Finance and Corrections officials won’t release records on cost estimates for state prisons to comply with rules to protect workers from indoor heat. Prisons have been exempted from the regulations that are in the works.More than a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration delayed a workplace indoor heat rule because it might be too expensive for the state prison system, state officials are refusing to release records showing how they made that decision.
In response, the department said withholding the records is justified under “the Governor’s and Director of Finance’s deliberative process privilege.” The prison cost concerns delayed a proposed rule that was already arriving five years past a deadline set by lawmakers, in part because of a lengthy economic impact analysis required by state law. But in public statements in March, neither Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer nor Corrections spokesperson Albert Lundeen provided a breakdown of estimated costs.