Prison-guard union's political clout (if you don't read the others, READ THIS)

[madmusic]

Prison-guard union's political clout
Plan to revisit labor contract faces heavy opposition from well-connected members

Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Monday, March 29, 2004

(03-29) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- When Sen. Jackie Speier unveiled a strategy to force California's politically well-connected prison guards union to redo its costly labor contract with the state, she faced immediate opposition from a lawmaker who is still a member of that union.

Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez, D-Norwalk (Los Angeles County), publicly quarreled with Speier, D-Hillsborough, during a hearing earlier this month when the Bay Area senator said she planned to ensure the state would never "be burned again" by the kind of contract guards received in 2002, which is doling out big raises this year while California faces a giant budget deficit.

Bermudez said he was defending all state employee contracts when he attacked Speier's call for the Legislature to overturn the guards pact. But Bermudez also is a former parole agent, who was one of those employees just two years ago. And an amendment to the contract, created specifically for Bermudez when he was elected in November 2002, allows him to return to his old job once he leaves elected office in Sacramento. It's a position that would enjoy the raises and generous pension benefits the contract calls for.

more, a LOT more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/29/MNGK75SR561.DTL

The system is so corrupt and inbred is is astounding! Un-fucking-believable! The neocons have NOTHING on these guys, and could, maybe did, take lessons from them. This with the http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2667702&mesg_id=2667702">"Build more prisons" thread is enough to make any fair minded voter scream, Democrat or Republican, but the Democrats are the only ones with the clout to really raise hell. And someone has got to raise hell. These union jacks WERE NOT ELECTED and SHOULD NOT CONTROL OUR GOVERNMENT! I'm pro union, but these guys are NOT working for the workers. No, there is something far more sinister here.

[BayCityProgressive]

1. That may be one good thing about Arnold

Unions can have negative effects as well and the prison unions have an interest in having as many prisoners as possible. I am so glad that Arnold bucked that union and released nonviolent criminals. Such a waste of money to throw people in jail for pot so that these prison guards can get a huge contract every two years.

[madmusic]

2. He didn't have to back down?

Hadn't hear about that. Got a link or search term suggestions to narrow it down? Thanks for the info.

[madmusic]

7. I can't find that, and think he had to back down.

Links, please?

[madmusic]

3. Yikes! I mean, YIKES!

In California, the prison industry is the fastest growing industry around. In fact, if you want to talk about pure political muscle, there is no lobby quite as strong as the prison lobby. Consider what the prison guard's union has helped to accomplish in the last 20 years. They have increased tenfold the number of inmates in prison, they have increased exponentially the number of prisons, they have backed numerous draconian laws to ensure that more and more people go to prison for longer and longer for doing less and less.

Plenty of you have seen me write about people facing absurd amounts of time for relatively minor offenses, based in part on things they did when they were 16 years old, or things that happened 25 years ago. Now they face life for possession of a rock of cocaine.

The prison union has done more than that, though. They have also leaned on politicians to ensure that only district attorneys are appointed as judges. In the administrations of Governors Duekmeijian and Wilson (16 years total from 1982-1998), and even Gray Davis, judges were overwhelming chosen from the District Attorney's office. Thus, the judiciary is filled with law enforcement, with an agenda of putting away as many people as possible, no matter how much we have to subvert the laws to do it.

In 1986, bankrolled by business interests, three members of the California Supreme Court were removed from office. The reason that got everyone upset - they were battered relentlessly for being opposed to the death penalty and reversing so many death sentences. Mind you, in the 18 years since then, only 5 people have been executed in California, so it doesn't look like they played that much of a role, and exactly how much better off are we now that 5 people (out of a death row approaching 700) have been executed? But, the irony is that the crime issue was only a pretext (sort of like focusing on weapons of mass destruction), the real moneyed interests behind that recall (actually it was a vote against their confirmation) were business interests that were trying to make California a less pleasant place to sue from.

snip

It is a total scam, and yet, I am more scared of them than I am of anyone else, because if, God forbid, I ever got into their sights as someone they wanted to get, they could get me. Have me put into prison for some trumped up reason, and they can guarantee that you never walk out alive. Their power makes Abu Ghraib look tame by comparison.

