CRIMINAL JUSTICE: HOARY STORIES FROM CALIFORNIA'S STATE PRISONS

Sacramento-While he was chief of staff to Gov. George
Deukmejian,Sacramento attorney Steve Merksamer said,in an oral
history,he worried that a prison riot could start somewhere in
California. Given the massive growth of prisons and the increase in
prisoners incarcerated between 1983 and 1990, his was not an
irrational fear. Luckily for Deukmejian, and indeed for California, no
riot happened on his watch.

It now appears, eight years later, that the Wilson administration has
not been so fortunate. But in a twist, the riots have come not from
the inmates but from some bad apples among correctional officers, men
and women with guns and a license to shoot whose preparation for the
job consists of a high school degree and six weeks of training.

The ultimate question at hand, as raised in recent newspaper articles,
in U.S. Department of Justice indictments of prison guards and in
extensive and sometimes explosive legislative hearings in Sacramento
last week, is whether the Wilson administration, and to a lesser
extent Attorney General Dan Lungren, covered up or whitewashed
allegations of serious wrongdoing in the Department of
Corrections.

No evidence has emerged to tie any coverups either to Wilson or
Lungren, and both Wilson administration officials and Lungren heatedly
deny any such thing. The Department of Corrections concedes there had
been troublesome incidents, but maintains that it took appropriate
disciplinary action against correctional officers who violated rules
and procedures.

But questions remain: Did they punish whistle-blowers and reward
prison officials who contained the damage at Corcoran, described as
the deadliest prison in America? Seven inmates were killed and 43
wounded over a sever-year period at a prison housing some of the
state's most violent and incorrigible prisoners. Seven officers have
been indicted for arranging gladiator-style fights between inmates.

Other investigations are continuing into charges of racial beatings of
inmates by guards, of guard-sanctioned rapes of inmates by other
inmates and of other instances where guards may have used excessive
and deadly force.

There were serious problems in the prisons, especially at Corcoran,
and these problems raised scant concern among top corrections
officials, other than to protect their backsides. Investigation by
local district attorneys were hampered by the refusal of guards to
testify and by insistence that union representatives by present for
all interviews.

Others who witnessed improper behavior testified last week that they
were never interviewed by the appropriate authorities or, if they were
or if they went to the FBI, they were hounded, harassed and threatened
by colleagues and superiors. If there was no coverup or white wash,
there certainly appears to have been a concerted effort by some to
sweep things under the rug.

Prisons are bad places, inhabited by bad people. Correctional officers
have a tough and often dirty job, although their union, which
contributed some $1 million to Wilson and Lungren and more to many
others over the years, has won them rich packages of pay and benefits.
Their pay raises over the past decade far exceed those of other state
workers, indicating that the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association is the favorite union of a famously antiunion governor.
Meanwhile, the public attitude most often appears to be: Put the bad
guys away, do what you have to do and don't bother us with the details.

But the details that have emerged from these articles and hearings are
too outrageous to ignore. It is troubling that poorly trained prison
guards can shoot and beat inmates with seeming impunity; that a rich
and powerful union can successfully quash investigations through its
members' refusal to cooperate; and that higherups in the Department of
Corrections can apparently intimidate the whistle-blowers and ignore
complaints of horrendous behavior until they are forced to acknowledge
them.

Corcoran is a safer place now than it was in the mid-1990s. And Cal
Terhune, the new head of corrections, does seem to be making a
serious effort to clean up the system.

"The biggest mistake California government made." Terhune told The
Sacramento Bee's, "was when the prison boom started, it didn't do one
damn thing for internal affairs. There was a massive staff increase, a
green staff. They made stupid mistakes, and there was no way to
investigate them."

In another meeting with the Bee, Lungren said, "If you ask me how to
prevent it, you start on the front end, not the back end, and put more
money into the prison system. Not just bricks and mortar, but
recruitment and longer training. Six weeks is not sufficient. You need
continuing education and better training of supervisors. It takes money."

Lungren, as a conservative Republican, is thus in the anomalous
position of advocating that we "throw money" at the problem. Alas, it
will take far more than money to cure what ails California prisons.

Checked-by: "Don Beck"