GUARDING THE TRUTH ABOUT STATE PRISON

While everyone's interest is focused on Washington these days, one of the
simmering issues that may soon come to the fore in California's election is
the brutality of the psion guards at Corcoran State Prison. We're told "60
Minutes" is planning a piece on Corcoran, where 43 inmates were wounded and
seven were killed by officers from 1989 to 1995. The political dimensions
of this touch on attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren,
whose office did a limited investigation of Corcoran that produced no
criminal charges. Two months ago, the Los Angeles Times did an exhaustive
piece concluding that probes by Lungren and Gov. Pete Wilson's
administration had "whitewashed" allegations of brutality at the central
California prison.

Some cases were hair-raising indeed. The Times reported Corcoran guards had
put a 120-pound inmate into the same cell as a 230-pound inmate "enforcer"
known as the "Booty Bandit," who raped him repeatedly. The assaulted
inmate's sin: He had kicked a female guard.

A federal grand jury has since indicted eight officers on charges of setting
up inmate fights. It's still inclear how much attention "60 Minutes" will
devote to the attorney general's investigation. But we understand there is
concern in the Lungren camp that the CBS piece by veteran reporter Mike
Wallace could be negative. Our sources and the Times piece suggest that
Lungren's office and corrections investigators did have reports of the
"Booty Bandit" incident and were unable to make the case. Lungren,
meanwhile, has defended his probe, calling the criticism "a bunch of crap"
and saying he didn't want to interfere with a federal investigation taking
place at the same time. "There was a thorough and complete investigation,
and the legislative hearings bear that out," said Department of Justice
communications director Rob Stutzman.

Checked-by: Don Beck