All because politicians love to pose for pictures next to cops and claim to be "tough on crime."

more: http://publicdefenderdude.blogspot.com/2004/05/in-california-prison-industry-is.html

Gotta say, it took a lot of courage for him to publish that post.

[madmusic]

4. Prison Reform (lots of cites and links!)

The CCPOA made news during the winter and spring of 2005 for joining with legislators and victims rights organizations in opposing Gov. Schwarzenegger's prison reform proposals. In January, 2005, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced plans for major reforms in California government during his "State of the State" speech. Among his reforms was a proposal to re-structure the California prison system. One piece of his proposal would give a governor-appointed secretary direct control over operations of the state's prison and parole systems. The Department of Corrections and the California Youth Authority would be abolished and replaced by separate units of youth and adult operations that would report to the secretary through a chief deputy secretary. The new agency would be called the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and would cost $6 billion. Some critics claim the governor's move was designed to break up CCPOA influence of state prison leadership. In April 2004, Gov. Schwarzenegger struck a deal with legislative Democrats that eliminated his new agency plan. In return, Democrats agreed to give up their power to confirm wardens at state prisons. Some pundits believe that CCPOA influence on the California state Assembly and Senate led to the dissolution of Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan.

Another part of Gov. Schwarzenegger's key prison reforms was dropped in April 2005 under pressure from the CCPOA and their allies. The governor's plan targeted parollees and involved sending parole violators to halfway houses or community-based drug abuse programs instead of returning them to prison. Adminstration advocates claimed that more than half of California's convicts released on parole return to prison within 2 years of their release. They claim that the prisons are already too overcrowded to accomodate delinquent parolees. Schwarzenegger's plan was launched in 2004 and was built on a program initiated under the Gray Davis administartion. The Department of Corrections began allowing some parolees to enter half-way houses and substance abuse facilities last year and the program was on its way to full implementation in 2005. Officals at a Senate hearing in March claimed the system was not working, however, and the CCPOA, Crime Victims United of California and other victims rights groups launched a television ad campaign against the proposal. Some analysts believe that the attacks from the CCPOA and their allies were successful when Schwarzenegger abandoned the parole program mid-April.

In part, CCPOA resistance against the governor is rooted in union resentment of his new "rehabilitation" agenda towards reforming the California prison system. Schwarzenegger advocates a less punitive approach in dealing with prisoners, one that would re-orient parolees and ex-convicts into society. His stance is a contrast to the last 20 years of state government leadership on prisons. During the 1980's and 90's, the CCPOA and other prison advocates pushed California elected officials to focus on imprisonment and punishment rather than the idea that convicts can be rehabilitated into society. The union has traditionally supported tough anti-crime initiatives such as Proposition 184 and pushed California governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis to maintain hard-line attitudes towards California corrections. Schwarzenegger's endorsement of rehabilitation is based on his claims that California prisons are dangerously overcrowded and rehabilitation will clear more space, keep prison costs down and reform convicts more adequately than imprisonment. The CCPOA and anti-crime groups believe that rehabilitation will allow dangerous felons onto the streets and that the Governor's new stance is soft on crime. They say they will fight the loosening of parole and incarceration standards. Administration advocates deny the charges, pointing to Schwarzenegger's role in defeating Proposition 66 which would have ammended state's current "three strikes" law. Schwarzenegger supporters also say that violent offenders would not be allowed into parole and rehabilitation programs.

http://www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/htCaliforniaPrisonUnion.htm

EDIT: Crime Victims United of California is a BRANCH of the CCPOA. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/corrections/print3.html">Though the victim's movement is often called "grassroots," Crime Victims United and another prominent California victim's group, the Doris Tate Bureau, owe their existence to the prison guards.

