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| Corrections officers union corrupts prisons, report finds |
| By Chronicle Sacramento Bureau |
| Published: 06/28/2004 |
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California's politically powerful corrections officers union shuns whistleblowers, rewards rogue officers and is a forceful impediment to efforts to reform the state's corrections department, according to a federal report released Thursday that also condemns former prison administrators. In a 127-page report that could lead to criminal charges against two former high-ranking corrections officials, a federally appointed special master concludes the state has been unable to police its prisons, allowing officers accused of wrongdoing to dodge justice. The special master, John Hagar, also calls for changes to a controversial labor pact between the union and the state that he says makes internal affairs probes "almost impossible.'' The report offers new insights into a prison system that has been reeling from scandal. It also adds to the library of dramatic tales about lives destroyed that has spilled into public view. The report is part of a federal judge's oversight of conditions at Pelican Bay, the notorious lockup on the Oregon border. U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson ruled in 1995 that conditions at the prison violated inmates' civil rights, and the court has been monitoring reforms there since. John Hagar, a special master appointed by Henderson to work with prison officials, wrote the report released last Thursday. He has spent the last year focusing on internal affairs investigations at the prison. Hagar's report is expected to go to Judge Henderson this summer, and Henderson will decide whether to pursue criminal charges and whether to allow Hagar to further investigate the corrections officers' contract to determine if its provisions should be overturned. Corcoran and other union officials have repeatedly scoffed at the notion that they have too much control over state prison operations. |
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