NO RESTRAINT ON CORRECTIONS

Overtime Budget Is Out Of Control; Legislators Shouldn't Be Shocked

The answer to why the state Department of Corrections is running
nearly a half-billion dollars over budget lies in the records of
overtime pay for 27,000 employees at the state's prisons.

They show that overtime pay remains way out of control, much like the
conduct of some of the guards themselves. Nearly 400 officers, mainly
guards, took home more than $100,000 last year, including overtime
averaging $44,700. Not bad for living in low-cost areas like
Chowchilla, Susanville and Corcoran, where some of the state's 32
prisons are located.

Some legislators will express -- or feign -- shock at the overtime tab
totaling nearly $1 billion over the past four years. They shouldn't.
Gov. Gray Davis and legislators, with barely any dissent, gave the
prison guards' union fat raises and made contractual concessions that
set the state up for a run on the bank. The contract that was ratified
two years ago:

* Gives the guards at least a 37 percent raise over five years,
including an anticipated 10 percent this year; since raises are pegged
to the pay of other law enforcement agencies, the increases may grow.

* Allows Corrections officers to call in sick without a doctor's note
confirming the illness. To no surprise, officers' sick time increased
27 percent in the first year of the contract.

* Grants the most senior and highest paid guards priority on overtime
assignments.

With terms like this, it should be no surprise that the Corrections
budget has doubled in 10 years even though the number of inmates has
increased by only 20 percent.

The Corrections Department says it can reduce overtime by filling
vacancies. Of course, it has said that before. Yet it acts as if it
doesn't have to answer to anyone. Recently, lawmakers discovered that
the department had hired 1,000 employees, mostly guards, without
authorization -- at a cost of $100 million.

Unlike his two predecessors, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't beholden
to the guards' union. And he has just hired a new Corrections head,
with orders to clean up the system. But bringing costs under control
won't be easy.

Schwarzenegger is proposing to cut next year's Corrections budget by
$446 million, mainly by creating alternatives to prison for
non-violent parole violators. He should continue to press for the
guards' union to reopen negotiations. And he should look at reducing
staffing ratios in ways that won't endanger guards.

Corrections has considered itself beyond restraint for too long.