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'Code of silence' pervades prison system

The Bakersfield Californian | Monday, Jun 27 2011 06:00 AM

Last Updated Monday, Jun 27 2011 06:00 AM

We'd all like to think our state prisons are run by mature, competent, level-headed people. But a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month gives a glimpse of a world in which guards and administrators seem more like characters out of the movie "Mean Girls" than law enforcement professionals.

Beyond the petty backbiting, allegations in the suit also contend that the notorious "code of silence" still has a stranglehold on daily prison activities while administrators remain pathetically ineffective.

The lawsuit was filed by former guard Adam Faz against North Kern State Prison and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

It contends prison administrators turned a blind eye as

Faz was severely harassed by fellow guard David Singleton, among others, for more than two years in retaliation for reporting an inmate rape that allegedly happened on Singleton's watch.

Of course, it's hard to know what's true in these kinds of situations. Maybe Singleton did nothing. Maybe Faz is exaggerating. Maybe not.

One thing is clear. In early December 2007, Faz was so stressed out that he had to leave work and was sent to the state's worker's compensation doctor. He was diagnosed as having "situational anxiety of occupational origin," according to paperwork from Central Valley Occupational Medical Group.

Despite that, Faz was sent back to work the very next day.

I don't care if Faz was the worst employee in the history of employees (he wasn't by the way, according to his exemplary annual reviews).

In fact, I don't even care if Faz was faking. I do not want someone with that diagnosis walking around armed in a dangerous environment on my dime.

That's just asking for trouble.

If nothing else, that one incident in this whole ugly mess ought be a red flag for someone in Sacramento that all is not right at North Kern.

Bad situation

But back to where it all started.

On June 9, 2006, Faz reported for duty at 2 p.m. and found an inmate in the housing unit's office. Another officer told Faz the inmate wasn't getting along with his cellmate and instructed Faz to find him a new cell in a different part of the building. Each building has two sides, A and B.

There wasn't an available cell in B so Faz brought him back to the A side where Singleton and another guard, Brian Johnson, were finishing their watch, according to court documents.

They told Faz the inmate couldn't come back to A side because they'd been told the inmate's cellmate had assaulted him. They wanted the inmate moved off that cell block to avoid any potential liability.

Later, the inmate told Faz his cellie had sexually assaulted him at 10 that morning and that another inmate, called only Reyna in court and other documents, had reported the assault to Johnson, according to court documents.

(We'll come back Reyna in a bit.)

Faz immediately reported the alleged rape, setting off a rapid succession of interviews up the chain of command as required by guidelines established under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Faz wrote his report and thought it was done. Not by a long shot.

He was contacted by his lieutenant who wanted to know more, especially since Singleton and Johnson hadn't reported a rape. The lieutenant wanted a special memo on his exact conversation with Singleton and Johnson.

Faz knew at the time it was going to mean trouble but he wrote down what had happened.

From there on, he said, his life at North Kern changed.

Cold shoulder

First it was the cold shoulder from previously friendly co-workers. There were Post-it notes on his locker with the word "rat" scrawled on them. Then, almost daily, co-workers and even inmates told him Johnson and Singleton were bad-mouthing him.

He tried to ride it out and didn't report the incidents to higher-ups. But it went on.

Then in late December 2006 a personal fan that belonged to him was vandalized with the words "rat," "liar" and worse and left in an area where numerous other officers and inmates could see it.

Faz was mortified. Fed up, he filed a harassment complaint noting all the other incidents and asserting even then that he was "sickened with stress over this issue."

Two months later, in February 2007, he was told there wasn't enough evidence for an investigation and the matter was being dropped.

It was dropped despite the fact that another allegation had surfaced that Singleton told a carpool buddy of Faz's that Faz was a liar, bad company, etc. That allegation would later be sustained and result in a note in Singleton's file, according to transcripts of a State Personnel Board hearing in June 2009. The hearing was to determine if Faz had been retaliated against under terms of the whistle blower protection act.

Singleton, in the hearing, testified that he had nothing personal against Faz at all, according to transcripts. He didn't understand why Faz had written such a contrary version of events about the alleged rape, which he said never happened. But he wasn't angry about it and he never bad-mouthed Faz, he said.

He admitted talking to Faz's carpool buddy but only to understand why Faz was so upset with him.

"I'm not to blame for the problems that Mr. Faz has," he said in the hearing.

Nasty background

All this may sound like juvenile antics. But not when you consider the backdrop.

These guys are guarding some pretty nasty folks. Things can go bad quickly and when they do, officers have to be able to trust one another.

