Our View: Prison no place for indiscriminate penny-pinching

There’s a tendency to think of the 1,500-plus Pelican Bay workers as the lucky ones around here, pulling in wages and benefits equal to their counterparts in more expensive parts of California. Certainly they earn more than most of the local work force, and we should all be thankful for that because the prison payroll is obviously a big driver of our region’s economy.

So we’re not saying feel sorry for them. Just be kind to them.

Some have received layoff notices, although it’s unclear what down-sizing is envisioned for Pelican Bay’s staff. Most are dealing with 15 percent pay cuts courtesy of the governor’s order that they and other state employees be furloughed three days every month. And consider the state of the prison system that employs them:

• California’s 33 adult state prisons are severely overcrowded. The state is under a federal order to reduce its inmate population from 150,000 to 110,000. Meanwhile, there are already 1,000 staffing vacancies, and the state intends to cut 5,000 more positions over the next two years. In other words, we have too few employees minding too many inmates.

Most prison riots, including seven at Pelican Bay in the last 20 months, involve blacks fighting whites or Northern Hispanics fighting Southern Hispanics. Add overcrowding and understaffing to these racially charged environments, and you’ve got a very difficult system to desegregate. So far the state has attempted it at only two prisons.

In the best of times, Pelican Bay would be a tough place to work. It holds many of California’s most dangerous inmates. When James Tilton, then the director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, visited Del Norte County last year, he was asked about budget cuts. He said he foresaw none at Pelican Bay, despite his orders to cut about $800 million statewide from his department’s spending.

Tilton clearly got it, and hopefully the corrections folks in Sacramento still get it. While the state clearly needs to look for more efficiencies throughout its government, Pelican Bay is no place to be indiscriminately pinching pennies.

Where does all this leave prison employees? 

Hopefully, they’re watching out for each other more carefully than ever. And if they see opportunities for the prison to operate more efficiently, it’s up to management to create a nonthreatening environment where cost-saving measures can be suggested — anonymously, if necessary.

It’s also up to management, from the warden to the governor, to keep Pelican Bay workers safe, even as they keep the rest of society safe from the inmates who have been placed in their charge.