Correctional Officer passed away yesterday

It is with regret that we report that Noel Morton Correctional Officer at Eel River Conservation Camp passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. Noel began his career with the Department in February 2000 as a Correctional Officer. In March 2003 he transferred to Eel River Conservation Camp where he continued to work until recently. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November 2007. He leaves behind his wife Caroline and two children.

Margaret Pieper

Administrative Assistant/Public Information Officer

California Correctional Center

530-257-2181 extension 4110

Margaret.Pieper@CDCR.ca.gov

Important info on your Performance Reports

It seems we have a new attack on Correctional Officers from within our custody ranks at CCC. This comes down to your LOI's & ECR's and ultimately your performance reports. It states in our implemented terms, 9.01, section B. While in the process of completing the annual performance report, the employee's supervisor shall personally meet with the employee to review the report, any notes, documentation, or audits to prepare for this report. NOTHING of negative nature shall be mentioned in the PR if the performance was not previously documented and discussed with the employee during the rating period. UNLESS an employee's performance was of a continuing nature or the the instance was particularly egregious, a singular event shall not be the basis for a substandard or below substandard rating. These reports shall be issued no later then 30 days after the due date of the report. Note, any documentation they use for your performance report must be attached to your PR. If they are speaking of it in your PR, then it must be included. If you have not received your PR by the due date or have not received your copy of your PR by the 30 day limit, please contact us so we can address this accordingly.

Also, 9.05, section D, states that LOI's and ECR's are instructional and intended to improve job performance. These documents are not supposed to be a form of punishment.

So in closing, if you receive an ECR or an LOI, and it was written for the wrong reason, contact us, so we may submit a rebuttal. Second, Check your personal files for your Performance Reports. Make sure there were no changes on it or any other paperwork attached to it without you being aware of it. It is a direct violation of the POBAR. It is also in direct violation if a Lt. orders a Sergeant to change your ratings on your Performance Report. Seems like this has been going on for some time now and we have been documenting this. If you fall under any of these areas, contact me so we may further assist you. Many of these actions are wrong. They are against our Implemented Terms, POBAR, DOM Chapter 3, Article 22 and many other violations, state, union and Federal. We will are working closely with legal on this whole mess. This will not be tolerated at our institution. These person/person's will have to answer for their actions to someone that is much higher then any personnel at CCC. This is serious business folks. It is totally out of line and uncalled for. And also illegal

Know your rights. If you are not sure call one of us. This outlandish behavior does not fall under any CDCr book that I have seen yet. This is very disturbing, especially during these times when we are supposed to be on the same team, we have some out there that has lost the concept of teaching staff and guiding them. But to "cut staff at the knee caps" and forget their roles as Supervisors? Supervisors are custody also, they are not management, so why some feel that they must take on that role is beyond my comprehension. They are subject to the matrix system as well as the rest of us.

Stay Safe and Sane

Lori

Prison Guards Are Not the Enemy

Prison guards – aka correctional officers – are not the enemy. Yes, California’s correctional officers make a lot of money compared to their counterparts in other states. Yes, they have formed a wealthy, politically ruthless lobbying powerhouse, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), which has repeatedly stood in the way of much-needed reform. And, yes, my organization went head to head with them when they self-interestedly opposed a 2008 ballot initiative we sponsored that would have safely reduced the prison size while investing in better drug treatment. Their fear-mongering ads convinced voters to keep drug offenders locked up at a cost of one billion dollars per year (so if you are wondering why your elementary school is closing two weeks early this year, it’s at least in part because CCPOA and other fans of big prisons don’t want petty offenders to get two weeks off their sentence).

Despite all this, correctional officers aren’t the enemy… not this week at least. Not since Governor Schwarzenegger proposed privatizing California’s prison system. There’s only one thing worse than fighting the CCPOA for reform of California’s prisons – and that’s fighting major corporations that are even less transparent and accountable to the public and that are dedicated solely to boosting profits for their shareholders.

The governor is right to push for big cuts in runaway corrections spending, but the problem of our overcrowded prisons isn’t a question of union corrections officers versus nonunion ones, or for-profit prisons versus state-owned prisons. It’s about addressing the massive sentencing inflation that prior governors and Legislatures indulged in. It’s about treating nonviolent or low-cost property crimes as misdemeanors (punished in county jails), and treating only violent crime or big money crimes as felonies (punished in state prison).

