WRONG TIME FOR NEW PRISON

Connect the dots. Last week, the Justice Department released a study
showing that the fanatical prison building boom in most U.S. states in the
1980s and early '90s did not deter crime. In fact, the rate at which
inmates released from prison committed new crimes increased from 1983 to
1994. The California Department of Corrections has overspent its budget by
$277 million and has a surplus of more than 10,000 costly prison beds since
passage of Proposition 36, which diverts some nonviolent drug offenders to
treatment instead of prison.

Put it all together, and it is obvious that Gov. Gray Davis should not
spend $595 million building a new state prison in the Central Valley town
of Delano. Last month, a state Senate subcommittee scratching for funds to
restore some of the programs axed in the governor's new austerity budget
suggested that construction at Delano at least be delayed. None of the
state's top legislative leaders, however, has seconded that recommendation.
Legislators are clearly loath to antagonize Davis on this. The governor has
been Delano's most ardent supporter since 1998, when the state was flush
with cash and the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. donated $2
million to his campaign. But in a year when his budget has come up $22
billion short, surely Davis can recognize that building Delano now would be
a boondoggle. Facing similar fiscal crises, four Republican governors have
recently closed prisons to save money.

Beyond the prison building issue, Davis so far has refused to consider even
modest proposals to save money by handling nonviolent offenders in
different ways. Half a dozen states, for example, have modified their
sentencing laws in recent months to increase early releases and ramp up
supervision of newly released inmates.

Davis' new budget pares only $6 million from the state's $4.8-billion
prison budget but slashes more than $900 million from what was originally
proposed for education and $200 million from health and welfare.

Davis had to make some hard choices in fashioning his revised budget, and
in large part he made sensible ones. But he has a blind spot when it come
to prisons and the guards' union. There comes a time when a responsible
governor says "no" to even the most supportive and generous interest group.