Prison Population Down, Payroll Up:  As the prison population drops 38 percent, the payroll costs for the CDCR have increased 5.3 percent, resulting in one third of officers earning more than $100,000 a year due to an increase in overtime hours worked.  Joel Hoffman of UT San Diego reports that overtime shifts have become a necessity due to a wave of retirements as well as recruitment classes slashed during budget crises.  Currently, four training academies are operating and are expected to generate 7,000 new recruits in the next three years to remedy the disparity.

CA's Death Row Runs out of Room:  Governor Jerry Brown is seeking $3.2 million from the California legislature for the addition of 100 cells for condemned inmates at San Quentin State Prison because the state's death row has run out of room.  Paige St. John of the LA Times reports that the death row population has increased steadily, from 646 inmates in 2006 to the current 751, and an average of 20 new death row arrivals are anticipated in each upcoming year.  Expanding death row is not out of the realm of possibility being that the prison's general population has decreased with the passage of AB 109 and Prop. 47.  Critics of the proposal emphasize Gov. Brown's failure to take steps to resume executions.

Fetal Homicide Debate Continues in CO:  Heated debates continue in Colorado over a fetus' legal rights after the brutal attack of an 8-month-pregnant woman, whose unborn child died when it was cut from her body, failed to result in a homicide charge.  Ivan Moreno and Nicholas Riccardi of the AP report that the state of Colorado has rejected fetal homicide proposals twice, fearing they could interfere with abortion rights.  Current law states that a person can face a murder charge in the death of a fetus "only if there is evidence that it survived apart from its mother."  In this case, there was no such evidence.