California Scraps Plans for 'Cadillac' Death Row
The trickle down from the financial crisis continues to wreak havoc on America, and the latest victim is our collective blood lust. The governor of broke ass California decided that building a $356 million, awe-inspiring new Death Row at San Quentin wasn't fiscally responsible. As it turns out, the construction costs, on top of just running the place, got way out of hand. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The new, bigger Death Row had a projected construction cost of $356 million, an amount that had grown from an original estimate of $220 million in 2003. The costs were criticized in several reports by state officials, and the state auditor estimated the state would spend $1.2 billion on additional staffing to operate the new Death Row over the next 20 years.
Bummer, brah. However the overall sentiment seems to be "good riddance," from both Republicans and Democrats in the state. Oh, but leave it to a Republican to say this: "Death Row was never supposed to be a long-term retirement home. Perhaps if the governor, particularly during his first tour of duty, had focused more on implementing the death penalty rather than undercutting it, we wouldn't have all these people still living on Death Row," State Sen. Joel Anderson told the paper.
[San Quentin, image via Getty]