The state’s years-long foot-dragging on reducing overcrowding in its prisons—which it is under federal court order to do—appears to have broken down into chaos. The state Senate is rejecting Gov. Jerry Brown’s way of meeting the court order by spending $730 million to pack still more inmates off to private prisons in California and elsewhere. Senate leader Daryl Steinberg says Brown’s plan is “not smart” and calls it “dead in the water.” The spending would require legislative approval and lawmakers go home for the year Sept. 13.
One thing you can say about the mess: It isn’t partisan politics. All the principals are Democrats. Mercury News
Politics
