Jerry Brown: Supreme Court Ruling on Prisons Means We Need More Taxes

Imagine my surprise:

A week after increased revenue estimates looked to frustrate Gov. Jerry Brown's case for higher taxes, a Supreme Court ruling requiring California to reduce its prison population may help.

Brown said in a prepared statement that shifting certain offenders from state prisons to county facilities, as Brown proposes in his budget, is "key" to implementing the court's order today that California reduce its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates.

"We must now secure full and constitutionally guaranteed funding to put into effect all the realignment provisions," he said, a reference to his bid for a ballot measure extending higher taxes.

He must be getting some serious heat from the prison guard's union who fear that releasing prisoners will cost some of their members their jobs. I'm sure Brown's concern has nothing to do with public safety. As a general rule Democrats don't care much for keeping people in jail except for the benefits it provides the unions.