[madmusic]

5. The more ya think about it, the more this will piss you off.

Governor dodged a wave
On big day for Democrats nationally, Angelides says his rival co-opted a wide range of issues.

snip

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association aired an ad Wednesday, telling Schwarzenegger: "You've won another term, governor. Now it's time to fix the prisons."

CCPOA Vice President Chuck Alexander said the 30-second spot will air in markets across the state over the next week to 10 days.

It splices videos of violent yard fights with statistics on assualts against correctional officers, at the same time reminding viewers that three correctional secretaries have served under Schwarzenegger while overcrowding and other problems have only worsened.

"Now that the election is over, the issue hasn't gone away," Alexander said.

The CCPOA is currently in contract negotiations with the administration.

more: http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/73917.html

Why three correctional secretaries? Because the CCPOA ran them out of Dodge because they didn't like their reform-minded ideas! http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=4065&IssueNum=163">Hickman abruptly quit as corrections secretary, and told the Los Angeles Times that he left because of CCPOA interference in the Schwarzenegger administration. Woodford took over as acting secretary, and quit within about a month, citing family reasons, and then retired altogether in July. Hagar stated, however, that she resigned after Kennedy and another Schwarzenegger staffer helped the CCPOA torpedo Woodward’s choice to run the Labor Relations Department.

[madmusic]

6. Prison Love

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=4065&IssueNum=163">In the race for governor, Schwarzenegger and Angelides have abandoned reform and learned to love the powerful prison guards union

[madmusic]

8. Prison watchdog talks tough

Oakland Tribune, Jul 13, 2006 by Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO -- Demanding sworn testimony in open court is the only way to cut through lies from the governor's office and the prison guards' union, a prison-reform watchdog said Wednesday.

John Hagar, the special master appointed by a federal judge to clean up California's prison management, spoke scathingly of both entities during a three-hour hearing at the federal courthouse.

Inappropriate coziness between the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and at least two of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top aides -- cabinet secretary Fred Aguiar and chief of staff Susan Kennedy, both appointed in December -- has undermined years of reform efforts, he contends.

Hagar said Aguiar has lied to him about the resignations of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation secretaries Roderick Hickman and Jeanne Woodford in February and April, respectively. Both actually were due to their disgust over the CCPOA's resurgent influence, Hagar said, including the union thwarting the governor's appointment of a key contract negotiator.

more: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060713/ai_n16545663

[madmusic]

9. If I am not attacked on the right, I’m sure to be hit on the left.

Why Prison Reform Doesn’t Happen

Jackie-Speier.gif

By Jackie Speier
California State Senator

snip

In the world of prison reform there many lines to be crossed. Some crossings invoke the ire of the prison guards’ powerful union, the CCPOA, or the CCPOA-related group, Crime Victims United. Some reforms anger the ACLU or the Coalition for Public Safety.

We need leadership, not lip service. It is unacceptable that we have allowed the federal courts to take over much of our state prison system. But the only noticeable changes in prison reform over the last three years have come from these federal mandates and the fearless work of Judge Thelton Henderson, Special Master John Hagar and Reciever Robert Sillen. They cross lines every day.

As proposed by former Governor Deukmejian, we need a public commission to make certain that California’s leaders are up to the task of restoring sound management practices to the business of incarceration and rehabilitation.. Yes, a few bills have been signed and an emergency proclamation has been issued, but as of a few days ago, a record number of adults were in state prisons—more than 173,000. I ask, what will it take for California leaders in the public and private sectors to grasp the severity of the California prison crisis? It affects us all.

more: http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/10/why_prison_refo.html

[madmusic]

