The director shall establish and maintain a fair, simple, and expeditious system for resolution of grievances of all persons committed to the Youth Authority regarding the substance or application of any written or unwritten policy, rule, regulation, or practice of the department or of an agent or contractor of the department or any decision, behavior, or action by an employee, agent, contractor, or other person confined within the institutions or camps of the Youth Authority which is directed toward the grievant, other than matters involving individual discipline. The system shall do all of the following:
(a) Provide for the participation of employees of the department and of persons committed to the Youth Authority on as equal a basis and at the most decentralized level reasonably possible and feasible in the design, implementation, and operation of the system.
(b) Provide, to the extent reasonably possible, for the selection by their peers of persons committed to the Youth Authority as participants in the design, implementation, and operation of the system.
(c) Provide, within specific time limits, for written responses with written reasons in support of them to all grievances at all decision levels within the system.
(d) Provide for priority processing of grievances which are of an emergency nature which would, by passage of time required for normal processing, subject the grievant to substantial risk of personal injury or other damage.
(e) Provide for the right of grievants to be represented by another person committed to the Youth Authority who is confined within the institutions or camps of the Youth Authority, by an employee, or by any other person, including a volunteer, who is a regular participant in departmental operations.
(f) Provide for safeguards against reprisals against any grievant or participant in the resolution of a grievance.
(g) Provide, at one or more decision levels of the process, for a full hearing of the grievance at which all parties to the controversy and their representatives shall have the opportunity to be present and to present evidence and contentions regarding the grievance,
(h) Provide a method of appeal of grievance decisions available to all parties to the grievance, including, but not limited to, final right of appeal to advisory arbitration of the grievance by a neutral person not employed by the department, the decision of the arbitrator to be adopted by the department unless the decision is in violation of law, would result in physical danger to any persons, would require expenditure of funds not reasonably available for that purpose to the department, or, in the personal judgment of the director, would be detrimental to the public or to the proper and effective accomplishment of the duties of the department.
(i) Provide for the monitoring of the system by the department and also, pursuant to contract or other appropriate means, for a biennial evaluation of the system by a public or private agency independent of the department to the extent necessary to ascertain whether the requirements of this section are being met. The results of which evaluation shall be filed with the department, the Legislature, the Attorney General, and the State Public Defender.
(Amended by Stats. 1983, Ch. 636, Sec. 1.)