Written by T. Logan Dayne
As California Governor Gavin Newsom’s controversial new law begins to take effect, California Juvenile prison workers are looking at the possibility of receiving one of the largest bonuses ever offered to retain a group of workers.
The California Law passed in 2020 (Senate Bill 823) aims to shut down all youth prisons by June 30th, 2023, and stops allowing counties to send their youth to the state Department of Juvenile Justice as of July 1, 2021. The move, although done with little input from counties, will leave it to local counties to handle their own juvenile centers. The anticipated shutdown has left as many as 23% of authorized positions vacant. As such, $50,000 has been proposed to retain workers until the shutdown is complete. Unions representing youth correction employees are currently negotiating the bonus. Of those present is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which was one of the largest donors to keep Newsom in office during the recall effort last year. This all comes a year after Newsom signed into a law a raise for the prison guards union which was slammed by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office for lacking “clear justification.”
The deal has yet to be finalized but there is little evidence to suggest that the unions will not receive what they are asking for and the payout will go down as the largest retention payout in California history.
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