CA state prison projects funded but not completed

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In 2007, under increasing pressure to reduce crowding in the state's prisons, lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized $7.4 billion in bonds to expand the prisons and local jails to add 53,000 new beds.

Nearly four years later, as Schwarzenegger leaves office today, the state has not completed a single project authorized by that bill, AB900, and has begun planning or construction for only about 8,400 beds.

Most of the projects in the pipeline - which include adding beds to existing county jails and building health care and re-entry facilities - have been approved in the past few months.

Now, some critics question whether the incoming governor, Jerry Brown, should pursue all of the projects approved under the measure. Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he believes the state should undertake a "serious review" of AB900, noting that lawmakers have instituted other reforms to deal with crowding since 2007 - including medical parole for severely incapacitated inmates - and that the state's crime rate has declined.

Ryan Sherman, a spokesman for the prison guards union, which opposed AB900, said the construction authorized by the bill will not solve the state's prison crisis.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/02/MNKU1H0GK5.DTL