PRISON PUPIL SPENDING DECRIED AS `CRIMINAL'.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

California spends more per pupil to educate inmates in prison than it spends on children in public schools, Controller Kathleen Connell said Thursday in a report highly critical of the Department of Corrections spending practices.

Connell said the department's Academic Education Program spends $5,234 per inmate a year, 30 percent more than comparable costs spent per pupil in California public schools.

``You get a better education if you go to prison,'' Connell said. ``In the race for education dollars, prisoners have a $1,300 leg up on California schoolchildren. I think it is criminal that the state prison system spend 30 percent more per capita to educate felons than public school children.''

California actually spent $4,867 per pupil in public schools in fiscal year 1994-95, but 20 percent of that cost is for items like food, transportation or special education, which are not applicable to the prison system. For that reason Connell downsized the state's per-pupil spending figure to $3,900 in order to compare it to prison education costs.

Connell released a fiscal survey of the department Thursday at a news conference at Twin Towers county jail in downtown Los Angeles.

``Our No. 1 message to prisons is to get their costs in line,'' Connell said.

But a spokesman for the Department of Corrections said they had found ``major errors'' in Connell's calculations.

``We don't know where she came up with those figures,'' said Tip Kindel, assistant director of communications for the department. ``She isn't saying anything new and unfortunately some of the things she's saying are wrong.''

Kindel said the department has estimated that it costs them between $4,600 to $4,900 per pupil in their Academic Education program. He said it's unfair for Connell to slash out 20 percent of the costs per pupil in California schools.

The prison system has costs associated with administration and security that increase their per-pupil spending, he said. In addition, the students are in school 12 months a year, rather than the nine months that California schoolchildren spend in class.

Of the 151,000 inmates incarcerated in California prisons, 24,000 have entered the Academic Education Program, in either literacy or vocational training.

Connell suggested the department re-evaluate its literacy education program, including finding more cost-effective ways to deliver the service. In addition, she said the department has failed to show whether its education programs have helped reduce the recidivism rate for inmates.

Connell also criticized other parts of the department's budget.

She suggested the department could save $87 million a year by redirecting nonviolent offenders to county jails. It would also reduce the need to build new prisons, the cost of which has been estimated at up to $664 million.

But Kindel said Connell overestimates the cost of imprisoning nonviolent offenders and that it would actually cost the system more to contract out to county jails.

In addition, Connell said the department could save $15 million by revamping its system for paying overtime by using part-time workers rather than higher-paid full-time staff.

Kindel responded that the department had reduced overtime costs from $146 million a year to $99 million a year in the past four years using exactly the system Connell has suggested.