs by using the next five years to get this decision right,” said Huffman.

The report is now available on the Auditor’s Web site at http://www.bsa.ca.gov