June 3, 2008
Editorial: State Legislature, governor created mess with prisons
Legislators and the Schwarzenegger administration are playing a double game of dare with federal judges over how to fix the state's prisons. It's dangerous and expensive, and they're destined to lose. Probably they should, since lawmakers and prison managers have proved incapable of doing right on their own.
Last week, Senate Republicans twice thwarted a federal court-appointed overseer's request, which Schwarzenegger backs, for $7 billion in bond money to repair and build medical facilities for sick and mentally ill inmates. Having been denied, court receiver J. Clark Kelso is now vowing to seize a chunk of the money - $70 million now and $3.43 billion next year - out of the state's operating budget. That's not an idle threat; if carried out, such a move would raise the already disastrous projected deficit for next year to more than $18 billion.
Republican senators argue that it's premature to fork over the money while separate court-guided negotiations continue about reducing the prison population…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
