This is a giant black hole. It's a never-ending gravitational force that'll
continue to suck away money that should be spent on local government, education, health and human services and higher education.
-- California State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) (below left), commenting on news of the escalating costs of the prison system, already "representing about 10 percent of" the "roughly $100 billion" in the state's general fund. At the center of the story, a planned new Death Row at San Quentin will cost $395.5 million, $40 million more than initially estimated, and "could run out of space soon after it is completed." The San Quentin penitentiary, just north of San 
Francisco, houses nearly all the state's 635 condemned persons; depicted above right is its Condemned Inmate Housing, East Block. (credit)
Francisco, houses nearly all the state's 635 condemned persons; depicted above right is its Condemned Inmate Housing, East Block. (credit)Since resumption of capital punishment 3 decades ago California -- about whose capital punishment ambivalence we posted here -- has executed 14 persons.
