The Sacramento Bee has this story on its editorial board's interview with governor candidate Meg Whitman:

She also said she would "take a whack" at reining in the state's prison costs, including moving prisoners to other states and cutting prison health care costs.

She added that she would seek pension reforms for prison guards, while other public safety employees would be exempt from such changes. Whitman also said she could see building another prison if elected governor but would try to avoid building a new "death row" prison.

As we have noted previously on this blog, California does not need a new death row.  It needs to reduce the occupancy of the existing row by carrying out more of the judgments in a more timely manner.  One of the main reasons we haven't is the failure of Ms. Whitman's opponent, present AG Jerry Brown, to apply for the fast track on federal habeas that California has long qualified for but never received.

Cutting health care costs is going to be a problem, given that the system is presently being run by a czar rather than the elected government.  It can probably be done with improvements to efficiency, though, while still maintaining a constitutionally adequate standard of care.  Whether the federal court will understand that "constitutionally adequate" does not equal "best practices" remains to be seen.