If the bitter furlough battle between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state employee unions happened to be a heavyweight fight, Wednesday would be the final round.

After nearly two years, 40 lawsuits and more than $1.2 million in state legal bills, the California Supreme Court will hear debate next week over whether the governor has illegally forced state workers to take unpaid days off from work. Here's a brief guide to the 9 a.m. hearing and beyond:

The stakes.Enormous, starting with the bank accounts of more than 200,000 state workers who have lost nearly 50 workdays and close to a combined $3 billion or so in pay since February 2009...

LINK - SacBee.com

The date for the first CCPOA supervisor information forum is approaching quickly, at this time there is still space available for members that would like to attend.  The meeting has been set for Friday September 17, 2010 at CCPOA headquarters in West Sacramento to begin at 9am. Please RSVP if you plan attending so we can have an accurate head count.

As the post and bid period for supervisor’s approaches we are having numerous issues statewide with managements interpretation of the Seniority Assignment Agreement for Sergeants and Lieutenants. The main issue focuses on the exempt positions, which can be controlled by management, however they still must be included in the count by the agreement. In a nutshell, management wants the positions but they wish to exempt them totally from the reconciliation process. If your institution is facing this problem please contact us.

At this time we are attempting to establish monthly, or at a minimum regular, meetings between the CDCR Director level and the CCPOA Vice Presidents to bring issues like this forward, hopefully for positive resolution. A tentative date has been set but not confirmed. When that date has been confirmed we will pass it on.

As well we encourage the local Chapter Supervisory Vice Presidents to hold monthly meetings with management to discuss supervisor issues. Any issues that cannot be resolved at the local level should be forwarded to be included in our meetings with the Director.

From the “I hear it’s coming” department there are numerous rumors concerning CDCR. While it is never a good idea to pass on information that can’t be verified I will address some of these rumors just the same. As with all rumors there is a certain amount of truth to some, while others are simply time fillers or non-starters at the end of the day.

Most of us would probably agree that CDCR headquarters seems to run on drills. When and if there is a state budget you can count on further cuts to the CDCR budget, being one of the largest drains on the general fund. At this time there are several budget saving ideas (drills) being bantered about. Two of the biggest are the 12-hour shifts and the 3% position reductions.

The 12-hour shift plan took a back seat to bigger issues inside the department recently, namely the high profile Parolee issues surrounding Garrido and Gardener. But that didn’t prohibit the state from sending 12-hour shift teams to SVSP, HDSP and PBSP.

The truth is many institutions are suffering from massive staff vacancies. As the department looks at re-directions, reductions etc. they are also considering sending ‘strike teams’ to Pelican Bay for over time avoidance. Pelican Bay reportedly has in excess of 120 vacancies. It’s not clear which institutions have an overage of staff that can be sent on per diem to assist with these vacancies. It’s my understanding that the final decision hasn’t been made at this time, but it is being considered just the same.

If you believe in conspiracies it’s not too broad of a leap to think the department has exasperated these vacancies to further their 12-hour shift agenda. Whether you believe it to be evil intent or just a sign of the times is irrelevant. The Governor has been promised that 12-hour shifts will save untold millions and they intend to implement.

As for the 3% position reduction the department issued a memorandum to all institutions to identify positions they can do without. These positions can be the same positions they identified in the 3% re-direction plan, which also has been violated in numerous institutions.

To be quite clear regarding the above-mentioned issues, we have not been noticed to meet on any of them at this time. If and when the notices do come we will pass that on to you as well.

With no state budget in place there is a certain amount of angst concerning the possibility of being paid with IOU’s. When the state runs out of cash sans a budget IOU’s have and will be issued to additional vendors etc. according to the State Controller. Banks can choose to honor them, for their members, as some did back in the nineties when we were paid with IOU’s.

