Can we trust the people who have built, and profit from prisons to close them?

Former Governor Deukmejian served as the 35th governor of California from 1983 through 1991. Under Deukmejian, the state witnessed an explosion in prison populations. The prison population grew by 62,669 people (or a 180% increase) during his term in office, nearly a third (10) of California's 32 prisons were opened under Deukmejian's tenure. The CDC budget increased from a percentage share of 3.7% in the 1983-1984 budget to 6.7% in the 1990-1991 budget—an 81% increase in Corrections' share of the General Fund—setting the stage for the fiscal collision between the education and corrections budgets.

Joseph Gunn, was the former executive director of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, Co-Chair of the Rampart Independent Review Panel. Then-Mayor (now education secretary) Richard Riordan made Gunn Assistant Deputy Mayor in charge of law enforcement policy. Walking the thin blue line between fact and fiction, Gunn spent 22 years writing and producing episodic television with 150 hours to his credit. Included in his work are the shows "Emergency," "Adam 12," "CHiPs," "Kojak," and "Hill Street Blues."

Robin Dezember was a deputy director of the Department of Corrections under Governor Pete Wilson (who oversaw the construction of 9 prisons, and 67,857 increase in the prison population), and served as the undersecretary of the California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency under Deukmejian. He also was a principal at the Kitchell Corporation, which has worked with the CDC as program manager to plan and control the construction of over 30 prisons: Kitchell claims “our record of success has helped the CDC gain the support of the legislature through four separate administrations.” He was also listed as a principal at CRSS Construction Inc, which until it went under in 2000, was another major adult and juvenile prison construction firm.

George Camp was the director of the Missouri Department of Correction, was the co-executive director of the Association of State Correctional Administrators (representing state corrections head), and a consultant with the Criminal Justice Institute in Middletown, CT. A longtime consultant to corrections officials in many states, Camp authored a report that was harshly criticized last year by a federal judge as "biased," his conclusions “baseless,” and “misleading.” When Camp was recently named to another independent commission in Massachusetts, prison advocates succeeded in having the panel reconstituted to dilute Camp's influence, convincing that state's governor that “biased and unreliable is not a stamp of approval.”