Someone needs to tell the Los Angeles District Attorney's office that the state has a severe budget crisis on its hands. Apparently, the DA is living on Mars and hasn't heard.

Wesley Wheaton is a Canadian citizen recently paroled after serving nine years on a sex offender charge. He's up for deportation. The D.A. is objecting. He wants Wheaton civilly committed to the state mental hospital in California, instead of being sent back to Canada.

If I were a California resident, I'd be pretty angry. If I were Gov. Arnold, I'd pick up the phone and tell this DA to worry about how to solve the state's prison crisis rather than costing the state more money to house those who have done their time and will be saying goodbye to California courtesy of the immigration authorities.

How, you ask, can the state keep offenders in jail after they served their time?

California's Sexually Violent Predator Act, which took effect in 1996, allows judges or juries to commit repeat sex offenders to state hospitals after they finish serving their prison sentences. The process is twofold. After being paroled, an offender is transferred to a county jail, where he is arraigned and then participates in a hearing to determine if there is probable cause to believe he may commit new sexually violent crimes. If probable cause is found, the offender undergoes a full trial to determine whether he should be committed to a hospital for two years.

Canada is willing to take Wheaton back with the requirement that he attend a rehabilitative program.