Ray Samuels, a police officer for 33 years and Chief of Police in Newark, California, for 5 years, recently expressed concern that state budget cuts will prevent important crime-fighting measures from being passed, while an expensive death penalty continues to drain the state's finances. In an op-ed in the Contra Costa Times, Samuels wrote:
Local jurisdictions are likely to lose a significant amount of state funding this year because of the severe financial crisis. This funding helps cities and counties provide essential services in the areas of public safety, emergency services, and health and children's services. Without it, our communities will no doubt suffer dire consequences. At the same time, we continue to waste hundreds of millions on the state's dysfunctional death penalty. If we replaced the death penalty with a sentence of permanent imprisonment, the state would save more than $125 million each year. We haven't had an execution in California for three years. Are we any less safe as a result? I don't think so.
Two California legislators from opposing political parties and with different points of view on the death penalty have proposed cutting funding for a new $395 million death row at San Quentin Prison. “The Death Row expansion is a bottomless money pit,” said Republican state Senator Jeff Denham. Democratic Assemblyman Jared Huffman added, “We should use this opportunity, with the state running out of cash, to step back and rethink this project.” Calling the renovation project, “Cadillac Death Row,” Huffman pointed to a state auditor’s report that found the cost of the project had already increased by $40 million over earlier estimates and the 20-year operating cost would be $1.2 billion. Huffman predicted that the new facility would run out of space by 2014, adding, “This project is hugely expensive and has a shelf life of three years.” 
