Prison Guards

To New Mexico Atty. Gen. Gary King, a prison guard's slaying cried out for the death penalty: Inmates had stabbed him two dozen times. But when the defense ran out of money, the state Supreme Court ruled that King could not seek a death sentence until the lawyers were paid -- approximately $200,000 for each of the three defendants, King said. When state legislators refused to allocate more money, prosecutors dropped their pursuit of the death penalty.

State corrections officials placed California's entire adult prison system on lockdown Thursday afternoon after two gang members attacked four officers inside a Tehachapi facility, a spokesman said. The prison guards -- two sergeants and two correctional officers -- were injured in the 1:10 p.m. assault in an office at the California Correctional Institution. They were taken to area hospitals. Three officers sustained cuts and puncture wounds during the attack by the inmates, members of the Surenos, a Southern California gang, and two weapons were recovered, said officials with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Union members who are county employees paid the costs of their own pension increases in 2004, said an Internal Audit Department report Friday. The report validates the union's and Board of Supervisor's position that members, and not county taxpayers, paid a so-called 2.7% raise at age 55 benefit formula, said a union official. "We're vindicated," said Nick Berardino, general manager of the 13,300-member union. In recent years, county conservatives have hammered at what they called "labor giveaways" by the board, when in fact employees are paying for the added contributions, the report said.

Sixteen Arizona corrections employees have been fired, suspended or otherwise disciplined for their roles in the death of an inmate left in an outdoor holding cell for four hours in triple-digit heat, and for a punishment practiced at the prison where she died. Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down rather than be dismissed, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others are to be disciplined after they return from medical leave.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has suspended three deputies and opened a criminal investigation into allegations that they assaulted a jail inmate and pepper-sprayed his genital area. The investigation started after Alejandro Franco, 23, alleged that jailers, upset because he swore at one of them, took him to an isolated place and assaulted him in November.

Lawmakers should reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed 5% raise for California's politically powerful prison guards' union, the state's nonpartisan fiscal watchdog said Thursday. Correctional officers have received more than adequate pay increases in recent years that have far surpassed those of other state workers, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill said.

Orange County's acting Sheriff Jack Anderson on Thursday proposed pulling hundreds of deputies from the state's second-largest jail system and replacing them with career correctional officers. The move, which would dramatically change the way Orange County jails are operated, would create a new career path in the Sheriff's Department: employees who are permanently assigned to the county jails.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to release tens of thousands of prisoners before they've served their full sentences to save money. The Legislature isn't inclined to hand him the cell keys. The governor advocates turning felons loose on the street without parole supervision. The Legislature is thinking they should be kept on a leash. Schwarzenegger has proposed giving prison guards a 5% pay hike.

The acting sheriff of Orange County has gotten off to a rocky start in his relationship with the union that represents the county's sheriff's deputies. Three weeks after the union disclosed that its members didn't support Jack Anderson's effort to become sheriff, it has challenged his proposal to pull deputies from county jails and replace them with lower-paid correctional officers. The Assn.

Five employees at the state prison where former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson is incarcerated are under investigation in connection with her erroneous release last week, state officials said Thursday. The employees are three rank-and-file workers who calculate inmate release dates, and two supervisors. Olson was in prison for crimes she committed with the radical group in Los Angeles and Sacramento counties in 1975.