Protection for the Least

The state prison system is the black hole of public policy. In often remote institutions we put away the dregs of society to punish them and to keep the people free from their criminal preying. The public generally is content to ignore what goes on in California’s prisons as long the punishment seems severe enough and inmates are being securely held.

Under such circumstances, the state has a particular responsibility to be alert to illegal abuse and violence against inmates at the hands of their prison guards and to investigate any such allegations immediately and thoroughly. Convicts may be thugs, but they still have basic human rights, including freedom from outright abuse by their captors. In that context, Californians should be appalled by the state’s apparent tolerance of abuse--up to and including death by rifle shot--at Corcoran State Prison over a period of seven years, as detailed in The Times Sunday and Monday by staff writers Mark Arax and Mark Gladstone. Even worse was the apparent whitewash of a state investigation.

The administration of Gov. Pete Wilson was forced to look into the situation in response to earlier reports in The Times and other media and from whistle-blowers. But sources said the administration deliberately limited the probe so that the most egregious violence against inmates was overlooked. The guards who allegedly committed and encouraged such violence are members of the powerful prison guards union, a big contributor in state political campaigns, including Wilson’s.

In the absence of vigorous state action, federal authorities have conducted their own probe and are presenting evidence to two grand juries. The director of the Sacramento office of the FBI made this stunning statement: “We wouldn’t be doing this investigation if the [state] Department of Corrections had their own effective procedures for doing an independent investigation.”

Wilson administration officials say the prison system is under control now. But that is not enough. Nor is the establishing of an underfunded, understaffed inspector general’s office. Corrections Department officials should not be allowed again to investigate themselves.

Lawmakers need to launch their own investigation into what went wrong and develop safeguards to prevent it from happening again, at Corcoran or anywhere else in the 160,000-inmate system. Several Senate committees began planning such hearings late Monday. The prisons can no longer operate as a closed entity, answerable to no outside authority. The Legislature must force some light to shine into this black hole.