FEATURE: In The Director's Chair

As the dust settles following Hickman's departure, members weigh in on the problems within the State's Correctional System.

A few months ago I was surprised when I read a column in a California political newspaper regarding the resignation of Corrections Chief Rod Hickman and what's wrong with the state's prison system. My surprise was based on the fact that the column, strangely enough entitled Experts Expound, offered several wordy quotes, none directly attributed, followed by a paragraph introducing the paper's hand-picked, so-called experts. Simply put, none of those listed could qualify as an expert on California's complex and troubled corrections system, over which Hickman once reigned, by any stretch of the definition. And, like Hickman has done, many of these experts put much of the blame on CCPOA, which is just about par for the course when you're talking to those obviously NOT in the know. I thought it would be interesting to find out what the officers who work in the profession every day think of Hickman's management capabilities, and where they thought the state's attention should go in its efforts to fix the system. (See Vol. 23, #1) I invited our members to send us their expert opinions. A few of their frustrations, ideas and solutions follow.

- Editor

An Opportunity for Real Reform
by Marty Aroian, Chapter President, CIM

We have certainly been through some trying times -- times that have tested resolve and purpose, times that have squandered the morale and careers of many talented, dedicated professionals. Trying times are not themselves a valid reason to lament, but when at the end of the era the measure of what has been accomplished is tallied by counting what has been lost, lament is an insufficient means of expression. The tragedy in our case is not simply limited to the wanton waste of time and talent, but even more to the loss of a precious opportunity to achieve.

Temptation is great to lay all that is lost here at the feet of Rod Hickman and his horde. Fitting too, as that was his method: fix the blame, not the problem. Hickman's tenure has been a disaster on every front: labor relations has been set back years, the reputations of the Correctional Agency and its employees have been severely tarnished in the Legislature, the courts and the press, so no legitimate goal or achievement will be eyed with a measure of credit, though doubt and critique will abound. Trust, crucial to all relationships, is all but lost in every relationship critical to our agency. But Hickman doesn't bear this blame alone. While his era may be the most egregious, the same criticisms leveled at him can be borne properly by his predecessors.

Thirty years ago the California Department of Corrections and its parent, the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, were on the doorstep of achievement. Throughout the '80s and early '90s, other similar agencies across the nation -- and in some limited fashion, internationally -- looked to us as the standard and the trend. We had embarked upon the largest prison construction project ever attempted by any state in this country. We quickly became the largest law enforcement agency (over 50,000 employees). Our agency had both the chance and the obligation to move our business into the next generation. With just a bit of planning, a touch of honest effort, courageous conviction, and a dose of integrity, any of Hickman's predecessors could have built the model for all others to emulate. Instead they chose to drift aimlessly about the dark wastelands of shame, avoiding any venture near the light of respect and honor. For while our charges are some of the most despicable ever to grace the face of the Earth, our charge has often been called one of the great tests of worth and judgment any society can stand: how we treat our criminals and our helpless.

Hickman's greatest failure can be attributed to each of his predecessors. It is common among the myopically proud. It was a function of choice. As they stood near the threshold of accomplishment, they chose a path of personal destiny. Where each could have met the challenge of achievement, they retreated down the path of blame and recrimination.

What makes Hickman's tenure so remarkable is that he wasn't simply satisfied with a scale of failure equal to his predecessors, he had designs on greatness. He wanted to be remembered for bringing the fundamentals of the three Rs to the penal system. But for him they weren't Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic. They became Reorganization, Reform, and Rehabilitation. His exiting remarks blamed CCPOA for his failure. As a state board member of this union, I'll wear his rebuke with pride, though it is not entirely earned. He failed of his own accord; we simply did what correctional offi cers are trained to do: observe and report.

Yes, CCPOA opposed his reform effort, not because we didn't want reform, but because we didn't want his. The people of the state have already been victimized enough by those we incarcerate. There is no justifi able percentage in further victimization by selling them snake oil and calling it a cure.

Our union's leadership has been committed from the first to protecting the people of California from the criminal element. We are well aware that simply locking up these criminals accomplishes only two things: it narrows their scope of victims from the public at large to only those who live and work behind prison walls, and eventually a more hardened and vengeful criminal is returned to our public streets.

CCPOA has long supported the concept of corrections as part of the penal system. Rehabilitation is a lofty goal, but it isn't for everyone. For it to work with those who may be open to it, a significant investment from all involved must be made. Platitudes, seminars, and memoranda will not get it done. It takes more than a declaration of Right Prison/Right Mission. It starts with Right Inmate/Right Program. It takes a safe, clean environment that isn't overcrowded or gang infested. It takes well-equipped, well-trained employees who have not been demoralized by false accusations from their employer. It takes almost everything the cost-cutting efforts of the last 20 years have shut down, and many things that we've never had. Given this, where in our system is there a right person for any rehabilitation program? Since none exists and none were being built in the Hickman era (or any other), how is it possible that CCPOA is in any measure at fault for his failure?

In the Director's Chair

Our union has consistently sought to bring the agency along the proven path of success employed by other law enforcement entities. We do have the toughest beat in the state. Not because each and every object of our jurisdiction has already proven himself/herself to be a criminal, but because unlike every other law enforcement jurisdiction, we have to tend and account for each of these citizens all day, every day. If that weren't diffi cult enough, we are now expected to fix them as well.

In many cases, this additional challenge is attainable, but not as a universal expectation and not by our current design. And certainly not by the horde of sycophants set loose by the dearly departed Secretary Hickman, whose only real goal was to ravage those of us not similarly poised on the haunches of his tunnel of vision, eagerly awaiting the chance to plunge headlong into the stench and the darkness.

Hope is not yet lost. In spite of all he has taken from us, with his departure we have again regained the threshold, for now there is at least opportunity. With the coming elections and the chance other agency managers will seek careers in other industries, we can find leadership that will embrace the true meaning of reform and employ the tools necessary for its achievement. Our leaders must be honest and fair, they must demonstrate even greater standards of behavior and ethics than they expect, and they must appraise our abilities equally with our shortfalls. Most of all, they must realize that reform will come to the agency in the same way reform comes to the convicts. First, they must want it. It must be made available and it must be established foremost on a foundation of trust.

For too long, our managers have operated with the belief that each of us should be thankful for our employment. I believe they should be grateful we are employed and they should demonstrate their gratitude by treating us as the professionals they expect us to be and not the indentured servants they think their station has entitled them to employ.

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