The Folly of Reformation in YACA

Date:        October 22, 2004

To:             Elaine M. Howle, State Auditor
                   555 Capitol Mall
                   Suite 300
                   Sacramento, California 95814

From:        Lorraine Bradley, Author
                    State Secrets
                    P.O. Box 543
                    Newport, VT 05855-0543

Subject: Youth Adult Corrections Agency Trickle Down Discipline.

Dear Ms. Howle,

On Wednesday, October 20th, 2004 I read an article in the Sacramento Bee in which it was reported that you were critical of the slow speed at which the California Department of Corrections is affecting change in their employee disciplinary system. While we may not see meaningful change in the Departmental disciplinary system in our lifetime, there is one aspect of their defective disciplinary process which seems to be receiving no attention at all and has yet to be mentioned by your office.

The reporting of employee misconduct, together with the ensuing discipline that would reasonably follow if found to be true, is anchored in the immutable philosophy that this reporting only has validity if it occurs from the top, down. It is this singularity of disciplinary direction that has the Youth Adult Corrections Agency at a distinct disadvantage in its attempts to correct and/or purge itself of malfeasant individuals. For this very reason, Departmental employees will spare no effort to, meticulously, hide their misconduct and malfeasance from their supervisors and superiors while caring little if their wrongdoing is discovered by a subordinate. In fact, oftentimes, a subordinate is the target of the supervisory misconduct.

This places the subordinate in a, uniquely, preeminent position to observe and identify the misconduct and wrongdoing of supervisors and superiors, however, the actual reporting of this misconduct is a leap of faith which, for good reason, is more than most employees are prepared to take.

While Mr. Hickman, Secretary, Youth Adult Corrections Agency, can promulgate policies that state that the "Code of Silence" and "Whistle-blower Retaliation" are unacceptable, the effectiveness of the channels through which the misconduct of superiors is reported, together with the protection of "Whistle-blowers", remains woefully inadequate. This is due, in large part, to the pervasive State-Service philosophy that the reporting of employee misconduct is an exclusive function of supervisors/superiors toward subordinates. A reversal of these roles is, demonstrably, resisted at ALL levels of State Service, as it is seen as a threat to the natural order of things. Like "Acid Reflux Disease" it is discipline going against the established grain. Even the specialized, discriminatory term "Whistle-blower" attaches itself only to those reporting misconduct against superiors.

As it was for me ten years ago, when I reported the fraudulent investigation of the Chief Investigator for the California Institution for Men in Chino to the State Personnel Board, so it is now for employees attempting to circumvent a lock-stepping Agency chain of command. Lacking any expectations of action within their own chain of command, when a Departmental employee reports the misconduct of a superior to the State Personnel Board¹, the State Personnel Board will accept the unquestioned and self-serving statements of the accused rather than independent evidence and applicable law developed and cited by the reporting employee in the initial complaint (Request To File Charges - RTFC).

I am currently a para-legal who is assisting employees in their "Whistle-blowing" in this fashion and I can state, authoritatively, that the State Personnel Board's attitudes and philosophies have not changed over the years. It is clear from the gruff demeanor of their responses that they do not wish to be bothered with these complaints. These are the same attitudes and philosophies I was faced with almost ten years ago in my efforts to have the State Personnel Board correct the perpetrator of a fraudulent investigation. It is true that the more things change the more they remain the same.

The problems with the Youth Adult Corrections Agency's reformation movement transcend YACA, they are pervasive throughout California's Departments, Agencies and Legislative Oversight Commissions and Committees. So far, the focus of the correction has been limited to internal fixes and overhauls within the agency when, in fact, it is the entire State which must be overhauled since one hand washes the other.

Often times I rely on the following analogy to make my point:

California State Service is like a house with many rooms. If a fire breaks out in one of the rooms, all occupants of the other rooms will mobilize to smother the fire lest the entire house burns down.

Clearly, then, the reformation of the Youth Adult Corrections Agency is merely a sideshow in the inexorable march toward Federal Receivership.

