Chief of prison guards union defends hiring of parolee

California's prison watchdog agency is investigating the state correctional officers union and its president for giving a paid internship to a paroled carjacker.

Officials from both the Office of the Inspector General and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed the probe into the employment of the parolee from Southern California in the union's legislative affairs office in Sacramento.

California Correctional Peace Officers Association President Mike Jimenez blasted the prison department for making an issue out of the union's granting of the internship to Raul Gomez. The 21-year-old parolee got out of the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi last August after serving more than four years on his 2003 conviction.

"I'm trying to do the right thing here," Jimenez said, of his union's employment of Gomez. "We as an organization are trying to do the right thing. It doesn't surprise me that CDCR would do this. They spend a lot of time, money and effort talking about rehabilitation, but then doing everything possible to keep (parolees) from being successful."

Jimenez said he met Gomez last month in Los Angeles at a Latino legislative caucus event on juvenile justice. He said that Gomez, a San Bernardino County resident, "showed up to advocate on behalf of parolees" and that he was immediately impressed by the young man's presentation.

"He's a young man with a firm handshake who will look you in the eye when he's speaking to you," Jimenez said. "He speaks with conviction, and he's very up-front about his past, and he lets you know he's made mistakes. He has dreams, he has hopes, and I think he has a future."

Gomez could not be reached for comment Friday.

The CCPOA president said that Gomez, technically, is employed by a union affiliate called Minorities in Law Enforcement. The group gets virtually all of its funding from the CCPOA, and its chief executive officer, Stephen B. Walker, also is the legislative affairs director of CCPOA.

Jimenez said the union has been paying to fly Gomez from Southern California every week.

With parolees generally restricted to living and working in the county of their commitment, Gomez' travel to Sacramento could represent a violation of the terms of his release. Officials did not provide details Friday on whether Gomez had obtained a waiver from his parole agent in Ontario that would allow him to make the trips to Sacramento.

"We're trying to make it so the kid is successful – why would they do that?" Jimenez said, when asked if Gomez is in danger of being returned to custody on a parole violation. "This is exactly what is wrong – sick – about our system."

Union members' befriending of Gomez also could get them in trouble with regulations that bar what are called "overfamiliar" relationships between prison and parole employees and offenders.

Jimenez said he thinks he's in the clear on that issue.

"It talks about 'undue' relationships, that you shouldn't have any 'undue' interaction," he said of the regulation. "Giving a kid a job is not undue interaction."

The investigation comes as the union has gone nearly two years without a contract and nine months after the state unilaterally imposed contract terms on the labor group.

Jimenez is up for re-election in September and could face a stiff internal challenge. It would be the first such effort within the union in more than 20 years.

His predecessor, Don Novey, who led the union from humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful political organizations in Sacramento, said the CCPOA's employment of Gomez could spell trouble for Jimenez with the union's rank-and-file.

"In a hypothetical situation, you just don't hire felons, especially if you're a peace officer," said Novey, who retired as the CCPOA president and has since become a political strategist. "That's all there is to it. Our job is not to rehabilitate this guy in our legislative shop."

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