Judge Slams Calif. Prison Guards' Contract

[CHIMO]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A federal judge threatened to take over California's beleaguered prison system after warning a new labor contract would harm efforts to root out corruption and inmate abuse by guards at the nation's largest state correctional system.

The guard's union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, already has a pattern of interfering with prison abuse investigations and lax employee discipline, U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson wrote Monday in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor, by renegotiating a new contract with the guards, grants more favors to guards in return for a postponement of pay increases.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4332630,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

[Hotler]

1. Privatization at work.

Problems in the California prisons, and problems in the Iraq prisons, hhhhmmmmmmm, were is the connection??? Duh! I don't know.

[Ernesto]

2. I'm a California UNION man

Trust me, the prison guard union has NO respect coming from the rest of organized labor in my state..... These people slept with peewee wilson to get their way. It is pretty common knowledge out here that these people are thug parasites that would never be able to replicate their level of earnings if thay had to compete in the open market. They remind me of the black water mercenaries in Iraq.

[leodem]

3. What are some of the good Police Unions in CA?

I'm probably gonna end up in CA in a couple years. Just was wondering how the unions are out there.

[Ernesto]

4. I'm really clueless on this one

I'm a retired Sheet Metal Worker... In my industry, we had to compete against other shops (union & non-union). This provides a certain amount of accountablity & limits "feather bedding".... As we used to tell slacker apprentices: "if you don't get with the program, you'll end up being a prison guard".... Several did just that only to make more $$$$$ than us. Keeping human beings in cages &/or being a mercenary is far to lucrative.