The way state prisons run is almost criminal

It costs California taxpayers nearly $50,000 a year to incarcerate each of the state's 168,000 state prison inmates.
Part of that cost, which is about 50 percent higher than the national average, is due to prison overcrowding because of tougher sentencing laws. And those tougher sentencing laws were championed by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has a huge interest in having more prisons - and prisoners to fill them.
The more prisoners, of course, the more guards and parole officers that are needed. Union leaders have greased the palms of many a political candidate, who, when elected, makes certain the union's interests are taken care of. Then there is sloppy bookkeeping.
A typical California prison guard earns $72,000 a year, plus an average of $16,000 in overtime. One in every 10 officers makes more than $100,000 a year; more than 1,500 guards earn more than prison wardens. And those numbers don't include an additional 30 percent for health, dental, vision and other benefits and a pension that allows guards and parole agents to retire with 90 percent of their pay at age 50. Yes, the work is unpleasant and dangerous.
In all, the Corrections Department consumes 11percent of the state budget. California pays more for prisons than it pays for education. Nearly half-a-billion dollars a year goes just for prison overtime.
Accounting problems, bookkeeping and problems with time cards are under constant attack, as a report from the state auditor noted last week. It turns out that the state may have paid nearly $600,000 in extra pay that wasn't warranted. Pay differentials that were loosely audited range from cook specialist I ($190 a month) to supervising registered nurse ($400). To be fair, classifications weren't detailed in the auditor's report. The criterion for monthly differential pay is supervision: To earn the pay, an employee had to supervise at least two other employees.
But this isn't the only example of incompetent management. The prison guards union owes the state more than $1.3 million for salaries of full-time guards who were on leave to be union representatives. The department's excuse for not collecting it? They couldn't quite figure out who was gone and how much they earned during the past five years. From 2006 to 2008 alone, the prisons department billed the union for more than $750,000. It has yet to receive a penny. The department is scratching its head over the number of actual union representatives who are on full-time leave. It could be three, or it could be nine.
Despite repeated negative reports from the state auditor's office, little has been done to fix the system, and that's criminal.
Reform is job for Schwarzenegger
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledges to clean up the prisons mess before he leaves office. He also has to trim the prison population to relieve overcrowding and continue efforts to fix the prisoner health care mess. He'll face brick-wall and barbed-wire opposition from union leaders and a dysfunctional Corrections Department. This is definitely a job for the Terminator.
One suggestion for reducing overtime would be 12-hour shifts (four shifts one week, three the next). Another is a top-to-bottom audit, with accountability for sloppy bookkeeping. Another is one that would save tens of millions: Release elderly prisoners who are no longer a threat to society, thus avoiding their huge medical costs.
None of this will be easy. Through the years, union leaders have gotten what they want (thanks to compliant politicians) to the point that the union pretty much runs the prisons. But for the sake of California's budget, and the people who pay the bills, let's hope Schwarzenegger is up to the task. He has nothing to lose except joining the ranks of past losers. In the time left in his term, just concentrating on prison reforms would take a huge dent out of the state's out-of-control deficit.