The state prison population has grown by over 500% since 1980, rising from under 30,000 to about 170,000 at the end of 2009. Who are all these people? Too many of them are guilty of petty offenses, what in prior years were misdemeanors that landed someone in jail for six months to a year. Now even petty offenses – including stealing a car radio or being in possession of a tiny amount of drugs – can land you in state prison for years at a cost to the taxpayer of $49,000 per inmate per year. If an inmate is older or has a health problem, multiply that figure (then subtract that from the budget for your local school or hospital).

Over 24,000 people are locked up in state prison for nothing more than a nonviolent drug possession offense. This policy alone – to punish unhealthy behavior with state prison rather than county jail or to offer drug treatment instead – costs taxpayers over $1 billion each year. And yet there is consistent, copious evidence that serving more time behind bars does not reduce drug use; it may actually exacerbate the problem.

As a result of this and other bad policy choices – made over the years by voters as much as the Legislature – the state’s prison system is at nearly 200% of capacity, bursting at the seams and busting the budget. Overcrowding is such that the state system is under federal court receivership for failing to provide constitutionally adequate health care. Prisoners die of medical neglect and negligence every week.

And yet it could be worse. Operated by private companies, California’s prison system would be measured not primarily in terms of justice, public safety and rehabilitation, but by stock prices and profit margins. Prisoners would be products. Corporate growth would depend on increasing the number of prisoners and profits would depend on spending less on each of them.

In states where privatization is far more extensive than California, including Florida and Texas, private prisons have terrible track records. These companies have consistently cut corners, hired cheap and untrained staff and covered up scandals – all in the pursuit of profits. It’s noteworthy that these companies, led by the behemoth Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), have failed to deliver savings for state governments, though they have passed on sizeable profits to the companies’ shareholders.

Those profits are being leveraged in the California State Capitol. According to research from the Private Corrections Institute, CCA contributed $100,000 to Schwarzenegger’s initiative coffers last year. The company gave $174,000 to 40 sitting lawmakers, to candidates, and to the state Republican and Democratic parties as well in 2008.

Our state prison system is broken – there is no doubt. But privatization would make it worse, not better. We cannot outsource the dilemma to a private industry that puts shareholders’ interests ahead of public accountability and safety. We need to get back to basics. There are too many prisoners in California’s expensive prison system for petty crimes, for using drugs or stealing a bicycle. Our lawmakers need to roll back excessive sentencing and spending on prisons to protect our schools, the elderly, and healthcare, and to protect the state from wildfires and financial ruin.

Trained correctional officers necessary

David Warren

Posted: 01/14/2010 07:27:57 PM PST

The article "State considers private prisons," Jan. 12, provided comments from various stakeholders - the governor, the Legislature, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Each argued for or against the privatization of California prisons. Regretfully, none of the individuals quoted spoke for or about the consequences to taxpayers, the families of inmates, or even the inmates.

Prisons are supposed to provide two distinct and important functions: providing for the incarceration of those individuals who are a threat to public safety; and rehabilitating those individuals who want to and can be, which is even more important financially to every taxpayer. The prison system has abjectly failed to provide either as is demonstrated by the 70 percent rate of recidivism and the number of inmates who become repeat offenders. If any business had a product failure rate of 70 percent, it would be closed. Unfortunately, we cannot close our prisons.

The high cost of prisons is falsely attributed to the people that work in them, the correctional officers and medical staff, to name a few. The governor, in order to find a "quick fix" and to "retaliate against the union," suggests that the best way to reduce costs will be to open private prisons which pay their staffs less. As with all simplistic solutions, it sounds good in a sound bite, but it is doomed to failure.

The people who work

---

inside a prison represent a microcosm of society, some very good, some very bad, and most just normal individuals. But there is one thing which is common among prison staff - they are highly trained individuals who know 1) the law to ensure that inmates are not subject to illegal abuse; 2) how to deal with inmates that are cooperative and those that are not; 3) how to deal with the mentally or physically ill, and, perhaps most important, 4) when to use deadly force in an environment which can change from peaceful to extraordinarily dangerous in a secondKnowing that the state allows only the most highly trained individuals to hold such positions of authority not only protects inmates who want nothing more than to serve their time from predatory inmates, it also protects all citizens from the threat of crime spreading from the prisons by gang leaders into our communities. Working at a prison requires more than muscle and bulk; staff must know and understand constitutional standards of conduct for themselves and the wards of the state.

