24 United States The EconomistOctober 26th 2019
1S
ome studentsmight celebrate a can-
celled class. Not Mekhala Hoskote, a
medical student at the University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley, which cancelled classes
on October 9th because of a lack of electric-
ity. She still had exams to prepare for. “I
considered going back to my parents’,” she
says. “But it wasn’t a guarantee that they
would have power too.”
On October 23rd the Pacific Gas and
Electric Company (pg&e) cut power to over
180,000 homes and businesses in northern
California. That came just two weeks after a
blackout that left 2m people, including Ms
Hoskote, without power. The firm, which
in January declared bankruptcy because of
$30bn in liabilities from last year’s wild-
fires, said it had to cut power to prevent
new fires from breaking out. pg&ehas a
monopoly over its coverage area, and Cali-
fornians are livid. But there may not be
much they can do.
pg&eis the largest utility company in
the state, serving 16m people across a
70,000-square-mile service area in north-
ern and central California. Two other in-
vestor-owned utilities—Southern Califor-
nia Edison and San Diego Gas and
Electric—distribute power to the majority
of customers through the rest of the state,
both serving southern California. Subject
to state regulation, each operates in effect
as a regional monopoly in its coverage area.
Historically, the rationale for the mo-
nopoly status of utilities across America
has been that large capital and infrastruc-
ture investments are needed. Billions are
spent to set up transformers, poles and
transmission and distribution lines. Com-
panies that could scale up to large areas
could also provide power at lowest cost.
Much of the south-east, north-west and the
west outside California have vertically in-
tegrated markets, where utilities manage
the entire flow of electricity to consumers.
In California generation, transmission and
retail services are split up. Generation is
competitive, but distribution is not.
Some cities in the Golden State have
tried to break up monopolies by taking over
power distribution themselves, says
Charles Kolstad of Stanford University.
Sacramento, Palo Alto and Los Angeles all
have municipal utilities. In September San
Francisco offered to buy pg&e’s infrastruc-
ture for $2.5bn. San Jose’s mayor has also
said he is exploring a similar proposal.
But pg&erejected both bids, despite itsWhy California can’t quit PG&ECalifornia’s blackoutsPower struggle
B
efore thejail on Rikers Island opened
in 1935, the New York Daily Newsreport-
ed that prisoners “will have the privilege of
serving their time in the finest and most
up-to-date penitentiary in the United
States.” The island jail was anything but.
Within a few years of its opening the island
was overrun with rats, overcrowded, filthy
and dangerous. Violence among the in-
mates was common; the guards did not
hold back much either.
Over the years Rikers has housed Tupak
Shakur, a rapper, Sid Vicious, a punk rock-
er, David Berkowitz, a serial killer, Mark Da-
vid Chapman, who murdered John Len-
non, as well as thousands of murderers,
drug dealers, thieves, and the many too
poor to get bail. But on October 17th Rikers
got its own final sentence. New York’s city
council voted to close the jail for good in- That fulfils a promise made by Bill de
Blasio, the mayor, in 2017, to close the jail
within a decade.
Attempts to improve conditions at Rik-
ers have largely failed. Mr de Blasio ended
solitary confinement for juvenile offend-
ers and last year removed them altogether.
But huge problems remain. Sewage regu-
larly backs up and some of the buildings
lack air-conditioning, which in summer is
dangerous as well as unpleasant. Visitors
can reach the island only by a single bus
route and a bridge, making it hard for fam-
ilies to visit locked-up relatives. Deaths
and abuse persist: after an investigation in
2014 Preet Bharara, then a federal attorney,
reported that there was a “culture of vio-
lence” on the island.
Some 80% of the inmates have not been
convicted of any crime. Rikers, like most
jails in America, holds people awaiting
trial or serving short sentences. Half the in-
mates suffer from mental illness. Many
wait months or even years for a court hear-
ing. Kalief Browder was just 16 years old
when he was arrested for allegedly stealing
a backpack. Because he could not pay bail,
he spent nearly three years inside, with
months in solitary confinement, as his
hearings were repeatedly delayed. The
teenager was beaten by staff and other in-
mates. In 2015 he killed himself. His story,
told in the New Yorker magazine, helped
launch the campaign to close the island.
Rikers will be replaced by four smaller
jails, with 3,300 beds, spread across four
boroughs. That is far fewer beds than the
old jail. In 1991 it housed more than 22,000
people a night. Even today, after a quarter-
century of falling crime, it still holds
around 7,000. But the city thinks that the
jail population will continue to fall, thanks
to the loosening of drug laws and the near
elimination of cash bail.
As well as being better built, the new
jails will be closer to courthouses, to public
transport and the inmates’ own communi-
ties. Julio Medina, whose charity, Exodus,
helps former prisoners avoid going back in,
says the new jails are “an opportunity to
change the way we incarcerate and look at
justice”. Mr Medina, a former Rikers in-
mate himself, is thrilled that “the ware-
house of violence” is closing.
What happens to the island is still to be
decided. Some suggest making it part of
nearby LaGuardia airport. Some politicians
want to use it for a water waste-treatment
plant. But the island’s panoramic views of
the Manhattan skyline could easily attract
property developers. In the end, the city
may prefer to cell up. 7NEW YORK
One of America’s most notorious jails
is to close in 2026Rikers Island prisonTorture Island’s
final sentence
Now a jail, next, who knows?