California State Archives State Govemment Oral History Program Oral History Interview with Hon Robert Presley California State Senator 1974 1994 Agency Secretary Youth and Adult Correctional Agency 1999 December 18 2001 April 17 2002 July 18 2002 June 5 2003 Sacramento California ByPatrickEttinger Oral HistoryProgram California StateUniversity Sacramento TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW HISTORY i BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY ii SESSION 1 December 18 2001 [Tape 1 Side A] 1 Family background- early life and schoolingin Oklahoma- early influences relating to law enforcementand politics- interest m medicine and Medical Corps expenence- relocation to Riverside CaliforniaafterWorld War II- joiningthe Riverside Sheriffs Department- earlytraining and patrol work- rise through the ranlcsofthe Sheriffs Department- relationship oflaw enforcementexperiences to legislative career- problemofdomestic abuse- pioneenng legislation on domestic violence shelters- early work on determinate sentencing- entry into elective politics in Riverside [Tape 1 SideB] 17 Candidacyand defeat in special election m 1972- 1974 election campaign and victory overSenatorCraig Biddle- crime as a campaign issue - Senate district s voterregistration andpolitical climate- political expenence with California Peace Officers Association- first year in the Senate- transition from law enforcementto politics- importance ofvalues ofdependability and loyalty- relationship with Senate PresidentJim Mills - early committee appointments - SenatorDavid Roberti srevolt againstMills- maintaining loyalty to Mills- early interest in air pollution- battling for the Motor Vehicle Inspection Program- early staffm Sacramento- juvenile crime legislation SESSION2 April 17 2002 [Tape 2 Side A] 35 Juvenile Justice Task Force- juvenilejusticereforms - politics ofcrime legislation- medical manjuana bill- Children and Youth Committee- Hollywood runaway investigations- rationale for domestic violence shelters- political resistance to shelter bill Joint Committee on Indeterminate Sentencing - tough on crime atmosphere- liberal resistance to cnmmal sentencing reforms [Tape 2 Side B] 51 GovernorJerry Brownand the cnme issue - Assembly resistance to funding prison construction- shift to prisonbond initiatives- citizen initiatives on crime - attitudes toward initiative law- Victims Bill ofRights - SenatorDeukmejian and the crime issue - Dave Stirling- crimecaucus - relations with Pnson Authority- proposals to close San Quentin- Joint Committee on Prison Construction- controversy overthe sitingofa Los Angeles prison [Tape 3 Side A] 68 Compromise on Los Angeles pnson- difficulty ofsiting pnson in Riverside county- constituent resistance to Blythe pnson- elements ofmodem prison design- currentovercrowded conditions- high volume ofbills he carried in the Senate- origins ofbills - his approach to accepting and carrying bills- necessity ofcompromise- constituentrelations- key staffspecialists- Roberti revolt against Senate PresidentMills [Tape 3 SideB] 85 Chairmanship ofthe Natural Resources Committee- efforts to enactmountain lion protection bill - opposition to and veto ofprotectionbill- re election strategies- relationship with DemocraticParty- Appropriation Committee Chairmanship- creating the suspensionfile - backroom negotiations on appropriations - aspirations for Congressional office - political skills of Congressman George E Brown SESSION 3 June 5 2003 [Tape 4 Side A] 94 Smog Inspections Program- reforming the South Coast Air District Board- centralizedvs decentralizedsmog inspections- growth and planning issues- Subregional Planning Act - origins ofState Barreforms - battle for State Bar reforms - efforts toreform StateMedical Board processes - crime legislation in the 1990s [Tape4 SideB] 111 Three Strikes Bill- courtmodification of Three Stnkes - relationship with Deukmejian- anti cnme politicalclimateinthe 1990s growth ofprisons inthe 1980sand 1990s- aging prison population - possibility ofparty switching SeeInterviewHistory SESSION 4 July 18 2002 [Tape 6 Side A] 123 Legislatorethics in the 1980s - Joint Legislative Ethics Committee- effort to set him up for illegal campaign contribution- controversy over his acceptance of