"You Are Not A Number ... You Feel Like A Human Being'

"It blew all of our minds." -- California prison inmate transferred to Tennessee to relieve overcrowding, happy about his new home.

The Times' Jenifer Warren uncovered an incredible promotional video produced by California prison officials that extols the virtues of prisons in other states. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the transfer of thousands of prisoners to relieve overcrowding, but only about 600 have volunteered. The video is designed, as one union official said, to make California inmates believe they are headed on a cruise vacation. It's another remarkable admission from state officials about the Dickensian conditions in California.

Accompanied by music straight from a 1950s employee training filmstrip, the California inmates are seen praising "their new surroundings, including the food, the staff, the recreation and the job and education opportunities," she writes. "Footage shows inmates lounging in roomy cells with views, playing basketball and chess, lining up for hot meals and chatting amiably with smiling officers. Inmates of different races mingle — something unheard of on a California prison yard — and one convict marvels that 'we've already had dental exams,' which are hard to come by behind bars in the Golden State."