As IOU’s pertain to state employees it becomes a very complex issue, as usual. One argument is basically the same as the minimum wage argument, Federal Law mandates full payment if you work any overtime. Can the Controller separate out one employee from another, issuing one an IOU and the other a paycheck? This is just one all to familiar aspect of IOU payments. Of course if they do violate the law it’s a long drawn out process for resolution. I know that’s not much of an answer, but it really isn’t as simple as yes or no. There are just way too many variables. The simplest solution is to pass a budget. If only there were an agreed to date that it had to passed…

Additionally we have a meeting scheduled with the Department of Personnel Administration for September 16, 2010 to discuss supervisor benefits.

As more information becomes available on these and other issues I will continue to update you.

Kevin Raymond
kevin.raymond@ccpoa.org

The plan, which has yet to be approved by state prison officials, was outlined in an Aug.10 memo to state prison wardens from George Giurbino, director of the Division of Adult Institutions for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

About 1,100 positions - most of which would be correction officers - would be cut, said Joe Baumann, chapter president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco.

"I'm just shocked that they're talking about yet another round of position cuts," Baumann said. "We took position cuts all through the '80s and '90s, and we never had those restored, and, right now, I have the lowest custody staff to inmate ratio in the history of the institution."

"We are evaluating budget options, and, like all state agencies, we have to review our staffing levels as part of this process. At this point, we are evaluating only, there have been no decisions," CDCR spokeswoman Peggy Bengs said.

"You have fewer officers responding to an incident," Baumann said. "This is going to reduce the number of people supervising the inmates, and it puts the local community and the officers at risk, especially if we have a major incident. It increases the likelihood of an inmate getting out of the institution undetected."

Fred Stevens, California Correctional Peace Officers Association president at the California Institution for Men in Chino, also expressed alarm at the plan. A riot at CIM in August 2009 injured more than 200 inmates and gutted one of the prison's reception centers.

"An idle inmate that doesn't have anything to do has more potential to get into something he shouldn't be doing," Stevens said.

"Reducing the number of corrections officers is like reducing number of police on the street. There are less officers to deter the inmates from doing what they shouldn't be doing,” Stevens to the paper.
 

OIG Report on Inmate Health Care
The Associated Press ran a story this week highlighting a just-released report from the Office of the Inspector General which said:

California's inmate health care remains poor despite the billions of taxpayer dollars poured into the prison medical system in recent years, according to a report Thursday by the prison system's inspector general.

Just two of 17 prisons met minimal health care standards, and those just barely, according to the report. It covers half the 33 adult prisons where medical care has been overseen by a federal court-appointed receiver since 2006.

Annual spending on prison medical care has since more than doubled, from $707 million to $1.55 billion, according to the state Department of Finance. The state has spent a cumulative $5.65 billion on prison medical care under the receiver, not counting other costs like transporting and guarding sick inmates and providing them with dental and mental health services.

In summary, the AP wrote, the IG’s  “report finds the prisons continue to do a poor job of getting inmates basic care and medication.”

FLSA INFO
The CCPOA Legal Department represents three Correctional Officers who brought a lawsuit in Federal District Court claiming that California’s furloughing of correctional employees, while still requiring them to report to work, violates federal labor law.  Correctional Officers who want to take part in this lawsuit must opt-in and become a “consenter” by filling out an opt-in/consent form.

The forms were mailed out to the membership, but if you need another copy, they are available on the website. The deadline for returning these forms to CCPOA headquarters is approaching fast, so please get them in as soon as possible.

COST SAVINGS
One officer wrote in to tell us his creative idea for saving money.

He suggested that anytime an employee is wrongfully terminated and receives his/her job back with pay, the pay plus all cost associated with the investigation  should be taken from the person approving the investigation and termination. This should decrease the amount of erroneous investigations and wrongful terminations.

Another officer wrote in about “gate money.”  He said, “Why not make the inmates save the first $200.00 that they earn or that is sent in from family members for their gate money instead of the department footing the bill?

