CDCR Slammed for Reclassifying Staff Misconduct Allegations as Routine Grievances
by Anthony W. Accurso
A report issued by California’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on January 29, 2024, harshly criticized the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for taking prisoner grievances that contained allegations of staff misconduct and reclassifying them as “routine grievances.”
Of the thousands of grievances CDCR received in just over a year between February 24, 2022, and February 27, 2023, there were 595 reviewed by the agency’s Centralized Screening Team and found to contain allegations of staff misconduct. But instead of referring this backlog processing by the Office of Internal Affairs, CDCR issued a memo on July 26, 2023, sending the complaints for processing back at the prison of origin. Not only did this risk involving accused employees in the investigation into their own misconduct, it also violated CDCR policy and wasted resources, OIG found.
Specifically, the prison system was allocated an additional $34 million by the legislature in 2022 “to restructure its staff misconduct allegation screening, referral, investigative, and disciplinary process,” OIG noted. Policies in place after the revamp require specially trained investigative staff to “conduct thorough investigations, complete necessary interviews, and ensure that all relevant evidence is gathered and reviewed.”
In contrast, grievance staffers lack specialized training and “are only required to interview incarcerated people and witnesses if they determine interviews would assist in resolving the claim.” Worse, some of the “redirected allegations” of misconduct lodged against staffers were “investigated by staff ranked lower”—putting the underling in charge of reviewing a superior who still retained authority over him or her.
California law puts a one-year statute of limitations (SOL) for prosecuting allegations of misconduct against a peace officer which is tolled from discovery of the alleged misconduct; for all other staffers, the SOL is three years. OIG’s review noted that 127 of the cases that were redirected had not been investigated before the SOL expired. Of 22 cases examined in detail, eight involved conduct that could have resulted in a guard’s dismissal, 22 could have resulted in suspensions or salary reductions, and two could have resulted in letters of reprimand.
Ultimately, CDCR’s actions “wasted resources” and “circumvented regulations,” OIG said by authorizing prison staff found conducting “inadequate and potentially biased investigations” to respond to “allegations of staff misconduct without oversight.” See: The Department Violated Its Regulations by Redirecting Backlogged Allegations of Staff Misconduct to Be Processed as Routine Grievances, Calif. OIG (Jan. 29, 2024).
This is not the first time that OIG has come down on the prison system for shoddy employee investigations and lax discipline. As PLN reported, a 2021 report found that guards failed to perform required cell checks at Corcoran State Prison even as a prisoner was tortured, killed and decapitated by fellow prisoners in a rival group. Afterward, no guard was disciplined and the same rival groups were still mixed in the same cell. [See: PLN, Sep. 2021, p.52.]
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