10. prison guards kill inmates at a rate 1,135 times above the national average

The CCPOA

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association is the most powerful financial contributor to California politics, spending liberally among all three branches of government. The union has given Grey Davis millions of dollars, funded numerous legislative campaigns, and regularly contributed to local District Attorney elections, particularly in counties with prisons. CCPOA-financed officials are expected to further the annual “legislative goals” of the CCPOA, and District Attorneys are expected to refrain from prosecuting CCPOA members - despite studies showing that California prison guards kill inmates at a rate 1135 times above the national average. The CCPOA also funds up to eleven PACs, and is one of the main funders of “victims rights” groups. Victim’s rights groups are often suspected of being a set of political masks for law-enforcement, banks and other groups which profit from incarceration. Able to muster tear-jerking testimony at hearings, victim’s rights groups attack politicians for being “soft on crime” and consistently advocate for the expansion of the prison system through mandatory minimum sentences and other measures, such as California’s notorious “Three Strikes” legislation. Commenting on the success of the CCPOA, One legislator commented that “if Don Novey ran the contractor’s union, there’d be a bridge over every puddle.”

http://www.paglen.com/pages/projects/carceral/sacto.htm

"regularly contributed to local District Attorney elections, particularly in counties with prisons."

Why? Because local DAs prosecute, or not, their crimes.

[madmusic]

11. Prisons a Growth Industry: Correctional officers' union keeping it that way

EDIT: Monday, September 27, 1999

AS A LITTLE GIRL, I watched my grandmother tap the union label on a loaf of rye bread; ``Buy only if it has this,'' she instructed.

``Wear it in good health,'' she'd say when I modeled a new shirt or skirt. First, though, she made sure she found the International Ladies Garment Workers Union label affixed to the fabric. I still get misty- eyed when I hear Pete Seeger sing ``Which Side Are You On?'' But, despite my respect for the history of union protection and support of working people, these days I'm not always on the side I thought I was on.

As a former poetry teacher at San Quentin State Prison and a current visitor to prisoner-students, I know some of what's happening in our state prisons and, because of what I know, I can't be on the side of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

The power this prison guards' union wields inside our prisons, legislative chambers and governor's office disturbs me. It should disturb every citizen.

more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/09/27/ED34989.DTL

It's worse, much worse, since 1999.

[madmusic]

12. Turning the Key: California's Prison Guards

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/corrections/rafiles/arw_corrections_guards.ram">Listen (Real Audio, 16:31 min)

Like any big industry, corrections is a major employer. More than 600,000 Americans work in a prison or jail - roughly the same as the number who work in the airline industry. The majority of corrections workers are guards. In California, the prison guards' union has become one of the most powerful and politically aggressive interest groups in the state. It lobbies hard for tough-on-crime laws.

A Spring Day in Sacramento

In a crowded hearing room in the state Capitol, a middle-aged woman with red hair steps to the podium.

"Thank you for this opportunity," she says. "My name is Vivian Moen and I'm from Fountain Valley, California and my son was sentenced under the Three Strikes law for simple drug possession, 25 years to life."

Vivian Moen works at a Newport Beach hotel as a hospitality coordinator. She spends a lot of her spare time as an activist with a group called Families to Amend California's Three Strikes, or FACTS. Her son, Doug Rash, is 35 and a drug addict. He got his first two strikes, for a pair of burglaries, in the 1980s.

more: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/corrections/guards1.html

[Greyhound]

13. Face it, California is a police state, and that's just the way they want it.

They being the perpetually terrified white middle and upper classes.

[madmusic]

15. You're 100% right, but I don't 100% blame the people.

Propaganda is a powerful force, and it works. Plus there is a tendency to believe peace officers. They are, after all, the good guys who enforce the laws for the people. They are on the people's side.

Only by breaking up the propaganda machine will we EVER get to the facts and then to real reform. If the voters knew the facts, if they were allowed to see the problem on a deeper and more rational level - more than sound bites and moral panics - they would, I think, see the light and ask for change.

The country caught onto the BushCo fear mongering, but no so in California. It is still going as strong as ever. Indeed, fear mongering and moral panics as an effective political tool started in California, then spread across the nation. Rove thought he could pull it off again. Fat chance! But the CCPOA is still getting away with it. That's because the tides turned on Rove and he was under grater scrutiny. The CCPOA still operates with impunity and too many California politicians are afraid of them. By themselves, they can decide an election.

