A U.S. District Court judge warned Tuesday he is close to putting the California Department of Corrections under federal control, but he gave prison officials a final chance to fix grave problems with officer discipline.
Judge Thelton Henderson expressed deep frustration with the department's decade-long inability to establish a credible employee disciplinary process.
"This is an extremely serious state of affairs," Henderson said Tuesday. "I am seriously considering appointing a receiver to oversee the department."
Henderson agreed, though, to allow the state to create the Office of Independent Review within the Office of Inspector General to track disciplinary cases. State officials announced the plan two weeks ago.
While issuing no formal orders, Henderson told the department to proceed.
The judge said he would appoint a Southern California civil rights attorney, Michael Gennaco, to aid the department and to work with him. Gennaco heads the Office of Independent Review overseeing the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The judge's involvement in the department began when prisoners alleging civil rights violations at Pelican Bay State Prison sued the department in the early 1990s.
Henderson eventually appointed San Francisco attorney John Hagar as special master to investigate the department. Hagar probed the alleged perjury of Pelican Bay officers during the trial of two other officers convicted of abusing inmates.
He concluded that former department director Edward Alameida stopped the perjury investigation under pressure from the officers' union.
Henderson said Tuesday that he realizes the problem in creating effective discipline is in the state capital.
The judge made it clear he is running out of time and patience as he waits for the department to comply with his orders to reform.
Only his hope that Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Hickman could change the department's culture kept him from taking over the department, Henderson said.
Hickman told Henderson on Tuesday that he believed the Office of Independent Review would have enough autonomy to work.
Corrections officials also told the judge they intend to assign attorneys to disciplinary cases to improve enforcement of discipline.
Henderson scheduled a hearing next month to update the department's progress.