When I was appointed to the position of California Inspector General nearly two years ago, I found a prison system in desperate need of repair. Too many inmates and officers were living and working in a dangerous environment, health care mandates were not being met, and the system was unable to police itself. I have since learned that many jurisdictions share these problems and, like California, are searching for the best ways to alleviate them. I believe effective oversight of prisons is a critical part of the solution. Without strong public oversight, the problems of a prison system remain largely hidden behind institution walls and, as a result, go largely unaddressed.…

…after I was appointed Inspector General in 2004, the office undertook a comprehensive "accountability audit" to determine what progress the department had made in implementing recommendations from the Inspector General's previous audits. …Perhaps more importantly, we have established a system whereby every audit and special review conducted by the Office of the Inspector General now has an accountability component. Known as "bulldog accountability," this process mandates that a follow-up audit be conducted one year after the original audit is completed. Moreover, the system requires the lead auditor on each audit to track and report on the correctional agency's implementation of the audit recommendations even beyond the first year. Our goal is that no audit recommendation will go unaddressed. While the correctional agency is free to disagree with our recommendation and choose another solution, it faces public reproach if it ignores the recommendation altogether. In contrast to the old days when correctional departments implemented only a fraction of the Inspector General's recommendations, agencies typically now submit comprehensive written corrective action plans to correct deficiencies identified by the audits.

Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission