EDITORIAL CORRECTIONS NEEDED.

ONLY the state of California could find a way to pay laborers a dismal 40 cents an hour, and still manufacture products at above-market prices.

But such is the state of California's Prison Industry Authority, which pays inmates wages that would make sweatshop overlords jealous, but still can't seem to give other state agencies a good price on basic purchases.

Buy a notebook at Staples; it's a buck. Buy it from the PIA, and it's $2.35. Ditto for the $770 desk, which goes for $462 online.

And all state agencies are, of course, legally required to buy most goods from the overpriced and marked-up PIA commissary.

In fact, the PIA is a pretty good representative of the entire state prison system: It costs too much, and delivers too little.

Efficiency is a rather rare commodity in state government, but nowhere more so than in the Department of Corrections, where costs are always on the rise, even though the inmate population is in decline.

The union representing prison guards, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, is one of the most powerful special interests in Sacramento. It was one of former Gov. Gray Davis' most generous contributors, and it enjoyed free reign during the pay-to-play days of his administration.

Two years ago, Davis agreed to close five of the state's private, minimum-security prisons. The facilities, which used nonunionized labor, were regarded as cheap competition by the union, and so they went, regardless of the savings they offered the state.

But the biggest giveaway came when Davis signed off on a contract that gave CCPOA members an average pay increase of 30.2 percent over four years. Thanks to that deal, the typical prison guard will be paid $65,000 a year by the end of 2006 - and that's not including overtime and other incentives.

Davis' deals with CCPOA continue to mount their toll.

Among the steep expenses is the state's ongoing plan to build a new Death Row facility at San Quentin for an astronomical $220 million. With 622 people living on Death Row, that comes to a price tag of more than $350,000 an inmate - hardly a shining example of government cost-efficiency.

Yet for all the money the state's taxpayers heap onto the prison industry, the results have been less than spectacular, as has the oversight.

A dangerous code of silence continues among prison guards and management, and last year the state held hearings on corruption among the investigators who serve as the Department of Corrections' equivalent of internal affairs officers.

The ultimate result is that Californians are spending more than ever on prisons, while getting ever less in return in terms of services and accountability. If there were any single state agency screaming for a comprehensive audit and reform, the Department of Corrections would be it.

The pocket change state agencies waste on their mandated PIA purchases is just the beginning. California needs a comprehensive review of how its prisons are run, how its prison guards are compensated and how the state can stop bleeding money in this area. It's also worth investigating why there is such a high recidivism rate among ex-convicts.

California's Department of Corrections needs correction - and fast.