Prison report: The corruption factor

Prison report: The corruption factor
By Just A Guy

Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in a California state prison. His reports appear twice a week.

I believe it to be an imperative that opposing views should be a part of any dialogue. This is especially true in the comments section of my blog. While we, as inmates, are given a very limited voice, we (or I) should not preclude people who believe differently from being a part of the discussions. Were I to do that, I would be just like the mainstream media, the majority of politicians, and a seeming majority of law enforcement that only reports one side of the story -- which is almost always assumed by a largely vapid public to be true.

It is alarming, though, that when someone with an opposing view posts his or her comments, they mostly seem to degrade into name calling and derision. Case in point would be bobjacboson, who commented about my blog a few weeks ago and accused me of being psychotic.

When I read comments such as bob’s, I can’t help but wonder if the commenters even read the post before making their thoughts known to the public.

I believe I opened that blog stating that I could not be explicit for fear of retaliation, but bob railed one me for not being explicit. Sigh.

Please read before you comment, bob, then think. But I’m going to give you an example of what I was talking about.

Corrupt: 1. dishonest, accepting bribes; 2. Immoral, or wicked. 3. Decaying.

As you can see from this definition, corruption isn’t necessarily the act of taking a bribe or bringing in contraband; it’s also dishonesty or immorality.

Without going into too much detail, I’ll tell you a story and you can make up your own minds.

Let me start with some background:

In prison we have what is called an appeal. An appeal is what an inmate gets to use as a grievance procedure. The form we are supposed to use is called a “602”. The following is taken directly from the form boilerplate:

“You may appeal any policy, action or decision which has a significant adverse affect on you …. No reprisals will be taken for using the appeals procedure responsibly.”

This appeals process is what is supposed to give us an opportunity to seek justice or relief, similar to the courts. But it’s a farce by all accounts; here’s just one.

I appealed a decision that had an adverse affect on me. This appeal was sent to the second level, which is the penultimate level, but was denied by the reviewing staff member. While the basis for the denial was invalid and weak at best, what was unconscionable was that this staff member in the memorandum for my denial wrote about speaking with me about my appeal and hearing my side of the story. This person even noted that the interview took place on a specific day. The staffer claimed to have investigated my side of the story after talking with me. This is not quite true.

You see, until I actually received my copy of the denied appeal, I had never heard of this appeal reviewer or staff member. The staff member NEVER interviewed me and never met me. PERIOD.

I still don’t know who this person is, nor do they know me.

In this denial, the staff member cited the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation policy that states that they are required to meet me. That never happened.

Now, how do I prove this? It’s a prison staff member’s word against mine -- and who will the director believe? What is my recourse?

Not two weeks prior to this incident, my case worker told me that he wanted to help people. When I brought this comment and this appeal situation to his attention, and asked him what I should do, he didn’t offer any advice – but said he was sorry that this had happened, good luck.

Corruption isn’t just lying, cheating or being bribed. It’s also knowingly allowing that behavior to continue.

There are no whistleblowers in CDCR, because without the prison system, a good portion of the talent pool would not be able to do much beyond the service industry or manual labor.

So, this is a small example. Yea, I’m in prison, yeah 80 percent of people doing time deserve to be doing time (and you know how I feel about victimless crimes) but is that a good enough reason to allow the keepers to go on unchecked?

One last thought: Why would I make this up? In what way could it benefit me? Don’t you think if I were not afraid or retaliation I would tell you the name of staffer? Or tell the whole story? I have no faith in the statement that no reprisal will be taken.

So bobjacobsen, who’s the psychotic one? Maybe it's the staff member who hallucinated the meeting with me.

By Tim Redmond: November 02, 2009 11:39 AM