Prison psychiatrists routinely report to work late and leave early, audit finds

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Psychiatrists working for California prisons, who are among the state’s highest paid employees, routinely show up late and leave early, getting paid for time they don’t work, a state audit found.

A three-month study of the hours employees spent inside Mule Creek State Prison showed that 46 of 51 mental health clinicians -- including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers -- worked an average of 34 hours a week, instead of the 40 for which they were paid.

The unworked hours at the prison cost taxpayers $272,900 during the length of the study, according to a report by the state Office of the Inspector General.

Investigators looked at Mule Creek, in Ione, about 50 miles southeast of Sacramento, because it’s the only one of 33 state prisons with an electronic security system that records employees’ identities as they come and go. “We are concerned that other prisons may also have employees with large numbers of unaccounted-for hours,” the investigators wrote. But because the other prisons don’t have the same security systems there’s no way to know.

California’s prison psychiatrists earn an average of $245,000 per year, according to the report.

-- Jack Dolan