Which Way, L.A.?

Crisis at the State-s Correctional System

State legislators have been taking a hard look at California-s prisons, after reports of beatings, suicides and a -code of silence- that protects prison guards. Now, the legislators are up in arms, because they weren-t told about a -state of emergency,- called earlier this month to allow prisoners to be shifted from one facility to another. Prison officials say there-s a temporary increase in their population, but some lawmakers suspect an effort to avoid cuts and get more prison funding. Warren Olney talks with State Senator Gloria Romero, a representative of the state prison employees' union and a reporter from the Los Angeles Times who covers the prisons and criminal justice. Reporter-s Notebook: Mexican Treats Contaminated with Lead The Orange County Register interviewed some 500 people, got 6,000 pages of government records, and conducted 425 tests of its own. The results showed that 112 kinds of candy, made mostly in Mexico, contain dangerous levels of lead. Bill Heisel is part of an investigative team reporting the six-part, front-page series.