Leave The Investigations To The Psychics.

With the flurry of cable television shows involving “Psychic Investigators”, it is a wonder that the Grand-Daddies of all Psychic Investigators do not get involved in the fray. In fact, it is a curiosity that the Psychic Investigators for the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (CalDORC) do not have THEIR own television show.

In their, most recent, flurry of pre-cognitive acumen, the Southern Office of the Office of Infernal Affairs conducted a two day review involving allegations of misdemeanor conduct by an employee at the California Institution for Men which, so it was reported, was directed by the Warden. This, after the Report of Employee Misconduct languished for a year somewhere within departmental archives.

Without so much as a cursory inquiry into the allegations, the letters announcing the commencement of the review and the letter rejecting further action by the Office of Infernal Affairs were dated two days apart, and, in a probable cost-cutting effort, were mailed in the same envelope to save postage. Clearly the cost benefits of psychic investigations are evident, with the biggest savings resulting from reduced hours spent on unnecessary interviews and interrogations.

My suggestion is that ALL CalDORC investigational entities be incorporated under a “Forensic Action Response Team” (F.A.R.T.) with the Office of Infernal Affairs heading the “Psychic Investigation Division Dabbling In Law Enforcement” (P.I.D.D.L.E.). In this manner, OIA could P.I.D.D.L.E.-F.A.R.T. their way into unprecedented cost savings for CalDORC.

Way to go Andre and Russ, I think you’ve tapped into something monumental.

Maybe you’ll get a follow-up call from Hollywood on this one.

Lorraine Bradley

The More Things Change . . . Part IV

In a previous article, I exemplified the failures of the inmate classification process at CIM and the resulting impact of these failures on the surrounding communities and the uniformed staff working within the walls of the “Chino Plantation”. Recently there have been two, serious, inmate assaults on Correctional Officers in as many weeks at the “Minimum” yard and, so it is being reported by informed sources, an alleged inmate “Kite” informing Prison staff that an inmate takeover of the “Minimum” yard is imminent.

This has resulted in an unprecedented and coordinated effort between the three prisons within “Prison Valley” to search and seize inmate weapons and contraband, that would facilitate such a takeover, at CIM.

The whisper on everyone’s lips is, “Things like this aren’t supposed to happen on a minimum yard.” Unfortunately, thanks to a “less than stellar” performance by the committees that are tasked with the proper housing of inmates, it appears that this belief is no longer valid. Empirical evidence supports the belief that there are a number of inmates housed on this “Minimum Custody” yard who do not belong there. The larger question is “How many, of these inmates, are there?”

In the most recent examples, the physical layout of the housing units, in which the officers were assaulted, were clearly designed to house minimum custody inmates. Lacking even the barest essentials of a decent custody environment, these housing units are 200 inmate dormitories in which the housing unit officers lack an office to retreat to when the inmate violence starts. Instead, their office is merely an open air podium, in the middle of the unit, without any walls or door to close.

In contrast, the members of the Classification Committee work in relative safety, in comfortable, secure, offices while other, less fortunate, staff are left to pay for their mistakes in judgement.

This committee is also comfortable and secure in the knowledge that holding them accountable for their failings will be anathema to departmental administrative ethos. It will be more politically correct to hold a powerless, entry level, individual accountable through an incredible convolution of reason. A convolution which the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (CalDORC) has mastered over many decades.

Even as you read this, it is a safe bet that the CalDORC administration, at both the CIM and State level, is working overtime to make the assaulted Correctional Officers responsible for their own assaults, thereby allowing themselves the luxury of ignoring a prison stuffed with inappropriately housed inmates as well as sidestepping as many Workers Compensation obligations as possible. Predictably and politically, CalDORC will treat the individual symptoms rather than the disease. It was not the Correctional Officers who placed these inmates on the yard, they are merely the most recent brunt of an upsurge of prison violence that is the result of misplaced inmates.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.