If the past 20 years are any indication, the union representing
California’s prison guards stands to receive a sizeable
portion of the revised state budget proposal being released
Thursday.
The 31,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers
Association is the second-largest state employees union in
California, and arguably the most influential lobby group in the
state.
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases his revised state
budget Thursday, known as the May Revise, the union will again have
a chance to display its resounding influence in California
politics.
The union has developed its pull in the backdrop of governors
who advocated tough stances on crime and helped bloat the
California prison population in the past 20 years, said Geoffrey
Segal, the director of government reform at the Reason Public
Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Los
Angeles.
As the prison population grew from about 20,000 in 1980 to over
160,000 today, the state poured more money into the prison system
to build more facilities and hire additional guards.
“They’re one of the top three budget
expenditures,” Segal said. “Money translates into
political influence.”
With increasing revenue, the union was freer to contribute funds
to political campaigns and causes and expand its influence in
California politics.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the union was the
largest contributor to the campaign of former Gov. Gray Davis at
around $3.4 million, and has spent nearly $10 million since 1998 in
direct campaign contributions.
Segal said the union has contributed to the campaigns of
candidates from each of the major parties in every election. The
union spends around $7 million each year supporting political
causes.
The union’s political clout has raised concern that the
lobbying may come at the expense of other unions, like the
335,000-member California Teachers Association.
The CCPOA has been able to get “huge contracts” in a
state budget with “a limited amount of resources,”
which can detract from the funds allocated to other groups, Segal
said.
“That’s a detriment to public education and other
groups in the state,” he added.
But while public policy institutes can criticize the CCPOA for
its tactics, the unions are keeping quiet.
The CTA declined to comment, and the CCPOA did not return calls
from the Daily Bruin on Monday and Tuesday.
“Unions kind of have an unwritten rule that they
don’t go out and criticize publicly other unions,”
Segal said.
This custom of silence characterizes both the unions as a whole
and their individual members.
Segal said the CCPOA has the “least accountability”
of any union because many attacks and deaths of prison inmates go
unacknowledged and unpunished.
The union’s strength has developed from this solid
internal support and secrecy about its inner workings, said Mark
Kleiman, a UCLA professor of public policy. The union has made its
members the highest-paid prison guard force in the country, he
said, and its members have returned the favor in loyalty to the
union.
Kleiman said he had spoken to members of law enforcement that
characterized the union’s actions as “a conspiracy to
obstruct justice” in the way it allegedly covers up prison
abuses. He said they had seen evidence of “coordinated
perjury” and “outreach to potential jurors” in
order to acquit prison guards accused of abuses.
In an effort to penetrate this wall of silence and increase
operational efficiency, Schwarzenegger announced two weeks ago he
will appoint former Gov. George Deukmejian to head a commission to
review the state’s prison system.
Schwarzenegger is the least indebted to the union of any recent
governor, and some have called on him to stand up to the union and
level the perceived imbalance of political power. This commission
has been seen as the first step toward achieving that goal.
“The entire state is waiting to see what’s going to
happen with the performance review,” Segal said.