_______________________________________

¹§19572 et seq GC

Sincerely,




Lorraine Bradley, Author
State Secrets, The Website.
State Secrets, The Book.
lbradley282@msn.com
http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com



Cc:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor
State of California

The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson
Senior United States District Judge

John Hagar, Special Master

The Honorable Senator Gloria Romero

The Honorable Senator Jackie Speier

Roderick Q. Hickman, Secretary
California Youth & Adult Correctional Agency

Floyd Shimomura, Executive Officer
State Personnel Board

Letter to Thelton Henderson, Federal District Court.

Date:          Monday, August 9, 2004

To:              The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson
                     Senior United States District Judge
                    United States District Court
                    Northern District of California
                    San Francisco, California 94102

From:        Lorraine Bradley
                    P.O. Box 543
                    Newport, VT 05855

Dear Judge Henderson,

I have recently read that there is disagreement by the State of California as to whether or not the California Department of Corrections requires placement under Federal Receivership in order to function properly, within the laws of the State of California and the United States of America.

I have authored a book about my experiences with the California Department of Corrections which is freely available, on-line, at my State Secrets website and I am now a para-legal, assisting Departmental employees against a systemically corrupt system, Pro Bono, who have been victimized by the wrongdoing of Departmental Supervisors, Managers and Executive Officers.

I have read the letter of July 20, 2004 written to you by Peter Siggins, Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Schwarzenegger, posted on Governor Schwarzenegger's web site, which enumerates an impressive list of accomplishments directed toward the reformation of the Youth Adult Corrections Agency. However, I find it curious that the demand for my services has increased, not decreased, as it should, if these actions were effective. This leads me to believe that the prevailing opinion of Departmental managers and administrators is that these reforms are only temporary, purely cosmetic and not to be taken seriously.

One of the biggest benefits of a Federal take-over of the California Department of Corrections is that the source of the problems, the "Head Of The Snake" if you will, would be micromanaged by a Federal Receiver who would, hopefully, be insulated from the State politics of protecting incompetent Correctional Executive Officers and Administrators, of which there are many.

People still speak of Corcoran State Prison and the debacle that occurred there. However, it was a Correctional Administrator in Sacramento, not line staff at Corcoran, which fashioned the "Integrated Yard Policy" which mandated that rival gang members would exercise together in Security Housing Units. There are many other episodes that, when put together, demonstrate that this policy is representative of the "group-think" of Central Office for the Department of Corrections in Sacramento that remains to this day.

It is truly unfortunate that the Administrative/Executive officers of the California Department of Corrections have mismanaged the Department to the point where it must be considered for placement under Federal Receivership. However, for line employees, it may be a blessing in disguise, making the working environment safer. Perhaps California's State Prisons will no longer be a playground for perverse supervisors who are rewarded through promotion instead of disciplined for their wrongdoing.

Invariably, Departmental and Agency reformers enter their office with aplomb, but leave in disgrace, having, themselves, been the collateral damage of the numerous political obligations which have been collected upon through top level appointments, quite often overlooking ability in the process. Mr. Hickman is only the most recent link in this chain.

While I wish him well, his foundation is already starting to crumble as top level Executives and Managers, laden with controversial pasts within the Department, are installed in high level offices within Departmental Headquarters, while Wardens at the prisons openly and blatantly ignore his policies regarding whistle-blower retaliation and the "Code Of Silence".

Perhaps, under Federal Receivership, employees will no longer have to make the choice, as I did, of "Leave and live or stay and die.", a choice which no one should ever have to make. Perhaps, under Federal Receivership, whistle-blower retaliation, as well as the "Code Of Silence", still widely practiced by the Youth Adult Corrections Agency towards its employee victims, will finally end.

These are certainly issues to ponder prior to allowing the foxes to continue their reign of terror over the hen house.

