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Long Beach Press Telegram
Prison-Guard Abuse - An Example of Political Favoritism Gone Wild

DATE: April 1, 2004

There are few special interests with more clout in Sacramento, and few that hold the tax- paying public in greater contempt, than the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Back in the Davis days, the union wielded so much power that the ex-governor gave it a sweetheart contract increasing pay by an outrageous 37 percent over the course of five years.

State finance officials estimate that, in total, that deal will cost taxpayers $2 billion _ this at a time when the state budget is badly busted and Sacramento threatens to raise taxes, slash vital programs or both.

Then there's the $220 million Death Row facility the state has planned for San Quentin, much to the union's delight, and a law that makes it hard for private, nonunion prisons to open new facilities in California.

So, for all the generosity the state's taxpayers have heaped on the prison guards union, the least that might be expected is a little loyalty and integrity in return, right?

Obviously not.

State investigators looking into allegations of abuse in state penitentiaries have run into a brick wall _ the guards' "code of silence' and refusal to cooperate.

A confidential California Youth Authority report, obtained by the Associated Press, finds that four employees who witnessed beatings at Stockton's N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility gave information that was "misleading' and "factually false.'

And in an investigation of the Super Bowl Sunday death of an inmate at Corcoran State Prison, only about 12 out of 50 employees would talk to investigators.

This is unconscionable.

State prison guards are paid too well, and the work they do is too important, to tolerate such violations of the public trust. Whether it requires a change in law or the guards' contract or both, Sacramento must act quickly to bring this out-of-control special interest to heel.

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