|
CENTER ON JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PRESS ROOM | |
| http://www.cjcj.org/index.php |
| Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 54 Dore Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 | Tel: (415) 621-5661 | Fax: (415) 621-5466 |
John Hagar, a special master appointed by a federal court, wants to hold public hearings to investigate whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has retreated from court-ordered prison reform efforts in the face of attacks by the prison guards union. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who appointed Hagar in 1995 to oversee reform, should grant that request.
An investigation is needed, says Hagar, because "no one is talking." It would be a good thing to have top officials in the governor's office and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation testify under oath about the status of court-ordered prison reforms.
In an Aug. 22 report, Hagar asserted that significant reform efforts in 2004-2005 have been stymied since the hiring of Susan Kennedy as Schwarzenegger's chief of staff. In January, he wrote, she began meeting regularly with the prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, without informing the corrections secretary.
When the governor was preparing his bond package, the chief of staff, wrote Hagar, "did not communicate" with the corrections secretary nor involve him in critical meetings about prison bonds.
No Cabinet secretary with an ounce of professionalism or integrity would stand for such treatment. That may explain why two corrections secretaries and other high-level managers have resigned while Schwarzenegger has been in office.
Hagar believes "prison reform ground to a halt" following a February lunch between Kennedy and the president of the CCPOA. These are weighty charges and should be investigated with an active fact-finding process and individuals testifying under oath.
The original 1995 trial had revealed just how much the CCPOA, rather than the department, runs California's prisons. There was hope of real reform in the first two years of Schwarzenegger's term. The governor's office and corrections, in a major change of policy, began to deal with the union as other agencies do with other unions: through the normal "meet and confer" process with the Office of Labor Relations. The special master lists 22 pages of successful reforms during those two years -- all implemented despite CCPOA resistance.
For example, when a prison officer reported staff misconduct to the warden at one prison, the local union president hung a rat trap and a note, "the CCPOA will attempt to catch them."
Some tactics were downright juvenile. CCPOA leaders hung mocking posters of Schwarzenegger and corrections officials to embarrass and publicly humiliate them. The aim, writes the special master, was to "terrorize California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees so they will not report, or attempt to correct, inappropriate behavior by CCPOA leaders."
This culture of silence, intimidation and undue influence perpetuated by the union needs to be publicly exposed and documented. A paper trail needs to be established, so new, serious solutions can be considered.
The special master is right to be concerned about the pace of reform and right to call for a full investigation. Henderson should order the public hearings and Hagar should get them under way soon.
| This site and its contents © 2002 Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice |