Calif. prison workers cheated on timesheets

By DON THOMPSON

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Dozens of employees at a California state prison were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for hours they didn't work during a three-month sampling period last year, according to an inspector general's report released Wednesday.

Auditors found that one mental health employee averaged less than 27 hours of his scheduled 40-hour work week inside Mule Creek State Prison, which is 40 miles southeast of the state capital. Teachers spent as few as 33 hours inside the prison, but were paid for a 40-hour week.

"Many of the prison's mental health and educational employees were fully paid, but did not average working full days inside the prison," wrote acting Inspector General Bruce Monfross.
Taxpayers paid $272,900 for time when the 66 employees were absent during the three-month sample period from June through August last year. That's a rate of nearly $1.1 million in overpayments each year at that prison alone. California, the nation's largest state prison system, has 33 adult prisons along with work camps and juvenile lockups.

Auditors cannot say if the practice is widespread because Mule Creek is the only prison requiring employees to clock in and out.

"According to the security system's electronic data, most of Mule Creek's psychiatrists, psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers regularly arrived to work late and left early, averaging as a group only 8.4 hours per day of their scheduled 10-hour shifts inside the secured perimeter," according to the report.
Union contracts say corrections officials aren't supposed to keep track of the hours employees actually work. Several employees told the auditors they understood, incorrectly, that their contracts let them leave early if they have completed their work for the day.
Others said they worked from home or reviewed inmate files in the administration building, outside the prison fence. However, working from home is not permitted and auditors said the file reviews did not come close to accounting for the lost hours.

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Undersecretary Scott Kernan called the overpayments "unacceptable." The department is retraining employees statewide and changing procedures to correct the problem, Kernan wrote in response to the inspector general's report.
Corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said employees have not been disciplined, nor has the department tried to recoup its money.

"I don't know exactly why not. I don't think it rose to the level of misconduct," she said.
Thornton said the problems led to the firing of the prison manager, but a spokeswoman for the court-appointed federal receiver who oversees prison medical and mental health care said that was not true. Spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid said no one had been fired as a result of the audit.
Employees with short hours included 11 of the prison's 13 psychiatrists, who worked an average of 26 to 34 hours each week. They are paid an average annual salary of $245,000.

Of the prison's 31 psychologists, 26 clocked fewer than 40 hours. They are paid $103,000 annually, on average.

All seven of the prisons' $80,000-a-year licensed clinical social workers were short, averaging 28 to 38 hours a week.

All 12 teachers and all five vocational instructors were absent when they were supposed to be at the prison, putting in 33 to 39 hours weekly. Their average salary is $77,000.
The problem was not limited to employees, according to the report: The prison's school principal and two vice principals put in 33 to 35 hours per week. They are paid annual salaries averaging $89,000.