[madmusic]

14. Wall Street making big profits off of the growing prison industrial complex.

In 1984, legislators changed the law enabling themselves to directly authorize lease revenue bonds to build prisons. California has two types of bonds for prison construction--traditional voter-approved general obligation bonds and more complex lease revenue bonds.

Between 1982 and 1990, voters approved of $2.4 billion in bonds (with interest they will be paid back at a total of $4.1 billion). Since 1984, the legislators approved of $2.9 billion in bonds (with interest they will be paid back at a total of $5.6 billion). A legislative analyst contends that lease revenue bonds cost taxpayers 20% more than voter-approved bonds in higher interest rates and administrative costs.

San Francisco investment banker Thomas Dumphy of L.F. Rothschild helped devise the concept of the lease revenue bonds. The first four bond deals (of about $1 billion) were awarded to Rothschild. The firm, like many involved in such deals, was a major campaign donor to Unruh--Treasurer of the State of California at the time the new bonds were adopted. Rothschild's profit is estimated to be $19.5 million.

Rothschild hired the law firm of Finley, Kumble of New York (which hired many former governors and senators). In March, 1987, Rodney Blonien left his position as undersecretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, where he was in charge of prison construction, and went to work for Finley, Kumble in Sacramento. Later Finley, Kumble broke up. In 1990, an investment house that employed former California Assemblyman Richard Robinson, won the contract to be lead underwriter. Source: LATimes, 10/18/94

http://www.facts1.com/reasons/money.htm

[madmusic]

16. The Corporate Prison: The Production of Crime & the Sale of Discipline

There aren't many citizens who know that our nation's prison institutions have experienced the
most rapid and sustained increase in inmates ever recorded since their birth in the nineteenth century.
From the years 1973 to 1997, the number of people put behind bars in the United States rose more
than 500 percent--the greatest number of these bodies being incarcerated in the state of California.
Today, California runs the largest prison system in the entire Western world. Indeed, on any calendar
day, the state locks up more inmates than do the countries of France, Japan, Germany, Great Britain,
the Netherlands, and Singapore combined.

Fewer citizens realize that since the mid-eighties, private corporations--whose stocks are the
object of investments by an estimated 69 million people or approximately 44 percent of all American
households--have begun to assume the responsibility for housing these exploding numbers of inmates.
As prison facilities across the nation are sold to private interests, the historical tradition of sovereign
state control of prisons and jails has come to an end. That sole authority is currently being transferred
to corporate interests that aim to turn a profit on at least three specific enterprises: building prison
facilities, managing their operations, and selling inmate labor.

Experts working in corrections agree that prison terms do not reduce crime. And yet, our
criminal justice system invests money, time and great efforts in the prison system's growth and
maintenance. Michel Foucault has suggested that the "failure" of the prison institution is not a failure
at all, but a systematic mechanism quite integral to the American system of penal "justice." He
suggests that we ask not why the prison system continually breaks down and is unable to reduce crime,
but rather what is served by that breakdown, and by the failure of the prison. According to his
perspective, it is precisely through an examination of the ways in which the prison produces
phenomena such as the maintenance of delinquency and recidivism that we come to see its true
function in society.

His admonitions become all the more sensible as the discourses of profit and loss
emerge in those of the proper modes of incarceration. In the very moment the processes, functions,
and goals of a business become the model of the prison institution's success, the failure of the prison--
insofar as it is able to reduce crime and recidivism--is a structural requirement. Since capital ventures
are grounded in antagonism fueled by competition, profits for corporate interests in the prison
industries are married to an increasing flow of raw material in the form of inmate bodies.
Consequently, prison industries are faced with the objective of expanding their own market shares
(against one another and the state), which thereby presses upon the demand for additional crime and
criminal behavior. The prison, therefore, under these emerging circumstances, derives an additional
and explicit monetary reward as its "failure" becomes more deeply entrenched.

http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/karyl.prison.pdf pdf

[Jed Dilligan]

17. We should turn down their money,

what did they buy us, half a governor? Fuck the CCPOA and their cash. No organization armed with high-powered rifles and assault weapons should be permitted to exert political influence.

