THE CALIFORNIA Legislature is scheduled to adjourn for the year Thursday. State lawmakers must not consider taking off for the campaign trail without acting on these four bills, each of which appears to be in a precarious state going into the final week of the session.

These bills need to be passed this year:

AB 1800, by Assemblywoman Helen Thomson, D-Davis. This bill addresses the cycle of despair that characterizes the current system for dealing with the severely mentally ill. All too often, people with such illnesses are left sitting in jails or on the streets without treatment -- or even recognizing that they need help. The Thomson bill would broaden the definition of "gravely disabled" to give hearing officers greater latitude to order such patients to receive treatment. This bill would not force people back into institutions; it would merely give authorities and social workers the legal clout to get the mentally ill into outpatient clinics where they can get the treatment they need to function in society.

The key: Senate President John Burton, D-San Francisco, citing civil liberties concerns, has refused to allow the measure to move out of the Rules Committee.

SB 66, by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles. This bill has been weakened to the point of absurdity. It needs to get back to its simple and common-sense original goal: Requiring law-enforcement agencies to keep a record of the races of people they stop, as a first step toward stopping the insidious practice of racial profiling. The current compromise calls for cops to give their business cards to drivers detained in a traffic stop.

The key: Gov. Gray Davis talks a good game about how much he abhors racial profiling, but he has been standing in the way of a meaningful bill.

SB 1501, by Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland. This bill would bring much-needed regulation to so-called "payday loans" by check-cashing stores, most of which are in low-income neighborhoods. Perata's original bill would limit interest rates and amounts on these loans -- and require the businesses that make these loans to be licensed and bonded by the state. The bill, after clearing the Senate, recently died for lack of a seconding motion in the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee. There will be an effort early this week to revive the proposal on the Assembly floor.

The key: Assemblyman Lou Papan, D-Millbrae, can all but assure its demise if he tries to grab it back to his Banking and Finance Committee, which is openly hostile to the idea.

AB 2101, by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco. This straightforward, three-paragraph bill would assert the right of journalists to find out what is going on in prisons. It would overturn Department of Corrections rules (instituted under Gov. Pete Wilson) that bar prisoners from writing confidential letters to the media and severely limits reporters' ability to talk with prisoners.

Gov. Davis vetoed a similar bill last year, and is threatening to do so again. So Migden offered several amendments to allay his ostensible concerns. For example, one amendment would give wardens the discretion to block interviews that might pose a legitimate security concern. "We've been bending and twisting and contorting" to meet the governor's objections, Migden said. Still, the governor sent word late Friday that he would not accept a compromise.

Move the bill, legislators. If Davis wants to veto this again, he can explain to Californians why he does not want the public to know what goes on in the prisons that are being built and maintained with their tax dollars.

Significantly, this bill is supported by the prison guards. They know that giving inmates access to the outside world can be a valuable tool in prison management.

The key: The governor.