Lorraine Bradley

Cc:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor
Peter Siggins, Legal Affairs Secretary
John Hagar, Special Master
Don Specter, Prison Law Office
Mike Jorgenson, Deputy Attorney General, San Francisco
The Honorable Jackie Speier, California State Senate
The Honorable Gloria Romero, California State Senate
Roderick Q. Hickman, Secretary, YACA

Open Letter On Prison Reform

Open Letter to Roderick Q. Hickman, Secretary
Youth Adult Corrections Agency

Dear Mr. Hickman,

I have enclosed an article published in today's Los Angeles Times.

Curiously, you make the statement, "We are committed to creating a disciplinary system that treats people fairly but also holds them accountable", a statement which has the distinctive ring of statements made by your predecessor Robert Presley, an individual who did absolutely nothing toward this end, during his years in the office of Secretary.

As you continue to practice the "Code of Silence", Sacramento style, by refusing to address past victims of the blatant criminality within your ranks, you might take stock in the insincerity of that which you preach. By refusing to address mistakes of the past in a meaningful way, your promises of a bright and just tomorrow ring hollow.

Even though you have claimed that the "New Law" is spelled out and clear, its interpretation by corrupt officials will continue to plague the Agency until you address the misconduct and corruption within your managerial and administrative ranks. Misconduct and corruption around which politics creates a protective and, oftentimes, impenetrable shell.

Your theories sound good, it will be interesting to see how they work in practice.

Please forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

Lorraine Bradley, Author
State Secrets, The Website.
State Secrets, The Book.
lbradley282@msn.com
http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com

California, A Land Of Kings

To:         Open Editorial

From:    Lorraine Bradley, Author
                State Secrets

RE:        THE CALIFORNIA MONARCHY - A LAND OF KINGS!

In monarchies throughout the world, ascension to the throne is accomplished through the succession of an heir. The overt European philosophy which keeps a family in power has historically been the "Divine Right of Kings" which asserts that GOD has deemed a royal family bloodline to be worthy of kingship.

In California, things are done a little differently - kings and queens are elected at the ballot box.

Elected politicians which probably start their careers by filling a political niche or plugging a governmental hole, quickly learn that they have garnered power in their little corner of the world, power that they use to promote their own, personal, agendas and beliefs. Advocation that exists as despotic decrees which often violate the policies of the public that elected them to the throne and, sometimes, even violate the law. The resulting anarchy seems to be of no concern to the new monarchy, as long as they have moved their personal beliefs forward, eroding society just that much further.

We need look no further than our local newspaper to see mayors involved in their, illegal, imperial pursuits, joining, in matrimony, the proud groom and the blushing bride as they both gaze longingly into each others eyes, both sporting a five o'clock shadow.

However, mayors are not the only ones that are elected to the throne and exercise their sovereignty over the laws of the land. We can't forget the District Attorneys - county prosecutors who are demanding their piece of the kingdom

In a headline published in the Los Angeles Times, Saturday, May 8, 2004 it is stated:

"Officer's Murder Divides San Francisco. Atty. Gen. Lockyer may step in as the D.A. refuses to seek death in the killing of a police officer."

"SACRAMENTO — California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer indicated Friday that he is likely to take over the controversial prosecution of the accused killer of a San Francisco police officer because the district attorney there is philosophically opposed to the death penalty and refuses to seek it."

With increasing frequency, the Attorney General is being called upon to don his armor, mount his steed and, with lance in hand, ride into the local castles to do battle with the elected monarchy. With increasing frequency, these elected potentates are thumbing their noses at public policy and the taxpayers that pay their salaries. However, this is nothing new and District Attorneys have a rich history of actions against the public interest. Chaos and disorder merely continue to reign in California's Halls of Justice - nothing new here!

What is reported in the paper is only the sensational tip of a huge ice burg that awaits, just below the surface, to wreck the ship of our Constitutional government.

Workers' Compensation Reform seems to be a historical hotbed of silent inequity and corruption for District Attorneys.

While the California legislature, in concert with the Governor, can pass laws that address and seem to rectify Workers' Compensation abuses, ultimately it is the District Attorneys who must enforce the most egregious abuses of the system - fraud.