Prisons are Petri dishes for communicable diseases.

Maintaining the health and safety of all of us outside the prison requires constant diligence by the medical and correctional staff at each prison. We cannot expect the same from private prisons because of the expectation of profit. Also, private prisons house only the least dangerous inmates, leaving the state to continue to house the most dangerous, sick and expensive.

Private prisons charge less for the housing of inmates by reducing the cost of their operations. This has been accomplished by paying "guards" extraordinarily low wages which results in high staff turnover and more inmate complaints about health care and treatment by staff, as well as failure to provide rehabilitation programs. Inmate complaints become inmate lawsuits. Lawsuits result in judgments against the state, the awards of which are then paid by taxpayers. Because of these problems with private prisons, other states have withdrawn inmates from private prisons. Short term there are savings, long term the savings are eaten up by unexpected costs.

But perhaps the most important issue which must be faced is the question of do we as citizens want to give private prison guards the authority to use deadly force. These guards may well be given training on how "to shoot straight," but they will not receive the same training on when to use deadly force as is provided to California prison correctional officers. One wrongful death will provide a judicial award of more than one month's operational savings.

Only state-operated prisons can assure that dangerous inmates are properly segregated from society and from peaceful inmates to allow rehabilitation. Long term, once inmate population is reduced to judicially acceptable levels, it will result in lower recidivism. Lower recidivism means less money spent on prisons. We will only obtain that result with a well-trained, professional staff. We will only get what we pay for with professional employees, not "guards."

David Warren is a member of Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety, a nonpartisan consortium of California taxpayers, business interests, and persons within the prison reform community who seek to improve public safety through meaningful and cost-effective measures which best utilize taxpayer dollars. He is a volunteer Jewish chaplain at a number of California prisons and a volunteer advocate in the state Capitol to reduce recidivism through rehabilitation and segregation of those inmates who want to succeed from those who do not.

More B.S. from the CIW right.

I find it fascinating that someone actually believes this crap. But I like to send it out to you guys so you can see what the other side thinks. http://www.scpr.org/specials/prison/letters/ These are letters from inmates who claim they were on RCW. And here is an audio file. http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/01/13/lessons-from-chino-what-was-or-wasnt-learned-from-/ A rider tells me that poor "Bobby" memorial at the bottom of this link, was a past visitor of Birch Hall. http://intheriot.com/ For the ones that don't know, this is a media frenzy that has transpired from the CIW riot back in August. The lawyers have jumped on the band wagon on this one. The inmates have found this a great opportunity to voice their b.s. in the media. I have a gut feeling the Arnie will use this in his "beat corrections down" fight. Thanks 4 Stinbul for providing this. By the way, he was there that night. Went in on his day off from home to help out during this crisis. Lori Olah

Just my 2 cents worth

Well, it has been a roller coaster ride this past month with all the crap from downtown. First we win our furloughs, then we were getting paid, to no we aren't getting paid, to loosing our furloughs. This is frustrating times for us. We are getting the info out to you as fast as we receive it. I want to send a special thanks to DVI and CMC for helping out with this process. Sharing information among institutions is awesome. Maybe someday all the institutions will be on board on having their own sites up for staff.

We still have our o.t. issues locally. We are aware of it and trying to handle it as best as we can. I did hear that Hunter did put out a memo to all the supervisors that they will not work staff over the 80 hour cap unless the place is burning to the ground. This is good They did listen to us when we sat down and talked to them a couple of weeks ago.

Lately I have been getting a lot of complaints on how the hiring is being done. I have been calling the new Sergeants trying to get it straight. This is just my thought, they are new, come from other prisons and do not know the whole policy on hiring/holding of o.t. This will be addressed at our next Wardens meeting.

Also, the triple doubles should not be an issue anymore. I heard that there was a memo put out on this as well. Thank you to the ones that got us on the roll on these problems. Our administration handled the problem immediately and appropriately.

