Corrections’ 1,000 Hires Shock Senators

The chief financial officer of the state Department of Corrections acknowledged Wednesday that state prison officials in recent years had hired an extra 1,000 employees -- mostly prison guards -- without authorization or funding.

The disclosure, during a hearing by separate Senate committees probing runaway spending in the prison system, sparked an outcry by Democratic lawmakers who demanded to know how the hiring of so many employees could have been done without approval by the Legislature. “If they are not authorized by the Legislature, they are unauthorized by definition,” said Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford).

Wendy Still, chief financial officer for the Corrections Department, said the hiring was related to safety and security. California’s prison system is the largest in the nation with about 161,000 inmates.

Still said the staffing requests originated with prison wardens. But her explanation did not placate the lawmakers, who are examining myriad problems in the system, including extensive use of overtime and sick leave by guards that has led to hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns annually in recent years.

“A warden can just say, ‘Bring them on?’ ” asked an incredulous Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles).

Still tried to explain that prison officials were operating within what they consider to be the department’s policy. She described a system in which some prisons regularly spend more than their allocation and budget projections don’t square with the reality in the field. The $5.7-billion correctional system has 46,793 employees.

But it was the revelation about the 1,000 new employees that sparked the most indignation since it is the Legislature’s role to authorize spending by state agencies and departments.

“It’s a travesty,” said Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) after the hearing ended. “It’s incumbent on us to pull in the reins and make people accountable.”

Speier said that if the prison system can hire 1,000 people without authorization, “the Legislature doesn’t matter. The budget doesn’t matter. They will spend it however they want.”

Even a representative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Department of Finance criticized the spending by prison officials. Budget analyst Todd Jerue told the Senate Select Committee on California’s Correctional System and the subcommittee that reviews the prison budget that the new administration cannot continue to allow hiring without approval.

Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said it was a review by the Schwarzenegger administration that found that Corrections had roughly 1,000 unauthorized positions. Palmer said the administration would work with the Legislature to find out “how in the world could something like this happen. How does it come to pass that there are 1,000 more positions in the system that are above and beyond what the Legislature authorized.”

The budget revelations follow hearings that examined allegations that a code of silence has covered up examples of misconduct by prison officials in the treatment of inmates.

And Schwarzenegger last week asked the U.S. attorney in Sacramento to investigate allegations that Folsom State Prison officials orchestrated a riot two years ago and then conspired to cover it up.