CalDORC employment policies - EXPOSED!

As CalDORC staff shortages continue to drive an unprecendented recruitment effort, the management explains its employment policies!

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Please Wake Up!

A Letter To Inspector General Matthew Cate

Dear Mr. Cate,

I found the following mission statement on your web site at http://www.oig.ca.gov. I'm sure that the staff appreciates your efforts in 2005, however, the corruption never sleeps at the California Institution for Men.

PLEASE WAKE UP!

Lorraine Bradley
http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com

"A message from Inspector General Matthew Cate


Welcome to the home page of the Office of the Inspector General. My mission as Inspector General is to safeguard the integrity of the state's correctional system — in effect, to act as the eyes and ears of the public in overseeing the state's prisons. The Office of the Inspector General carries out that mission by rigorously investigating and auditing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to uncover criminal conduct, administrative wrongdoing, poor management practices, waste, fraud, and other abuses by staff, supervisors, and management.

To bring public transparency into the operation of the state's correctional system, we post the findings of every audit and large-scale investigation on this website, along with quarterly summary reports describing the number of audits, special reviews and special reviews completed, the types of misconduct uncovered, and the discipline meted out. This public posting is critical because prisons are, by their very nature, places where most events occur outside the public view. The public airing of the reports provides a powerful incentive to organizational remedy of the problems afflicting the state's correctional departments and institutions.

The public is a vital partner in ensuring that California's correctional system operates in a sound and effective manner and that correctional administrators are held accountable for implementing necessary reforms. I hope you will find this website useful in the furtherance of those goals.

—

Matthew Cate
Inspector General"

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Must Another Correctional Officer Die?

Will CalDORC's insistence on their rights of managerial incompetence cause another death?

On or about March 8, 2004, charges were filed with the California State Personnel Board against Captain K. Peters of the California Institution for Men for having authored and signed a Letter of Instruction against a sergeant who alleged that the LOI was based on fraud and dishonesty. In a letter addressed to Margaret Teague, Staff Counsel, Legal Affairs Division for the Department of Corrections, Captain Peters defended himself by stating that he was not the author of this, allegedly, fraudulent Letter of Instruction, merely the agent of its service and the subject LOI was authored by the Employee Relations Officer, even though this individual is not mentioned anywhere within the LOI nor is his signature anywhere to be found on it.

This explanation, in turn, became the official mantra of Captain Peters' actions when repeated, as a defense, to the State Personnel Board, by Margaret Teague. Instead of addressing the issues raised in the SPB Request to File Charges, the State Personnel Board accepted this preposterous story proffered by the Department of Corrections. Instead of ruling on the substance and evidence in this matter, the State Personnel Board had the complainant chasing phantoms.

Within two weeks of the filing of these State Personnel Board charges against Captain Peters, a four month old allegation against this complainant surfaced in the form of a Category 1 investigation in which, it was alleged that this sergeant had disrespected a subordinate. Ultimately, this allegation was ruled to be unfounded.

Due to the delay of referral and time proximity between the filing of charges with the State Personnel Board against Capt. Peters and this new investigation, an investigation which CalDORC policy states would have been initiated promptly by the Warden, this sergeant filed State Personnel Board charges against L. Dicarlo, the Warden, at that time, of the California Institution for Men.

The basis of these charges were, Whistleblower Retaliation for, essentially, shelving the allegation until it proved useful for this purpose; Inexcusable Neglect of Duty for not having referred this allegation to investigators in a prompt and timely fashion as required by Departmental Operating Policy; Willful Disobedience and Insubordination for not complying with Departmental Policies and directives regarding whistleblower retaliation.

In defense of Ms. Dicarlo's apparent misconduct, Martin N. Hoshino, Assistant Director, Investigative Services Unit, explained away Ms. Dicarlo's delay and violation of departmental policy as being reasonable because "[the delay] does not appear unreasonable considering the complaint did not present an immediate safety issue - rather allegations of a hostile work environment.", a standard that is nowhere to be found in the Departmental Operations Manual.