Lastly, an officer from CSP Solano tells us that his prison has been chosen to be one of three pilot institutions which will go through an American Correctional Association audit to determine how compliant the facility is with these so-called "national standards."  For the audit, CDCR will be spending $3,000 per day plus $1,500 per day per auditor, plus expenses.  “Is this something our institution or agency should be doing when they are having difficulty finding money for security equipment and staffing?” he asks.

Thanks for the suggestions and as always, if you have any cost savings ideas, please send your comments to ryan.sherman@ccpoa.org

Also, if you have any staff assaults at your prison, please forward your information to nichol.gomez@ccpoa.org

For current information on private prison news and the latest on parolee problems throughout the state as well as the most recent updates on the minimum wage issue, furlough and other current topics, please visit the CCPOA website.  New information is posted as things develop.

Thanks for calling the 5150 hotline and have a safe shift.
 

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The recent escape at a for-profit prison in Kingman has slowed Arizona's rush toward privatizing corrections.

Even one of the Legislature's top supporters of private prisons, Rep. John Kavanagh, says the existing state-run complexes should remain public, not be turned private, as the state has tried to do.

But the fallout from the escape, during which two prisoners are accused of killing an Oklahoma couple, is so far limited enough that supporters imagine continued expansion by prison companies in Arizona...

LINK - AZStarNet.com

A prison guard doing routine checks found a 70-year-old San Quentin inmate dead in his death row cell early Saturday, prison officials said.

George Hatton Smithey apparently hanged himself with his bed sheets, Lt. Sam Robinson said.

Smithey had been on death row since July 1989 for the 1988 murder and attempted rape of Cheryl Anne Nesler during the commission of an armed robbery and burglary, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement...

LINK - MariniJ.com

A parolee has been identified as the suspect in a sexual assault that occurred in Cathedral City Friday afternoon.

Willie Rashaw, 29, is accused of raping the victim about 4:10 p.m. in the 37-200 block of Palo Verde, according to Cathedral City police.

The Cathedral City man had been convicted for carjacking and was recently released from prison...

LINK - MyDesert.com (The Desert Sun)

Staff at California's Folsom State Prison worked Saturday to determine the cause of a "major riot" in the prison yard a day earlier that involved 200 inmates, officials there said.

The Friday night melee sent seven inmates to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, prison spokesman Lt. Anthony Gentile said Saturday.

There were no fatalities, said spokesman Luis Patino of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

No corrections officers were injured...

LINK - CNN.com

A federal judge says in a sharply worded tentative ruling that California's prison system -- which has two locations in Vacaville -- still does a poor job of identifying and caring for developmentally disabled inmates nine years after the state agreed to improve services.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's preliminary order, dated Thursday, rejects corrections officials' bid to end court oversight of the 2001 settlement.

To the contrary, he tentatively ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to submit a new plan to improve employee training and to better identify developmentally disabled inmates, saying he doubts the state can correct the problems on its own...

LINK - TheReporter.com

People leaving prison face daunting employment prospects, but a new kind of job fair may have boosted some prisoners' chances at a sustainable future.

San Quentin State Prison played host Saturday to about 60 "green" employers, advocate groups and job-training centers, many of them from Alameda County. The idea, organizers said, was to build relationships between employers in need of affordable, enthusiastic labor and those leaving prisons, a group that has been hit particularly hard during the recession.

"We kind of based this on the Van Jones ethic," said organizer Beth Waitkus, who runs the prison's Insight Garden Program. "Everybody should have a chance to succeed in the new green economy." Jones is a former green jobs adviser to President Barack Obama...

LINK - InsideBayArea.com

A riot that broke out Friday night at the main yard of old Folsom State Prison left seven inmates injured. Officers fired on rioters in an attempt to quell the violence.

The injured inmates were transported to area hospitals, said Luis Patino, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It is unknown how many of those taken to hospitals suffered gunshot wounds, Patino said.

Patino said the fighting broke out about 7 p.m. and involved about 200 inmates...

LINK - SacBee.com