From time to time, there are issues of inmate concern which parallel issues of staff concern within the prisons. Usually, these issues involve safety concerns, procedural or physical plant, because, for a minimum of five days a week, eight hours a day, staff and inmates share the same living conditions.
However, there are issues, other than safety, that should be of concern to both inmates and staff alike due to their impact on one and the potential this impact will have on the other. The inmate living conditions imposed by prison administrations, coupled with insufficient staffing, have always been a hotbed of prison strife and unrest which has, historically, been one of the major causes of rioting inmates throughout the country's penal system. Apart from inmate casualties and injuries, the resulting staff injuries and deaths are a grim testimonial that more humane living conditions for the inmate populations can further ensure that staff will walk out of a prison at the end of their shift rather than be transported by ambulance. From an employee standpoint, humane living conditions for inmate populations within the country's penal system, is probably the single most important safety feature for staff within the prison setting.
Overcrowding, understaffing, improper housing and lack of inmate medical attention are some of the component parts of the ever-present bomb that awaits within the prisons.
If there is one single prison that has become the icon for these deficiencies, it has to be the California Institution for Men in Chino and it would seem, from the administrative magniloquence, that the Warden at CIM is taking care and treatment quite seriously.
So it is being reported on the unofficial CCPOA Bulletin Board, in CIM's July In-Service-Training Bulletin, Warden Poulos published a proposed 28 Standards and Beliefs he wishes to adopt, all of which, ostensibly, show a concern for the welfare of the inmates. However, consider the plight of one who finds himself living in the shadows of, what is rapidly becoming, the Warden's "28 Hypocrisies".
Reports streaming from CIM state that, through a misadventure while on parole, Inmate Cathers, Jeff; V-38221 found himself harboring three 9mm slugs within various parts of his body and, while having been returned to custody at the Reception Center West over a month ago, this walking crime scene has yet to be scheduled for surgery to remove them. In fact, it is being reported that the medical folks are stating that he will not be scheduled for surgery because the wounds are not "life threatening" even though Inmate Cathers reports suffering from "excruciating pain" related to his injuries. Further, some medical staff report the possibility of lead poisoning from lead leeching from the rounds. Incredibly, it is the powerless Custody Staff who are most disturbed by this situation, since they are incapable of relieving the suffering of Mr. Cathers without a little cooperation from the Medical Department.
It is this type of callous indifference to human suffering that has the CalDORC Medical Division under federal receivership, not CCPOA, and it is the failure to correct these deficiencies, by the CalDORC administration which may bring the entire Department under receivership.
Mr. Poulos, grandiose platitudes and grandstanding will not relieve his suffering.
Lorraine Bradley
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