Schwarzenegger floats plan to move prisoners to Mexico

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A view of the California State Prison at San Quentin in San Quentin, California. File photo.

Governor Schwarzenegger railed against what he called "reckless" state spending on prisons during a speech at the Sacramento press club today. The governor suggested that California pay Mexico to house some of the undocumented inmates in state prisons. KPCC's Julie Small reports.

Each year, California spends about 11 percent of the state's general fund budget on prisons. That's close to double the percentage California spent 20 years ago. In recent years the governor has advocated private prisons as a less expensive alternative. He pushed that concept a step further when he suggested housing California's 20,000 undocumented felons in Mexico.

"We pay them to build a prison down in Mexico" Schwarzenegger said, "and then we have those undocumented immigrants be down there in a prison — and with the prison guards and all this it will halve the cost to build the prisons and halve the cost to run the prison. That is money — a billion dollars right there that can go into higher education."

The governor’s press secretary Aaron McLear later clarified that Schwarzenegger has no official plan to move undocumented prisoners to Mexico.

Schwarzenegger will continue to insist that the federal government reimburse California's costs, about a $1 billion a year for imprisoning undocumented felons.