More Prison Guards Fighting Back in Court

For years, California’s prison guards have been frustrated by a growing number of inmate assaults. Now they want their attackers to pay.

Fed up with a prison discipline system they find ineffectual, corrections officers are starting to sue inmates to collect personal damages. The idea is to target any assets the inmates hold outside of prison -- or, in the case of poor inmates, whatever possessions they keep on the inside, such as TVs, hot plates and petty-cash “trust” accounts used to buy snacks.

“One has to remember that it’s not about the money, it’s about holding these convicted felons accountable for their actions,” state corrections Lt. Charles Hughes wrote on the website of an employees group organizing the suits. “It may be small potatoes to you and me, but ask an inmate if he wants you to own his trust account.”

As news of the strategy spreads around the state, prisoner advocates are deriding it as excessively cruel. Some attorneys say the suits could entangle the courts in a costly web of hearings, appeals and counterclaims.

“This is incredibly mean-spirited,” said John Scott, a San Francisco attorney who represents inmates’ families and prison employees in civil matters.

For the legal system, Scott added, “It’s a Pandora’s box.”

The lawsuits come at a tumultuous time for California’s prison system, and especially for its corrections officers. Their union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., is under scrutiny for exerting excessive influence on the nation’s largest penal system, and in January a federal report concluded that a systemwide “code of silence” existed to protect problem guards.

The union is taking no position on the new strategy, and Corrections Department spokesmen refused to comment on it.

To some critics, however, the idea of going after inmates’ petty cash is another example of a system out of control. State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who chaired recent hearings on prison reform, wonders if the suits are part of a “publicity blitz” to offset bad press about prison guards.

Although acknowledging that prison guards have a tough job, Romero said filing civil suits against inmates “is a sledgehammer approach. I think there are other ways we can address the issue.”

Hughes, an officer at the Lancaster state prison, is executive director of a recently formed employees group, the California Staff Assault Task Force. With a dues-paying roster of more than 2,900 prison workers, the organization already has helped four corrections officers file small-claims lawsuits against inmates in Los Angeles County and plans to file more across the state.

Another group, the California Correctional Crime Victims Coalition, is also planning to bring civil suits against inmates, according to its executive director, Lisa Northam.

Members of Hughes’ group say the actions are necessary to restore a balance of power that has tilted toward inmates in recent years. With stricter limits on the use of force, some guards say they feel more vulnerable than 10 or 20 years ago.

Hughes said guards are also frustrated by a system that allows inmates to make frivolous complaints against the staff but often fails to mete out meaningful punishments to prisoners who step out of line.

“The department is failing to protect us,” said Hughes, who added that the lawsuits fall well within the officers’ rights. “If your neighbor came over and stuck a pitchfork in your gut, what would happen? The D.A. would file charges. But you’d also go after him civilly.”

Prosecutors often decline to file charges against inmates who assault guards, considering such cases a waste of tax money, especially when the prisoners are already serving long sentences. Instead, many assault cases are taken up by the prisons’ internal justice system. Inmates found guilty can face extended sentences, the loss of good-time credits and assignments to “special housing units” that limit their privileges.

But Task Force members say longer sentences mean nothing to a prisoner with multiple life terms. They also note that prisoners in the special housing units can still enjoy TV and radio, time in the exercise yard and visiting privileges. (The possession of TVs and radios in these areas may soon be banned under a proposed rule change.)

The group’s recruiting material cites a dramatic increase in staff assaults in recent years. Total staff assaults rose from 337 in 1980 to 2,795 in 2002, the last year for which the department has figures.

However, the numbers of staff and inmates in the system have also risen. When measured against the prison population over the last two decades, the rate of assaults has fluctuated between one and two staff assaults per year for every 100 inmates.

Officers involved in those statistics say the effect on their lives can be devastating.

Corrections Officer Vincent Herrera, 41, was punched in the face Aug. 3 by inmate George Jacobs, after Herrera tried to enforce the dress code in a Lancaster state prison visitors’ room.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file assault charges against Jacobs, a member of the School Yard Crips gang who is serving a 30-year sentence for murder at the maximum-security lockup.

