The California Department of Corrections And Rehabilitation has a new secretary.
He is Jeffrey Beard and he comes to us from Pennsylvania. He is, by any reasonable description, more of a warm-and-fuzzy than a custody-and-control kind of guy. Due to some people leaving the department for the possibly greener pastures of local agency realignment consulting, he has had to make a couple of fairly high level appointments.
These appointments do, I think, give us an idea of what direction he intends to take the department.
He has appointed Martin Hoshino as the new (acting) Undersecretary of Operations. I do not know Mr. Hoshino personally, but I know a couple of people who do. He is said to be a bright guy, and a decent human being. He does, however, have ZERO institution or parole experience. He came to the department from the Office of the Inspector General on the coat tails of the previous secretary, Matt Cate.
The new Secretary has also appointed Dr. Diane Toche as the (acting) Undersecretary of Administration and Offender Services. Dr. Toche is a dentist.
I am happy to acknowledge that it is completely possible that both Mr. Hoshino and Dr. Toche will be completely adequate in their new jobs. I am, however, concerned.
Secretary Beard (who likes to be called Dr. and makes sure to append Ph.D. after his name) seems to be putting people with zero line experience or background in high-level positions in much the same his predecessor, Matt Cate, placed lawyers in upper level positions……New leader, new direction: This isn't looking good
3 comments:
Just remind them this is California. This is not Pennsylvania where every convict wants to be from a California gang or the Office of the Inspector General where everyone sits around and sips coffee. Watch your six and do your job by the book.
Huh, imagine my non surprise. knew this from the appointment day.
Disappointed thought we were headed in a new direction. Unfortunately, it seems much of the same old B.S. The department is not real good at learning from its mistakes of the past, it just loves to compound them.
Thought the new leader would bring much needed change. Taking the Cates approach can't be comforting for any of CDCR employees under the bonus driven executives of the department. A good indicator of that has been the drop in safety that seems to be getting increasingly worst. Especially, with the population of inmates growing while the staffing is anything but adequate. Who will be to blame? You know it, the officers working in under staffed units. What a sad set of circumstances for the majority of CDCR employees, if we are to remain on the same path Cates put us on.
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