[madmusic]

19. It's like morticians being car mechanics.

Tires and brakes bad? Oh, well!

[madmusic]

18. The Ongoing Wave of Secrecy

Inside California's Sub-constitutional Prison System
By Boston Woodard

Access is knowledge. Once again, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to veto another Senate Bill (the 3rd since taking office) that would have restored some of the access into state prisons to members of the media. The same access that was afforded to them for decades without incident.

Senate Bill --1521, by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, would have lifted the shroud now covering the prison system. SB-1521 would have improved media access, allowing prisoner interviews and re- implementing a policy that allowed prisoners and members of "legitimate" media outlets to correspond confidentially. This method of correspondence worked well for decades, allowing prisoners to inform the media of the other side of the story without fear of being punished. The public now only hears what the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCP) wants it to hear..

snip

Also in the mid-l990s, the CDCP was dealing with the FBI investigating the use of lethal force at Cocoran State Prison. Several employees were placed on administrative leave, including an associate warden. Corcoran prison officials allowed lower ranking lieutenants and sergeants to "stack the tiers" in certain cell-blocks with rival gang members. When the prisoners were released to the exercise yard and began to fight, perimeter (gun tower) guards would shoot them with high-powered rifles. The "code of silence" used and condoned by the California Correctional Peace Officer's Association (CCPOA) exacerbated matters causing rank-and-file staff to be pressured into silence.

About eleven years ago, prisoner Voughn Dortch's story made big media when it was reported that Pelican Bay staff tortured him. Dortch was restrained with chains and leg irons then held in a tub full of scalding water with long handled scrub brushes until his skin began to literally melt off his body. Dortch was scalded over 70 percent of his body and his story made national headlines. The national news show 60 Minutes aired a scathing report about the torture of prisoner Voughn Dortch.

more: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/06/18327039.php

[madmusic]

20. Who's Guarding the Prison Guards? Statehouse Leaders Take their Orders from a Scary Bunch of Slacker

How come no one is getting REALLY pissed about this? Here's an oldie but a goodie (Jan 23, 2003) and it is much worse now! Doesn't anyone care that these thugs are in control of California politics in a very, very RIGHT way? Don't you want the ELECTED Democrats to take the state back and work for the people. Schwarzenegger wants to, and maybe now with the election over and no need to pander to them, maybe now he will find the courage. He KNEW it was corrupt as hell when he first took office, but had to back down. He and the Democrats need grassroots support to put these prison guard thugs back in their place.

~ By Jill Stewart

In the soap opera that is statehouse politics, the role of leering villain is played by one unusually nasty organization that has struck all but a few legislators dumb with fear and is now brashly demonstrating that it controls Gov.Gray Davis.

I speak, of course, of the state prison guards' union, a mostly incompetent body of workers who cannot keep the Mexican Mafia and hard drugs from coursing through state prisons but are being heaped with raises and highly inappropriate workplace concessions by Davis and the Legislature.

California prison guards are by far the most powerful--and the most bizarre---prison guard union in the nation. They are a freak of history and circumstance, 20,000-plus lightly trained men and women who require only a GED (union-member lieutenants and captains require more education), yet have risen to control the outcome of many legislative races and convinced Gov. Perfect Hair that his political fortunes rest with them.

Using an updated form of Boss Tweed-style political intimidation, the guards' union is so feared that few Republicans or Democrats are willing to seriously challenge them. This explains their bloated salaries---guards with six years on the job will soon make more than University of California professors---their padded staffing, and needlessly soaring overtime as California faces down a $26 billion budget deficit.

Please, read the rest: http://jillstewart.net/php/issues/issue0123.php

What is it going to take to piss you off?

