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.”…