A System Geared to Failure

The 2002 riot at Folsom State Prison was just one indicator of the many failures in California’s $5.7-billion prison and parole system, which even its new director, Roderick Q. Hickman, admits is “a revolving door of crime.” However, Sens. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) and Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who chaired hearings on prison reform this week, were right to single out this fracas for the way it epitomizes two grave problems:

• The system’s tendency to provoke criminal conduct. The riot was incited by prison officials who, instead of releasing inmates from two rival gangs to an outdoor yard a few at a time to maintain control, abruptly cut loose more than 80 inmates with conflicting gang affiliations.

• The system’s secrecy. Capt. Douglas Pieper, seeing that one gang was about to attack the other, asked Associate Warden Mike Bunnell if he could “shut ‘em down” — order inmates to lie on the ground. Bunnell replied “not yet.” Seconds later, a melee broke out that hurt 24 inmates and left a guard paralyzed. When Sgt. Sam Cox found a videotape of Pieper and Bunnell’s exchange, Folsom’s warden told him to delete its audio. After refusing to “tamper with the evidence,” Cox told legislators, “I was demoted.” Almost a year ago, Pieper took his life. In a letter he left to his wife and 12-year-old daughter, he blamed himself for not stopping Bunnell — who was investigated but ended up working in the head office of the prison system.

The problems unearthed at this week’s hearings require big responses. The first should be for Speier and Romero to get lawmakers to restore the $11-million budget of the inspector general, the independent watchdog who helped bring Pieper’s story to light. That move would not only assuage wronged whistle-blowing guards but also save taxpayers money.

On Wednesday, Steve White, the inspector general from 1999 to 2003, told legislators his office had, for example, exposed how guards — some paid $100,000 a year — fetched inmate mail from the post office. Why? As White said to laughs, the Corrections Department “hadn’t figured out” it could get mail delivered free.

Speier and Romero deserve praise for attacking this quagmire. But to reform this system, they need the support of voters, the media and their government colleagues, who all have forfeited too much sway over the system to the prison guards for too long.

Just how dire is it? While most involved in the issue thought former Department of Corrections Director Edward S. Alameida had left the prison system after resigning last month, officials disclosed Tuesday that he is just vacationing and will return to another managerial job in the system soon. If that isn’t discouraging enough, the governor may appoint a stall-and-study panel on prison reform. That’s the last thing California needs. It’s past time to halt the secrecy, lack of accountability, tax waste and danger in the state’s prisons.