Comments:

1. paulhbrown on 09/08/2011:

   It is no surprise to anyone who has worked withthe CDOCR anytime in the last 10 years. When Michael Cates (as Inspector General)investigated the efficacy of the SSAP programs a few years back, it was clear that there was no effective buy-in from the rank and file correctionsl officers or the Correctional Officer's Union. The private vendors were treated with impunity or favoritism, depending on the local climate and the will of the respective institutional wardens. At Donovan and SATF, the vendors were darlings for a time and when management shifted and new contracts were issued, things changed. Contemporary corrections absolutely must take a toehold in California or the whole quagmire will totally self-destruct from within. How can a State afford the high Correctional Officer wages and the cost of incarceration of rehabilitation is not part of the equasion?. Evidence-based correctional practices require an effective assessment administered with fidelity and a follow-through with an action plan (case plan) to work with the offender to begin the long process of gradual reintroduction back into the community as a law abiding and productive citizen. I have personally wotnessed the institutionalization of hundreds of offenders who were not appropriate for SAP treatment and were simply sent becahse of their minimum classification status. This simply can't keep on happening. The whole process of granting contracts to SAP vendors based on price and possibly based on political affiliations and other influences must also stop. I am now happily working back in the public sector in the South and grateful that the Schwartznegger administration was unable to get a budget enacted during the summer-fall of 2008. When non-essential contracts were suspended, I sent out my resume and fortunately there were a host of other public agencies that understood the value of contemporary evidence-based program administrators. I left CA and have never looked back. Besides a better quality of life at a greatly reduced salary, I now have piece of mind that my organization is not so cumbersome and not so steeped in Union influence and political faviritism that we can't get things done. California should stand as an example for all that large well-intentioned public institutions sometimes can not escape the fact that politics, unions, the correctional industrial complex and other interests will untimately rule out over good public policy. Just saying...