Takeover of State Prisons Is Threatened (CA - Blow to Arnold)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prison21jul21,1,760251,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Criticizing the Schwarzenegger administration for a "business as usual" attitude toward reforming California's $6-billion prison system, a federal judge warned the state Tuesday he may appoint a receiver to take over the state Department of Corrections.

If U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson makes good on that threat, it would be a blow to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a beleaguered system reeling from a string of scandals.

Prison oversight by federal judges is not unheard of. But experts said placing day-to-day operation of an entire correctional system under an outsider may be unprecedented.

Henderson requested a meeting with the governor and expressed "disappointment and concern" over the administration's "noncompliance" with some of his earlier orders.

The San Francisco-based judge said he is particularly disturbed by a renegotiated labor pact between the state and the prison guards' union. That agreement, struck last month, deferred raises for corrections officers but granted the union new powers, protections and benefits worth millions.

[DBoon]

1. Welcome to politics

Mr. Actor

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. An aside....

What would $6,000,000,000 do for education in California? :think:

[Hekate]

3. The prison system has expanded exponentially...

...the education system hardly at all, despite the soaring population. Parents in affluent public school districts can pay hundreds of dollars a year out of pocket to keep art, music, drama, and sports alive. Parents in poor school districts do without that and a whole lot more.

Every election cycle we get the same ol' same ol' from presidential candidates down to dogcatcher about how much they value quality education for all our kids. They (and apparently the voters) just don't want to have to pay for it. Teachers should be grateful (they think) to work for salaries that make buying a house unaffordable. Textbooks should never wear out or become obsolete. Extra-bright kids don't need any extra attention: they can make it on their own. Music and art are frills, but a threat to cancel team sports for boys usually gets people's attention.

I've concluded that what society truly values it finds a way to pay for. So I'm guessing my fella Murkins (and fella Californians) must value prisons a whole lot more than public education, they just don't know it yet. :grr:

Hekate