Capital Accounts is an occasional chronicle of the intersection of politics and legal policy in Sacramento.
“I’ve more or less given up since it’s such a waste of time,” she said.
Alison Hardy, a staff attorney at the Prison Law Office, said the change hampers prisoners’ families and legal staff more than lawyers.
“Nobody who’s billing by the hour can sit around and wait the 45 minutes it takes to get somebody on the line,” Hardy said. Unfortunate legal aides tasked with calling the hotline “just sort of multitask and keep hitting the redial button over and over,” she said.
The limited operating hours are apparently the result of an ongoing reorganization in the troubled Department of Corrections. A smaller crew of employees now handles the hotline and responds to requests sent by facsimile. The phone system can place as many as 20 people on hold at a time, according to one worker. If the queue is full � and apparently, it frequently is � callers hear a busy signal.
Oh, and when people do get through to a live person, they can usually only ask for the locations of up to three inmates. If a firm is looking for more, they have to call back and get in line again.
The CDC’s public information office confirmed the hotline’s hours had changed but referred additional questions about call volume and possible remedies to the unit that actually fields the calls. An employee there sent a reporter to a colleague for answers. She in turn referred questions to the unit supervisor, who did not return a phone message.
“It’s a pretty unsatisfactory system, I’d say,” Rubach concluded.
LEGISLATORS LAND ON their FEET
Singing a sweeter Christmas carol is this year’s class of termed-out lawyer-legislators, who seem to have found soft places to land (mostly) outside the capital.
Former Orange County state Sen. Joe Dunn made headlines last month when the California Medical Association announced that the long-time trial lawyer would be its new CEO. Then fellow Democrat and ex-state senator Martha Escutia recently announced she’s joining Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ government and regulatory division in Los Angeles.
Just this week, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw added outgoing Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer to its Democrat-laden government practice division. Former Clinton administration trade representative Mickey Kantor works there, as does one-time Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg.
And termed-out Orange County Assemblyman Tom Umberg has returned to his private sector job as litigation partner in Morrison & Foerster’s Irvine office.
“There are still people suing each other and there’s still work for lawyers here,” Umberg said.
All four lawmakers are barred from lobbying the Legislature for a year. But some legislators’ quick transitions from public servants to private advocates give public watchdog groups heartburn. Escutia, for example, chaired the Senate Energy Committee. And while Manatt, Phelps said the ex-senator won’t be lobbying, the firm’s advocacy group does have utility clients. Critics have also questioned Dunn’s move to the CMA three months after his Judiciary Committee killed an assisted-suicide bill opposed by the group.
Umberg, for one, said he has no desire to lobby and his distance from the Capitol proves it.
“If you relocate across the street it’s a little more inevitable,” he said.
