ACCESS NEEDED TO REPORT ON PRISON CONDITIONS.

Byline: Gloria Romero 

YOU won't be reading this headline anytime soon about California's troubled prisons: ``Inmates Tip Off Press to Widespread Waste - Millions of Dollars Saved.'' Or this one: ``News Media Reports of Drug Smuggling Prompt Investigation of Prison Cover-up.''

Why? Because California's prison regulations make landing an interview with one of the state's 166,000 inmates one of the toughest assignments a reporter can draw.

Face-to-face interviews between journalists and specific prisoners are now banned by the California Department of Corrections unless, subject to prison approval, the reporters are on the prisoners' visitor list. If this wasn't bad enough, reporters cannot bring to these visits the tools of their trade - cameras, tape recorders, pens or paper on which to write.

News reporters are shackled by this policy - arguably the toughest in the nation. As a result, many newspapers have mostly abandoned trying to cover California's prisons, according to the Society of Professional Journalists.

And if there is any state institution that deserves the scrutiny of the press it's the CDC.

California's prison system is one of the largest in the world and costs taxpayers $5.5 billion annually. The public has a right to know about the operations and conditions of confinement in our prisons. That is why I have introduced SB 1164, which would allow reporters access to prisoners under controlled conditions.

The law would require the CDC, upon reasonable notice, to permit representatives of the news media to interview prisoners in person, including prearranged interviews with specified prisoners. The department may establish reasonable time, place and manner restrictions for prison interviews, including limitations on the number of interviews per prisoner in a specified time period.

Abuse and mismanagement have become hallmarks of our prison system.

Recent atrocities include the starvation death of an inmate at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility at Corcoran and the bleeding death of an inmate at neighboring Corcoran State Prison as guards allegedly watched the Super Bowl. Annual CDC budget deficiencies in the hundreds of millions of dollars are common.

We need a watchdog that can pursue these stories most resolutely. But without access, the press is often none the wiser. Media investigations are rebuffed by prison authorities and inmates are, in effect, silenced.

Not all states have taken our kill-the-messenger approach to media relations. North Carolina, Texas and Utah - states not necessarily known for their ``liberal'' thinkers - have arguably some of the nation's most open policies for media access. Reporters in those states can go inside prisons, interview inmates and report objectively on the conditions they discover there.

Some benefits of media access are illustrated in a story by prison reporter Jeff Neff of the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. Through an inmate tip, Neff exposed a doctor who earned $110,000 for full-time employment at the prison but allegedly spent less than two hours a day there. Because Neff was able to interview the inmates, his investigative story helped spur a class-action suit against the doctor, who resigned, and prison officials stepped up plans to expand medical and mental health facilities.

Neff would not have had such access to a California prison inmate. In 1996, Gov. Pete Wilson effectively closed California prisons to journalists. Gov. Gray Davis followed suit.

When defending this policy, prison officials often cite the concerns of crime victims who believe the press ``glorifies'' inmates. I, too, was a victim of a violent crime and I share all victims' interests in not giving notoriety to criminals. But for 20 years prior to 1996, California commonly granted inmate interviews. I see no evidence that any of those prisoners - including Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan - gained in celebrity as a result.

I'm hopeful that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who campaigned on a platform of government openness and accountability, will take a different view. It is the nature of large bureaucracies to cover up mismanagement and wrongdoing, and CDC is no exception. We have aided in the cover-up by keeping the press largely outside our prison gates. Prison officials will only become fully accountable when they are placed in the spotlight of a free press. It's time to let the sun shine in.