KMPH Fox 26 Central San Joaquin Valley News Source in Fresno, California Entertainment, News, Sports and Weather | State Prison Workers Protest Budget Cuts in Corcoran

State Prison Workers Protest Budget Cuts in Corcoran

By: Ashley Ritchie

For Greg Pannett, the governor's proposed budget cuts are personal.

"My dad was murdered. It's coming up on the 20th anniversary of July the 4th, 1988 up in Fresno. The individual that shot my dad, shot him right between the eyes, he had been arrested and in prison 11 times," Pannett said.

Now an employee of Corcoran State Prison, Pannett says less jobs here means more ex-convicts like his father's killer on the streets.

"Governor says he wants to release the non-violent. And statistics show, and I'm one of them, that they have done at least five serious crimes before they get behind this wire," Pannett said.

They're charged with the tasks of feeding, protecting and caring for the 170,000 felons in California's system.

Just last week, a riot in Corcoran left 11 inmates hospitalized and the prison on lockdown.

"It was a real big mess, just a lot of blood. They slashed each other up." James Kleinhammer, prison LVN, said.

Protesters say the governor's plan to release thousands of prisoners would only bring the problems from one side of the barbed wire to the other.

"We have them behind these gates right here, we have them confined. But once they get in our neighborhood, there's nothing we can do for them," Mike Cavines, prison employee, said.

"I think it's a real concern to just let them go without rehabilitation, without education. And they'll come back, with us as victims," Darla McGrew, prison RN, said.

For Greg Pannett, he's here so his father's death wasn't in vain.

"I don't want anybody else to go through what I've gone through," he said.

But whether or not his personal story, or their voices reach Sacramento remains to be seen.

Nurses at the prison say the inmates are on named-brand drugs, many of them morphine, every single day.

They say, if they're released without any kind of rehab, the outcome could turn tragic for any of us.

Corcoran State Prison is home to infamous criminals, like serial killer Charles Manson, assassin Sirhan Sirhan and, as of Wednesday, record producer turned convicted murderer Phil Spector.

The prison workers plan to converge on the state capitol July 1st.