So Faz's stress, understandably, hit the roof in April 2007 when inmate Dominick Anderson alleged Singleton seemed to be recruiting him to beat up Faz.

The inmate wrote a citizens' complaint against Singleton and gave it to Faz.

"He told me he was going to f*** him up (c/o Fose) [Faz] but not at work he don't want to lose his job," the inmate wrote.

"He would just catch him out in the streets somewhere an do it an he also said that if a inmate was to attack c/o Fose or Doss that he would just watch an let the inmate f*** over him."

Singleton denied ever having such a conversation with Anderson. The real issue, he said at the hearing, was that Faz had allowed himself to be played by Anderson and others.

The prison convened a threat assessment committee. The result was a cease and desist order issued to both Singleton and Faz stating they should avoid working together and if they couldn't, they should be professional.

Problem was, Singleton had a lot of years in the department and could pick his overtime, which seemed to routinely coincide with Faz's regular shifts.

Incidents between the two continued and Faz continued to complain until a cease and desist order was issued barring them from working the same shift or area together. Yet Singleton's overtime continued to overlap Faz's regular shifts.

Looking for help

Meanwhile, Faz sought help everywhere, at the State Personnel Board, the Office of Civil Rights, the Office of the Inspector General, even the FBI.

In August 2007, Faz asked for an emergency transfer but was denied as he was under investigation for a separate allegation of use of force, which was unsustained.

In December 2007, Faz got the anxiety diagnosis I mentioned earlier, but still nothing changed.

With the separate investigation against him cleared in March 2008, Faz again put in for a transfer. He'd already started seeing a therapist on his own to deal with the stress and depression that were eating away at his relationship with his wife and children.

In late May 2008 his transfer was again denied because a note from his warden said he was under investigation, which wasn't true.

He admits he wasn't thinking rationally in September 2008 when he lashed out at another officer.

He had rushed to assist other officers during an inmate brawl and was frustrated by what he said was the obvious cause -- an attempt to cut corners and hurry through inmate feeding.

Another officer told him to mind his own business. He called Faz a rat.

Faz snapped. He lunged at the other officer and punched him in the face.

He was done. The prison fired him later that fall.

Out of control

He admits it was irrational and inexcusable to punch the other officer. But then, that's his point. The alleged harassment had so spun him out, he wasn't thinking clearly.

"If anyone, you'd think I'd have wanted to punch Singleton. Not that guy," Faz told me.

"But it was a spur of the moment thing."

As for Johnson and Singleton, they were investigated for not reporting the alleged rape back in June 2006 and the allegation was found unsustained, according to a declaration by former Warden Lydia Hense.

That's interesting when you consider inmate Reyna, the one who supposedly reported the rape to Johnson, was transferred to the Tehachapi prison shortly after the incident where he again reported that he had witnessed a rape at North Kern and had tried to report it, according to Hense's declaration and transcripts of testimony at the State Personnel Board hearing.

Reyna also claimed Singleton told him to keep mum about the assault because he and Johnson could get in a lot of trouble for not having reported it immediately, according to the testimony.

And remember inmate Anderson, who wrote a citizen's complaint that Singleton seemed to be recruiting him to assault Faz? Anderson also wrote in his complaint that Singleton was upset with Faz for filing a complaint against him and Johnson for allowing the alleged rape to occur.

A portion of Anderson's citizen's complaint was upheld, according to testimony at the State Personnel Board hearing, but it's not clear which part.

The finding from that 2009 State Personnel hearing, by the way, was that Faz's situation wasn't covered by the whistle blower protection act.

Reporting the alleged rape was part of his regular duties, the board found. Therefore, they wouldn't even consider whether he was harassed and retaliated against.

Considering Faz was ordered by his superior to write a special memo on the alleged rape, saying it was part of his regular duties, makes zero sense.

Code of silence

As I said, Faz could be totally out to lunch and Singleton could be an absolute golden boy.

But the paper trail on this looks like there was, indeed, a problem that got the bureaucratic shuffle.

I talked with several people still at North Kern who watched as the events unfolded between 2006 and 2008. The culture there, they all agreed, was to "go along," not speak up. When Faz rocked the boat by writing that memo he sealed his own fate.

Though they sympathized with Faz and said what happened to him was wrong, none of the officers I spoke with wanted their names used for fear they would suffer the same retaliation.

In a testament to just how pervasive the "code of silence" is at North Kern, Faz's name comes up to this day. And every time it does, he's still branded as a "rat" and a "liar."

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at http://www.bakersfield.com, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com