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I'm pleased to see a continuous flow of letters to the editor -- and even a debate between readers sparked by last week's letter. Unfortunately, we can't use all the letters we get (particularly those that are rather long), but I encourage you to keep those letters coming. Let your voice be heard!

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Have a great week!

-Gabe

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And even though a Democratic governor's appointee is the top correctional official for the first time since 1983, the correctional agencies -- the Department of Corrections and the Youth Authority -- are proceeding along much as it has for years -- expanding regularly, capturing an ever larger share of the state budget and enjoying political protection that stems in part from the guards' powerful union and in part from the public's desire to crack down on criminals.

California's new youth and adult corrections czar is former state Sen. Robert Presley, and he may be a perfect choice for a pressure-cooker job that seems to generate more controversy and news coverage over a longer period of time than any other top bureaucratic post.

An affable, avuncular man and a canny negotiator, the conservative Democrat has been at the heart of California's prison development for more than two decades. During Republican administrations, it was Presley who carried major bills sought by GOP governors, and it was Presley who somehow reconciled warring political factions to craft what is now a sprawling prison system of nearly three dozen institutions and more than 160,000 inmates. Since 1980, when California had 25,000 state prison imates, the penal system has expanded six-fold with a price tag of nearly $6 billion, and Presley was involved with most of that.

As Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' cabinet-level adviser of youth and adult corrections, Presley, a former Riverside County undersheriff, is not the day-to-day manager of the state prison system. But he is all but certain to have a major impact on how that system is run.

His task, principally the oversight of the Corrections Department, may entail equal parts of effective management and good public relations.

The Corrections Department has a dismal public image, much of it due to its own policies.

Five years ago, in a series of scathing investigative reports in the Orange County Register, it was learned that California prison guards use lethal violence at a much higher rate than guards in other states. The stories kicked off a round of recriminations, official investigations and finger-pointing that continue to this day. Last year federal authorities announced the indictments of several officers at the maximum security Corcoran State Prison for inmate brutality that included "gladiator-style" fights between prisoners for the guards' amusement.

Then, the Los Angeles Times reported the case of an inmate who was placed deliberately in the cell of a rapist known as the "booty bandit." The inmate was repeatedly raped; his case sparked new probes of the Corrections Department.

Numerous other prisons have suffered major problems, including Pelican Bay near Crescent City and the High Desert prison near Susanville.

Improvements in California's correctional system can't be made overnight. But they have to start somewhere. Perhaps Presley is the one who can get the ball rolling.

I would agree with your comment that less coverage of state government is not good (www.capenq.com/newsletter/archives/1999/feb99/0233.html).  I must disagree, however, with the idea that just having more reporters at an event helps. We need quality not quantity. Somehow, TV has to also develop better reporters -- reporters more likely to ask questions like a print reporter and worry in the editing bay about how to get the answer on the air. 

Instead, we are constantly faced (in the limited coverage we do have) with meaningless questions from TV reporters, each designed to produce a single, simple sound byte -- often just like the one the reporter elicited from the last person he or she interviewed.

Brad Senden
San Ramon, CA

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