One issue that has been happening and we are still collecting info on this, Annual Performance reports. We are aware that the Lt.s are forcing the Sgt.'s to change the reports after the employee reviews and signs it. We are also aware of the paperwork that has been passed out to the supervisors on this very issue. This paperwork was faxed down to HQ's on Friday. I should have an answer for you by Wed. the latest. This policy is illegal and will be dealt with. I did speak with the LRA briefly on Friday with this.

They are also attempting to use old ECR's and LOI's on the performance reports. This is also deemed illegal. They cannot use an ECR or an LOI that is old and if you have done the proper training that is included in these. These actions are not meant to be used for any adverse action (as they are trying to do now). In fact it even has verbiage in our I.T. on this issue. I will post this on a later date. So if you fall under this, please contact me by phone or email and I will get your package ready for this. We have several cases on this issue that we are working on.

Another issue brought up was the watch office not hiring the o.t. in 4 hour increments. The information I am receiving on this is coming from the Watch Commander. It will be addressed.

Just some advise for the ones that do sign up for o.t., go in the watch, sign up for the days you want to work (they have a book in there that goes for 2 weeks), that way when they don't call you for o.t. we have it in writing and will file a grievance on it for call back time.

I also want to point out, since some use the direct email to this site or post on this site, the topics show my name as the author. For some reason, I got the settings messed up and need to fix it. So if something gets posted and my name is on it, it may not be my post. As you all know, I am a computer reject, so bare with me. I hope I can fix it. Most know when I post. And there are about a dozen or so people that have direct access to this site.

Lastly, the staff at our last chapter meeting voiced their opinion on how pissed they are with the whole mess down in HQ's, the Don Novey/Mike Jimenez issue. Your concerns will be brought up at the next State Board Meeting. As I have said before, I am the voice for you guys. It is not my personal thoughts or feelings. This is yours. I have full understanding on your dislike of our current E.C. This has been a topic for a couple of months now and I can honestly say, I have attempted to reach the E.C. on this and other issues and have failed. I never got my calls returned. So I will handle it when I go down there on the 30th. I am sorry that I could not answer your questions. I personally feel shoved off in the corner (so to speak) from this whole mess. So I apologize to you guys. This is not how it is supposed to work in CCPOA. I am hoping this will be resolved at the state board. I cannot express enough how disappointed I am on this whole mess. It's almost like going into a battle, fire the first bullet and look around and your back up scrammed leaving you to defend everything yourself. I cannot apologize enough on this. Everybody knows me by now, I am gung ho on open communications with all. I cannot stress this enough.

Finally, we have two new job stewards in the watch. J. Peralta is the new chief job steward for third watch. Kim had to step down for her own reasons. D. Bias will be in the watch behind me until I return. I should have the new steward list posted Monday. Randy Langslet is also a new board member. He works on Sierra yard 2nd watch.

I am compiling another Job Steward Training list. If you are interested, contact me.

Bollie has posted our minutes on the site here, so this should make it easier access for everyone.

Until next time, Stay Safe and Sane

Lori Olah

Hi Everyone:

I found a couple of informative websites that I really wanted to share with you all.
For those of you who are in CDCR and would like daily updates in regards to any and everything going on with California Corrections, then click this link to subscribe for free.

http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/cdcrstar/subscribe_cdcrstar.html

Also, I came across this blog written by Tim Yeung. He is an attorney in private practice, but formerly worked for the DPA. In this blog post he explains GAS' proposed salary reductions and offers his analysis of what it all means. Definitely worth reading.

http://caperb.blogspot.com/2010/01/governor-releases-budget-salary-cuts.html

And a big thank you to everyone who have sent messages of thanks and support. I'm not doing much, but I am pleased to do my part and I try to keep everyone up to date. Thank you!

Tama

Hi Everyone:

So the link I am posting is an updated article posted today on sacbee.com. Although GAS won the appeal, it is only a temporary stay and CCPOA has until next Thursday to file more arguments with the court. As the article states, next Thursday is also the deadline for January payroll changes, so that is why full pay next month is unlikely.


http://www.sacbee.com/politics/story/2466221.html

And to everyone who has asked - I myself am not a State Worker. I am the very proud wife of a State Worker. CCPOA Unit 6. I may not walk directly in your shoes everyday, but my respect for all of you knows no bounds. I am disgusted by what GAS has done and that is what prompted me to start this group. I appreciate all of your support and kind words. And I hope you all don't mind all the e-mails. I just want to make sure you all get the most up-to-date information out there and e-mailing you all seems the best way since I'm not sure if everyone checks the page everyday.

