Prison Guards Protest Against Budget Cuts and Beanbag Guns : Corrections: A comparatively small group of pickets opposes some of the policies at the institution.

After two years of planning, guards at the California State Prison staged a demonstration outside the facility Tuesday to protest budget cuts and some prison policies.

Although many movies have been made about prison protests, it’s safe to say Hollywood will not be calling anytime soon about this one.

Organizers had hoped to get about 100 officers involved in the protest, but only about two dozen showed up. They carried poster-board signs as they walked, but it was so windy that many of the signs blew away or were torn apart.

Warden Ernest Roe, speaking in his office inside the prison, took the poor turnout as a sign that most of the prison’s officers are happy with their jobs. “I have over 600 correctional officers here, and I see the count out there is certainly a diminished representation of that,” he said.

But the officers who did show up for the demonstration were serious about the issues they wanted to publicize. Budget cuts, they said, have lowered the ratio of staff to inmates. And relatively new policies on controlling disruptive inmates--including the use of so-called beanbag ammunition--are confusing and impractical, they said.

“They listen to the inmates more than the staff,” said Ron Credle, 48, a correctional officer for the past seven years. “What’s going to happen is some of the staff is going to get hurt.”

Credle was carrying a sign that read “CDC has beanbag shotguns!! What’s next, Nerf balls?” He said the weapon uses two-inch bags filled with lead shot that are supposed to stun a person up to 90 feet away. But he said he believed the weapon might be ineffective on muscular or enraged inmates.

“It’s going to make them madder, that’s all,” Credle said.

Roe countered that the officers were forming opinions on the beanbag guns before trying them. None of the guns, he said, had as yet been delivered to the prison.

The officers on the picket line also raised objections to policies concerning inmate fights. When a fight breaks out, the policy calls for three officers armed with batons to approach the inmates, with one officer acting as the team leader. The leader shouts commands for the fight to stop and moves in close enough to check if the inmates are carrying weapons.

If no weapons are spotted, the officers all move in and subdue inmates with their batons.

If a weapon is seen, the leader is supposed to move away and signal a tower guard to shoot a warning shot.

Roe said the policy, conceived by himself and other officers at the prison, is supposed to reduce the need for warning shots, which always carry the risk that someone can be hit by a bullet.

But prison officer Rocky Stroud, 41, said warning shots should be more freely used. Moving an officer close to a fight can put him or her in a highly dangerous situation, he said.

“If we could move in there, one of the inmates could take out a knife . . . he’s hidden and could slice you across the throat,” Stroud said.

Budget concerns have already been felt by officers, who say that sick or otherwise absent staff members are no longer replaced on a daily basis. That spreads the work force thin, they say.

And they fear that further budget cuts ordered by the state will mean layoffs. They wanted to make known their views that there are far more appropriate targets for cutbacks than personnel.

“The way I see it,” said a 34-year-old officer who did not give his name, “they are doing a lot of projects around the institution to make it look presentable, such as putting in flowers and landscaping. I believe security is more important than those things.”