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NOMINEE PROMISES `REAL REFORM'
SACRAMENTO - With the state's prison system in turmoil, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday named Jeanne Woodford, the longtime warden of San Quentin, to head the Department of Corrections.
``Her proven ability to lead will be instrumental in bringing about the necessary changes in California's prison system,'' Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
Woodford, 50, takes over for Edward Alameida, who in December resigned the $123,000-a-year job overseeing 32 adult prisons with 160,000 inmates.
Alameida's abrupt departure was just one in a series of problems to hit the nation's largest prison system. Last month, a court-appointed investigator found that the system has ``lost control'' of its ability to investigate and discipline guards for abusing inmates and is in need of major reforms. The federal court monitor also said Alameida had scuttled an internal investigation under pressure from the prison guard union.
Woodford, the second woman to lead the department, said she is looking forward to helping Schwarzenegger ``re-establish public confidence in California's prison system through real reform.''
A Democrat from Benicia, Woodford has spent virtually her entire career at San Quentin, rising from officer in 1978 to warden in 1999. She has a bachelor of arts in criminal justice from Sonoma State University.
Her appointment requires Senate confirmation. Senate President Pro-Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, praised Woodford for bringing educational and other programs to inmates.
Said Burton: ``When she was up for confirmation as warden, everybody from the guards to the prisoners to prisoners' families to even some of the victims thought she was just terrific.''
Burton also noted Woodford had helped name the prison library after his late brother Robert, who taught reading at San Quentin for 20 years.
Lance Corcoran, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, also spoke highly of Woodford, saying she would bring a forward-looking management style to the department.
But San Francisco attorney John Scott, who has brought a number of lawsuits against the corrections department, said under Woodford's regime violent and non-violent inmates have been mixed together -- leading to altercations. ``I would hope she would be able to do a better job running the department than she has running San Quentin,'' he said.
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