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
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