honorarium from California CorrectionalPeace Officers Association - reforms to state contracting laws- his opposition toProposition 140(term limits) - political origins ofterm limits- complexity ofstate finances as argument againstterm limits- fallout from Proposition 140- decision not to seek reelection in 1994- Board ofEqualizationcandidacy m 1994- work at University ofCalifornia Riverside- appointment to Youthful Offender sBoard [Taped SideB] 135 Youthful Offender s Board work- rehabilitation vs punishment- appointment by GovernorGrayDavisto headtheYouthandAdultCorrectionalAgency- effortsto reformand standardizepolicyintheprisonsystem- Frontera pnson scandal- lethalforcecontroversy- problemsofovercrowding- dealingwith various stakeholdersmtheprison system- strengthofpnson guardsunion [Tape? Side A] 153 Aging prisonpopulation- prison growth- rewarding aspects ofcareer INTERVIEWHISTORY Interviewer PatnckEttmger Assistant Professor HistoryDepartment California State University Sacramento Assistant Du*ector Capital Campus Oral History Program CSUS B A University ofNotre Dame M A and Ph D IndianaUniversity Interview Times and Places December 18 2001 Session ofone hour Apnl 17 2002 Sessionoftwo hours *May8 2002 Session ofone and one halfhours July 18 2002 Sessionoftwo hours June 5 2003 (make up session) Session ofone hour *Tapes four and five recorded dunng the May 8 2002 interview session were inaudible for transcnption A makeup interviewsession to cover matenals from that session was held on June 5 2003 All sessions tookplace in Presley s office in Sacramento Editing Julie Recher transcnbed the interviewaudiotapes PatnckEttmgerchecked the verbatim manuscript ofthe interviewagainst the onginal tape recordings and edited for punctuation paragraphing and spelling Ettmger prepared the table ofcontents biographical summary and interview history SenatorPresley edited the transcnpt clanlying some passages and making minor corrections He also verifiedpropernames Papers Robert Presley spapers are locatedat the California State Archives Tapes and Interview Records The original tape recordings ofthe interview are inthe university archives at CSU Sacramento Mastertapes are preserved at the California State Archives BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY Robert Presley was bom on December4 1924 inTahlequah Oklahoma and raised in Oklahoma After completinghigh school he served m the U S Army during World WarII He received an A A from Riverside City College m Riverside Califomia and also attendedUCLA UCR and the FBI National Academy m Washington D C He holds a lifetime teaching credential inPolice Science Beginning m 1950 he served 24 years with the Riverside County ShenffsDepartment the last 12 years as Undersheriff Presley was first elected to the State Senate in 1974 During his tenure m the Califomia State Senate he served onthe Judiciary Agnculture and Water Natural Resources and BudgetCommittees In 1985 he was chosen Chairman ofthe Senate Appropriations Committee Presley also servedon the JointLegislative Audit Committee and chaired the Joint Legislative Prisons Committee As a State Senator Presleyearned major anti crime andprison constmction legislation He also authored air quality legislation consumer protection laws legislation to improve children s services and legislation strengthening disciplinary systems for doctors and lawyers After the conclusion ofhis Senate careerin 1994 Presley served as the first Chairmanofthe Board ofthe Crime ControlTechnology Research Center at the University ofCalifomia Riverside In 1995 he was appointed by Govemor Wilson as Chairman ofthe CalifomiaYouthful OffenderParole Board In January 1999 Govemor Gray Davis appointed Presleyas Secretaryofthe Youth and Adult Correctional Agency Presley was serving in thatposition at the time ofthese interviews 11 Session 1 December 18 2001 [BeginTape 1 Side A] ETTINGER Today is Tuesday December 18 2001 My name is Patrick Ettinger Im an Assistant ProfessorofHistory at Sacramento StateUniversity and I m sitting today in the office offormer Senator Robert Presley the head ofthe CaliforniaCorrections and YouthAdministration We re here to conduct an interviewas part ofthe State Government Oral History Program SenatorPresley the bestplace