Clearly then, this was just another departmental excuse to cover up malfeasance, negligence and misconduct by prison officials, managerial qualities which, arguably, led to the tragedy of January 10, 2005 and the Death of Correctional Officer Manual Gonzales. The departmental reaction to this event was the removal of Warden Dicarlo and her two chief deputies. Only after this tragedy was the malfeasance and incompetence addressed, even though ample red flags were raised prior to this event, red flags which were excused and dismissed by top departmental officials.

These two episodes are not exclusive of other examples of bureaucratic politicos at CIM achieving and/or securing their promotional potential in the Dicarlo administration through dishonesty, fraud and malfeasance, however, they are among the most recent and, although all promotions during her administration should be reviewed, they won't.

With the removal of Warden Dicarlo there is a new batch of snake oil salesmen that has been installed at the California Institution for Men, however, as I have stated many times in my blog, "The more things change, the more they remain the same" - let's review.

As I have, previously, reported in this blog, on Wednesday, August 24, 2005, one of my clients filed a Report of Employee Misconduct against the California Institution for Men's former Return to Work Coordinator/Health and Safety Officer, Kris Hilliker, for threatening to subject him to a process that could result in his termination from state service for having filed a workers compensation claim with the California Institution for Men. In so doing, she threatened a process which violates §132(a) of the Labor Code and constitutes a misdemeanor. In the initial conversation with Ms. Hilliker, in which the threat was issued, Ms. Hilliker reportedly stated that she was acting at the direction of the new Warden, M.E. Poulos who, ultimately, replaced Warden Dicarlo.

Departmental policy demands that allegations of misdemeanor misconduct require the Warden's referral to the departmental Office of Internal Affairs for investigation, however, Ms. Hilliker, reportedly, was transferred to the California Public Employees Retirement System soon after the report of her misconduct and before this case was referred. This departmental approval of Ms. Hilliker's reported transfer seems to be a transparent and intentional circumvention of departmental policy requiring its referral to OIA for investigation. Ms. Hilliker's reporting of the Warden's direction of her misdemeanor misconduct would have, reasonably, greased the wheels of her transfer, out of the jurisdiction of an OIA investigation, and put an end to the possibility of embarrassing revelations regarding the new Warden and his reported instructions to her.

- - - - - - - - - -

On April 13, 2005, a report was written by Sergeant G. Wilkerson, California Institution for Men, accusing one of his peer supervisors of threatening to spray him with Oleo-Capsicum Resin or OC, a form of tear gas. An investigation was completed on November 14, 2005 and its findings were, "The investigation is now closed, having failed to provide sufficient evidence that would merit corrective action." This official exoneration of the accused employee made a powerful case for the dishonesty of his accuser.

On Tuesday, November 29, 2005, a report of employee misconduct was filed, with Warden Poulos, against Sergeant Wilkerson citing dishonesty in his April 13, 2005 reporting as it's basis and, once again pursuant to departmental policy, this Report of Employee Misconduct required referral to the Office of Internal Affairs by Warden Poulos. On December 26, 2005, Sergeant Wilkerson was the beneficiary of a temporary promotion to Lieutenant instead. There is an old saying in CalDORC which seems to be applicable here - "Screw-up, move-up."

It becomes clear, through this continuing pattern of promotion, the type of talent CalDORC is scouting to fill their halls of power. While CalDORC drones on about ethics, this is nothing more than pablum for the masses as the real rewards continue to go to employees who's actions could be, reasonably, portrayed as unethical.

There is a new terminology floating around CIM regarding the management style of this new Warden - "CIM is off-the-hook." History is, once again, repeating itself and, if the past is any measure of what we can expect in the future, nothing will be done until another employee dies, once again, forcing Sacramento to become involved in their own future, albeit for that specific episode only.

Will it be you?

Lorraine Bradley

http://prisoncorruption.blogspot.com