CORCORAN SHOWS THAT CALIFORNIA'S PRISON SYSTEM MUST CHANGE

WE have concluded six days of hearings on the abuses which occurred at
California's Corcoran State Prison. They served to blow the cover off
an awful situation and to generate public awareness and changes such
that the system will never again be the same.

The power and authority to incarcerate persons is one of the most
profound responsibilities our society gives to any public agency. So
we have a right to expect, and an obligation to assure, that this
power is exercised always with absolute openness and integrity, always
in the promotion of public safety.

The Department of Corrections' abject failure to exercise this power
responsibly has been a failure of leadership that has allowed a
culture to grow and operate which tolerates prison brutality. That
leadership cannot be allowed to continue.

The vast majority of prison inmates will serve their time and then be
released back into our communities. Promoting public safety demands
the Department of Corrections does not cause inmates to return into
our midst more dangerous than when first incarcerated.

The hearings uncovered the fact that the California Department of
Corrections has used lethal force in an unnecessary, unjustified
manner unprecedented in American corrections. During the same five
years (1989-94) California -- with 100,000 inmates -- shot and killed
more than 30 inmates, the other 49 states plus the Federal Bureau of
Prisons -- 700,000 inmates -- killed a total of six. Of those six,
five were killed trying to escape; of our 30, none was killed trying
to escape.

The department's top administrators failed to stop the abuses which
were ongoing, seemingly endemic throughout the department. We cannot
abide the fact that not one of these corrections professionals had the
integrity and courage to come forward to say, ``Stop the killing.''
Prison employees who had the courage to formally object to what was
going on at Corcoran were harassed, threatened and investigated until
their lives were made hellish. They were forced to leave the department.

The fatal third strike here is the pattern of inaction and cover-up
which is now bared for all to recognize. Many persons in the
department knew and did nothing about these situations -- whether
fatal shootings, setting up of fights, using an inmate rapist as
enforcer or open harassment of whistle-blowers.

Such a pattern of killings and brutality is the manifestation of a
sick organization. The state of California must recognize that what is
wrong with our prison system has to do with its very culture: its
values, beliefs, expectations, practices.

We have a long difficult task ahead of us, for we're dealing here with
a deeply ingrained culture, a culture that does not readily admit
change. Yet change it we must, as a matter of public concern for safety.

I propose this comprehensive agenda for reform of our California
prison system:

The Legislature must continue, even increase, its oversight of the
department.

The Legislature and governor must undertake a concerted, comprehensive
commitment to change the culture of our prison system.

Our state and people should consider the emerging belief that violence
is a learned rather than innate behavior.

The Legislature and administration should convene a summit of national
leaders of correctional systems, to review our prison operations.

New leadership (apart from the current director of the corrections
department) is needed, persons with fine vision and values, who can
provide effective leadership to change the culture and reform the
system accordingly.

We must open our prison system to public scrutiny, with the current
restriction on access by public media to be revoked
immediately.

We must implement an effective interdependent tripartite system of
assessment and accountability (enacted in legislation this session)
including an internal affairs operation responsible to the Director of
Corrections, a series of prison ombudspersons, and an independent
inspector general.

We must immediately change the department's lethal force policy to
forbid its use except as the last resort. We must also prohibit
integration of prisoners from warring factions.

We must upgrade psychological testing and educational preparation for
personnel employed in our prison system.

We must enact far more assured protections for whistle-blowers.

We ought to require the corrections department to report within 30
days to the Legislature on the status of each of the many consent
decrees and judgments.

We should provide public apology and acknowledge the debt of gratitude
owed to the staff persons at Corcoran Prison who had the integrity and
courage to bring these problems forward.

The department should initiate programs of collaboration with inmates
and their families, such that inmates are enabled to lead constructive
lives on the outside.

We must re-examine public policies that have led to the explosive,
expensive growth of our prison system.

We must provide time for better management of the growth of the
population of our prison system.

This is an abridged version of closing statements made by State Sen.
John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, following four months of legislative
hearings which concluded in October. The hearings were held by the
select committee on prison management and public safety. Since then,
the corrections department has revised its policy on use of deadly
force, saying it will be allowed only if an armed inmate is inflicting
serious injury on another prisoner or prison employee.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry