Editorial: Steinberg’s Inmate Reduction Proposal Has ‘Merit,’ Brown Should Drop His Prison Plan

A Los Angeles Times editorial argues that Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg's (D-Sacramento) plan to comply with a federal court-ordered reduction of the state prison population by seeking a three-year extension of the order and putting more money toward drug and mental health treatment for inmates has "real merit." However, Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) plan to curb the prison population -- which would spend more than $1 billion over the next three years to move about 9,600 state inmates to private prisons and other facilities -- "would raid the state's reserve fund" and "reopen more prison cells, but not enough to keep ahead of an increasing number of inmates," according to the editorial. It concludes, "Brown should drop his plan, take a cue from Steinberg and give the court, and California, sustainable criminal justice reform."

• "Stop the Foot-Dragging on the Prisons, Gov. Brown" (Los Angeles Times, 8/29).