Plea to Place The Entire Dept of Corrections under Federal Receivership

Honorable Judge Thelton Henderson
United States District Court
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
RE: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation concerns!
Dear Judge Henderson,
I am writing this letter out of concern for the appalling conditions of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the recent placement of its medical care under Federal Receivership. Since the receivership was ordered nothing has changed for the inmates. We are still losing inmates the same as before and there are several hundred who are literally walking dead due to the lack of proper medical diagnosis and treatment. In the last week, a critically ill inmate with a feeding tube was transferred to a non medical prison without notice and died in less than a week. This could have been prevented, but wasn’t.
In the last two months the CDCR has seen two Secretaries resign due to problems with the CDCR’s employee CCPOA union. It is quite clear that the entire system is on the brink of failure. The news is reporting that Governor Schwarzenegger is trying to find someone from outside the state to take over and straighten out the CDCR’s problems. Judge, with all due respect, none of this will amount to anything more than a continuation of the same problems we see now, and our loved ones will continue to suffer and die inside CDCR’s walls and fences.
As noted previously in letters to you, the entire CDCR system is plagued with racial tension and is on the verge of collapse. The CCPOA union is responsible for all of this and continually makes and enforces decisions to create chaos, turmoil, and violence to assure their staff receives optimum benefits and nearly impossible overtime pay. The action of placing violent offenders in population is simply a tool by the CCPOA to create and maintain their hold on the CDCR system through violence which in turn guarantees union employee benefits and excessive overtime pay to the tune of more than $100,000.00 per year for several hundred CDCR employees. Now the CCPOA has forced the second CDCR Secretary from her position by use of its powerful union and political clout. This matter is beyond state control and the CDCR is heading into a quagmire it won’t escape without untold numbers of assaults and deaths of both inmates and staff. Something must be done now.
The CDCR system has collapsed and is not about corrections or rehabilitation. The only viable option is to take the steps to place the entire system under receivership and bring in federal authority to recoup the system before a total breakdown occurs and countless inmates are allowed to die from medical neglect or murder in a hostile environment meant to rehabilitate and return them to society.
There are hundreds of thousands of family members, friends, and concerned citizens who urge prison reform on the failed CDCR system. Please consider all of our pleas to correct this system by placing the CDCR under complete federal receivership before it is too late.