MAKING MATTERS WORSE: WADDLING IN THE MESS

by

Dortell Williams

400 words ( non-fiction)

It reminds me of when petro-rich G. W. Bush announced "America is addicted to oil," yet he - the Supreme a

(and extreme) Commander-in-Chief - failed to effectively push for or provide adequate funding for alternatives.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, /Bush's political- party mate in California, seems to be of the same political inclination: Got a mess? Wade and waddle in it, instead of cleaning it up.

As a long-term prisoner in California's chaos-saddled clink, I was especially attentive to the then campaigning actor's 2003 promise to clean up California's troubled prison system. The subject was hoisted as a prominent theme in his Gray Davis recall election campaign.

California is host to the biggest penal and jail systems, respectively, in the nation. Primarily because of misdirected and ignominious state policies like the Three Strikes law, which calls for the indefinite lock-up of misdemeanor shoplifters, and worse: mentally ill and drug addicted people who should be patients instead of prisoners.

When Schwarzenegger had the opportunity to reduce the overcrowding - he belatedly acknowledged after threats of a federal takeover - he misrepresented the facts of Proposition 66 which would have amended the Three Strikes law. No, instead of heading off predictable overflow problem, he hyper-inflated the amount of non-violent prisoners who would have been re-sentenced and screened for release under the amendment.

Meanwhile, California's 70 percent recidivism rate is the highest in the U.S., coupled with a repressive Board of Parole Hearing panel who releases only an annual 2 percent trickle of thousands of reformed lifers - lending absolutely no hope despite our accomplishments and demonstrations of personal rehabilitation that would be praised in other states. And as the governor silently and idly watched on, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson seized control of the medical wing of the prison system in and emergency response to frequent preventable inmate deaths.

As before, now that political season is in full swing, prison reform is suddenly important again.

It was under Schwarzenegger's watch that the first correctional officer was murdered in over twenty years due to the inappropriate housing of a mentally ill prisoner. The prison budget also swelled from $6 billion annually to 8 billion in the unprecedented span of 12 months with Schwarzenegger in command. Experts assign blame on rampant overtime by the prison guards, mismanagement and a generous contract give away for the prison guards that included a 37 percent pay raise, over 5 years ( whiled other state employees only saw a 3 percent raise for the same period), along with frequent cost overruns - all while the state was experiencing a financial meltdown.

The problems within the juvenile and adult penal systems are so pervasive, not one, but two prison head bureaucrats have consecutively resigned within the last few months citing a lack of will by the governor to go beyond adding the euphonious title of rehabilitation to the California Department of Corrections.

Could his own tailored phrase "girlie men" apply here?

Recently the non-partisan Corrections Independent Review panel recommended releasing the the inevitable pressure from the bulging penal Crock Pot, stating: " The key to reforming the [prison] system lies in reducing the numbers"; common sense to you and I , but Schwarzenegger's response to this mess? Build two more prisons with money we don't have (using bonds and unnecessarily putting the state back in debt) so we can all be further financially and immorally drowned in this ever increasing cesspool of failure.

Sources:

Vikki Vargas, KNBC 4 News June 26, 2006 (Governor Calls Special Legislative Session for Prison Reform).

Adriene Alpert, News Conference, KNBC 4 June 25, 2006 (Federal special master John Hagar releases scathing report on prisons).

Jennifer Warren, "Prison Guard Turned Boss Presses for Reform, " Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2004: Al, A22

Dan Morain, "Doubt Cast on Guards' Contract, " Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2004: B1 B10.

Don Thompson, " Federal Judge Pans prison Guards' Contract, " Antelope Valley Press, July 21, 2004: A2

Senator Gloria Romero, Senate Bill 1547, February 2006, (Quote from Correction's Independent Review Panel).