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