[madmusic]

21. Guard Challenges Code of Silence

He says his efforts to combat brutality against prisoners hit a 'Green
Wall.' He is set to testify before a panel today.

By Mark Arax, Times Staff Writer

snip

He and his attorney wrote letters detailing each hostile encounter — to
internal investigators in Sacramento, Corrections Director Edward Alameida,
the inspector general's office and then-Gov. Gray Davis. As one official
passed the buck to another, Vodicka sought out the help of the union. He
said Mike Jimenez, the union president, refused to talk to him.

It was the worst hurt of all, he said, learning that his union considered
him a pariah.

"The CCPOA washed its hands of me," he said. "They wanted no part of an
officer who reports wrongdoing. I didn't deserve representation in their eyes."

http://www.prisonactivist.org/pipermail/prisonact-list/2004-January/008521.html

[madmusic]

22. Dirty Money Watch

Strong Arm the Strong Man

Arnold has talked tough about prison reform since he took office, but the Strong Man's promises evaporated in 2006 when two successive corrections secretaries quit the job. Rod Hickman, who'd held the post for years, explicitly cited the prison guard union's influence over the administration as the reason for his departure. His replacement lasted just a few months and reportedly had the same concerns.

Why would the gov turn from pillorying the public employee unions to letting them in the cigar tent? The prison guards' union has a $10 million war chest for the November election. Arnold can't help but hope they won't direct that firepower at him and the fastest way to immunity is to torpedo prison reform.

The federally-appointed investigator of California's prison system, special master John Hagar, blamed the gov's two top aides' close communion with the prison guards for the disintegration of reform. Hagar yesterday accused Arnold's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, of being "in the pocket of the union," and credits her and Fred Aguiar with providing the union unprecedented access to the governor's office, killing several appointments and purging prison guard contract negotiators at the union's behest.

All of which is another reason why California needs Prop 89, the November initiative that would limit the power of special interest contributions in Sacramento. Prop 89 would limit independent expenditure spending by any one group - union, corporation or individuals -- during any election to $7,500. Such a coup by the voters would leave this powerful union a 100-pound weakling and put an end to their strong arm tactics. Maybe then we would have the prison reform so desperately needed in California and called for by the courts.

http://www.dirtymoneywatch.org/article/?storyId=883

So what happened to Prop 89? It went down, of course.

[madmusic]

23. HEADLINE: Drug Policy And California's Prison Population

Those who argue that it is sensible policy to treat drug users the same way you treat the pathologically violent have clearly prevailed. Today there are 20,862 inmates, approximately the same as the total prison population two decades ago, serving prison sentence solely for drug possession. These are people who are cycled through the system and then placed back on the street without access to treatment or support. Attempts to obtain treatment are often met with waiting lists that are months long. In the meantime, they remain on the streets with few prospects and little hope. Under these conditions, it is not long before many fall back into self destructive drug use and return to prison.

Although such a system seems counter to public safety interests, there are powerful political forces at work in California that promote and sustain the present system. Chief among these forces is the prison guard’s union. Because they benefit from prisons teeming with inmates, the guards lavish campaign contributions on political candidates. The influence that the prisons guard’s campaign contributions buys allows them to pressure elected officials to enact sentencing laws that keep inmates in prison longer, thus expanding the overall pool of prisoners and creating a “need” for more prisons. The guards union blatantly uses its political influence to promote the funding of more prisons.

Why is this addict population coveted by the prison guards union? The answer goes beyond the union’s desire for more prisons and increased staff. When the system is overcrowded, prisons must maintain a ratio of guards to inmates. To maintain this ratio, the system either hires more guards or grants overtime. Overtime is the favored option because it allows current line staff to double their salaries. It is not uncommon for California prison guards to earn over $100,000 a year. Should the number of inmates drop below current levels, extra income from overtime is lost and the argument for more prisons loses merit.

http://www.cjcj.org/press/drug_policy.html

[madmusic]

24. Parole denied for killer in Crime Victims United case

COALINGA, Calif. The state parole board says a killer will stay behind bars at least another four years for a murder that led to the formation of one of California's best-known crime victims groups.
Steve Burns is serving a sentence of 17 years to life at a state prison in Coalinga for shooting Catina Salarno "execution-style" at Stockton's University of the Pacific in 1979.

