California-s prison system is the nation-s largest--and dangerously overcrowded. For 25 years, it-s had an unwritten policy of segregating incoming and transferring prisoners by race and ethnicity. While the Department of Corrections has defended the practice as a safety measure, the US Supreme Court now agrees with the Bush Administration that California-s prison system may be violating the Constitution. The decision-s being hailed as a victory for constitutional rights and denounced as a recipe for chaos and violence. We hear what-s in store for the future inside prison walls from Democrat Gloria Romero, Majority Leader of the State Senate, who-s conducted a series of public hearings on state prison conditions, the head of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, and constitutional law expert Eugene Volokh.
- Reporter-s Notebook: California Gets Low Marks in Study of State Governments
LA Times- Sacramento columnist George Skelton writes in today-s paper, -California government has hit rock bottom. State governments don-t get any worse-anywhere.- That-s his reading of a report on Governing by Congressional Quarterly, a rigorously nonpartisan magazine in Washington. The Co-Editor of the project is Richard Greene.
US Supreme Court on Johnson v California
Grading the States
2005 State of the States
Skelton's LA Times column on California's State governments rating
California Performance Review
California Legislative Analyst's Office
