Candidates to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as California governor have laid out opposing visions to the Sacramento Bee on how to fix the broken state corrections system. Two Republicans, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, rejected proposals that would let inmates out early or keep some parole violators out of prison. They called for building more prisons to relieve overcrowding and sending inmates to other states with surplus bed space.
Democrat Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, and Republican Tom Campbell, former congressman, support reworking prison and parole guidelines to divert more inmates into parole and keeping some parole violators out of prison. Attorney General Jerry Brown, another likely candidate, has been harshly critical of a prison system he said grew as a result of media-driven fears and profiteering by private corrections companies and prison guards.