As a California Dept. of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) employee, I

have had my fill with the statements being made in the media about how

the overpaid state employees (prison guards) are draining the state's

budget, and how the poor inmates (convicted FELONS) are dropping like

flies due to substandard medical care and brutal living conditions.

Allow me to cast some light onto these shadowy areas with my ten plus

years of insight behind the walls.

California spends approximately $50,000 a year to house each of our

170,000 inmates. Roughly $12,500 of this is on their "substandard"

medical care. In contrast, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

spends about $1,400 per veteran. You read that right. That's nine times

more money being spent on convicted felons than on our nation's

veterans. Texas, which ranks second in the nation in inmate population,

spends about $5,100 a year, per inmate, on health care. In California,

if an inmate has a health complaint, he fills out a form and may be

subject to a $5 co-pay, unless it is deemed an emergency by health care

staff. If that's the case, there is no co-pay and he is seen

immediately. If an inmate claims a pain level over a 6 (on a scale from

1 to 10), he must be seen immediately by a registered nurse, and

scheduled to see a doctor. I don't recall the last time I heard an

inmate claim less than a 6. I don't know about you, but the last time I

went to the ER it took me five hours to get in and cost me 50 BUCKS!

On the educational front, California ranks 29th in the nation on

funding per student, and 49th in "student per teacher" ratio. Over the

last two years, $11 BILLION has been cut from education. Add to that

more than $5 BILLION in proposed cuts over the next two years. I have

friends who have told me that their child's school had to cut the

library program due to budget cuts. My own child's school had to cut the

music program, although we still have a library. For now. And the few

athletic programs we still have are run by volunteer-coaches, as there

is no money to pay someone. The prison I work at has several paid

coaches, in addition to a "recreational coordinator". There is a staff

of who knows how many teachers, while my child's school had to lay-off

two. But let us get back to these poor, fragile creatures we lovingly

refer to as inmates.

The typical day in an inmate's life consists of being awoken at around

6:45am for chow. They walk to the dining hall, where they are served

coffee and/or juice and a FREE balanced breakfast, that would cost my

child $2 at school. They sit and eat breakfast, and socialize with their

brethren, for about 15-20 minutes, and on the way out receive their free

bag lunch. Then, if they have a job, off they go (the average workday

for an inmate is about six hours). If they aren't employed, they go back

to their housing unit until the yard opens at about 8:30 or so. Once out

to yard, they have a myriad of recreational choices in which to indulge.

Some inmates play basketball or run the track. Others prefer handball or

tennis. Less adventurous fellows may choose to throw around a Frisbee or

participate in a game of horseshoes. Some simply lay their blanket out o

n the grass and sunbathe. There are softball tournaments to compete in

for prizes (sodas, ice cream, etc.). This scenario is repeated three

times a day for a total of about 8.5 hours of daily recreational

opportunity, seven days a week. Wouldn't that be nice?

I have read numerous articles about the state prison guards making

outrageous amounts of money in overtime. While it's true that I did make

about ten thousand in overtime one year, what isn't known is that I

didn't volunteer for a single overtime shift. Due to a hiring freeze and

the usual attrition, ALL of my overtime was mandatory because of short

staffing. In other words, much like the inmates, I was not allowed to go

home after my shift those days. Unlike the inmates, I could not play

horseshoes.

Up to this point, I have been "given" three furlough days for a total

pay cut of around 15%. That was roughly equivalent to my mortgage

payment. I am, however, no longer saddled with that burden as, due to

said cuts, the bank has relieved me of that responsibility by taking

back my house. The hardest part to swallow is the fact that while I'm

losing everything I've worked for, the inmates have not had one program

or privilege cut thus far. As a matter of fact, they gain new rights and

privileges with every new lawsuit. Speaking of lawsuits,

prisoner-initiated lawsuits have cost the state more than $ 191 million

over the past six years. How many homeless veterans would that feed?

I hope I've opened some eyes as to what really goes on inside the

walls of California's state prisons. Voters have made themselves heard

with the three-strikes law and other get tough on crime issues. The

people of this state demand justice when one person takes another's in

cold blood. The problem is, once that person is convicted and locked

away, he is portrayed as a victim of the system. Suddenly he is

guaranteed rights that neither you nor I enjoy. Like the right to

instant medical attention (despite what the media says); for free. The

right to three balanced meals a day.. The right to their own personal TV

and radios. The right to buy Ramen soups or Snickers bars or Dreyer's

ice cream. We, as the citizens of this state, need to pull our

collective heads out of the sand and see what is going on in this state.

We are taking money from our future, our children, to repair the damage

these inmates have caused to themselves over a lifetime of drug-abuse

and self-neglect. Instead of blaming Corrections staff and other state

employees for the budget problems this state faces, let's take a hard

look at what we're spending to care for and coddle the inmates in

California. I'm not denying that basic medical care is a basic human

right, but would you rather spend your $40,000 on a convicted child

molester's total knee replacement, or pay a teacher a year's salary to

educate 30 of our children?

So, in closing, let me just ask you this. If prison is such a

barbaric, inhumane, insufferable place, why do 80% of them come back

after their first term?