Prisons face cut of $1.1B

Proposals include trimming staff, creating 12-hour shifts

Created: 10/10/2010 10:15:43 PM PDT

The state is cutting $1.1 billion from the corrections system as part of the Legislature's approval of the state budget.

The cut was announced in a report on the 2010-11 budget released last week by the California Legislative Analyst's Office. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is already considering cuts to corrections officers staffing and implementing a 12-hour workday for the officers in response to shrinking coffers.

"Sure, we're in a situation in the state where everyone's got to do their part, so I expect corrections will take a cut like everybody else," said Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate during his visit to Chino last week to open reconstructed housing units at the California Institution for Men.

"Every year, we get more efficient, leaner and so forth. It's a challenge especially in the field. We do everything we can to keep the field whole and take our cuts to headquarters; to take steps to run more efficiently so we can still run these places."

The state cut about $1 billion from last year's corrections budget despite an overcrowding issue that officers say is stretching the security levels of the state prison system.

In 2009-10, the budget was at $9 billion. More than a thousand inmates were involved in a riot at CIM last year, which injured more than 200 prisoners and caused millions in damage to the housing units Cate visited on Wednesday. Officials said overcrowding was a contributing factor in the racially motivated riot.

Union officials have expressed concern about employee safety and staffing levels if new cuts to security staff are approved. Corrections officials said the savings are necessary because of the budget crisis.

"We're just very concerned if these cuts do include additional employee position cuts," said Ryan Sherman, spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

"We're very concerned about staffing over at the prisons ... correctional officers make up the bulk of employees. We're very concerned that they're starting to look at eliminating positions which will significantly impact the safety and security of the institutions and the public at large."

Joe Baumann, the chapter president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association at the Norco Correctional Rehabilitation Center, said cuts have traditionally been targeted at security staff members.

"If they go after security positions, there's going to be more riots and more mayhem, so easily they could cut that billion out of administration and medical without it impacting public safety and the security of the facilities," Baumann said.

The 12-hour workday proposal for corrections officers would reduce the number of shifts in a 24-hour period from three to two. It would reduce staffing, but also impact security, union officials said.

"With fewer staff, we're going to have less members to be able to protect each other and the inmates," Sherman said.

Fred Stevens, the California Correctional Peace Officers chapter president at CIM in Chino, drew parallels to doctors and nurses working 12-hour shifts in a hospital and said exhaustion is a concern.

"Doctors don't recommend doing it," Stevens said. "Medical malpractice goes up. I can see some of the same concerns when you're out on duty with longer shifts."

Proposed implementation would be piloted at three institutions before adoption throughout the state, officials said.

"The state is in a significant budget crisis and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a result has had to look at ways to save money," department spokesman Paul Verke said. "As a result of the budget reductions last year, and whatever is in store this year, we're exploring all options to save money."

Verke said the three prisons being considered for a pilot schedule change are High Desert, Pelican Bay and Salinas Valley.

"If we move forward on it, we would most assuredly conduct appropriate discussions with the labor union," Verke said.

The CDCR may expand to additional job classifications at some point in time, but targeted are correctional officers, sergeants and lieutenants, according to corrections document detailing the proposal, a report called the 2010 Staffing Project 12 Hour Shift Schedule.

Staff costs make up about 80 percent of the institutional annual operating budget, according to the report.

In converting from an 8-hour shift schedule to a 12-hour shift schedule for a 24-hour operation, the third watch swing shift would be removed, and the second watch day shift and first watch night shift would be expanded to four hours each, according to the report.

Despite the shift, some 8-hour schedules would remain necessary to ensure that security would remain sufficient to operate safely and that the current daily operation has minimal changes.

"The plan does include flexibility for the department," Verke said.

The report goes on to say the plan would create a "leaner work force, thus reducing annual expenditures."

In August, corrections officials also proposed a 3 percent employee reduction - about 1,100 positions - to save between $80 million and $100 million.

Details on recommended cuts at CIM and California Institution for Women, both in Chino as well as California Rehabilitation Center in Norco were not released by prison officials.

State prison officials would have to approve the cuts, following labor negotiations.