Citing Health Issues, Terhune to Retire as Corrections Chief

Cal Terhune, who won widespread respect for his stewardship of a state prison system plagued with overcrowding and investigations of brutality by guards, said Thursday that he will retire as California’s director of corrections because of a heart condition.

In a letter to Gov. Gray Davis, Terhune said that because of an irregular heartbeat, he will with great reluctance step down Nov. 4 after a long career in the state’s penal system.

“The doctors say I need to work 40 hours a week,” Terhune said in an interview. “Well, this isn’t a 40-hour-a-week job and I’m not a 40-hour-a-week person. So it was a collision course and my wife said, ‘Act like a 71-year-old and do what you’re supposed to do.’ ”

In a statement, Davis praised Terhune as a dedicated public servant who “has shown leadership, integrity and a true commitment” to the state. The governor said he will conduct an extensive search for a replacement and will put Steve Cambra Jr., currently the Department of Corrections’ chief deputy director of field operations, in charge until the $105,883-a-year job is filled.

News of Terhune’s retirement triggered accolades and expressions of regret.

“He’s been a fair man, and I admire his 40-plus years of service to the people of California,” said Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the union representing 29,000 prison guards. Novey added that while he disagreed with Terhune half the time on labor issues, he respects the director for standing up for eight officers at Corcoran State Prison who were charged with--and later acquitted of--brutality and other wrongdoing.

Don Specter, director of the nonprofit Prison Law Office, which helps inmates with legal problems, also cited troubles at Corcoran as well as praising Terhune--but for different reasons. Specter said Terhune’s greatest accomplishment was creating a new, systemwide policy controlling the use of lethal force against inmates.

State Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) called the ruddy-faced Terhune “a respected bureaucrat who took responsibility and always was truthful in answering questions and dealing with problems.”

Terhune was named director in 1997 by former Gov. Pete Wilson, who brought him out of retirement at a time when the department was reeling from a bulging inmate population and federal scrutiny of alleged wrongdoing by guards.

When Wilson called, Terhune was serving as mayor of Ione, a small Amador County town east of Sacramento where he lives with his wife of 50 years, Ardyce, in a house built in 1860. But the challenge of running a department with a $4-billion budget, 46,000 employees and 33 prisons proved irresistible.

During his tenure, Terhune was credited with reorganizing and strengthening the prison system’s internal investigation operation and rewriting its policy on the use of deadly force. He said he is also proud of extending the training for guards from six to 14 weeks, a move he believes will increase the professionalism of prison staff.

Terhune began his corrections career as an intern in the parole division and went on to spend 35 years at the California Youth Authority, where he gained a reputation as a skilled trouble-shooter and ultimately became the agency’s director.

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Times researcher Patti Williams contributed to this story.