BOOKED UP

How do you build a prison empire? Just ask Gov. Jeb Bush and his Department
of Corrections. Recently, at Bush's request, the Florida Legislature made
an emergency appropriation of $66 million to add 4,000 new prison beds. The
additional space was needed, lawmakers were told, largely because more
Floridians were being sentenced under the state's tough drug laws.

So then what did the administration do? It eliminated $7 million for
court-ordered drug treatment programs around the state; thereby helping to
insure that addicts will continue to be arrested, sentenced and committed
to our overcrowded prison system.

Bush, a self-proclaimed fan of "small government" once spoke wistfully of a
time when large state office buildings would be rendered unnecessary and
left vacant. Maybe he plans to stuff them with convicts.