Making Bricks With No Straw.

In the Bible's Book of Exodus, Chapter 5, is the chronicle of Pharaoh and his order to the taskmasters of the Hebrews that the Hebrew slaves should make bricks without the straw necessary to bind the clay. Pharaoh further decreed that the production of these strawless bricks would not be decreased.

The Israelite's labors caused them to be weary and Pharaoh's taskmasters beat the Children of Israel if they fell behind in production of the strawless bricks.

Now we fast forward, many thousands of years, to the newest incarnation of Pharaoh who, while Secretary of CalDORC, established the royal decree which is being carried on by his heir, Jeanne Woodford. The only difference is, instead of making bricks with no straw, it has been ordered that prisons will be run with insufficient staff.

Immediately, upon the appointment of Roderick Hickman, by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hickman decreed that the Correctional Officer Training Academy be closed, thereby shutting off the flow of needed Correctional Officers into the prisons during an unprecedented period of inmate growth, exacerbated by custody staff attrition through retirements.

Like the Children of Israel, the Children of CalDORC grow weary, their spirits and morale sagging, as they are ordered to work overtime on a daily basis. Not even on their two days of rest are they allowed to rest, but are told, by the taskmasters, that refusal to work overtime will lead to punishment and punishment will lead to termination, famine and pestilence.

Nowhere is this more apparent than at the California Institution For Men in Chino, where relief through assistance from the National Guard may be the only option.

While legislated policies exist, governing the dispensation of overtime, these policies have been unilaterally abrogated by the management of CalDORC under CalDORC's unofficial theory that there exists a quasi-emergency involving a shortage of staffing. To officially admit that it is what it is, a genuine staffing emergency, would focus the light of scrutiny on the, continuing, mismanagement of CalDORC and, as we know, that will NEVER happen.

This is another area in which the Pinstripe Wall's Code Of Silence has manifested itself.

"Oh great Pharaoh, we beseech thee to hear our cries and give us straw for our bricks!"

First there was bricks without straw, then prisons without sufficient staff.

What's next? Only time will tell.

Lorraine Bradley