COOLING-OFF PERIOD URGED ON PRISONS

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The tremendous growth of California's prison system has
stressed administrators, guards and inmates alike, and the prisons need a
cooling off period to get better organized, a former Corrections Department
director testified Tuesday.

The comments came during a joint legislative hearing into allegations of
abuse of inmates by guards and an official cover-up at Corcoran State Prison.

In recommending a growth cooling-off period, former department director
James Gomez said. "Let this system settle down. Stop the growth ... they
(prison officials) need to have an opportunity to settle down as a
department to go out and do policy and procedure reviews, to get back to
the basics of running the system," said Gomez, who headed the department
when many of the alleged abuses occurred.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski