Audit after guard's murder to determine CIM future

Panel calls for prison overhaul
Second review calls for audit to determine CIM's future
By Mason Stockstill
Staff Writer
Link to Article (http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~2768942,00.html#)

Thursday, March 17, 2005 - CHINO - A second review of the circumstances surrounding the killing of a correctional officer at the California Institution for Men suggests that the prison may need to be renovated or abandoned.
The report, from a specially appointed panel of national experts, calls for a sweeping audit of CIM's design and security features to determine whether the prison's mission "can be safely accomplished within the existing physical plant."
Like a review released Wednesday by the state's Office of Inspector General, the latest report found numerous violations of policy and security standards surrounding the Jan. 10 stabbing death of Officer Manuel Gonzalez.
In response to the criticisms raised by the reports, Youth and Adult Correctional Agency Secretary Roderick Hickman said he planned a safety review of all of the state's 32 prisons and eight youth facilities.
"The two reports I have received on the homicide ... made it very clear to me that we as a state must do more -- better training and supervision -- to ensure our staff is safe," Hickman said.
The panel included officials from the New York Department of Correctional Services, the Los Angeles and San Diego county sheriffs' departments and the California Department of Corrections.
Its review did not specify options for dealing with physical problems at CIM, which was built in 1941 and -- like most California prisons -- regularly holds more than twice the number of prisoners it was designed to handle.
The inspector general's report, issued Wednesday, outlined several problems with the aging facility, saying poor maintenance had left many units there "in a serious state of disrepair."
Structural defects at the prison allow inmates to strip metal from walls to create weapons, then remove parts of the wall to hide their weapons inside, according to that report.
For its part, the independent panel noted "deplorable" conditions found in Sycamore Hall, where the killing took place.
"The panel observed heavy cobwebs, broken windows, fecal matter on the walls, accumulated filth and food on the floor, gang graffiti on cell walls, an enormous number of "fish lines,' and inmates blocking officers' view of their cells with "curtains,' " the report states.
Fish lines are pieces of string inmates use to pass items such as weapons or drugs from cell to cell.
The report also calls on state officials to evaluate how many inmates are processed at CIM every day, to determine whether that number should be reduced.
Both reports found that the inmate suspected in the killing, Jon Christopher Blaylock, was wrongly housed in general population despite his violent past. Blaylock has been charged with murder. They also found that protective vests should have been immediately distributed to officers after they were obtained in September. Gonzalez was not wearing a vest when he was stabbed.