Putting The Cart Before The Horse.

In January, the "New And Improved" Youth And Adult Corrections Agency published, on the web, an inaugural edition of the YACA News¹.

With all of the style and grace of Charles Durning, the dancing Governor of Texas in the movie "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas", YACA danced around the problems they now face in a transparent attempt to improve the cosmetics while masking the substance of a failed tax-devouring agency.

With such statements as , "Most of the system's ills can be traced to the structure of the Youth and Adult Corrections Agency." and "Key managers will be held accountable for performance.", Mr. Hickman's double-talking propaganda machine tells us that he will reform the "system" and then, at some point down the road - if time permits, he will assess the culpability for failure of "key managers". I do have my doubts that the time will ever arrive.

The failure of this strategy is predictable. Ultimately, it is the agency's plan to thwart accountability for "key managers" by blaming "the system" that will insure continuing scandal and failure. This is much like blaming the gun for the homicide or the automobile for the vehicular manslaughter. Clearly this plan was developed by Agency lawyers who think they are still practicing trial law.

A direct analogy can be drawn between the systems of YACA and the systems of an aircraft, another structure comprised of a multitude of component parts.

When an airplane crashes and it is determined that the cause is a defective component, the systems within the aircraft are not redesigned around the defective part. It is the part which is replaced and/or redesigned within all similar aircrafts. YACA seeks to ignore its defective parts and redesign the agency around that which is flawed, a castle of granite built on a foundation of sand.

Mr. Hickman's plan seems to be to throw out the baby and keep the dirty bath water.

No Mr. Hickman, fixing the system will have no effect until you purge the agency of its defective component parts - "key manager" parts. This will be a more daunting task than replacing a defective jack screw in the tail elevator of an Air Bus, because aircraft parts have no political influence and have no idea which closet holds the skeletons, but, like the aircraft analogy, it must be accomplished before you will realize success.

To do less is putting the cart before the horse.

______________________
¹http://www.corr.ca.gov/CDC/PDFs/YACANews.pdf

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

The Coup That Failed.

In today's Los Angeles Times is an article in which Governor Schwarzenegger expresses a desire for the Youth & Adult Corrections Agency to re-enter the era of incarceration based on the "rehabilitation model" of corrections. A model which, historically, has cost plenty.

In a statement issued by Roderick Q. Hickman, "We just lost our way with respect to preparing offenders for their return to the community.", Mr. Hickman's first priority doesn't seem to be the Agency's breach of the public trust through the misappropriation of tax dollars. Agency tax dollars and expenditures which have come under the scrutiny of Assemblyman Rudy Bermúdez, D-Norwalk who chairs the Assembly committee which oversees the Corrections Agency budget.

If taxpayers are to throw any more money at an agency for, yet, another change in its mission shouldn't the taxpayer be assured that the agency's fiscal house is in order?

In fact, Assemblymember Bermudez, in questioning departmental expenditures for safety equipment that sits in departmental warehouses unissued and unused, has come under fire by the Director of the Department of Corrections, Jeanne Woodford, along with her sycophant, Todd Slosek.

In a recent Sacramento Bee article, as reported, it was apparent that Ms. Woodford was outraged by Mr. Bermudez' inquiries relevant to Department of Corrections expenditures. In fact, after her character assassination of Assemblymember Bermudez had ended, she abused her authority as the Director by calling for Mr. Bermudez' resignation as a Parole Agent for the Department of Corrections. A position for which he is on an unpaid leave of absence while serving in the Assembly as an elected representative. A right he has availed himself of pursuant to §3302 of the Government Code. However, in the Youth & Adult Corrections Agency, law is nothing while spin is everything.

By demanding that Agency and Departmental managers be held accountable for their failings, Assemblymember Bermudez has come under fire by a departmental bureaucrat in a transparent attempt at intimidation. In a bizarre reversal of roles, Ms. Woodford has tried to leverage Assemblymember Bermudez out of his duties as the Chair of the prisons budgetary oversight committee.

Fortunately, the California democratic process survived and repelled Ms. Woodford's unsuccessful coup d'etat as exemplified by the statement issued from the office of the Assembly Speaker, Assemblymember Fabian Núñez:

"Núñez spokesman Vincent Duffy said the Assembly speaker would not remove Bermúdez from the post.

The speaker's office, he said, has obtained a legal opinion from the Legislature's lawyers saying Bermúdez has no conflict of interest because he is not currently getting a salary from the department.

"This is a non-issue for us," Duffy said."

Clearly designed to enforce the "Sacramento Code of Silence", Ms. Woodford's attempts to manipulate California's democratic process for her own gain, through the silencing of the prison budgetary oversight committee, is an act which MUST be addressed by State Senator Gloria Romero's Senate prison oversight committee. As much as Romero would like to place the blame for all of the department's ills on the "powerful prison guards union", as she has done in the past, it is clear that this ploy no longer works.

Ms. Woodford, through her actions, has expressed a sweeping contempt for the California Legislature. If Ms. Woodford does not like the governmental structure of California then, perhaps, she is the one who should resign.

Ms. Romero, the gauntlet has been thrown down at your committee's feet. Will you continue to ignore it?

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

Woodford's Folly

Through all of Jeanne Woodford's vitriol, the truth emerges.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LETTER!

"Spy-Cams" in YACA!

Have you ever wondered just what goes on in those "closed door", Youth & Adult Corrections Agency meetings?

As another first, I have managed to smuggle several "spy-cameras" into the YACA meeting rooms and offices for a candid look into the inner workings of YACA!

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE, "SPY-CAM", ACTION OF ACTUAL YACA MEETINGS IN PROGRESS!

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

Russian Roulette, YACA Style!

As they both sat across from each other, only the card table and a stack of money between them, the young, dark haired, man picked up the .357 revolver, swung open the cylinder while cradeling it with his left hand and inserted one single bullet into one of the six empty chambers it contained.

With eyes locked, the two contestants stared at each other while the dark haired man spun the cylinder and slapped it shut into the frame. He slowly placed the muzzle against his temple, as if to savor the last fleeting moments of his life, and, as the sweat beaded and ran down his face, he inched the trigger backward against his grip. The sudden "click" caused the other man to flinch, now it was his turn.

To read about Russian Roulette, YACA style, CLICK HERE!

To play on-line Russian Roulette, CLICK HERE!

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