During the administration of Larry Witek, former Warden of the California Institution for Men in Chino, one of the more security minded actions that he implemented was the concept of the Mini-Yard at the Minimum Support Facility (Minimum Custody Yard). This isolated the inmates, who were confined to their own housing unit yards, into smaller, more manageable, numbers, when they were out of their housing units exercising, and it has worked reasonably well throughout the years.
On December 21, 2006, the newly promoted Associate Warden for the MSF yard rescinded this long-standing security procedure with a memorandum ordering a cessation to the Mini-Yards by exercising all of these inmates together, on the main yard, both day and night. This newly implemented procedure places approximately 1,000 inmates together on a yard that is supervised by only 4 Correctional Officers. Clearly this is a backwards step in security at CIM.
I met with the Warden regarding this issue on January 5, 2007 and he expressed his support for the Mini-Yards, a concept which his subordinate abrogated through the December 21, 2006 memorandum.
In a meeting with the Employee Relations Officer (ERO) immediately after my conversation with the Warden, the ERO and I agreed that, prior to implementation of this emergent policy, Management was obligated to inform and meet with CCPOA, regarding this change, as per the BU6 MOU. To my knowledge, this meeting has yet to occur.
It has been my observation over the decades that Correctional Managers/Administrators tend to walk lightly around their fellow Correctional Managers/Administrators for fear of losing support by stepping on political toes, however, given such an egregious breach of security protocol, someone needs to muster up the courage to step up to the plate and take charge of the situation instead of allowing politics to play out in their own good time. It only takes an instant for Correctional Staff to be injured or killed on-the-job.
This situation makes one wonder just who is in charge of CIM. Clearly this appears to be a case of the tail wagging the dog.
Gary Clark, President
Chino Chapter
CCPOA
1 comment:
This reminds me of David Tristan's "Integrated Yard Policy" that caused so much trouble at Corcoran.
Like Corcoran, when the riot breaks out and inmates are injured, the 4 cops will be blamed, placed under Federal investigation and tried by a US Attorney for violating the inmates civil rights while the A.W. who wrote the policy sits at the prosecutors table dispensing advice.
So much for following stupid policies and faith that you will be protected by "Course and Scope".
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