Thanks,
Tamara

Just my 2 cents worth

 Wow, we made it to 5,000 visitors. Never thought that would happen to this itty-bitty site. And to think I almost shut this down 8 months ago.

Several people suggested that the name be changed from "UnOfficial CCC site" to something else. I'm all ears. So give me suggestions. And no, we cannot use Gladiator School, that's already taken. lol.

Last night was our chapter meeting. There was good feed-back from everyone. Bottom line, people are fed up with hold overs. Tired of Friday hold overs. When is CDCr going to pull their heads out and take care of this problem? When is our administration going to act on this? Do we have to loose a cop before anything happens? Holding staff on their Friday's and ordering them in on their Sunday's is insane! This in not an emergency! This is CDCr's incompetence in running a prison! Maybe they need to look outside the box, if you can't fill the watch, find an alternative. Plain and simple. Maybe feeding will be late or sack feed, or there will be no programs, but wake up CDCr. We don't have to run inmate programs all the fucking time! If they miss church on day, so what! If we can't fill visiting, so what! Take care of your staff. Staff are exhausted and fed up. STOP HOLDING THEM ON FRIDAYS!!

The RA's are not helping either. They only work when they want to and where they want to. This has been brought up to our administration and the reply was,"well then they won't work". Yes they will. They can't afford not to. Many of them bailed ship to early and need that $. So assign them a shift and a job.

We have given the administration every possible idea that we can. It is up to them to act on it.

Lori

32 hour OT cap

This is an issue that seems to be revisited time after time. The 32 hour cap was put in place by meet and confer by this chapter and management. The idea of the cap was to allow less senior Officers a chance at overtime. In the past the overtime would "dry up" and the less senior Officers would not be able to have any OT at all. OT at that time was handed out only by seniority. Some of our senior members would be working 100 hours plus OT while the rest could not get more than a few hours of OT.

In current times this seems like the time to do away with the cap to some members. The fact is that the "Cap" is helping to reduce holdovers (holdovers that affect the less senior staff), as more Officers have a choice in jobs and would rather pick a job than be held. Allowing junior staff a piece of the action after the senior members have had a share of the available OT "DOES" reduce holdovers. In these times of reduced pay it is important that the less senior staff have a chance at the OT, for the same reason as everyone else, so they can make thier bills.

I am questioned quite often as to changing or removing the cap. I am personally against removing the cap altogether, but as a representative for the membership I have to look at the request from any member unbiased. More people need the Overtime than ever before, There is more than enough OT out there (a point that can be argued either way), these less senior members are at a lower wage than the more senior members (you're pretty hardcore if you do not think it does not matter that these people are grossing less than we clear in a check), And the cap still allows senior members to chose 4 jobs before anyone else gets a try at those jobs.

I think we are good where we are with the 32 hour cap, but then again I don't work overtime either. Please think it out before you suggest to remove the OT cap, Think about how it would have affected you if it had not been there when you were less senior! Think about how it would have affected you when OT was lean! Wonder how you would have bought those toys if it weren't for the OT you had. And then remember the less senior are trying to pay thier bills not buy toys! I expect to hear a lot about this post, so lets have it!!! R. Boulanger

OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY

By C/O D. Terry From DVI

The citizens of California now have insight to the mentality of a Schwarzenegger Administration that is out of touch with reality. Judge Roesch decision that the furloughs are illegal prompted Aaron Mclear’s rant on civil servants being shielded from the tough economic times. Once again little effort or thought was put into a misleading response. Civil servants across the Golden State have been experiencing the tough economic times before the furloughs were imposed on them. Being employed by the State of California does not make an employee immune or exempt from the economic realities of these harsh times. Many families of civil servants had already tightened their financial belts to the point of being uncomfortable. While suffering through the tough economic times along with everyone else in the state of California and America. Mr. Mclear and Governor Schwarzenegger seems clueless of how many of those so called shielded workers have lost their homes, file for bankruptcy, and suffered other related incidents, before the Schwarzenegger Administration decided to abuse the Legislature’s failure to pass a budget.

Memo from CCPOA & State budget Summary

Memo From CCPOA Plus State Budget Summary


Entire Corrections And Rehab Budget

Roll Call Briefing