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"Strange Policies" such as the Department of Corrections, now rescinded - yet still infamous, "Integrated Yard Policy"3 which provided the architecture for the 1994 scandal at Corcoran State Prison.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
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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.
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