Democracy - sometimes bad, sometimes good

California's budget problems have been in the news for the past couple of months, but it wasn't until I heard this report by Laura Sullivan on All Things Considered that I paid any attention. What really got to me was the fact that more money is spent on prisons than education in California. That is absolutely amazing to me.

A good deal of the problem is a function of the initiative system, whereby the populace can enact laws via referendum. But, let's face it, sometimes the populace is not what one would desire. They can be motivated by the belief that being tough on crime will make them safer and will punish the bad guys. Thus, several 'get tough on crime' petitions have been passed over the past twenty years. The problem is that as a result of such measures as defining exactly what the penalty for a specific crime is - and avoiding any discretion on the part of a judge - has resulted in an unbelievable growth in the prison population, growth on the order of eight times what is was 20- 30 years ago. Along with the growth has come a leap in the recidivism rate so that almost 75% of the prisoners return to jail.

Another reason why so much money is spent on prisons is our stupid "War on Drugs". Perhaps half of the prison population is there because of drug-related infractions. Why we have this need to control people's behavior continues to rankle.

And, of course, there are the employees of the correction system, one-tenth of whom earn more than $100,000 a year. Their union has been among the major forces in getting the 'tough on crime' referenda passed.

But, there is a democracy movement that is trying to do something about California's problems. Repair California is using the initiative system to get two measures on the 2010 ballot, one to amend the state constitution via a congress of citizens, the other to call the convention. What is interesting about this initiative is that the delegates to the convention will be chosen randomly. I wonder whether the concept of a random selection is catching on as our system of electing legislators and administrators is showing more and more signs of being a failure.