"CALIFORNIA DREAMFifty years ago, California was a promised land where workers could find jobs and their children a state-paid higher education.
Today, it's not quite like that anymore.
Prisons have replaced the university as the state institution of priority. This fiscal year, the state General Fund plans to spend $8.2 billion on corrections – $3 billion more than what's budgeted for the University of California and California State University systems combined."
In fact, California spends more per capita on its prisons than any state of comparable population. In 2007, California devoted nearly $280 to corrections for every man, woman and child in the state. New York spent $191 per resident.
From 1999 to 2007, California spent more than $60 billion incarcerating the state's worst criminals. Over that time, Texas spent $22 billion. New York, $28 billion.