L.A. Builds Expensive New Jail, Can't Afford to Use It

In a nice example of the Austrian economics analysis of long-term capital expenses that unravel into uselessness when expected economic conditions don't bear out, Los Angeles has spent $74 million on a new jail that it now can't afford to use. Details and links over at my California news and politics blog "City of Angles."

The Reason Foundation has its own advice to California's prison system for cost-cutting: try more public-private partnerships. Not arresting the nearly 19,000 (in 2008, last year for which I could find figures) in the state for strictly drug-related "crimes" would help a lot as well.