Her mother, Harriet Salarno of Auburn, founded Crime Victims United of California.

The group is closely allied with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. It opposes changes that could lead to earlier release of inmates.

Governor Schwarzenegger's administration ended several inmate rehabilitation programs in 1995 after the group aired television commercials saying he was soft on crime.

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=5665972&nav=9qrx

[madmusic]

25. Crime Victims Support Poochigian for Attorney General

Joined by Crime Victims United President Harriet Salarno, Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau Executive Director Christine Ward, Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten, and other crime victims' advocates, Senator Poochigian stressed the contrasting records of both candidates for Attorney General.

"Victims of crime have been a primary inspiration driving my candidacy for Attorney General. In everything that I have done in public office I have fought against criminals, and for victims," said Senator Poochigian.

"My opponent has consistently fallen on the wrong side of the fence on victims' issues. As Governor, Jerry Brown signed the Prisoners' Bill of Rights and opposed the Crime Victims' Bill of Rights. He appointed Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, where she voted to overturn every death penalty conviction that came before her. Based on Jerry Brown's decades-long record of insensitivity to crime victims, he cannot represent their interests as California's 'Top Cop.'"

http://www.pooch4ag.com/inthenews/view_article.cfm?id=196

This means, as should be obvious by now, that the prison guard union supported Poochigian.

Check out the alarmist spin:

"This is a pivotal time in California's fight against crime. Criminal gangs are increasingly more sophisticated and represent a growing threat. Anti-law and order forces are marshalling to overturn tough criminal justice measures that have protected our families and neighbors for over a decade. It is imperative that California have an Attorney General who shares our values and puts public safety first. Chuck Poochigian has been a lifelong friend of law enforcement. For these reasons we enthusiastically endorse him for Attorney General."

It's a war against terror!

Let's look at what it is really saying:

"This is a pivotal time in California's fight against crime. (It's now or never! Your very life is at risk!) Criminal gangs are increasingly more sophisticated and represent a growing threat. (This could be true, but are they a greater threat than when previous conservative governors were in office? Why the emergency now? Why aren't the 25-to-life laws helping?) Anti-law and order forces are marshaling (Sounds like war, doesn't it? Who is the enemy? Them damn liberals who don't like law and order! That's who! In fact, aren't they like the gangs who are "increasingly more sophisticated"? Aren't they marshaling an attack!) to overturn tough criminal justice measures that have protected our families and neighbors for over a decade. (Someone wants to stop and think about our laws and policies, like they are asking Bush to stop and think, and anyone who does that doesn't want to protect your families and neighbors. The damn liberals!) It is imperative that California have an Attorney General who shares our values and puts public safety first. (Only a conservatives can do that.) Chuck Poochigian has been a lifelong friend of law enforcement. (But Jerry Brown hasn't!) For these reasons we enthusiastically endorse him for Attorney General."

And so do the prison guards, enthusiastically. Job security and all that. Think about this: Would you want a mortician as a car mechanic?

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26. The new study the black-hearted prison union will hate!

http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/06-10-1201.pdf">EVIDENCE-BASED PUBLIC POLICY OPTIONS TO REDUCE FUTURE PRISON CONSTRUCTION, CRIMINAL JUSTICE COSTS, AND CRIME RATES (PDF)


We find that if Washington can successfully
implement a moderate-to-aggressive portfolio of
evidence-based options, then a significant level of
future prison construction can be avoided, state and
local taxpayers can save about two billion dollars,
and net crime rates can be lowered slightly.

This isn't bleeding heart liberal propaganda. This is a study done by Washington State for Washington State. The prison guard union is going to have a hell of a time calling them liars. For that matter, so is the whole "tough on crime" propaganda machine.