New Execution Chamber Infuriates Lawmakers

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/14/526/

New Execution Chamber Infuriates Lawmakers
Facility at San Quentin Was Built quietly
by Mark Martin

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration has quietly built a new execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison, prompting angry lawmakers who learned about the construction just this week to accuse the governor of hiding the project from the Legislature and the public.Prison officials began construction in January after concluding it would cost $399,000 — just under the $400,000 that would have required legislative approval, according to an administration document obtained Friday by The Chronicle.

The new death chamber is being finished as the state’s use of capital punishment is under review by a federal court, and lawmakers have yet to authorize a larger construction project to revamp the prison’s entire Death Row.

“To sneak a project like this through is just outrageous,” said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, whose Marin County district includes San Quentin. “We will find out what kind of creative accounting they’ve done.”

Jim Tilton, Schwarzenegger’s secretary for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said he had a good reason for not informing lawmakers — he was unaware of the project.

In an interview late Friday afternoon, Tilton said he was aware that the corrections staff was discussing whether to build a new death chamber in response to a ruling in December by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel that the state’s haphazard process for administering capital punishment could be considered unconstitutional. But Tilton said he had not been told that construction had begun.

“I hate to admit it, but I don’t know everything that’s going on in the department,” he said. “Folks (in the department) weren’t sensitive to the history of this project. Had I known there was a conclusion, I would have passed it on.”

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[sharp_stick]

1. The thing I wonder most about with this

is how in the hell can something like this cost 400,000? I mean in essence it will be 3 or 4 rooms with soundproofing and it cost's twice as much as a house or about the price of a condo in San Francisco.

I really have to become a Government contractor, those guys just rake it in.

[dysfunctional press]

2. does california still use the gas chamber...?

i could see the construction costs for a cyanide-gas chamber being in the half-million dollar range- there's a lot of specialized/safety considerations....and by the time you consider architect's drawings, materials and labor- $400,000 is probably too low- which is why they want to look at what kind of "creative accounting" was used.