The quality of enforcement of these laws against the abuses of Workers' Compensation Fraud seems to be contingent on the dichotomous philosophy that attaches itself to this single law which, constitutionally, should be applied equally to both employers and employees. Regrettably, this never seems to be the case.

District Attorney Philosophy #1:

Workers' Compensation Fraud, when committed by an employer against an employee, constitutes a "Personnel Action".

District Attorney Philosophy #2:

Workers' Compensation Fraud, when committed by an employee against an employer, invariably, constitutes a crime.

Even though it is the same law, if the perceptions of the two largest counties in California¹ are any measure of the validity of this duplicity, then the disparity and discrimination are whole and factual.

Click here for the August 6, 2000 scanned article in the L.A. Times regarding the self-serving prosecutorial practices of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office (1.2 Mb. file size PDF).

Click here to read how the District Attorney, in San Bernardino County, evaded Workers' Compensation Fraud prosecutions in favor of politics (647 Kb. PDF).

While civil disobedience by Mayors and breaches of public policies regarding death penalty cases by District Attorneys are aberrational signs of the times, the refusal of County Prosecutors to prosecute employers and insurance companies for their perpetration of Workers' Compensation Fraud committed against employees is the standard of political justice that endures, decade after decade.

Since California's District Attorneys are incapable of circumnavigating politics in the workers' compensation arena, the time has come for the Attorney General to create a special prosecutions unit which deals exclusively with Employer Perpetrated Workers' Compensation Fraud or, perhaps, a State Grand Jury if the Attorney General believes he cannot withstand the politics of TRUE Workers' Compensation Reform. If workers' compensation reform is ever going to be more than a mockery, the problem of Employer Perpetrated Workers' Compensation Fraud must be addressed.

Where kings reign, there needn't be either law or equity - only power.

Sincerely,

Lorraine Bradley, Author
State Secrets, The Website.
State Secrets, The Book.
lbradley282@msn.com
http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com


____________________________

¹Los Angeles County, Largest in Population and San Bernardino County, largest in area.

Outsourcing California's State Executive Officers.

To:        The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor
               State of California

From:    Lorraine Bradley, Author
                State Secrets

RE:         Outsourcing State Administrative Functions.

Recently, I have written an open letter¹ to you entitled "Part Time Legislature" in which I propound another view of the case for the California State Legislature to work, and be paid, on a part-time basis.

While your philosophy for the reduction of the legislature to a "part-time" basis is sound², upper echelon State Agency/Department/Board executives, similarly, pass "Strange Policies" and pursue "Strange Practices" which, oftentimes, shock the sensibilities of the California citizen.

"Strange Policies" such as the Department of Corrections, now rescinded - yet still infamous, "Integrated Yard Policy"³ which provided the architecture for the 1994 scandal at Corcoran State Prison. "Strange Practices" such as promotions within the Department of Corrections based on fraud and deceit, oftentimes propelling the most compromised personnel to the highest levels of the Department of Corrections.

The Corrections' Agency has become a veritable rogue's gallery of some of the most notable Departmental and Agency figures who have attained their place in infamy. In a series of articles entitled "Uncivil Servants" currently being published in the Contra Costa Times, the cooperation of the State Personnel Board in maintaining the Department of Corrections' Code of Silence is truly alarming. It appears as if all of the California government bureaucrats are involved, in some form and to some degree, in improprieties. It seems to be a "Rite Of Passage" to the upper bastions of power and control.

Having said all of this, if there is no alternative to the corruption, inattention, incompetence and dereliction of duty in the hierarchy of California's bureaucracies, wouldn't it make sense to have these qualities soil Sacramento on a part-time or private sector basis?

If public sector corruption is an unavoidable consequence of the administration of the California bureaucracy, wouldn't it make sense to get it at a discount, through part time work for part time pay or, perhaps, private sector administration of California's public agencies?

Many states who have attempted the privatization of rank and file personnel now lament doing so because of the hidden monetary and reputation costs associated with the substandard performance of that part of government that directly interacts with the public and inmates. The demand for privatization will shrink in the coming years as escapes and assaults on inmates by private staff, who are required to have a mere 40 hours of initial training and earn McDonald's wages, bring increasing lawsuits, public scrutiny and public outrage.

