Pubdate: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2004 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: Mark Gladstone Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) PRISON HIRING DEFIED BUDGET 1,000 Guards Added To Payroll SACRAMENTO - During the past three years, California's troubled prison system hired 1,000 guards at a cost of up to $100 million and without permission from the Legislature, state finance officials revealed Wednesday. ``It makes the budget process look really very bogus,'' said Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, after hearing testimony from the Schwarzenegger administration about the unauthorized workers whose salaries have contributed to the skyrocketing costs in the nation's largest prison system. In fact, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office told lawmakers that the Department of Corrections budget in recent years grew at a faster rate than the inmate population. During the past decade the budget has doubled, to about $6 billion, while the number of inmates has risen only 23 percent, to roughly 160,000. The latest disclosures left even veteran lawmakers scratching their heads about the validity of budget figures from the Department of Corrections, which for years has been forced to seek hundreds of millions in extra funds because of cost overruns. And it left them questioning how the department -- saddled with a lucrative labor contract for prison guards -- could ever live within its spending plan. ``It's a meaningless budget,'' Speier said after the nearly four-hour hearing. ``We really don't know how these positions were filled yet.'' Officials in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance said the employees had been hired without permission, and that they are attempting to figure out whether it was done by wardens or other prison officials and what exactly the employees are doing. ``It more than raised eyebrows,'' said H.D. Palmer, information chief for the Department of Finance. He noted that the new administration is seeking reforms to make the prison system more accountable for its spending. The Finance Department has determined that in the last three years of the Davis administration, officials had failed to reconcile the budget with authorized positions such as guard-tower staffing and other posts. Rick Rimmer, acting director of corrections, said the mystery of the unauthorized workers was discovered within the past couple of months. He identified them as correctional officers and estimated their cost to taxpayers at $80 million to $100 million a year. ``The practice has stopped,'' he said in an interview. Wednesday's joint hearing of a Senate budget subcommittee and a special committee on corrections took place in a charged atmosphere with the prison system reeling from a wave of criticism over the past month. A federal court monitor declared the Department of Corrections has failed to police itself, legislative investigators raised questions of coverup after a 2002 riot at Folsom Prison and court-appointed experts have reported widespread problems at juvenile prisons. As the state's budget woes have worsened in recent years, lawmakers increasingly have examined skyrocketing costs of incarcerating inmates in 32 prisons. Wednesday's hearing was one of the most exhaustive public looks at the spending, though scant attention was paid to the actual treatment of prisoners. Among the factors contributing to the rising costs are higher than expected overtime payments, rising sick time, increased pharmacy and medical care bills and pensions. Corrections officials acknowledged that one key factor was the contract negotiated between the Davis administration and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which took effect about two years ago. A 2002 analysis of the contract by the Mercury News determined that guards would receive a more than 30 percent pay raise by 2006 and perks that some critics said were unparalleled in other state labor agreements. The guard union, which was a major donor to former Gov. Gray Davis, has said the contract was negotiated fairly. And Davis aides defended it, saying its salary provisions were tied to the rising salaries of the California Highway Patrol and big-city police departments. Some critics say they respect the negotiating skills of the union and blame prison officials and the Davis administration for not taking a tougher stance. Union officials did not testify Wednesday, and they could not be reached Wednesday night. Rimmer reiterated that Schwarzenegger plans to cut $400 million from the corrections budget and they are reining in costs as the number of inmates declines. They also said many of the expenses are the result of legislative reforms or court orders dictating mental health or medical treatment to prisoners or spelling out safer ways to use force to quell unruly inmates. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin