Getting to the heart of the dysfunction within the California
Department of Corrections is like peeling an onion, with layer
after layer of scandal and deceit, and a stench that only gets
stronger as each layer is removed.
Getting to the heart of the dysfunction within the California Department of Corrections is like peeling an onion, with layer after layer of scandal and deceit, and a stench that only gets stronger as each layer is removed.
At a recent state Senate budget hearing, lawmakers were shocked to learn that CDC officials hired 1,000 employees – apparently mostly prison guards – during a three-year period without authority from the Legislature, costing taxpayers $100 million.
This is merely the latest in a string of disturbing revelations about a department that seems to think it can set its own rules.
Last month, a federal report concluded that top corrections officials purposely botched an internal investigation and lied to cover it up. Days later, exhaustive legislative hearings found widespread prison misconduct and a code of silence that included a staged inmate riot and physical intimidation of witnesses.
Next, a series of reports chastised the California Youth Authority as a violent, gang-dominated agency where detainees are placed in small, inhumane cages.
Now this: Phantom employees and a hiring practice that officials are unable or unwilling to explain.
Who actually hired these people? What jobs did they perform? How did this happen without Sacramento knowing about it before now? Unbelievably, nobody has an answer, but somebody must be held accountable.
“I’m angry,” said state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough. “They think they’re untouchable that they can do anything.”
Indeed, the shadow workforce is yet another demonstration of the CDC’s arrogance, and the clearest evidence yet that our chaotic prison system is incapable of supervising itself.
