[Ppnews] CDCR scapegoats union employees on release of Olson

Political Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Fri Mar 28 17:14:42 EDT 2008




CDCR scapegoats union employees, covers up mismanagement at the top

Thursday, March 27, 2008
SEIU Local 1000 has uncovered data which contradicts assertions by 
the California Department of Corrections (CDCR) concerning the early 
release date of Sara Jane Olson, a former member of the Symbionese 
Liberation Army.

Reports from CDCR headquarters earlier this week indicated Olson's 
early release was the result of a clerical error in 2005.  Through 
our investigation, Local 1000 has found CDCR administrators and 
supervisors have reviewed the Olson case at least four times since 
December 2007 and found no errors.

That includes three reviews by prison supervisors of the time 
calculation in 2008 without any changes to Olson's release date.

"This is nothing but a political cover-up to scapegoat our union 
members," said Jim Hard, president of SEIU Local 1000, which 
represents 15,000 civilian employees in the state prison system. 
"This is the latest manifestation of ongoing problems which we have 
been trying to address. We even filed a lawsuit in December to force 
CDCR to address these issues."

The lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court is still pending.

Here are some of the facts we have uncovered over the last 36 hours 
on the Olson case, confirmed by three sources within CDCR (two 
working at the prison in Chowchilla and one of the people who handled 
the case file).

    * December 2007: Corrections Department administrators at 
Sacramento headquarters reviewed the Olson case files and found no errors.
    * The Olson case file was reviewed three times in 2008, at 60 
days, 30 days and 10 days prior to release.  In each case, 
supervisors reviewed the time calculation and approved the release 
date.  These were not cursory reviews.  In one instance, a case 
records analyst spent 2.5 hours reviewing the release date 
calculation with a supervisor.  The supervisor agreed with analyst's 
release date calculation.
    * Tuesday, March 25, 2008:  CDCR Internal Affairs launches an 
investigation and hauls three front line case records analysts who 
reviewed the files into interviews with only two hours notice.  The 
case records analysts, who are members of SEIU Local 1000, were given 
only two hours notice rather than the usual 24 hours in order to 
secure representation.
    * In the meeting, the case records analysts are told that an 
investigation is underway because "they were neglectful in their 
duties when they failed to accurately calculate the release date of 
inmate Olson."

As of this date, neither case records analysts nor their supervisors, 
have been provided with the training necessary to address cases as 
complex as Olson's.

Here's what this really comes down to:

    * Department administrators and supervisors have reviewed the 
Olson case at least 4 times since December 2007.
    * The case records analysts have received no training on the 
intricacies of penal code changes from indeterminate to determinate 
sentences.
    * The information they reviewed in the Olson case file is from 
the Board of Prison Hearings and cannot be changed.  If the 
information from BPH is wrong from the beginning, its garbage in, 
garbage out.
    * CDCR management doesn't have a leg to stand on after it 
reviewed the Olson case three times on 2008.

"Governor Schwarzenegger doesn't want the public to see there is a 
massive structural problem with the sentencing and release system," 
Hard said. "He knows that would worry the public.  He and CDCR would 
rather point the finger and let somebody else take the blame for 
their oversight."

This cover-up and scapegoating by CDCR comes following an action last 
December.  Local 1000 asked the California Superior Court to declare 
that CDCR has violated the state Constitution, laws, regulation and 
policy by failing to recalculate release dates for up to 33,000 
prisoners as required by recent court documents.

SEIU Local 1000 is California's largest state employee union, 
representing 87,000 rank-and-file state employees.

John Lum
Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS)
4931 Harrow Drive
Elk Grove, CA 95758
(916) 995-2379
Fax (call first): (916) 428-8928
jclum3 at aol.com



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