Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that extends peace officer status to correctional officers in the San Joaquin County Jail, a measure backed by the guards’ labor group but opposed by those representing deputy sheriffs.
The so-called Scanlan bill, named for a Fresno County guard fatally wounded during an incident in a jail lobby, adds both San Joaquin and Fresno counties to the 39 other California counties in which correctional officers can be authorized to have full law-enforcement status, including making arrests and carrying guns. Newsom announced he had signed the bill into law Monday along with about 45 others.
“California has seen fit to recognize the dangerous and volatile work that our brothers and sisters endure every day inside our jails,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, in Assembly committee testimony in March. The bill is about “giving these officers the same legal recognition and protections their counterparts already have elsewhere.”
The measure was co-sponsored by Rhodesia Ransom, D-Stockton.
Reached for comment, Ransom said she was surprised to learn of the gap between correctional officer and peace officers even when they face the similar danger.
“This bill closes that gap and ensures these dedicated officers receive the classification they deserve, along with the protections and benefits it provides to them and their families,” she said in a statement. “I am proud to have partnered with my colleague on this long-overdue effort and to get it across the finish line.”
The bill was named in honor of Toamalama “Malama” Scanlan, the corrections officer who came to the aid of another guard after receiving a report of an active shooter in the Fresno County jail lobby in September, 2016. At the time, the lobby was filled with family members, including children, of inmates.
Both officers were shot. The other recovered but Scanlan lost his fight to recuperate from his injuries.
The measure will give corrections officers the same protections afforded to peace officers — sheriff’s deputies, police officers and others — in most other counties, said Ruben Rodriguez, president of the San Joaquin County Correctional Officers Association at the same meeting. The ability to achieve peace officer designation will help attract more recruits to the profession.
“Right now, we are really hurting in that area. We have a staffing crisis. That is not just something that can be addressed by pay (and) benefits,” Rodriguez said.
But representatives of the deputy sheriffs associations in both San Joaquin and Fresno counties said they were opposed to sharing their status with jail staff.
Brian McElwain, president of the 5,000-member San Joaquin County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, said it’s clear that corrections officers provide critical service in maintaining safety and order in jails, but he warned the measure will be costly since corrections officers will need the same advanced training and raises labor and collective bargaining issues.
It also “creates an unfunded mandate that will ultimately fall on counties and taxpayers,” he said.
Josh Duren, representing the Fresno Deputy Sheriff’s Association, said the bill opens the door to “a fundamental shift in how local law enforcement agencies are structured, trained, supervised and funded.” He also warned it will create a new cost burden on counties.