to begin I guess is to tell me a little bitabout whenyouwere bom and where and aboutyourparents PRESLEY I was bom on December 4 1924 inTahlequah Oklahoma Myparents were Doyle Presleyand Ann Presley both bom in that general area of Tahlequahandvicinity I grewup pretty much there through elementary school Then in about my freshman year in high school I went to what they call Haskell Institute inLawrence Kansas It s aboarding school where people live there in dormitories boys in one and girls in the other I went there for two years the 9th and 10th grades Then I came backto Tahlequah and went to Central High School there in my 11th and 12th grades At thattime it was right in the middle ofWorldWarll so upon graduation they re waiting for you tojointhe military but they would let you finish high school As soon as I graduated from high school then I reported for duty m the Army at Fort Sill Lawton Oklahoma ETTINGER What did your father andmother do'^ PRESLEY My motherwas ahomemaker She never did basically work out ofthe home My dad did some farming and then m his lateryears most ofhis later workingyears he worked for the State Parks Department there in Oklahoma ETTINGER Were they longtime Oklahomans*^ PRESLEY All their life They were bom right mthat general area and lived there all their lives In fact my mother died abouttwo weeks ago Ifshe had made it to January she wouldhave been 95 ETTINGER My goodness Wow Siblings'^ PRESLEY I have onebrotherand two sisters ETTINGER And where did you fall in the sequence ofchildren'^ PRESLEY I was the oldest My brotherwas next and then my two sisters ETTINGER What do you remember about your early education there and then maybe atthe Haskell Institute as well'^ PRESLEY Well at Haskell Institute whatI remember mostly about it IS what wouldI have been*^ Maybe 13 or 14years old I was very homesick I d gone away from home for the first time in my life and I rememberbeing very homesick But afterI got over that I enjoyed the two years a lot there I especially then enjoyed the secondtwo years ofhigh school because I played sports I wasn t all thatbig but I made the football team the first team so I played football I tried some basketball but I never couldplay basketball because I hustled too hard and fouled too much So I had to give it up ETTINGER A little too aggressive PRESLEY Yes Andthat worked well m football One ofthe problems is you go right from football season into basketball season ButI did enjoya couple ofyears offootball there We all did We had a good team ETTINGER Didyou go to Haskell because it was seen as academicallybetterthan your local schooP PRESLEY I m not even sure I cananswerthat There werejusta number of friends a family had whose kids had gone to Haskell and it wasjust the thing to do ETTINGER How far away was it abouf? PRESLEY I m guessing easy 300 miles It was quite a ways You stayed there That s why I was so homesick for a while ETTINGER Butthen you came backand finished high school PRESLEY Yes at Tahlequah Central High School there ETTINGER What do you recall about your ideas about what you wanted to do when you grew up or yourparents aspirations ofyou"^ PRESLEY My parents aspirations were notso much what I didbut that I got an education That wasjustparamount with themthat you get educated My momused to have a sayingthat I always remember and thatwas that If you get an education nobody can take that away from you That s somethingthey can t take away from you So that was theirmam objective not so much what I did but that I got prepared I had two interests that I laterinvolved myselfin that had the seed planted there and one was law enforcement They had a very colorful sheriffthere at the time He was tough He dkilled a few people and he carried two guns one on each side At the time when I was akid in Tahlequah Saturdaywas the big go to town day Everybodywas m town on Saturdays and he was always there When he walked down the street people got outofhis way I kind ofliked that I thought man that s kind ofnice authority to have Very frankly thatwhetted my interest m law enforcement Ofcourse he was very respected Everybodyreallyrespectedhim Some ofit may have beenfear but whatever it was he was very respected So that was kind ofthe interestin law enforcement