From the Editor - Prison Legal News

April 2008
Wrongful Death Following Alleged Mistaken Washington
Jail Release Settles For $1,800,000
On September 6, 2007, the City
of Algona and King County,
Washington, agreed to pay $1,800,000 to
the estate of a man killed by a hit and run
driver who was, according to the lawsuit,
mistakenly released from jail despite
multiple convictions for driving under the
influence (DUI).
Michael McGuire, 48, was allegedly
run over and killed by a pick up truck
driven by Tracy Enoch-Jevne on December
2, 1999. Enoch-Jevne was arrested
several hours after she left the scene of
the accident. She already had four DUI
convictions on her record.
Two months prior to the hit and
run, Enoch-Jevne had been transferred
from the Pierce County Jail to the
King County Jail in order to work off
sentences from multiple DUI and drug
convictions she received between 1996
and 1999. At the time of her transfer she
had at least two months left to serve on
a 1996 DUI conviction she picked up in
the City of Algona. Upon her transfer to
King County, a judge gave Enoch-Jevne
credit for time served on an unrelated
DUI charge and released her after just
three days in jail.
Following his death, McGuire’s wife,
Susan, filed suit on behalf of herself, her
dead husband, and their 24-year-old son
who was a minor at the time of the accident.
Ms. McGuire claimed that the City
of Algona should have made King County
aware of Enoch-Jevne’s unserved jail
time and that King County should have
reviewed her records and discovered the
remaining sentence. Ms. McGuire further
contended that the Washington Department
of Corrections (WDOC) should
have arrested Enoch-Jevne in October
1999 after she violated the conditions of
her parole.
The City of Algona and King County
agreed to settle their part in the lawsuit
for $1,800,000, with Algona paying the
entire amount because King County was
jailing Enoch-Jevne on a contract basis
for the city.
McGuire is still seeking damages
from the remaining defendants, including
the WDOC. Trial was set for December
3, 2007. In May 2000 Enoch-Jevne was
found guilty of vehicular homicide and
sentenced to eight years in prison.
McGuire was represented by
34
Stephen L. Bulzomi of Tacoma,
Washington. Her experts included
Warren Cook (corrections) of Portland,
Oregon; Bonnie Baker, Ph.D.
(psychologist) and William Stough
(corrections supervision), both of Spokane,
Washington; and Robert W. Moss
(economist) and Dan Hall (corrections/
offender supervision), both of Seattle,
Washington. See: McGuire v. Enoch-
Jevne, Pierce County Court, Case No.
99-2-14157-7.
Overcrowded, Understaffed California
DOC Pays $471 Million in Overtime
combination of prison overcrowding
and a 10.9% staff
A
vacancy rate in the California Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(CDCR) resulted in $471 million in overtime
being paid in fiscal year 2006-2007
– a 17% increase over 2005-2006. More
than 8,000 CDCR employees collected at
least $25,000 each in overtime, with 1,423
pocketing over $50,000.
Some employees’ overtime earnings
were truly eye-popping. Thirty-six, including
guards as well as medical staff, received
over $100,000 in overtime. Nine of the top
ten overtime recipients in 2006 worked
more than 1,900 hours beyond their 2,080
regular hours. Nurse Jean Keller accumulated
no less than 2,584 overtime hours,
earning $156,000 on top of her $74,000
base pay. Folsom prison guard Patro
Lagula worked 2,314 hours of overtime,
adding $126,000 in excess pay. Six CDCR
employees earned more than Governor
Schwarzenegger’s $212,179 salary.
These absurdly high overtime figures
were cited in a February 7, 2008 report
by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which
recommended against increasing the pay
rates for CDCR guards. The Governor’s
office has proposed a 5 percent raise for
state prison employees.
Driving the excessive overtime are
4,000 staff vacancies – half for guard
positions. Under union rules, overtime
is offered first to the most senior guards,
thereby shifting costs upward due to their
inherently higher base pay. Additional factors
driving overtime include the federal
court-appointed healthcare Receiver’s
demand for more medical staff, which has
resulted in an increased number of guards
needed for hospital visits and medical
escort services.
Another major cause of overtime is
by John Dannenberg
guard sick leave, which has resulted in
costs spiraling from $69 million in 2003-
2004 to $152 million in 2005-2006. The
increased use of sick leave has led to more
overtime because a modification to the
guards’ contract permits them to work
four days, call in sick (without a doctor’s
excuse) on the fifth, and then work at
overtime rates on the sixth day. The state
is trying to jettison this abused provision
in its current contract negotiations with
the California Correctional Peace Officers’
Association (CCPOA), the union that
represents the state’s prison guards.
The CDCR is trying to build its way
out of its chronic overcrowding problem.
Doubting that will work, a three-judge
federal court panel has been convened
to consider capping California’s prison
population. In order to dodge the bullet
of a court order to reduce the CDCR’s
population from 172,000 to 135,000 to
alleviate overcrowding, the state proposes
spending $7.4 billion to build 53,000 more
beds, most within existing prisons. Of
course such an expansion would further
exacerbate the staff shortage problem
and hence increase overtime costs even
more. The only viable way to address the
staffing shortage comes from the CDCR’s
plan to transfer 8,000 prisoners to out-ofstate
private prisons, a move the powerful
CCPOA fiercely opposes.
This leaves the various parties in a bitter
stalemate. The guards object to using
out-of-state transfers to remediate their
insufficient numbers; the federal court
wants immediate relief from overcrowding,
not “by the year 2014” as proposed
in the state’s $7.4 billion building plan;
the California Legislature’s 2007-2008
budget does not include funding for a
$300 million increase in guard base salaries
estimated to flow from a new contract with
Prison Legal News