This is becoming a recurring theme for me.

Penny wise and pound foolish. That seems like a good description of the problem we have right now in terms of our prison system. Governor Schwarzenegger is asking for $10.9B to expand the prison system in California. The state's 33 prisons are bulging at the seams, filled to almost twice their capacity and the system is under orders from a federal judge to do something about the overcrowding or the court system will. Additionally, the healthcare services are so abyssmal that after multiple warnings to the state, with no improvement, a federal receiver is now running the show.

The Governor says that Californians have "lived in denial" about the crisis in the state's prisons and that due to this apathy, the State legislature lacks the will to address the ever-mounting problems.

I say that if we don't invest in an ounce of prevention early on to divert the future residents of the bulging Califorina prison system, then we get stuck with a bill for $10.9B. And then there's no money for the ounce of prevention.

Let's break the cycle once and for all and invest some real money in some real programs that reach out to the real intended audience.

Schwarzenegger said the prison problem is not "sexy," because it does not affect people's lives directly, as schools or transportation issues do. I say it affects everyone's lives because by not diverting future inmates and providing them opportunities to become useful members of society, we end up with a prison mess on our hands which takes dollars away from schools or transportation or environmental or other issues we care about.

We can't just keep locking them up....

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive