Chief of State’s Prisons Resigns

James Gomez, California’s prison chief during the biggest prison expansion in the nation’s history, announced Wednesday that he is quitting the high-pressure post at a time when the system is under continued attack and investigation.

Gomez, 47, is leaving after six years as director of the California Department of Corrections to become the No. 2 person at the California Public Employees Retirement System, the nation’s largest public pension fund with a $100-billion portfolio.

Aides to Gov. Pete Wilson--and Gomez--said Gomez left of his own accord, and was not asked to resign.

Administration sources said the strain of answering prisoner rights lawyers’ questions in depositions and court proceedings, as well as dealing with an increasingly hostile Legislature, wore on Gomez.

“He has been a soldier on the front lines for six years,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman. “Even soldiers in World War II only served four years, and he’s leaving with an honorable discharge.”

In an interview, Gomez said he decided to leave his job a year ago, adding, “I never planned to make corrections a career.” Gomez, who became director in 1991, had been deputy chief director of corrections from 1983 to 1989.

Still, several prison experts and critics say Gomez’s departure is coming at a particularly inopportune time. Wilson is left to find someone to take over the troubled 145,000-inmate system in the final two years of his tenure.

“This is the worst time for anyone to leave, in terms of the administration of corrections,” said Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who will chair the Legislature’s main prison oversight committee in January.

“Here’s his legacy: 32 prisons, and no new high schools built in Los Angeles in 20 years; 10,000 new employees in corrections, and 10,000 fewer in higher education,” said Polanco. “It’s a legacy of brick and mortar. It’s nothing to be proud of.”

But he said, “I do believe that with the crisis, there is opportunity for change.” He and others cited the array of problems:

* With the prison population growing at 1,000 inmates a month, and no funding for new prisons, the system could reach its maximum crowding within the next three years. Once that happens, inmates are almost certain to sue, and judges could respond by ordering the release of some inmates.

* The FBI is investigating brutality at the Corcoran state prison in the Central Valley, a case that could result in criminal charges.

* As a result of inmates’ lawsuits, a federal judge in Sacramento oversees the system’s treatment of mentally ill inmates throughout California’s 32 prisons, while a federal judge in San Francisco oversees treatment of inmates at Pelican Bay prison, the site of repeated abuse of inmates in the early 1990s.

“Jim Gomez’s tenure was marked by a series of problems, the likes of which hadn’t really been seen in California,” said Steve Fama of the Prison Law Office, which brought most of the major class-action lawsuits that have dogged the department over the years. “Those problems are still to be fully resolved.”

Gomez said his problems at Pelican Bay and Corcoran stemmed from a lack of reliable information from underlings, including wardens. He recommended that his successor “not make too many assumptions that you’re getting all the information.”

Gomez oversaw the biggest prison building effort in U.S. history, presiding as the prison population grew from 100,000 to 145,000, swelled by new get-tough legislation and voter-approved initiatives. During his tenure, the department grew by more than 12,000 new employees to 42,000, and its budget now stands at $4 billion a year.

Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the union that represents more than 20,000 prison officers, called Gomez “dedicated.”

Last year, Gomez instituted a tougher policy regarding the use of deadly force by officers after new reports described how guards had shot and killed more inmates in California than in all other states combined--40 in the past 11 years.

Gomez will receive a raise from his current $107,000 annually, to $109,500 at PERS, with bonuses based on performance. He will join PERS on Jan. 21.