Prison Said Too Expensive, Not Needed

The chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee plans to call for the state to halt plans to build a new maximum security prison at Delano.

Senator Richard Polanco says the state doesn´t need and can´t afford another prison. He and other lawmakers plan to call for a series of Department of Corrections budget cuts during a news conference Tuesday.

That´s a day before Polanco chairs a budget subcommittee to consider roughly one million dollars in new prison pre-construction money sought in democratic Governor Gray Davis´ proposed budget. But a spokesman for the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency says more than 9-thousand maximum-security inmates are not in maximum-security facilities. Steve Green says that spells safety concerns both for inmates and prison employees.