Friday

The rich guarding the poor...

"At the historic San Quentin State Prison near San Francisco, one out of five guards was paid more than $100,000 last year." according to this report.



Around the entire state of California, one out of every 10 rank and file CO's were making over 100 grand a year. Average base pay is 57,000 a year (far more than we pay our public defenders mind you).

And despite it's dire financial condition, California spent $$277 million last year on guard overtime. Seems like a poor resource allocation decision to me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't agree. I'm an appellate public defender in the State of Missouri where many COs are paid around $20,000. Needless to say, some are not of the greatest caliber. I think it's actually good policy to attact and retain a higher quality of person to this job when the safety and dignity of our clients is at stake.

Paying COs a decent salary doesn't guarantee that there will be fewer bribes and civil rights violations in prison, but it helps.