CCPOA news
December 17, 2009
Correctional officers win furlough lawsuit
An Alameda Superior Court judge has ruled that furloughs Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered are illegal for state prison officers whose pay is reduced but who have to wait to take the time off.
The order by Judge Frank Roesch means that roughly 40,000 state correctional officers, their sergeant and lieutenants are due their full pay for time worked.
The judge's order commands Schwarzenegger "… to pay all employees represented by (the union) in this action of all hours worked for which furlough credits have not been utilized…"
LINK - SacBee.com
December 17, 2009
CCPOA files new federal lawsuit against Schwarzenegger over furloughs, federal labor law violations,
A federal class action accuses California of violating labor laws by ordering state workers to work during furlough days, and promising them a day off later. The class of prison and correctional workers reported their grievances to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in June; now they want action.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a major political force in California, claims that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his administration are violating federal laws on wages and hours, overtime and record keeping…
LINK - CourtHouseNews.com
December 16, 2009
Police chief op-ed: career criminals to be released under Schwarzenegger plan
…Many have forgotten the importance of the criminal justice system to include our prisons. California prisons are filled with Clemmons types. Many are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction and refuse to be rehabilitated. When they do get out, we rely on our police officers to stand between them and us.
When someone like Clemmons is willing to kill four police officers in broad daylight, how much easier is it to kill four innocent citizens?…
LINK - Times-Standard.com
December 15, 2009
Sac Bee opines on prisons, budget, Kelso and CDCR
Whom should the public hold responsible for runaway overtime costs for prison health care?
The governor and California's dysfunctional Legislature are largely to blame, followed by a prison health care bureaucracy overseen by a federal receiver who has failed to protect taxpayers.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers consistently approve budgets that understate the true cost of prison health care, and therefore understate the numbers of nurses, nurse assistants, clinicians, doctors and others who are needed to provide the minimum care required under the state and U.S. constitutions. That in turn leads to the eye-popping overtime costs The Bee's Charles Piller documented in his recent report…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 15, 2009
Mike Machado, John Garamendi Jr. hired to promote Stockton prison hospital
With a lawsuit pending against the state, a former state legislator from Linden and the son of Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, have been hired to tell the community why a large prison hospital would be good for the county.
Mike Machado, who represented much of San Joaquin County in the Assembly and State Senate in the 1990s and the current decade, and John Garamendi Jr., were hired for the lobbying positions. They began work on Monday.
Machado, Garamendi and three other members of the Ochoa & Moore law firm in Sacramento will try to convince people in San Joaquin County that the prison hospital would be an asset rather than a liability…
LINK - LodiNews.com
December 15, 2009
Kelso talks about budget, staffing problems in CDCR
Responding to a Bee investigation of severe problems in clinical staffing of state prisons, health care receiver J. Clark Kelso said at a news conference on Monday that budget shortfalls and management lapses underlie staffing pressures at some prisons.
The Bee reported that a costly 24-hour suicide-watch program often relies on highly paid nurses for the uncomplicated task, rather than using assistants who earn far less – and that many prisoners exploit the program by feigning suicidal thoughts. Suicide watch cost the prisons $750,000 in a single month last year.
"Is that a management failure, or a budgeting failure?" Kelso said of the cost. "Probably something in between…"
LINK - SacBee.com
December 14, 2009
First Watch: December 14, 2009
A new CCPOA First Watch video has been posted at CCPOA.TV for December 14, 2009. Please CLICK HERE to view today's video update and for our archive of past video updates.
December 14, 2009
Spending spree in CDCR/Fed Reciever - nurses paid $393 per hour?
Anna Marie Antonio, a nurse practitioner who has worked at the California Medical Facility prison in Vacaville, is golden.
Antonio may be a superb clinician. But her sparkle lies in payments for her services by the court-appointed receiver who manages health care in California's prisons. Antonio's temporary employment agency, or registry, collected $393 per hour for her work – more than six times the average paid to state employees for the same work.
When Antonio learned of the rate from a reporter, she gasped: "Wow!"…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 14, 2009
Rampant OT fuels prison health cost
California's prison health-care employees work hard — or so it would seem by their schedules. Many average 12 hours a day; others routinely log 16- to 18-hour shifts for months on end, creating a costly overtime free-for-all in this budget-strapped state.
An abundance of forced and voluntary overtime has driven some nurses beyond human endurance. In the process, the long hours have opened the door for deadly lapses in a health-care system just beginning to recover from decades of neglect…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
December 14, 2009
Report: Fewer inmates dying in California prisons
For the second year in a row, fewer people are dying in California prisons, according to a federal receiver who's trying to improve California's prison health care system in an inmate mortality report set to be released today.
For the second year in a row, fewer people are dying in California prisons, according to a federal receiver who's trying to improve California's prison health care system in an inmate mortality report set to be released today.
The report says that between 2006 and 2008 the rate of death among California inmates declined 13 percent…
LINK - SCPR.org