Anytime a restroom can become a supervisor's personal peep show and the Department of Corrections is allowed, even encouraged, to threaten the reporting employee with termination for exposing the practice, the public trust is breached. It is true that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Why not consider something that has never been tried? The privatization and outsourcing of the administrative functions of California State government utilizing an organization such as "Administaff". Perhaps administrative executives in the Sacramento and Regional offices could be, substantially, outsourced, replacing them with people who would do the job at a fraction of the cost. Since the State Administration hasn't done a very good job anyway, I doubt you would even notice the change. If you did, it would, no doubt, be a change for the better.

Sincerely,

Lorraine Bradley, Author
State Secrets, The Website.
State Secrets, The Book.
lbradley282@msn.com
http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com



____________________________
¹Widely distributed through e-mail and fax.

²"They pass strange bills."

³A Department Of Corrections' policy requiring Security Housing Units (SHU), throughout the State, to release rival gang members, together, on exercise yards.

Californias Prison Corruption Feast

As the leaves turn and the crispness of fall is in the air . . . THE FEAST IS ON!

No, this is not Thanksgiving, this speaks about the feasting on prison corruption that is occurring within the California State Government, a feast from which the politicians, both elected and appointed, will walk away full and fat while the taxpayer's wallet will be just that much lighter. For these politicians, life couldn't be better.

Historically, over the decades, the corruption in California's State Prisons has provided the elected politicians with a soap box and podium from which to extol their own specious virtues and unfulfilled remedies, constantly keeping their name in the public eye.

For the appointed, bureaucratic politicians who have learned the mantra of "Prison Reform", higher payrolls through promotion are guaranteed as the upper echelons of the State organization expand, exponentially, to accommodate the apparition of reforming California's Prisons and the additional staff that is required to do so.

Then, last but certainly not to be least, there is the press. As sales soar from the insatiable appetite of a readership, eager to learn the dirt of the public soap opera, the tabloid market can be readily tapped by media organizations that, at one time, were considered "mainstream", but have recently found themselves in competition for the tabloid dollar. It is no longer a rare occurrence to see a soccer mom, waiting in a supermarket check out line, carrying a copy of the National Enquirer or Weekly World News and the Los Angeles Times under the same arm.

In an earlier era, William Randolph Hearst would have embraced the spirit of the tabloid publications. Now, in the finest tradition of "Yellow Journalism" we have the mainstream media basking in his glory. While it is poor journalistic practice to have the messenger become the story, it is now commonplace as the careers of reporters are also enhanced as they suckle at the corruption trough.

However, with all of this crusading and feasting, a culprit must be identified and pursued to prevent the appearance of the government/press axis of being asleep at the switch for so many years. Towards this end, in walks the ultimate patsy.

Over the decades, the government/press axis has had a "love-hate" relationship with labor unions, the Teamsters being only one example. When they do well for their membership, achieving favorable pay, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment, labor unions become society's darlings for giving the working man a break. However, when corruption is discovered within their ranks, the press seizes upon the feeding frenzy to expose it.

The government/press axis has, without evidence, attempted to correlate the activities of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association with those of other labor unions, through innuendo, intimation and unsubstantiated allegations of "undue influence over public officials". The government/press axis has decided that the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is the perfect sacrificial lamb upon which to heap the sins of the government and they have decided to utilize character assassination to achieve this goal. It is fascinating that, all at once, they have spoken with one voice. It makes one wonder if this is incidental or by design?

With so much money at stake fighting this corruption, and while the spigot of public money is fully opened for this purpose, is prison reform truly the goal or is the pursuit of this reform the most likely scenario.

Pursuit of prison reform = SPIGOT ON
Prison reform = SPIGOT OFF

You decide.

Lorraine Bradley, Author
State Secrets, The Website.
State Secrets, The Book.
lbradley282@msn.com
http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com