Panel Rejects Prison Funding

A Senate budget subcommittee is stripping money intended to build California´s first new prison since 1995. The committee says the maximum-security Delano Two facility is unnecessary as the state´s prison population falls. Committee members also are restoring money for five community correctional facilities Governor Davis has promised to close. The Davis administration says it will fight to have the subcommittee´s decisions reversed during budget negotiations this spring.