Although prison officials sentenced the inmate to more than two years in a special housing unit, Herrera doesn’t think that is punishment enough. Herrera has not been back to work since the attack and is suffering from headaches and blackouts -- one of which, he said, caused him to total his pickup truck.

Last month, Herrera sued Jacobs for $5,000, the maximum allowed in small-claims court.

“I’m scarred for life,” Herrera said. “I want to make sure he never assaults another inmate, staff -- anybody.”

Jacobs was segregated after the attack in an administrative unit, where he allegedly punched another officer, Jason Frey, on Jan. 28.

Last month, Frey, 29, also sued Jacobs for $5,000. A third officer, Isaac Mijares, has also filed a suit against Jacobs over an alleged battery incident in August.

In the fourth case, Sgt. Stanley Kuhn filed a small-claims lawsuit against inmate Luis Gonzalez for an alleged attack in December. He is also seeking $5,000.

All the cases were filed with the help of R. Rex Parris, a Lancaster plaintiffs attorney. Hughes said other lawsuits on behalf of prison staffers in Salinas Valley State Prison, Tehachapi prison and the California Institute for Men in Chino are expected to follow.

The other prison workers group, the California Correctional Crime Victims Coalition, helped three Lancaster guards file a negligence suit against inmates who allegedly attacked them. The guards’ attorney, Mark Peacock, declined to say why the suit was withdrawn in November, but one plaintiff, Sgt. Mark Ayala, said he planned to refile with the help of the new Task Force.

The two groups are not especially friendly -- in fact, they are themselves embroiled in a lawsuit. The correctional crime victims’ coalition filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court last week, contending that Task Force leaders engaged in a “secret plan” to steal their membership rolls.

Hughes denied any wrongdoing.

“It you want to know what I think, the purpose of the [Crime Victims’ Coalition] is to sue inmates -- now they’re suing cops,” he said.

Although individual officers may have sued inmates in the past, prison experts say the new efforts mark the first organized attempt by guards to take advantage of a 1982 change in state law making it easier for police and other peace officers to sue people who attack them at work.

Before police and other groups lobbied for the change, the long-held assumption was that the risk of such injuries was understood to be part of public safety jobs, said Dan Zeidman, an El Cajon plaintiffs attorney who represents police in civil suits.

Since the change, Zeidman has represented hundreds of police officers in such lawsuits.

Hughes, however, said civil action against inmates was rare because they are generally considered too poor to sue.

Now, Hughes’ task force and the correctional crime victims coalition said they would use members’ dues to bankroll lawsuits that would teach errant prisoners a lesson -- no matter what amount of money they have.

Although judgments are expected to be small in most successful cases, critics fear that the Corrections Department will incur some big expenses because of the suits. The department is already groaning under the weight of excessive litigation, and a rash of small civil lawsuits could require extra escorts for inmates forced to make court dates and result in officers taking more time off, said Richard Steffen, staff director for state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), who is holding hearings on prison reform with Romero.

The department, he said, “is a litigation machine. This just adds more to that legal burden.”

Attorney Scott predicted numerous ways the suits could burden the court system. He said prisoners might enjoy their “field trips” to court -- and they would definitely fight to keep their TVs and trust funds. The courts, he said, could expect complicated appeals, as well as subpoenas that would require dragging doctors, wardens and even more prisoners into court.

Scott also noted that victorious guards might have to turn their winnings over to the state if they had filed for workers’ compensation.

Parris, the attorney for the Task Force, disputed that. He also shrugged off criticism that the inmates’ actions would tie up the courts.

“The point of this is that there are inmates who conspire to murder guards,” he said. “Do you really think we care what kind of defense they raise?”

Gretchen Newby, executive director of the inmate aid group Friends Outside, agreed that guards should have a right to sue their attackers. But she is worried that the suits could harm the inmates’ innocent family members. She envisioned situations in which an inmate’s spouse loses the family car -- or children lose funds for college.

“But we’re dealing with criminals here, and in most cases, they don’t tend to have legitimate properties, stock accounts and things like that,” she said. “Clearly, this is not going to be a moneymaker.”