How to Get Brutal Guards Out of the Jails

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/opinion/how-to-get-brutal-guards-out-of-the-jails.html

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo has strengthened the state office that investigates misconduct by prison guards, and also proposed legislation that would make it easier to dismiss corrections officers who commit crimes on the job.

These are good first steps toward rooting out the culture of violence that has long dominated the prison system. The next task is to renegotiate a recently expired union contract that has shielded brutal or unqualified guards from accountability in any number of ways.

As The Times and the Marshall Project reported jointly in April, the correction department’s internal affairs unit — which is responsible for investigating misconduct — has historically been weak and ineffective, partly because it relied too heavily on career corrections officers who lacked investigative experience and were also wary of offending fellow officers.

The Cuomo administration has professionalized the staff, bringing in people who have worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. As a result, the unit seems ready to do a better job and has shown a greater willingness to refer cases for criminal prosecution. This does not address the reluctance of district attorneys in places where prisons dominate the local economy to bring charges against their prison guard neighbors. But it’s an improvement over the status quo.

The governor has also proposed giving the corrections commissioner the power to fire workers who commit misdemeanor crimes, instead of sending them into a convoluted arbitration system that inevitably allows guards to keep their jobs.

That will require changing the flawed union contract. The current disciplinary system does not give the commissioner final say in dismissing officers who have committed even serious offenses. That power is instead held by arbitrators who are chosen jointly the state and the union — and who try to find a middle ground so as not to fall out of favor with either side.

The state needs to negotiate a new disciplinary process like the one for the State Police Department, where charges against troopers are heard by three commissioned officers, two appointed by the State Police superintendent and one by the union. The panel’s decisions are subject to final approval by the superintendent.

A particularly troublesome provision in the contract allows guards under investigation to simply refuse to answer questions from the police. The state must also extricate itself from a senselessly rigid seniority system embedded in the contract that gives corrections officers their choice of jobs and bars managers from moving them out of positions in which they can do harm.

Until these weaknesses are remedied, there will be little accountability and the prison brutality problem will not be solved.