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| Prisons promise a new code for officers |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 09/20/2004 |
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Facing unprecedented warnings from a federal judge, managers of California's teeming prisons are overhauling an internal disciplinary system that consistently fails to curb corruption and rein in rogue officers. For years, experts have pounded the Department of Corrections for operating a chaotic system that is unfair to employees while allowing abuse of convicts and other crimes to go unpunished. Now, with U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson threatening to place the prisons into receivership, department officials are unveiling a new strategy for policing their own. Over the last seven months, prison leaders have rebuilt their disciplinary system from the ground up, creating a model they hope will ensure that official wrongdoing is swiftly and justly punished. "We are committed to creating a disciplinary system that treats people fairly but also holds them accountable," said Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman. Anchoring the system is a thick manual that, for the first time, will spell out for wardens what sort of punishment to dispense for lapses such as abuse of sick leave and unreasonable use of force. In addition, investigators preparing disciplinary cases will from now on be teamed with lawyers to ensure their work is free of errors that can cause a case to collapse on appeal. Overseeing it all will be a new team of watchdogs - an independent Bureau of Review - charged with ensuring that discipline is meted out free of the cronyism and improper influence that have tainted the process in the past. Hickman, who has made cleaning up the culture of corrections a priority since his appointment late last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the new approach will bring uniformity to a disciplinary process that has been dysfunctional at best. |
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