<quote>Davis escalated salaries and benefits for 164,000 state workers, including a 34 percent raise for prison guards, the first of a series of steps in which he and successors saddled California with a legacy of dysfunction</quote>

There's no question that it often feels that "leadership" is lacking from our political leaders. But much of the blame for this situation must be laid at the feet of the voters, who consistently wanted harsher and harsher penalties for criminals without regard to the cost. The prison guards would be much less politically powerful if there were fewer of them, and there would be less need for prison guards if not for idiocies like "three strikes" and mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug crimes.