SEIU Local 1000 has uncovered data which contradicts assertions by the California Department of Corrections (CDCR) concerning the early release date of Sara Jane Olson, a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Reports from CDCR headquarters earlier this week indicated Olson’s early release was the result of a clerical error in 2005.  Through our investigation, Local 1000 has found CDCR administrators and supervisors have reviewed the Olson case at least four times since December 2007 and found no errors.

That includes three reviews by prison supervisors of the time calculation in 2008 without any changes to Olson’s release date.

“This is nothing but a political cover-up to scapegoat our union members,” said Jim Hard, president of SEIU Local 1000, which represents 15,000 civilian employees in the state prison system. “This is the latest manifestation of ongoing problems which we have been trying to address. We even filed a lawsuit in December to force CDCR to address these issues.”  

The lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court is still pending.

Here are some of the facts we have uncovered over the last 36 hours on the Olson case, confirmed by three sources within CDCR (two working at the prison in Chowchilla and one of the people who handled the case file).

• December 2007: Corrections Department administrators at Sacramento headquarters reviewed the Olson case files and found no errors.

• The Olson case file was reviewed three times in 2008, at 60 days, 30 days and 10 days prior to release.  In each case, supervisors reviewed the time calculation and approved the release date.  These were not cursory reviews.  In one instance, a case records analyst spent 2.5 hours reviewing the release date calculation with a supervisor.  The supervisor agreed with analyst’s release date calculation.

• Tuesday, March 25, 2008:  CDCR Internal Affairs launches an investigation and hauls three front line case records analysts who reviewed the files into interviews with only two hours notice.  The case records analysts, who are members of SEIU Local 1000, were given only two hours notice rather than the usual 24 hours in order to secure representation.

• In the meeting, the case records analysts are told that an investigation is underway because “they were neglectful in their duties when they failed to accurately calculate the release date of inmate Olson.”

As of this date, neither case records analysts nor their supervisors, have been provided with the training necessary to address cases as complex as Olson’s.

Here’s what this really comes down to:

• Department administrators and supervisors have reviewed the Olson case at least 4 times since December 2007.
• The case records analysts have received no training on the intricacies of penal code changes from indeterminate to determinate sentences. 
• The information they reviewed in the Olson case file is from the Board of Prison Hearings and cannot be changed.  If the information from BPH is wrong from the beginning, its garbage in, garbage out. 
• CDCR management doesn’t have a leg to stand on after it reviewed the Olson case three times on 2008.  
  

“Governor Schwarzenegger doesn’t want the public to see there is a massive structural problem with the sentencing and release system,” Hard said. “He knows that would worry the public.  He and CDCR would rather point the finger and let somebody else take the blame for their oversight.”

This cover-up and scapegoating by CDCR comes following an action last December.  Local 1000 asked the California Superior Court to declare that CDCR has violated the state Constitution, laws, regulation and policy by failing to recalculate release dates for up to 33,000 prisoners as required by recent court documents.